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What happened to the passion of our craft?

ColonelStJames said:
Ahem......excuse me.............I do real, passionate radio every Monday through Friday night from 7pm til Midnight on 93.7. I don't know how to do any other kind, and I personally take offense at anyone who says otherwise. Just because the medium has changed doesn't mean that I can give less to my listeners. My supervisors at The Arrow understand my feelings about this and encourage me every inch of the way. When that support stops, so will I.

Thanks for listening!



Colonel St. James
[email protected]
Click to expand...

Buried amongst a pile of ticket stubs bearing "KLOL PRESENTS" in one rendition or another sits a Rock and Roll Army Card just glaring at me. I glared back at it for the better part of an hour.
Perhaps my memory is fogged. I remember things being quite a bit different than they are today.

It is good to hear that your employer supports your feelings and allows you to maintain your passion.
It would be better to hear that more often.
 
Hey Kendromedia,

WOW! You still have your card! Well, it's always great to hear from a member. I salute you , Sir!

No, I don't think your memory's fogged a bit. It WAS different back then, but that was 25 years ago. I figure that in another 25 years it'll be even more different. However, no matter how much it changes, that doesn't give us an excuse to do less for our audience. That cheats them, and that cheats you as a jock out of having fun being on the radio. I was taught by some of the best. Let's use Barry Kaye as an example. Barry's working in Conroe now (or at least he was). Anyway, I'll bet if you turn on Barry's show it won't sound any different than it did when he was working in Houston or L.A. You do the best you can do, because you love it. It doesn't matter whether you're in Market #1 or Market #1000. Whether you're making $5 and hour or $500,000 a year. That's the passion I'm talking about. Or maybe I'm just stupid and don't know how to do it any other way. Who knows? Anyway, thanks for your response, and thanks for remembering.

All the best,

Colonel St. James
[email protected]
 
Colonel St. James and Kendromedia,

Not only do I still have my card, I still have my "Official KLOL Rock & Roll Army Underground Cryptogram Translator"!
Remember that? For anyone that still has theirs: "101, 49, 41, 48, 19, 18, 20, 4, 50, 51, 26, 53!"

I should probably put this in a frame,

David Sadof
 
E-gads! My thread has been hi-jacked by talk of old radio promotions where you needed a special decoder! That goes back how many years? I think my point about the passion for the way radio was had been made.

Yeah, I know we live in a different time and things change and all of that. But it would be nice if just a kernal (and not just THE Colonel... as in St. James.. snicker, snicker...) of what made radio great survived the corporate take-overs.

By the way Colonel; I thought you sounded great on KLDE and when I catch you on the Arrow you still sound great.

Dave E. Crockett
www.daveecrockett.com
www.avnetproductions.com
 
It feels a bit like Jerry Maguire's memo....brilliant, and saying what the rest of us wish we could. But are you gonna do what we all think you're gonna do...and FLIP OUT?!?
 
Bean counters - and lawyers!

Will the internet mature enough that we can have internet based "radio stations" that can make money and offer product that people will listen to? We already have people experimenting with product - now we need to see if we can make money and get serious about it!

Maybe that's when the talent and the passion will end up.
 
Wouldn't it be great if all the "oldies but goodies" (Weaver, Dave E., etc.) could get their own station and program it the way it should be programmed? Jocks could let their personalities show, talent and individuality would be encouraged and more emphasis would be put on making the listeners happy instead of the accountants?
 
radiobiz said:
Wouldn't it be great if all the "oldies but goodies" (Weaver, Dave E., etc.) could get their own station and program it the way it should be programmed? Jocks could let their personalities show, talent and individuality would be encouraged and more emphasis would be put on making the listeners happy instead of the accountants?
Click to expand...

I've always wanted to start "K-JAY"! my friends tell me I need my own station.
now how much does it cost to buy a station? I wonder if KROI would be interested??? ;D
 
Jay C said:
radiobiz said:
Wouldn't it be great if all the "oldies but goodies" (Weaver, Dave E., etc.) could get their own station and program it the way it should be programmed? Jocks could let their personalities show, talent and individuality would be encouraged and more emphasis would be put on making the listeners happy instead of the accountants?
Click to expand...

I've always wanted to start "K-JAY"! my friends tell me I need my own station.
now how much does it cost to buy a station? I wonder if KROI would be interested??? ;D
Click to expand...

If you could buy a single property outright, a few million turn-key.
Sadly, that's just not the case.
 
I know this sounds out there, but why not start that product as an internet station? So far, no real pro (that will piss somebody off) has tried it. I was thinking of internet distribution of a product that caters to a select region. Start in a neighborhood (maybe find hot zips of the former oldies station) - do some hunting on line for names and e-mail addresses - send a blast and start out with a jukebox of oldies. Add some recorded, real local stuff, and build an audience.

That's what happened when radio got started - it was a slow build. Wouldn't cost much to start up - a good computer, some software, music license - an investment, no doubt, but how long before you could fine a local advertiser?

Eat the elephant - one bite at a time. Could it work?
 
Dave E. Crockett said:
I used to get pretty upset with some of the opinions on this board, and not just the ones critical of me. But I started to look at the posts differently. When I read the boards I see a lot of passion for radio from people outside the industry. There is a lot of Roula and Ryan bashing, Cumulus bashing, Pat Fant bashing, Clear Channel bashing and the bashing of radio in general. But I love the fact that almost everyone on this board is fanatical about broadcasting and has an opinion on it! I hate the fact that most broadcasters who post here have to do so anonymously because “big brother” is watching them… but that’s another topic all together.

It’s no secret radio used to be a lot more fun than it is today. Sure we would get in trouble for saying something on the air or doing something in the conference room after hours. We would even get suspended for going over the line. But it was expected behavior from air personalities to be a little bit crazy. That’s why we were hired in the first place. It was that energy that gave radio its personality. As irresponsible as we were allowed to be in the “good old days”, were we passionate about our station and our craft. We would have impromptu air-check parties at somebody’s house on a Saturday night. We’d kill a case or more of beer while harshly critiquing each other’s work while laughing at mistakes like dead air or live copy gone wrong… it made us better jocks. You hated looking bad to your peers!

I have been running my production company for about 5 years and recently started shopping myself around. A programmer emailed me last week and told me he loved my work. He was from the old school too. But he told me the reason I am going to have a hard time finding a gig is because companies want to hire “DJ’s, not Personalities.” It’s easy to see where the passion has gone. Maybe I just suck. I can’t remember the last time I sat down with a bunch of buddies and went though airchecks. After 30 years of being on the air I have to believe I know what I’m doing. I guess I’m just too passionate about airing compelling radio instead of crap.

So what was the point of this post. Just to tell the posters that I respect their passion and wish radio had more to offer them so they could talk about what makes a radio station or jock great rather what makes the industry bad.

Your thoughts?

Dave E. Crockett
www.avnetproductions.com
www.daveecrockett.com
Click to expand...

Dave,

I started working in radio back in 1973 at a small station in New York's Southern Tier. Eventually I managed to land a job in Rochester the following year and spent 30 years in the Flower City, ending my broadcasting career at a public radio station in 2004.

What I’ve seen happen to broadcasting over the past three decades is the replacement of ideas and personality with a dogma that has turned a creative industry into a bottom-line mentality.

Back in my days broadcasting companies made money and yet employees, for the most part, enjoyed what they were doing. Let’s face it, we knew that most of us would not become millionaires working in radio or TV, but we were devoted to our jobs…and there were plenty of jobs out there for one to advance their careers. Can we say the same today?

No we can’t turn the clock back to the ‘good old days.’ And I don’t see the current trend making any positive changes, except of course if one is a stockholder in one of the mega-media giants.

That’s my two-cents, for what its worth.
 
Kendro's loony thoughts on corporate responsibility:
Perhaps the underemployed, displaced and working poor in this country could eat the stockholders.

Kendro's other loony thought:
The artist performs his art for the act of performing but
it is hard to prepare for performance when living in a culvert.
 
First of all I am pleasantly shocked by the opinions expressed by my simple question. Clearly most of you understood what I was trying to say while others decided to use this to launch a personal attack on me. That goes with the territory though doesn’t it?

I think the point was well made about the universal passion we once felt for our craft as broadcasters and entertainers and how that passion has been diluted. It is very hard to feel any kind of connection to the audience when you are voice-tracking and unable to actually talk to them on the studio line. It’s hard to connect with the energy you get when you are “live” versus sitting in a studio trying to think about what will be going on in three days when your tracks actually “air.” It’s also hard to be clever when there is zero feedback to what you are doing until days later. Working under those conditions will kill even the most die-hard radio performer. Your work simply doesn’t have the same impact as when it’s done “live!” There are still live shows and there are still a handful of jocks left to man those shifts. But by and large radio does not touch or involve the audience the way it once did. While there may be a pleasant voice on the radio there is nothing else to bond with. Nobody ever fell in love with the automated voice at the grocery store that instructs you to “Please scan your Kroger card.”

Somebody posed the question of internet radio as a domain for real personality radio. That’s an interesting thought...


Dave E. Crockett
www.avnetproductions.com
www.daveecrockett.com
 
The technology is there for Internet radio. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of people trying it on a very small scale. What is missing is the business model - really the investment that could fund what we think of as a real radio station that uses the Internet instead of a transmitter and tower.

It would take some time to return the investment and some money to promote it, but think of the way radio used to be - when it really catered to a local audience. I could see it take the form of early, small market radio - the mom and pop operation that signed off for lunch and back for the afternoon.

Imagine a talk station that concentrated on a neighborhood or group of neighborhoods. Expand as the word gets around. Sell advertising targeted to those areas and don't worry about the ratings advertiser in the beginning. Start off with one two hour show - do it live and then repeat it later in the day.

Invite in the mayor, etc. Talk about sidewalks, garbage pickup, the local theater group. You could even take calls.

Initial promotion is simple - flyers on doorsteps. Build the audience one listener at a time and reward them with a quality progam.

Sell it for a "dollar a hollar" - do live spots - give guarantees - whatever it takes to get the first advertiser. Build one success story and the ball starts rolling.
 
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