what is missing from Indy radio

[justalurker]

Back in the day a DJ had to be ahead of the game ... pulling albums to put on the phonograph and carts to play for the commercials. Albums became CDs and now it seems nothing is pulled. DJs are no longer operators ... they are just voices, and the burden of running a tight radio shift that sounds good has shifted over to an engineer. Perhaps the "DJ" has to set the seques on their voicetrack, but their head is certainly outside of the game.

What's missing from radio? Skill. DJs have gone from operators to people who just talk. Larger stations and bigger shows may have done that years ago by separating the talent from the control board (similar to talk radio "hosts" who wouldn't be able to run a console to save their life). But the current form of "I'm not even listening to my own show" voicetrack radio takes the emotion out of the equation. In the good old days the DJ had to wait through the commercials and songs just like the listners ... they had to invest the time to sit in that room and be "on" for hours. Now 15 minutes to an hour later (depending on skill) they are done - and listening to XM or their iPod while someone else is listening to them?

Time and temperature are just one part of being there ... and yes, they can be automated. Those are the days that I hope the automation breaks and the DJs are exposed for the frauds that they are.

 

[cspotrun]

Much as I love listening to airchecks of the old days, taking WIFE in 1971 and fast-forwarding it to 2009 isn't going to attract a young audience. I don't honestly know that if I had had all the distractions, the internet, MySpace, cellphones, video games, you name it I'd have spent all that time listening to a scratchy DJ from afar. Jocks talking up the post and telling jokes over intros isn't going to get people to throw away their iPods and internet connections. Someone has to figure out how to do radio for a generation that didn't grow up with radio in the 70s and wants their own personal playlist. Not the least bit easy.

hey, if Personality radio is "old fashioned"- and what i'm hearing on radio now is the "Thing"- i want no part of it. and i doubt anyone else does either. Good Luck Radio.

 

[cold_coffee]

There goes the last human voice.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Back in the day a DJ had to be ahead of the game ... pulling albums to put on the phonograph and carts to play for the commercials. Albums became CDs and now it seems nothing is pulled. DJs are no longer operators ... they are just voices, and the burden of running a tight radio shift that sounds good has shifted over to an engineer. Perhaps the "DJ" has to set the seques on their voicetrack, but their head is certainly outside of the game.

Ah, how we romanticize the past and try to make it a spiritual event. No need for church back then. Just go to the radio station and do the ritual.

When I got into the business (pre-cart machine) it didn't take me long to realize that I was sitting in the cozy little chicken coop actually doing something about 6 or 7 minutes of every hour. (Except the hours where we did long-form news.) I began to fantasize about a contraption that would let me do all those 15 to 30 second events that separated the records so I could maybe run down the street and interview someone, or pick up the events off the police blotter, etc. I tried to picture this Rube Goldberg machine where I could stack 20 records on it along with a bunch of those little 3-inch reels of tape and I could take off my robot coveralls and go be a creative, inventive, useful human being for the other 50 minutes of the hour.

I left the party before the cue for Rube Goldberg to walk on stage. Kind of sorry I missed the curtain call.

 

[gr8oldies]

My former father-in-law told me about working full service MOR in the early 60s with heavy spot loads cueing up one inch tape reels for commercials. Doesn't sound like it was the least bit of fun

 

[justalurker]

I began to fantasize about a contraption that would let me do all those 15 to 30 second events that separated the records so I could maybe run down the street and interview someone, or pick up the events off the police blotter, etc. I tried to picture this Rube Goldberg machine where I could stack 20 records on it along with a bunch of those little 3-inch reels of tape and I could take off my robot coveralls and go be a creative, inventive, useful human being for the other 50 minutes of the hour.

It has been my experience that the less involvement you expect out of the "talent" the less talent they will have. In a perfect world people would use the extra time to make their shows better ... to learn more so they could be better on the air. Alas, we are not in a perfect world.

If you want bland radio "Rube Goldberg" is the perfect path to follow.

 

[Timewarp]

Wish we had computer automation for live assist in the old days. I remember WERM a radio
station not far from Lima Ohio where my family lived. The Millers who owned the station had
to leave town and left me operating the station. There were 2 turntables and an old reel to reel
for playing ads. You could play only one ad at a time. Play a song then another tape. Many
commercials were copy for reading. You used a pencil to turn on the transmitter.

The station's sound was tinny. You had to listen on the side bands because there was a hum when
you tuned on frequency.Good thing no one had digital receivers back then.

I was surprised that WERM could be heard in Indy when I moved there. This was long
before WBST in Muncie occupied 92.1

Let's just say I don't miss the old days and love today's electronics. Anyone who complains about
computer automation equipment should have been on WERM.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

In a perfect world people would use the extra time to make their shows better ... to learn more so they could be better on the air. Alas, we are not in a perfect world.

If you want bland radio "Rube Goldberg" is the perfect path to follow.

True talent is not whetted or enhanced by reaching into a cubby-hole, pulling out a record, putting it on the felt, and cueing it up. Fast forwarding through a reel-to-reel tape to find cut two does not make a show better. All that manual motion may put a jittery soul at rest, but DOES NOT sharpen one's talent.

A true talent could sit in a tiny voice-over booth blind-folded and do something pretty good on the air. Put two or three truly talented people in a studio together for an hour or so, turn on the Rube Goldberg machine and let the talent-juices rock-and-roll.

One of the most talented computer programmer/system analyst guys I ever worked with could hardly tie his own shoes and could not figure out how to dump a file on his laptop to a floppy disk. I tied his shoes when needed, copied his floppy disks when needed, and he taught me how to be a talented programmer. A lot of radio guys are like that. That's why they wear flip-flops to work.

 

[justalurker]

An automation system isn't going to remove the hum from a poorly engineered station. That is a separate problem. Hopefully whatever system is used at a properly built station allows the content to follow the format that the powers want followed (two songs in a row, a four minute commercial break, hour programs - whatever is asked for) instead of interfering with the format of the station like the WERM example. I don't want to go THAT far back into the stone age!

I just want to see more involvement. Put two or three talented people in the room live with an engineer running the board if you have to, but at least they are live and running on the same real time clock as the listener. Put one talented person in the room live and they can still do a pretty good show. Advanced automation just allows that person to be less talented and still get by ... or to not even be there for their own show.

Jocks want listeners to spend some time with them. If the jocks don't want it the stations want the listeners. They want the listeners to write down the time they have spent in their diaries and have the station overheard on their peoplemeters (in markets with that equipment). Yet they are not willing to spend the time with their listeners (or have their employees there in real time)? It seems one sided to demand time that they are unwilling to give.

Be there. Be local. Be part of the community. Be real. That is what every city needs. Real radio.

 

[bigtime]

Didn't the original WFMS studio lack a michrophone? I think they had a large turntable or two & everything else was recorded on small 3" reels.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

The best "fresh ideas" might be the "old ideas" used by WIFE, WXLW, WIRE and WNAP. There was a reason to listen to radio; even hearing the time and temp was fun when it was mixed in with personality, a tight format of talk and music and a station that was actually visibly involved and active in the community. Sadly, now there is no real reason to listen to radio -- except for WIBC I guess ...to hear some marginal news reports and somewhat accurate weather and traffic reports. Yikes -- I still can't believe WIBC received a Marconi!!

So...can the real old school radio format work? When I worked in radio 30+ years ago, I was paid next to nothing. In my old age, I would be willing to donate a few hours a week to a fun personality/listener driven station.

you are correct IT WOULD WORK but that kind of radio takes money, somebody has to pay people a "Living Wage" and not turn on the PC and leave it(and that is not likely to happen) but it SHOULD IF someone is doing a Greatest Hits format because that is the KIND of radio the audience remembers and expects. so, what's old is new again, and it has always been that way. i'm beginning to think the "Marconi" has turned into the "Nobel" prize.

WXLW has bills is their current promotion.....

 

[mouseman]

Huh?? ???

 

[Limp73]

Does Indy have ANY oldies stations left??

(I'm from out of state but remember Top 40 on the original WIFE at 1310,WNAP "The Buzzard" and "Windy-1260.")

I feel tempted to say that there is no Indy Catholic radio,but after Googling it I found WSPM at 89.1....Ft Wayne has WLYV doing Catholic programming but that's about all I know...no other Catholic radio in Hooserland that I'm aware of.

BTW:

Whatever happened to 1110-AM (originally WHYT) in Noblesville...and why? Heard it went silent several years ago. Othewise southern gospel WGNZ Xenia/Fairborn (Dayton, OH market) would have never got a 5kw power upgrade with critical hours authorization.

 

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

1110 am in noblesville signed off the air in the mid 90's if i recall right. thats seems to end up why 93.9 got the original licenses to Noblesville on the FM Band before it moved to fisher when 104.5 moved from Indy to Noblesville. lol funny thing bout fishers allotment for 93.9 will end up going to 95.5 when 93.9 changes its COL to Lawrence. when Terre Haute's 93.9 finally gives up its fight to try to prevent its FCC Mandated move to 93.7. never understood why they are crying about one little channel drop for its station its not like when WYGB in edinburgh had to move from 102.9 to 100.3

 

[ChiefEngineer]

1110 am in noblesville signed off the air in the mid 90's if i recall right. thats seems to end up why 93.9 got the original licenses to Noblesville on the FM Band before it moved to fisher when 104.5 moved from Indy to Noblesville. lol funny thing bout fishers allotment for 93.9 will end up going to 95.5 when 93.9 changes its COL to Lawrence. when Terre Haute's 93.9 finally gives up its fight to try to prevent its FCC Mandated move to 93.7. never understood why they are crying about one little channel drop for its station its not like when WYGB in edinburgh had to move from 102.9 to 100.3

The Columbus move involved cash. Terre Haute doesn't. One little channel drop involves a site move and Cumulus hasn't agreed to pay for the move.

Can we move you to a location a mile away and require you to buy a new house? BTW you pay to move.

 

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

1110 am in noblesville signed off the air in the mid 90's if i recall right. thats seems to end up why 93.9 got the original licenses to Noblesville on the FM Band before it moved to fisher when 104.5 moved from Indy to Noblesville. lol funny thing bout fishers allotment for 93.9 will end up going to 95.5 when 93.9 changes its COL to Lawrence. when Terre Haute's 93.9 finally gives up its fight to try to prevent its FCC Mandated move to 93.7. never understood why they are crying about one little channel drop for its station its not like when WYGB in edinburgh had to move from 102.9 to 100.3

The Columbus move involved cash. Terre Haute doesn't. One little channel drop involves a site move and Cumulus hasn't agreed to pay for the move.

Can we move you to a location a mile away and require you to buy a new house? BTW you pay to move.

According to the info on rec.net and the FCC site info for wpfr current license and its construction permit for the 93.7 move the transmitter site is the same location. so how is that a site move.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

WPFR also asked to become a Class B. Why should the Indy move in get the Class as opposed to WPFR?

 

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

my guess is when WRWM filed its move in and Upgrade which also consisted of the WQKC 93.7 Seymour move in to louisville and downgrade to class a. WPFR should be lucky Cumulus didnt just outright buy them out too like they did the Seymour station. and I also think the FCC might give the 93.9 CP the class b over a terre haute class b on 93.7 could be due 93.3 WQTY Linton being a Class B1. which would put 2 class b's on 2nd adjacent channels into the same market.

 

[justalurker]

The station making the petition gets to choose what happens. They write up the scenario (our station to B moving their station to another channel) apply for it and see if the FCC will go along. It isn't the FCC redrawing the map, it is the petitioning station. All the FCC does is agree or deny (with a denial leading to modifications).

If it was WPFR's petition they probably would have asked for the bigger channel for themselves - just liike WRWM did.

It may be possible for WPFR to improve their signal by moving a few miles further out ... that would take more engineering. Engineering that the petitioning station isn't going to do unless it benefits THEM (perhaps by getting consent from the station they are moving instead of having the FCC move them).

The petitioning station is trying to keep the expense of the move down to a minimum. Paying for a new antenna and retuning the transmitter one channel is a minimum. Paying for engineering, a new tower and STLs for a station you don't own isn't something the petitioning station would do unless needed to make the change to their own station. In this case, only the minimum is needed.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

P4RM works like this : 1) Petition then 2) Counter Petitions. The Petitioning station has no preference unless the station they are moving doesn't respond. Ford did.

Paul Ford asked for the B at Terre Haute (Clinton). The B fits there. Conjecture about WQTY is off, I ran the Channel Study.

The other problem is the station here is on 93.9 and after Cumulus bought the station it was being heard in Clinton over WPFR. Did the drive myself to hear it. Remarkable that at that distance it wiped them out. WQTY is not in Terre Haute and you are lucky to hear it there on a car radio. Tower is almost at the Wabash Correctional facility.

Cumulus has an In$ider at the FCC. $ome wonder how they $eem to move all the $tations they do in $pite of the Rules. $ecret clue embedded. Commission $taff are low paid civil $ervant$. The live in a city full of high paid attorney$. Money talks others walk.