What Would you do if you were PD of WCBS-FM to make the station Sound Better ?

[BACKnUSSR]

Oh I was confused, I equated "how to make it sound better" with making it more desirable for people to listen to, not less desirable. So in some strange way, lower ratings and loss of listeners would indicate better sounding. Missed that one.

Why do you radio types always refer to "people" generically? Or are you trying to excuse your own tastelessness, and that of your desired/generated listeners?

Cynically speaking, let's put it this way. To take the side of the critics, the way how to make such radio "sound better" is *exactly" to alienate that ugly, ignorant listener scum the industry's generated through the years. What you gain in quantity, you gain in quality. Right? Unless quantity = quality to you, in which case, thanks for affirming your nouveau riche philistinism.

Then, there's the opposite solution--that is, those of you who're preoccupied with "how to make it sound better" idealism just buzz off to NPR or post-terrestrial-land, because you're dealing with a lost cause. Thus isolated from your sphere, the present state of commercial terrestrial radio becomes nothing more than a vaguely benign nuisance catering primarily to rednecks and bigots and 450-pound crazy ladies and scam artist pigeons of any variety. "Your" type might have been superficially central to radio back when the oldies were new, but no more. Oldies radio sounds the way it is for the same reason why Rush and Hannity sound the way they are. Don't bother trying to "change" those mentalities; it's like a battered wife trying to "change" her battering husband, and the latter will likely weasel a "she had it coming" excuse, anyway...

What's your point? (And I think you meant was "what you LOSE in quantity, you gain in quality") And thats faulty thinking.
If you make something less appealing to the masses, it doesnt necessarily mean you've improved it in any way.

Obviously to make such an elegant point, you must listen to some commercial terrestrial radio. Which of those finely described categories do you fall into?

 

[adma]

What's your point? (And I think you meant was "what you LOSE in quantity, you gain in quality") And thats faulty thinking.
If you make something less appealing to the masses, it doesnt necessarily mean you've improved it in any way.

Thanks for noticing the typo--mea culpa.

But we must also remember: with shifts in technology and consumption habits, "the masses" mean something different today from, say, 30 or 40 years ago or whenever North American radio and mass entertainment's been mythologized as "last great". In fact, I'd argue that a lot of the "masses" of yesteryear would probably not even bother much with what passes for today's "mass entertainment"--at least, as anything much more than a trivial passing bauble. Or rather, it's shifted from "mass entertainment" to "mass technology", i.e. the iPod; it might not have "improved" mass taste to any great extent, but it definitely renders obsolete the fine art of being aggravated by the radio dial.

Here's a radical statement for you--radio's successes over the past generation have been generated precisely by being "less appealing to the masses". Look at WABC today; it concentrates instead on an efficient mega-niche of right-wing uglies, shipwreck addicts and telemarketer pigeons. And if you try to argue that Rush, Hannity et al are "mass appeal" in the same way the Beatles, the Stones et al were "mass appeal" 40 years ago, I'd just say that's an excellent excuse for Al-Qaeda to blow the U.S. of A. off this planet...

 

[Froggy]

I don't regularly listen to 'CBS-FM but as a former Oldies Programmer...If I was programming a 'Classic Hits' Station I would Mix it up-as much as possible...don't stay trapped into a single era for any big length of time (which seems to me the trap many Classic stations fall into).Quickly as possible I'd want to go (ex:Beatles,Billy Joel,Madonna,Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes,60's Stones back to late 70's....back & Forth).My complaint about our local CBS Classics Station is at times it seems they stay in an era (Late 70's/Mid 80's) for extended periods of time and begin to sound stale....especially for folks tuning in to hear Variety,maybe more 60's or 70's.....In addition to the era problem of course you are also trying to mix Rock/Pop/Disco-Dance/Motown/British Invasion.(There certainly is potential for many a train wreck if you don't review your playlists with a fine tooth comb).

 

[andreajesus]

Yeah but see, Froggy, it's like this - programming a Classic Hits format, as I would hope you know, is one of those formats that is as much defined by the city as it is by the nature of the format itself.

Now here in New York City ("Native New Yorker" MY WHOLE LIFE AND LOVING IT!!), CBSFM is almost already like ONE YEAR BACK as the home of the "Greatest Hits of the 60's, 70's, and 80's..." and it is the PERFECT GREATEST HITS (OR CLASSIC HITS) STATION FOR THIS CITY!! PD Brian Thomas has done a PHENOMENAL job in keeping the right music mix between the stuff that HE knows attracts the younger end of the 25 to 54 demo that advertisers are seeking, while at the same time, NOT losing those who grew up on the CBSFM of 1972 to 2005. Not only that, Brian has hired the RIGHT combination of talent from OTHER NYC stations (Broadway Bill Lee, Rick Stacy, and Joe Causi), BROUGHT BACK some of the talents who were there pre-2005 (Bob Shannon, Sue O'Neal, Pat St. John, and Dan Taylor) and NEW (Ron Parker, whom I had NEVER heard in NYC until '07) -- BUT IT WORKS!! And the ratings have proven Brian's managerial and programming acumen on EVERY level - the station has done a SUPER job in getting out there with the fans and in promotions and in contests and all that...

CBSFM -- a "Classic Hits" station that is PERFECT for New York City - in EVERY sense of the word!!

Andrea D. Wiener
New York City

 

[BACKnUSSR]

Yeah but see, Froggy, it's like this - programming a Classic Hits format, as I would hope you know, is one of those formats that is as much defined by the city as it is by the nature of the format itself.

Now here in New York City ("Native New Yorker" MY WHOLE LIFE AND LOVING IT!!), CBSFM is almost already like ONE YEAR BACK as the home of the "Greatest Hits of the 60's, 70's, and 80's..." and it is the PERFECT GREATEST HITS (OR CLASSIC HITS) STATION FOR THIS CITY!! PD Brian Thomas has done a PHENOMENAL job in keeping the right music mix between the stuff that HE knows attracts the younger end of the 25 to 54 demo that advertisers are seeking, while at the same time, NOT losing those who grew up on the CBSFM of 1972 to 2005. Not only that, Brian has hired the RIGHT combination of talent from OTHER NYC stations (Broadway Bill Lee, Rick Stacy, and Joe Causi), BROUGHT BACK some of the talents who were there pre-2005 (Bob Shannon, Sue O'Neal, Pat St. John, and Dan Taylor) and NEW (Ron Parker, whom I had NEVER heard in NYC until '07) -- BUT IT WORKS!! And the ratings have proven Brian's managerial and programming acumen on EVERY level - the station has done a SUPER job in getting out there with the fans and in promotions and in contests and all that...

CBSFM -- a "Classic Hits" station that is PERFECT for New York City - in EVERY sense of the word!!

Andrea D. Wiener
New York City

So then you fall into the faction that is AGAINST replacing Ron Parker with Bobby Jay, or Rick Stacy with Max Kinkel or Joe Causi with Don K. Reed.......

 

[lalumia]

We luv the revived CBS FM! ...just needs More Marvelettes!...lol...