What's wrong with DFW radio? My perspective as a listener...

[henderson_s454]

Guys,

I'm not sure what kind of response I will get out of this forum topic, but I have ALOT of gripes about the shoddy state of Dallas-Fort Worth radio during the last ten years. I've noticed that most of the GOOD things that you THOUGHT would never change, managed to change for the worst; and most of the BAD things that you THOUGHT would CHANGE, didn't.

A few prime examples:

• Russ Martin has YET to clean up HIS act - and the folks at CBS Radio Dallas have YET to fire Spittle and Kurt Johnson
• 103.7 Lite-FM (formerly known just by their call letters - KVIL) have YET to trample all over K104 in the Arbitron Ratings
• Speaking of Arbitron Ratings, they seem to reflect more of where the money is going rather than where the listenersare going, thereby causing more unnecessary format flips each day
• NOBODY has the GUTS to go out and DO SOMETHING to reverse these trends
• AND NOBODY CARES ANYMORE!

Am I the only one? Hmmm... ???

 

[RADIO TRUTH]

How about the shoddy state of Dallas-Fort Worth radio during the last fifty years?

 

[busyradioguy]

How about the shoddy state of Dallas-Fort Worth radio during the last fifty years?

50 years??? Are you basing that off of the fact that there's not a station playing your specific musical tastes?

DFW Radio was fine until 1996.

But be very careful about preaching that sort of thing around here, as the con-sultant types will get in here and shamelessly defend what radio is today.

 

[tubetop1]

Guys,

I'm not sure what kind of response I will get out of this forum topic, but I have ALOT of gripes about the shoddy state of Dallas-Fort Worth radio during the last ten years. I've noticed that most of the GOOD things that you THOUGHT would never change, managed to change for the worst; and most of the BAD things that you THOUGHT would CHANGE, didn't.

A few prime examples:

• Russ Martin has YET to clean up HIS act - and the folks at CBS Radio Dallas have YET to fire Spittle and Kurt Johnson
• 103.7 Lite-FM (formerly known just by their call letters - KVIL) have YET to trample all over K104 in the Arbitron Ratings
• Speaking of Arbitron Ratings, they seem to reflect more of where the money is going rather than where the listenersare going, thereby causing more unnecessary format flips each day
• NOBODY has the GUTS to go out and DO SOMETHING to reverse these trends
• AND NOBODY CARES ANYMORE!

Am I the only one? Hmmm... ???

SOMEONE hasn't gotten over getting fired.

 

[busyradioguy]

Guys,

I'm not sure what kind of response I will get out of this forum topic, but I have ALOT of gripes about the shoddy state of Dallas-Fort Worth radio during the last ten years. I've noticed that most of the GOOD things that you THOUGHT would never change, managed to change for the worst; and most of the BAD things that you THOUGHT would CHANGE, didn't.

A few prime examples:

• Russ Martin has YET to clean up HIS act - and the folks at CBS Radio Dallas have YET to fire Spittle and Kurt Johnson
• 103.7 Lite-FM (formerly known just by their call letters - KVIL) have YET to trample all over K104 in the Arbitron Ratings
• Speaking of Arbitron Ratings, they seem to reflect more of where the money is going rather than where the listenersare going, thereby causing more unnecessary format flips each day
• NOBODY has the GUTS to go out and DO SOMETHING to reverse these trends
• AND NOBODY CARES ANYMORE!

Am I the only one? Hmmm... ???

SOMEONE hasn't gotten over getting fired.

Maybe, maybe not. But this isn't the first time I've heard these types of complaints. I hear a lot of it from listeners.

 

[little1]

• Russ Martin has YET to clean up HIS act - and the folks at CBS Radio Dallas have YET to fire Spittle and Kurt Johnson
• 103.7 Lite-FM (formerly known just by their call letters - KVIL) have YET to trample all over K104 in the Arbitron Ratings
• Speaking of Arbitron Ratings, they seem to reflect more of where the money is going rather than where the listenersare going, thereby causing more unnecessary format flips each day
• NOBODY has the GUTS to go out and DO SOMETHING to reverse these trends
• AND NOBODY CARES ANYMORE!

maybe, maybe not. But this isn't the first time I've heard these types of complaints. I hear a lot of it from listeners.

Really? You hear from listeners who think Spittle and Johnson need fired? And you hear from listeners who are upset that KVIL hasn't trampled k104 in the ratings? Why would the listeners even care about that? What's in it for them for KVIL to beat K104?

And the listeners are barely congnizant of ratings, much less where the money is going (because I don't know if some of you have noticed this, but the top rated stations and the top billing stations are VERY VERY different). Listeners don't care about format flips, unless it's THEIR favorite radio station getting flipped.

Or are you people seriously suggesting that your average KESS or KLNO listeners cares a BIT about a Twister flip? Or a WRR listener? Or a KEGL/KZPS/KDBN listener? In the vast majority of cases, country listeners listen to, duh, country music. Rock listeners listen to duh, rock music. Your average metalhead Bone listener has not a cre in the world about a format flip of Twister...

And I'm not even going to get into teh ignorance of thinking KVIL should trample K104. They're not competitors. They draw completely diufferent audiences. Completely different lifestyle groups. KVIL IS trampling K104 where it counts. They don't need to beat them 12+, which is radio ratings for amateurs...

 

[ISaidSo]

Where do I find a list of the market's biggest billers?

 

[Dr. o Fun]

• Russ Martin has YET to clean up HIS act - and the folks at CBS Radio Dallas have YET to fire Spittle and Kurt Johnson

I like the fact that Russ is edgy, grumpy, rude, etc. It's good radio and the only talk show I listen to.

dr

 

[LibertyNT]

Personally i could care less about the complaints u just listed..
i dont listen to any of those stations or people.
If i dont like it I just Tune it out

 

[busyradioguy]

Personally i could care less about the complaints u just listed..
i dont listen to any of those stations or people.
If i dont like it I just Tune it out

And viola, the reason radio is losing an audience.

 

[LibertyNT]

Personally i could care less about the complaints u just listed..
i dont listen to any of those stations or people.
If i dont like it I just Tune it out

And viola, the reason radio is losing an audience.

Its not my Fault Radio is losing audience...
im like most people if i dont like something
i dont use it. or in this case listen to it.
I love "Terrestrial" Radio. I have no XM
and I almost never listen to Web Stations.
KVIL and K104 are 2 totally different Stations that DONT
Compete. And I Never listen to Live 105.3. So i could care less if Russ
or someone was there

 

[ChrisTheListener]

Hello again everybody. It's been about a years since I've posted, I'm sure a lot of you have forgotten me.

But, as you can tell, I am just a listener. And I completely disagree with a lot of what was originally said.

1) just because you don't like Martin doesn't mean some poeple don't. He doesn't need to "clean up his act" any more than some stations need to "clean up their music".... which is none. He has some real fans, and dominates ratings. I don't care if you think his stuff isn't clean, don't criticize it.

2) I can't believe that K104 beating KVIL is one of your reasons for Dallas radio being "bad". What does that have anything to do with it? If you want radio to be "listener-friendly", shouldn't stations like K104 and shows like Russ Martin (Who get more listeners than KVIL and whatever else you listen to) be more promoted? If they get better ratings, and listeners like them, then great!

3) Your characterization of KVIL as "good" and K104 as "bad", and saying that K104 outscoring them is a bad thing, just shows how out of touch you are with Dallas' diverse citizenship. Lemme guess.... you live in North Dallas. Plano, maybe?

4) Finally, thank you to LibertyNT, and the others in this bunch who are showing the incoherency of the original argument. Dallas radio being "bad" or "good" is a personal opinion.

Oh, and don't tell me that declining listeners means Dallas radio is bad. Radio listeners are declining everywhere. Why? TV. iTunes. Internet. Funny thing about 1996........

 

[little1]

He has some real fans, and dominates ratings.

You might want to learn to use the past tense. Because last time I looked, Russ dominated, but was no longer dominating.

That station used to be #1 or 2 men 25-54, and top 5 persons 25-54. Last time I looked, they weren't cracking the top 10-25-54.

Russ may dominate some minor cell (men 18-25 for example) but it's a STRETCH to say that he is currently dominating anybody...Especially where it counts in this buisness, which is the 25-54 demo.

 

[grantchester]

Yeah! Radio in North Texas is just awful, except I like to listen to Prairie Home Companion on Saturday night and Sunday morning. And Click and Clack Sunday afternoon. And Beatle Breakfast Sunday morning. And that Elvis show that comes on just before it.
Yeah, it's all awful, except for Bo and Jim, Jody Dean and the Morning Team, and the Dorsey Gang. They make me laugh. And Hal Jay.
Other than that, it's all dreck, except for the traffic reports. It's amazing how much talent there is at Metro and Pulse. And I like the fact that there are two (or is it three?) radio stations that have full time news departments, with live newscasts every half hour, along with crisis coverage of severe weather and significant events.
But it's all just mindless commercial hits, except for Paul Slaven's free-form show on KERA, and that whole Gen X Radio Project that they're doing on 1360.
(And I should say something about the guys who are so passionate about the medium, like Mike Shannon, who not only put on GEN X, he also does the Hi Fi Show and the websites.)
But it's all one sided talk, except that you can hear popular hosts on FOUR AM stations, plus NPR. And soon a progressive talk channel.
But yeah, it's all boring. Except Russ Martin. He makes me laugh sometimes.
And the lack of talent... except for announcers like Mark Watkins, the best newscaster in the region. And 9 or 10 others.And that silly Other Side of the News. That's good.
Other than that, it's all boring. But that doesn't count the Neal Sperry and Dirt Doctor shows. Both are great. And those two auto-talk shows. I wish I could listen to both of them.
So, other than those, and the Grateful Dead show, the Blues shows, Texas renegade radio, and the shows on KTCU and KEOM and that funky little station in Keene, and the Range, and the Norteno Corridos and Conjuto that comes in on XEG after dark, and KNTU- The One For Jazz.
it's so bad. Thank God it's all free. I'd hate to pay for things I don't like.
g

 

[tubetop1]

You forgot Ellie Hogue. Except for her, and all you said, it is boring.

 

[LibertyNT]

Yup October 12 1996 Interesting day....
Radio here i have to admit isnt as good
as i wish it could be.
Thats why i love out of market stations ;D

 

[radio_insider]

How would you like Russ to "clean up his act"?

And Kurt Johnson and Gavin Spittle should be fired why?

I don't even know why I asked the previous questions being that you compared KVIL and KKDA. To say you're talking about two different demos is an understatement. What Arbitron book did you look at? Let me guess, you haven't ever seen one. You see the 12+ numbers in the paper.

[EDIT]


[EDIT-inflammatory]

 

[KERCAlum]

Allow me to throw in my two Lincolns...

Radio talent in this market is, for the most part, pretty good. From an outsider's point of view, it seemed as though Ron Chapman and his stable at KVIL dominated the market in the '70s and '80s, at least from a talent standpoint. Those guys were what a lot of folks (okay, at least me) aspired to as a deejay. And you could tell they programmed their own stuff, and gave it more thought than just leafing through the Billboard charts. The owners would meddle, sure, but it wasn't as egregious as today's corporate environment. And listeners were treated as though they had more than a shred of intelligence.

Today, corporations decide what the local stations will play, and voice-tracking is the norm. Billing is the only thing that matters, and the listeners are rarely, if ever, considered. No wonder more and more folks turn to their iPods and MP3 players and satellite radio - "local" radio has discarded them.

That's why Platinum 96.7 (it's gonna take me a while to get used to that name) sounds like a breath of fresh air, in the same way the Twister did when it first hit the airwaves. It's local jocks, no voice-tracking (at least in the beginning), and locally programmed content. I hope it stays around a while.

Although I could do without the hip and knee replacement ads like the one I heard driving into work this morning. Good grief, I hope their target demo isn't that old (and I hope I'm not part of it! ).

 

[Lancer]

Most of the problem is lack of substance. You get the occasional song every now and again but you are mostly barraged with commercials, station promotions, contests, calls from listeners, jingles, traffic checks, weather forecasts, the station callsign after every sentence & all kinds of ways to say the current time. It's 5:08, eight minutes past the top of the hour, 22 before the bottom of the hour, 52 before the top of the hour.

By the time we are through with all that, I am back home. So the format of the station is meaningless.

 

[TheRover]

Most of the problem is lack of substance. You get the occasional song every now and again but you are mostly barraged with commercials, station promotions, contests, calls from listeners, jingles, traffic checks, weather forecasts, the station callsign after every sentence & all kinds of ways to say the current time. It's 5:08, eight minutes past the top of the hour, 22 before the bottom of the hour, 52 before the top of the hour.

By the time we are through with all that, I am back home. So the format of the station is meaningless.

I think it was the Bone that was playing a song I don't usually cue myself.... Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" last weekend. As the famous song was winding doen, and Robert Plant was singing "And She's Buying..... A Stairway...." Right There..... the female DJ comes in to blab/announce something unimportant.

It's just the complete lack of class, and the eager willingness of the hired 'talent' of the stations to do so that floors me.

I would have rather not heard -any- of STH, than to have it trashed like that.

This is not about "defending" STH, but about the general disrespect of all things Rock...

Those that think trashing a song is no big deal......

YOU --- ARE THE PROBLEM.

YES, YOU --- ARE IT .