• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Where is radio heading?

T

tothedj

I've been reading over the past several weeks that people who have been
employed at radio stations, especially in the larger markets, are losing their
jobs, some have been at the same place for many years.
Times are tough in this business, and those still employed wonder when
they may be the next one to be let go due to "budget cuts"?
Radio as we know it is losing listeners because of the technological advances
we've seen, but there are many who still rely on over-the-air outlets to get
them through their workday, at home, or while traveling.
In the eight decades since the first voice was heard in Pittsburgh, to Shortwave,
to FM, and now the Internet, radio has traveled a interesting journey, and even
though we are witnessing a revolution, it's far from over.
 
It's already there, in the corporate toilet. Homogenized and being flushed by the corporate big wigs after they've drained the profits with the help of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Don't blame corporate, they're only doing what they've been allowed to do by our government. It's easier for big government to control a few corporations than it is hundreds of different local owners.

Radio stations aren't programmed by and for the locals anymore. That is being done for them now by consultants armed with laptops loaded with their cookie cutter formats and don't even live in the markets. When profits start to drop, programming is the first to take the hit, thus the snowball effect...
 
The Challenge

The challenge: You run a group of radio stations in ENC, you can't change formats, you can't change personnel. How do you increase revenue?

We can whine about lots of stuff on this board...but how do we help the medium we love be successful within the box already constructed?

Tag your it! :)
 
Allow programming people that know that particular format to program it and MAINTAIN it and give them all the tools they need to succeed and it will.

Hire and train a sales staff that know the format they are selling and aren't hired based on sex appeal and their BS factor. Treat the programming staff as well as the sales staff is treated and everyone wins.

Corporate greed has caused the "Whining" (as you call it) from the pain of listening and working in corporate radio today.
 
There's always a but. But...You have Wayne Carlyle who has been pd forever at WRNS, so I assume he knows how to "maintain" the station. Sales people are trained on the product, why have sales going down for the last three years?

You have Beasley that has had the same formats for a long time, a good sales staff but their revenues are declining too...
 
but how do we help the medium we love be successful within the box already constructed?

Tag your it!
Click to expand...

Here on the discussion boards we love to be "armchair quarterbacks".

I really don't see much creativity in the comments people are making in response to questions like you have asked. We really don't know how to "think outside the box".... or as a co-worker said about me one day: "He really doesn't even know where the box is."

I don't see many suggestions for improvement of radio that address the changes OUTSIDE of radio.

30 or 40 years ago when you had a franchise (license) for a particular community, that community was somewhat married to you and your license, for better or for worse. The roads out of town were not all that great so we weren't as quick to jump in our car and drive to some distant regional mall. (They DIDN'T exist!)

I remember the days when a radio station operator would get upset that his local car dealer(s) were not very aggressive so he would venture over to the next town and solicit advertising from some 'wild and woolly' promotion minded dealer. The all hell would break loose. Your not-so-aggressive local dealer would quickly get aggressive and call his factory rep and the auto manufacturer would quickly slap the 'wild and woolly' dealer. Same was true when you went looking for co-op advertising from appliance dealers. Those outside restrictions are now gone. Radio markets back then were little marketing cocoons. If you as the station owner maintained what looked like a dignified life, joined the Rotary Club and had the sales manager join the Lions Club, etc. etc. etc. the market place tended to slope a little bit down hill toward the local radio station(s) and the local newspaper. I don't remember any aggressive independent yellow page publications. Shopper newspapers were rare. There were no cable systems so the cable guy wasn't fighting for part of your revenue. There was no one there asking for part of the ad budget to design a website.

This is my point: Times have changed./Times are changing. 90% of programming issues were: What records are you going to play? Most of the responses posted here about solving today's problems of radio address: What records are you going to play? What kind of imaging audio are you going to play.

We now share audience with tv, ipod, satellite radio, Internet streaming, computer gaming, etc, etc, etc.

Where do we look for revenue that we never had before?

Where to we look for listeners that we never had before?

What do we fill up our broadcast time with that we never broadcast before?

What do we PRUNE from our air time that is obsolete but we think is sacred?

O.K. I'm just just FULL of questions. Do I have any answers?

Yeah, I been making a list. Here are two:

Every time I get in the car I find myself dodging walkers, runners, joggers and the bicycle folks. I would think that on my station I would want something at least every 10 minutes that these people would be hungry for. I haven't fully identified yet what that content would be, but they can't watch tv, they can't play video games, they don't seem to talk on phones. They may be among the ripest of listening prospects to grow audience. Jogger's Instant Weather?

We have those good roads now. They not only take people OUT of your neighborhood to go shop at the distant shopping center, but they bring a lot of people in. Travelling sales people. Auditors coming to examine the books of an office near you. Tourists. Craftsmen coming to repair the elevator in the apartments for the elderly just down the street from you. The guy driving the Budweiser truck. What does your station do to let the transient know you exist? (I went into a town a few years ago looking for the radio station. Couldn't find it. Couldn't prove that it existed. I knew it did because it was on Radio-Locator, and I was listening to it. Stopped a city policeman coming out of the convenience store with his coffee. Where is the radio station? Mister, I've lived here all my life and there ain't no radio station here.) We are purveyors of advertising but we don't believe in it. WE DON'T HAVE SIGNS! Many of our promotions DO NOT reach people who are not currently listening.

And picking up from suggestion number one, maybe scattered every quarter hour in your broadcast schedule should be something that someone from out of town would find interesting, appealing.

O. K. Next writer: Tag, you're It. ;D
 
Goat, you must be a politician or radio consultant. The box you talk about has been locked or hidden away for some time now for the sake of mass appeal. Not to be rude but to instantly shoot down peoples opinions on a message board for the lack of creativity, well this ain't the New York Times.

Maybe people are tired of being force fed the same "tested" songs every 2 hours or the same burnt 300 songs from 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago day in and day out. Trying to mass appeal has turned off people by the masses.

Ask anyone on the street what they think of radio today and most all will tell you that they are sick of the same songs over and over with cheezy or poorly produced commercials. Maybe they're not interested in winning a pizza or that $5.00 gift certificate... Maybe they've been alienated by the mediocrity of what corporate radio has brought about.

The people that I know that are on the air, all say the same thing. They have their hands tied with the music and content but are expected to be "creative" with low pay while sales and management reap the benefits.

Call a radio station as I have and ask to hear a song, they won't tell you no but they won't play your song either unless it's one of those 300 songs.

Maybe a little less pruning and more fertilizer is the answer IMO.
 
Reelbill...you got it going on dude...I like what ya got to say....
we all know the problem is corporate radio ......I'm just a listener....so I have no clue on how to fix it or I would....A few things come to mine tho.....one is to poll people on the local streets and find out what they want...do this once every other month or so...as to keep on top of what the people want from the radio station.....and give it to them....after all isn't the radio station really for the people "whom" listen to it?
 
"one is to poll people on the local streets and find out what they want...do this once every other month or so...as to keep on top of what the people want from the radio station"
That's what research is.

Not all radio is "corporate", in fact most radio stations are not owned by a publicly
traded company.

Whenever I read opinions on how to program radio stations, on these boards, I have to laugh.

Don't you know...WOMEN control radio listening (for the most part). And, women rarely post here.
 
ReelBill wrote:

Not to be rude but to instantly shoot down peoples opinions on a message board for the lack of creativity, well this ain't the New York Times.
Click to expand...

I apologize if that came across as shooting down people on the message board.

I am well aware that the "corporate" stations are giving precise directions from above as to what will be done on the air.

When I get on my little soap-box I picture my target reader as being someone in a management or ownership position in a smaller market or maybe a family owned station in any size market. The people who have not signed a loan note to Wall Street in blood.

Here is my theory. It is only a theory. If it were a known/proven fact, I would be rich by now:

People start in the broadcasting when they are quite young. The entertainment world and music seems like the entire world. By the time they get some experience and maturity and are ready to become sales people and management people, they have family, home mortgages, kids to send to college so taking big risks by trying something that no one else is doing is very, very scary. By now 15 years in the broadcasting business has brain washed them that every listener and potential listener wants to hear 59 minutes of proven music in every hour and is a bit hacked off if the station wants to reserve even on minute for music,

// I assume it is obvious to everyone by now that my sarcasm mode is currently switched on. ::) //

Where does anyone in this business today get exposed to the idea that maybe some people would want to hear something besides HIT MUSIC on the radio.

Well a few do. Those are the ones who admit that some people want to hear Right Wing Talk Radio. Or sports talk.

How in this business today, if you have made a serious career of it, could you ever get the idea that maybe some other program content would be wanted by anyone.

You have to become a heretic in the world that worships towers and transmitters and automation machines and voice tracks.

Now, if you will excuse me, this nice gentleman wants to put this funny white jacket back on.
 
surfdude said:
"Whenever I read opinions on how to program radio stations, on these boards, I have to laugh.

Don't you know...WOMEN control radio listening (for the most part). And, women rarely post here.
Click to expand...

And if you will get out and travel around stations that are for sale or might be for sale or you wish were for sale (and I am talking about the non-corporate smaller market stations) you will find that WOMEN control the radio sales and marketing function.

If indeed sales people become managers and managers get to eventually become owners, we are on the verge of seeing the majority of non-corporate stations OWNED by WOMEN.

We will then get to see if they have the imagination and tenacity to move programming "out of the box".
 
This has been an interesting topic.You guys make some very interesting and valid points.Until someone someone just pretty much tosses the same old tired playbook
aside and really starts being unique some stations will continue to ride around in the middle or back of the pack when with some progressive programming ideas they might start getting some attention from listeners and advertizers.I can name 5 or six stations in this market who in my opinion fall into this catagory.

Allen
 
I grew up listening to radio and buying the music (albums). My family had a local business that advertised with the local station and held live broadcasts about twice a year. It was balloons and candy for the kids and a chance to win a TV, washing machine and other small appliances. The turnouts were huge. That radio station was involved with the local community in many many ways and the community responded. We were made to feel like it was our radio station and we meant something to the people that owned it. The GM would even come by just to chit chat and see how things were going. Not today.

I'm close to some people in the business today and hear all the horror stories about what radio has become. Yes times and technology have changed but people are still people. I hear the stories about sales people being driven like sled dogs for more, more, more money. It's never enough. True programming veterans like my friends are treated like 2nd class citizens and quickly being replaced by younger kids that work part time and cheaper, not because they have talent.

The small business owners I know feel alienated by todays radio sales reps that only call on them to beg for more money.

Here's a novel idea for radio. Get more involved in the local community, listen to your listeners a little more, Quit knee jerking to an antiquated ratings system, retain local programming people that are involved with the community and in tune with the music and by all means, train newer sales reps. I've seen some dress like their going out to a club rather than a business meeting. The list could go on but I'll stop here.
 
Everyone who have posted on this topic has driven the message that the "local"
flavor is what's missing in radio these days, and i agree with that.
Whatever happened to the days when you worked for a station where money
wasn't the motto of the sales department?, I'm aware they have to sell to make
a profit, but there times now that you have to sell everything so that corporate
operations can keep things going, and if you don't achieve your goal, your job
could be on the line.
I've been in broadcasting almost 25 years, i enjoyed doing it when i first went on
the air, and there were times i did things wrong, but it turned out to be a learning
process, which has been with me since.
But since 1999 when our company was sold, i've thought about doing something
else, and even though i'm not on the air much anymore, i still have a job for now,
but this remains to be seen.
 
I am approaching my 25th year in radio as well.I totally agree the world and technology has changed more than I can imagine but I still talk to and know alot of people who love and rely on radio as much today as they did then.Radio tends to think people are turning to others sources for entertainment when in fact radio is still very important in their lives.One of the biggest problems I see with radio in this market is stations want it both ways.In meetings people preach let's get back to local and superserve the audience.Its sounds great but to do that you have got to have people and those people have to live so you have to pay them.Stations aren't willing to spend the money for the people to do the localism.
Also many people who are making decisions haven't spent time in a control room in years or perhaps ever.They lose touch with the day to day programming and production issues that the people who really do 90% of the work have to deal with.You can't sit in an office or stay on the street all day and not lose touch with
the real inside operations.Its real easy to say what needs to be done but yet some
who make decisions don't know howto begin the process of execution.Sales vs programming will always be problem.You can't have champagne taste on a Milwaukee's Best budget.Also having a big signal is great but how can 107.9,95.1,
93.3 possibly localize without more people.It is simply a geography issue.It is almost impossible but the stations with smaller signals can do better with localism
and the fact is most of them don't.Some don't know how,some can't for budget reasons,and some simply don't care.95%of the time it comes back to money in one way or another.

Allen
 
Gene Gray taught us years ago that localism can work in this market. Beasley has never been local... they have the money and won't spend it. NextMedia isn't smart enough to make the money needed.

Inner Banks is trying their hardest to make their stations local, and are doing a better job than most anyone else, except maybe 107.9 (they seem to always have the money the other Beasley stations don't). Don Curtis really knows his stuff when it comes to localism though.
 
Its impossible to do every festival,blood drive, church function etc.I would love to do them all but I understand you can't.94.3 could do alot more locally,where are the PSA's during the breaks?Ain't no law that says a talk station can't do a remote.
I like the local news but damn they are a local newstalk station.Really serving the community means more than just politics and doing the things that are going to benefit you money wise and doing things just because the community big wigs will be there.94.3 needs to be at these festivals in Farmville, Winterville,Ayden, etc.
The three hours of local in the morning is nice but what about the rest of the day.
Again it comes back to having enough people to do all these things.94.3 is targeted to a certain group of people.We are talking people with money and positions of power in the community.Nothing wrong with that but 94.3 forgets a large segment of the population who are not the president of this, or the secretary
of that, or the director of this.I like alot of TIB's programming but let's face it if you don't eat,sleep and breathe politics and you don't belong to a certain social or economic circle there is not alot of local programming for you.94.3 really needs a live,local drive home show from 5p-7pm as a alternative to what 1250 does.94.3 hands that time to 1250 on a silver platter but again you gotta spend the money
for a good talent to do the show.94.3 doesn't have to power down so even something live after 7pm would be an option.It comes down to money and priorities.Do you want a real station with a local feel?? or do you choose robot radio
where a computer runs the show.. and as a local talk station at least 7-10 hours per day should focus on local issues with locally originated programming in my opinion.That's just me.94.3 has some talented people whom I repect and this is not a slap at them at all.It comes down to the programming philosopy at the top.
Again this is just my opinion...

Allen
 
94.3 did do their morning show live from Overton's on Friday. I'm sure it was a paid deal, but at least they did.

Greenville needs to be a little bigger to support a full-on local talk station. Considering what we've had in the past, I'm impressed we have local news hourly now. HH and Curtis are on to something good though, and Curtis does know local talk well (WPTF). Maybe as the city grows over time, more will be added to the station.

1250/930 and 94.3 serve two dramatically different demographics. The split up of those two years ago only helped the local radio landscape. It's nice having the contrasting shows.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom