You get the point. I'm sure there's a modern equivalent.
-
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 the Center
- Thread starter Goat Rodeo Cowboy
- Start date
You get the point. I'm sure there's a modern equivalent.
Yes I get the point. If you want radio airplay, you don't get political. Hank Jr tried to put out a country song attacking Obama, and no one played it. Same with Charlie Daniels.
I wouldn't play them either. At least not until my transmitter logs and public file were up to date.
I did talk radio when "The" Fairness Doctrine was in place.
We did NOT do reams and reams of paperwork.
We had robust, sometimes rowdy discussion.
It was during the height of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam war "dissension" era.
The Fairness Doctrine did include TV, did it not?
And there you have it, boys and girls. An example of how Folklore has kept our society pure and wholesome during the ages.
Maybe YOU didn't, but someone did. At the same time the Fairness Doctrine was in place, stations were required to do Community Ascertainment surveys. That meant creating a scientific survey, calling out to people in the community, getting them to identify local issues in a Top 10 order, and then demonstrating how the radio stations dealt with those local issues. It was a HUGE PITA.
Now imagine that combined with the corruption level of the IRS and you'd understand what would happen.
And there you have it, boys and girls. An example of how Folklore has kept our society pure and wholesome during the ages.
Or just a bunch of stuff that got proven false by someone else who worked in the business at the same time. You didn't think I was actually just making this stuff up do you? I wasn't doing radio 40 years ago, but I do know how it worked.
Last edited:
You're listening to the wrong stations and not watching the TV series "Parenthood".
It's a hilarious ABC TV series starring Patricia Heaton as a loser mom with a loser husband and three loser kids.
I'm able to see both points of view but I tend to lean liberal. I am, in a sense, in "The Middle".
"The center" is what you get when you average out everything. It's an average. The people who self identify as "moderates" tend to not be very interested in politics. They don't like politics (usually for good reason). Why would they listen to a radio show about politics?
When they're listening to the radio, it's for music or sports. It's certainly not for political talk.
When they're listening to the radio, it's for music or sports. It's certainly not for political talk.
Tell me you're not one of those who buys into that meme.
The references to the so-called "left media", "mainstream media", state-run media", is all part of the marketing scheme of Fox news and talkradio.
The "mainstream" media regularly calls out ALL sides. There have been so many news stories that are not favorable to the left or the Obama administration. Meanwhile, good luck finding any criticisms of conservatives at all on Fox or talkradio.
The only news channel that has an actual business plan that uses ideology as a marketing tool is also the only news outlet that has a political operative as it's head, namely Roger Ailes. What a coinkydink.
Last edited:
I'm going to assume that was part of the evolution of the Fairness Doctrine to took place after I left the industry. I was the station's G.M. and I reported to three individuals who were the owners and they were scattered from coast to coast. If reams of paper had been processed, they would have been processed in my building.
In three years I dealt with ONE event. A religious broadcaster took a swipe at Madelyn Murray O'Hair (For the younger readers: a very prominent Atheist of the era who pushed the envelope in the very arena we are discussing!)
And that brings up an example of the 'social disruption' that people who focus on the extremes and the edges of ideology function. It has been reported Ms. O'Hair would have liked to have seen religion taken off the air. And Right-wing religion folks of the era began circulating petitions in opposition to Proposal Number so-and-so filed by Mrs. O'Hare. Ever since then, about every five years someone somewhere decides he can get his "crowd" all revved up by getting them scared that Mrs. O'Hiar is going to force their pastor off the radio. Never mind that the FCC long ago decided not to follow her wishes. Never mind that Mrs. O'Hair no longer walks the earth with us. Sign and mail your letter of petition today! SNOPES say Ms. O'Hair had nothing to do with the original protests to the FCC by Mr. Lansman and Mr. Milam.
In the last 30 years, the FCC has received 30,000,000 pieces of mail from people demanding that they not honor the request of Mrs. O'Hair. The religious arm of Talk Radio has contributed to some of that wasted postage.
In three years I dealt with ONE event. A religious broadcaster took a swipe at Madelyn Murray O'Hair (For the younger readers: a very prominent Atheist of the era who pushed the envelope in the very arena we are discussing!)
And that brings up an example of the 'social disruption' that people who focus on the extremes and the edges of ideology function. It has been reported Ms. O'Hair would have liked to have seen religion taken off the air. And Right-wing religion folks of the era began circulating petitions in opposition to Proposal Number so-and-so filed by Mrs. O'Hare. Ever since then, about every five years someone somewhere decides he can get his "crowd" all revved up by getting them scared that Mrs. O'Hiar is going to force their pastor off the radio. Never mind that the FCC long ago decided not to follow her wishes. Never mind that Mrs. O'Hair no longer walks the earth with us. Sign and mail your letter of petition today! SNOPES say Ms. O'Hair had nothing to do with the original protests to the FCC by Mr. Lansman and Mr. Milam.
In the last 30 years, the FCC has received 30,000,000 pieces of mail from people demanding that they not honor the request of Mrs. O'Hair. The religious arm of Talk Radio has contributed to some of that wasted postage.
The Left and the Right are not in "fixed" positions. They shift from time to time. Circa 1970, probably in reaction to Vietnam, the Left reportedly shifted WAY to the left. Circa 1988 the Right shifted WAY to the right. Then the Rights seems to have mellowed just a slight bit and now they are ginning up the "Go Farther Right" dance-step.
Is it possible that maybe the Middle also shifts back and forth to some extent? Is it possible that the middle is actually a group people who actually have some amount of brain-matter that functions... at least on odd-numbered days of the calendar? Is it possible that the middle is NOT just some mathmatical calculation that is fully under the magic spell and movements of The Right and the Left? If they are nothing more than a mathematical calculation hanging down like a pendulum attached to the Left and the Right, maybe they are R.M.S. rather than Average.. maybe they are median rather than average. Sounds like you are making up crap on the fly.
If you will go to school board meetings and city council meetings across America, you will find "moderates" who are interested in politics and are participating in politics.
You ask: "Why would they listen to a radio show about politics?" I respond: Is it buried somewhere in the Bible or some other religious document that Talk Radio has to be ONLY politics?
A
Avid Listener
Guest
And there you have it, boys and girls. An example of how Folklore has kept our society pure and wholesome during the ages.
It's just like the folklore that discussion and talk on the radio was all polite and genteel back in the olden days. Or the folklore that some sort of mythical "center" even exists, much less than anyone could program successful radio stations using such a mythical format.
And "they" make up 90% of the audience.
Here you go:
The FCC in 1971 promulgated a "Primer on Ascertainment of Community Problems," which, as amended through 1976, remained in effect until their deregulation of radio in 1981 and television in 1984. The Primer required that stations conduct interviews with community leaders, solicit and maintain public files of comments about programming, and make the public aware of the station's duty to address community issues.
More like 95% and that's on a good day for talk radio.
When you compare talk on the radio back then (whenever THEN was) it was significantly more genteel and polite than today.
Talk then was not wall-to-wall, all day long. Talk then was probably the rowdiest part of the broadcast day, but it was still something Mom could let the 8 year olds in the back seat listen to. And as I think back to that era: it was an era of Talk Radio that included phone calls, and there were a lot more females than males making the calls. The Moms were not going to tolerate having a rude host.
Well, when I originated this topic, I didn't speak to the question of the potential for profitability of programming to The Middle, The Moderate, The Face-in-the-Crowd.
I basically raised the question: Do we the mental capacity to recognize a separate species of humans who have an I.Q. somewhere North of room temperature who have in interest in the civic affairs of their civilization (sometimes bundled with the term 'politics') and is there any part of the radio broadcasting industry that recognizes this peculiar breed. I knew that once we nailed down all these loose shingles we would eventually get to the question: "Now that we realize MODERATES actually exist, does radio need them? does radio want them? can radio make any money catering to them?
Last edited:
Absolutely not. Some days I do more sports than anything. If I could get away with doing no politics at all, I would. Maybe in a larger city with more stuff going on, I could avoid it altogether.
But I'm not deluding myself into thinking that what I do would work on a wide scale, either. Syndicated talk has to be something everyone would relate to. That's come down to two things, these days. Money and politics. I'm certainly not rich enough to talk about money, so politics it is.
A good host talks about what interests him. Unfortunately we have an entire generation of hosts now that think they can make a difference by being politically active. So they get into radio with that in mind, instead of doing radio for the sake of doing radio.
Last edited:
A
Avid Listener
Guest
You're talking about the days when Lucy and Ricky, or Rob and Laura, or Ozzie and Harriet had to have twin beds.
You mean people in real life didn't sleep in twin beds back then? I thought the queen size wasn't even invented until 1974.
- Status