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Who Has The Wuuuurst Radio?

S

Scooter Lesley

Guest
Earlier today, I tooled my way through this icey weather to the grocery store. It was just unavoidable, due to my common needs & feeds. Yep, The Milk Man & The Bread Dude are in cahootz with The Weather Guy. You cudda took a nap on the bread shelves, and does weather like this fetch-out the ug-leez! No food want to go home with these people! Sheeeeeeeeesh! Scanning the dial, and monitoring Radio both to & from, I had zilch to listen to. VT's aren't Live or Current, and Awww-ful, to boot! So, in SC, Who Has The Wuuuurst Radio? To me, Greenville is slightly better than Columbia, and I know nothing about Charleston. Why does it...ALL...have to Suck?
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
This is tough. Greenville has a crappy CHR, Hot AC, Active Rocker, Classic Rocker, and talker. I think 98.5 sounds good but the rest are just OK or bad (I don't listen to Country or Gospel so I'm can't really speak for them). One station can't make up for the rest, though, so I'm going to say Greenville, just slightly worse than Columbia. I put Columbia slightly ahead because I like 107.5 The Game and Magic 98.5 (formats Greenville is lacking) and B-106.7, WVOC, and Steve FM are better than their Greenville couterparts in those formats.
 
Just going by the places I've driven through I'd say Florence is the worst. But after that, it's tough to say. Myrtle Beach and Charleston, I think, are ahead of Greenville. Columbia may be a tad better.

Of course, Columbia's "new rock" station is sort of one of those Active Rock/Alternative hybrid stations, which was better than any option in Greenville prior to X98.5. If I went on personal preference for alternative rock, I'd put Myrtle Beach slight ahead of Greenville with WKZQ, which I think plays a wider variety of older titles. But then X98.5 would probably be the next best in the state.

Of course, as carolinaradio states, one station does not make a market. Only good thing is that GSP can also get some better CHR stations from outside the market via Charlotte's Channel 96.1 and Kiss 95.1 -- both of which are better than B93.7.

I haven't listened enough outside of the rock and CHR arenas to compare the markets otherwise. Just flipping through stations, though, Florence seems pretty awful.
 
Wabbit Season said:
freqdev said:
the luxury of being an armchair quarterback
Click to expand...

Indeed. I'm curious. What makes Florence so bad, and/or Greenville so great? Or the other markets that are mediocre? Let's get a breakdown.
Click to expand...

I never said Greenville is great...it isn't by any means. Anyway, isn't it all just a matter of opinion? I doubt anyone on this board has seriously listened to every station in each market in the state to make a educated decision about what is the best.

So if it makes us "armchair quarterbacks" so be it. It's just an opinion. That is all.
 
Forget the implied insult - but I think everyone here would like a little depth to a critique of each market, if some could be applied. Who knows - perhaps there are members of this board who could learn from a market breakdown.
 
So if it makes us "armchair quarterbacks" so be it. It's just an opinion. That is all.
[/quote]

i am fine with your opinions it provides an interesting perspective to reality
 
freqdev said:
i am fine with your opinions  it provides an interesting perspective to reality
Click to expand...

Then instead of insulting people, why not share some of what you feel is "reality". I like to read what other people think.
 
I would love to hear from this board market by market what people on here think of the stations in their market and others around the state. Then I wish we had a way of finding out what the general public thinks of most every station in their market. I am sure there would be some surprises and some not so much but we would gain some very good information if it were possible.
 
This question is almost impossible to answer these days.
I drove to Washington DC last month and tried to pick up as much local radio as possible. Its bad everywhere.
And not just bad technically (dead air, double audio, etc)
Announcers talking over each other, getting names and facts wrong, poor production, playlists just thrown together - its awful. everywhere.
And it breaks my heart
 
Re: "armchair quarterbacking."

I've come to realize that most of the "naysaying" comes from those not in the game anymore. Ya know, the usual "radio is dying" and "radio is dead" and "today's radio sucks by comparison to (insert former era)."

Sure, there aren't live and local shifts 24/7 anymore on most stations anymore, and while I'd personally love that in all the top 50 markets and as close to that as possible in the top 100 or top 150, let's also admit that there were plenty (and I mean PLENTY) of bad jocks with F/T gigs prior to the 1997 Telecom Act and subsequent consolidation craze, too, please.

I'm not one to believe that jockless music-intensive shifts on contemporary stations are good for the overall station product, mind you, but I also don't think staffing a midday or overnight shift with a wanna-be standup comedian (as was quite the norm in the 1980s and early 1990s) endears listeners, either.

That era of radio DJ rarely tried to engage with their audience so much as they hollered at 'em, crack a one-liner and nailed the post. That, in my mind, is why alternative radio came in and pantsed pop stations in the early 1990s. Their jocks were far more relatable to their audience and went out to schmooze with their listeners at small clubs and venues where their acts came to play.

I, too, prefer to read these boards when someone gets into specifics; an outside ear is INVALUABLE to folks like me still in the trenches, fighting the good fight. Simple, one-line, "(insert call letters or whole market) sucks" isn't constructive, but just gives off a perception that someone's gnawing on sour grapes.

Carry on, gentlemen (and ladies, too!)
 
Ron Roberts said:
I, too, prefer to read these boards when someone gets into specifics; an outside ear is INVALUABLE to folks like me still in the trenches, fighting the good fight. Simple, one-line, "(insert call letters or whole market) sucks" isn't constructive, but just gives off a perception that someone's gnawing on sour grapes.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to mention that I am an "outside ear" so while my posts are maybe too general, I have no sour grapes. That said, for those with more knowledge of all the markets in the state, I too wouldn't mind hearing more specifics. Just think it's probably too difficult to say one market is completely better than the other. Even I admit my remark about Florence was solely based on limited time in the area and a bit from reading some of the threads in this forum.

I think it's be easier to answer something like "who has the best (insert format here) in the state?". Every market is going to have some stations better than another market in a specific format, but to call one complete market better than another is a lot more difficult to say. A lot of it's all really in the ears of the listener and their own taste in music.
 
I have no sour grapes. I have never stepped in a studio in my life. There seems to be an assumption here that if you dare say something negative, you've been fired or "done wrong" by the industry.

Perhaps instead of criticizing the idea of the thread or what others are saying with one line posts, people should share their own opinions. I thought I was pretty clear in what I have stated on here over and over and on this thread. I've heard plenty of southeastern markets and the main ones in South Carolina (Florence is the only one I'm somewhat vague in) and my personal opinion is that, for most of the formats I am interested in, Greenville's radio stations lag behind in terms of programming quality and air talent. MY, B, Planet, WORD are good examples. If you read back through here, I've been more than thorough in the past as to what I think is wrong with these stations.

I have to agree with GordonSims somewhat - while every radio station isn't bad everywhere, the overall decline in quality is obvious. I remember people attacking CC and others years ago for just voicetracking nights or automating overnights, well, look what we have now. I was listening to some various Top 40 and Alternative/AAA stations on Live365 the other day - it's good to hear there are still some broadcasters who, when not under pressure for a $ or given orders, do a pretty dang good job. The love for broadcasting is still around, but you just have to look elsewhere in a lot of places. I hear goof ups on AM/FM sometimes and wonder if the PD's even care anymore. Magic has been running an incorrect legal ID for over a week now and it seems to go unnoticed.
 
If my "sour grapes" label doesn't apply to you, please don't presume, then, that it does. :)

We all know, though, that if we're to generalize (as I'm obviously guilty of), that I'm sort of "in the ballpark" with that line of thought.

Carolina you're far more specific than most; I'll grant you that.
 
Well,...apparently my grocery run for Oyster Stew ingreeeeeedy-ence has rallied a whole crock pot full of opinionaterz!
I was just punchin' pre-set buttons, on a hunt for some pre-Oyster Stewin' stereo sound, and...Found-t nothing! I don't Country, so ESC & SSL were out, both ROQ & "The Pavement" were trying their overplayin' best to Toast, Burnt, and damn near Incinnerate 300 of the most common Rock songs. MAGIC didn't have half a rabbitt in their hat, MY kept telling me to go to their website..."Why can't you just tell me now, while I'm in the car?"....though allegedly a CHR, B-93 offered some Horse Manure Rap Crap,...and in addition to the Wuuuurst(why do they pay them)Air Staff on "The Planet", 93.3 was granting precious air play to...
Pearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Jam! So, get this straight! An armchair quarterback is a viewer that has never played the game on the screen. TRUST ME,...you can bet your ranch...that I know bad Radio, When...I Hear It!
 
I would venture to say that (as things stand now), it's impossible or close to it to equal the quality of the jocks/programmers/stations we remember and love from the 60's through 90's. For obvious reasons. A jock concentrated on his or her show - and production and appearances. Today, that's what you squeeze in in the hour before or after you are on the air. We have gone from 5-7 jocks and an engineer running one station to 3 jocks running 4 stations in a cluster, tracking several shifts a day, production for a cluster and appearances for multiple stations. Throw in an engineer who now more than likely works a region rather than a station or a cluster, and hopefully you see my point.

Radio has been forced to do more with less. And when that extends to PD's programming several stations, jocks voicing several stations, etc, you go from having several hours dedicated to your next show to cracking a mike when you can eventually break free from your other duties. I and many others have literally done two live shows simultaneously, sometimes without the aid of voice tracking.

Radio quality has decreased - I think we all agree. But it's not because programmers are slack nor is it because jocks are unimaginative or lazy. It is the never ending pursuit of the bottom line, the raping and killing of the golden goose. Despite our best efforts to deliver quality radio, sometimes those spinning plates start to fall. Imaging gets put on a back burner. Aircheck meetings are valuable time better used maintaining the station vans. The frustration gets so high at not being able to do that dream job to the best of your abilities that people leave radio altogether - or are blown out...further diluting the pool of talent that could teach the next generation how to do radio well. It's a combination of a vicious circle and a raging, sucking vortex.

Yes, we would love to replicate the radio greatness that got us into the business in the first place. We would love to make great radio more than you would love to hear it! But sadly someone needs to place banner ads on all the clusters' web sites....so, maybe tomorrow.
 
another good post wabbit. i agree that the quality of the product is not what it used to be mostly for the points you make. also there is not a minor league for people to learn radio anymore either. the same holds true in radio sales it is not because those on the inside are not trying it is because there are just seven days in a week. criticism is fine but nothing every improved in a negative environment the sour grapes will always be obvious to those who read this board
 
freqdev said:
another good post wabbit. i agree that the quality of the product is not what it used to be mostly for the points you make. also there is not a minor league for people to learn radio anymore either. the same holds true in radio sales it is not because those on the inside are not trying it is because there are just seven days in a week. criticism is fine but nothing every improved in a negative environment the sour grapes will always be obvious to those who read this board
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Debt ratio. The by-product of deregulation and a direct contributor to the watering down and, thus, the decline of radio quality. And freq, you are ABSOLUTELY right. Now there is no real training ground for future personalities. I told everyone years ago that with less companies owning more stations and their tendency towards syndicated shows and VTing from outside markets in order to save money(see "debt ratio" comment), there would cease to be a fertile ground for tomorrow's DJs. Sadly, it has come to pass. I'm not naive, I realize that it's radio and it's a business...that's why they call it the "radio business", but nowadays, it's more "business" than "radio".
 
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