Why did FM succeed?

[tomservo]

Lots of stuff to digest in here, thanks for making me think.

Otherwise the Dreaded Tuneout Finger Of Fate hovering over the radio faceplate descends....and you're fired, at least temporarily.

Here's a question for the veterans: has this always been a big issue with radio, or is it something that has come out of corporate cookie cutter formatics? (Forgive me if I misused that word.) In other words, it seems like the big corporate owned stations have a formula that, after years of use, promotes TFOFS (Tuneout Finger of Fate Syndrome). And that formula is only letting the jock have a little time to talk right BEFORE a commercial break.

I hear them announce songs, weather, an occasional promo, but anything off the liner notes is a guaranteed lead-in to a six minute commercial break. This is not the case with small locally run stations or public radio shows, obviously, but it seems like if it's voicetracked or fed off a satellite, I can nail the commercial breaks 99% of the time by what the person starts talking about.

It's to the point where, no matter how hooked I might get by what is being said, I'm still hovering over the preset button because I know there's a hard segue to commercials lurking in the shadows. And I'm almost never ever wrong! It's very frustrating to be so mindlessly trained and is no doubt completely invalidating the commercial break.

 

[Savage]

This has always been the case. Even when Top 40 was a cogent, focused, mass-appeal product circa 1955-1985, the critical juncture was always the interval between the fade of a hit song and the beginning of a commercial break.

The job of the on-air personality - the "jock" - was then, and is now, critical. Live on-air talent represents the human factor with which listeners identify. A likeable, entertaining, interesting on-air person smooths the transitions from "entertainment" to "business,' engages the listener, provides the "glue" to keep a listener aboard even when an unfamiliar or nonfavorite is played. Or at the least provides a motivator to bring the listener back when the inevitable tuneout eventually occurs. If the jock is doing his or her job, even after tuning out, the listener gets an uneasy sense she's "missing something" having gone elsewhere and can't resist punching back in "to see what's going on."

Frankly it's amazing to me that this powerful and simple concept is lost on today's programmers. A string of songs is just a bunch of music. Sooner or later - usually sooner - you're going to play something the listeners don't like, because NOBODY likes EVERYTHING, no matter how carefully researched. So there has to be a backup....an alternate reason to listen. HAS to be.

 

[Savage]

And I forgot, Zach - I think there's a lot to what you say about the predictability of content on backsells. This is a real mistake. Unfortunately I think that today's formats are overstructured to the point where jocks "go through the motions" rather than really thinking about what they're going to say. Treat em like robots, coach 'em to be robots - guess what you get?

I used to be adamant in critique sessions about getting jocks to THINK before cracking the mic. I would ask: what could you have said there to keep listeners on board, even if the commercial break was TEN minutes long?? They got it. And our stations were winners.

 

[Play Freebird]

The combination of music and information doesn't work any more. Why can't I get pizza at McDonalds? They tried it, and people prefer to get pizza someplace else. Same with music and information. Two different functions for two different kinds of people. This kind of full-service AM idea that was popular in the 60s went away once FM came along. You can't be all things to all people. It's been tried and people simply don't sit through it.

WKXW in Trenton, NJ -- "New Jersey 101.5" http://www.nj1015.com/

Local talk and information during the week, Jersey's favorite hits on the weekends (still interspersed with local information). They get good ratings in multiple markets and make a lot of money.

IMHO, this is what local radio is supposed to do.

 

[TheBigA]

Local talk and information during the week, Jersey's favorite hits on the weekends (still interspersed with local information). They get good ratings in multiple markets and make a lot of money.

Several things about that: (1) It's very different to be 100% talk during the week and 99% music on wknds than to attempt to incorporate both 24/7; (2) The music on the wknds is basically a write off, not meant to brand the station as a music station. There's a reason why they do talk and not oldies as their primary format; (3) There are times when I feel NJ is in a time warp that stopped around 1978. And the Oldies audience tends to like the 60s approach to radio.

 

[KB1OKL]

I had two favorite stations growing up, first it was WORC AM, they had The Beatles, Stones, Swinging Bluejeans, etc, contests, live line, the song for lovers etc. The jocks were as interesting as the music, they played local music and there was a lot of local content. The 2nd was WBCN, most of you here have probably heard of that one. They also had contests in which you could get on the air, they played local music, great jocks, (Charles Laquidera, Mark Parenteau to name two of them) there was a lot of outrageousness on that station (Duane Ingalls Glasscock, Charles again) who was way funnier than Howard stern ever dreamed of being and was on before Howard was on the air and of course mostly local content. Good entertaining jocks, good music, and local content, those are the three keys to great radio, too bad it is almost extinct today.

 

[mmnassour]

Good entertaining jocks, good music, and local content, those are the three keys to great radio, too bad it is almost extinct today.

Good entertaining jocks, good music, and local content, those are the three keys to great radio, too bad it is almost extinct today.

Good entertaining jocks, good music, and local content, those are the three keys to great radio, too bad it is almost extinct today.

Good entertaining jocks, good music, and local content, those are the three keys to great radio, too bad it is almost extinct today.

Good entertaining jocks, good music, and local content, those are the three keys to great radio, too bad it is almost extinct today.

It just needed saying over and over and over again.

 

[TheBigA]

Good entertaining jocks, good music, and local content, those are the three keys to great radio, too bad it is almost extinct today.

Hate to break it to you, but it's not the 60s any more. Just because you enjoyed those elements 40 years ago doesn't mean today's young people want the same thing.

The fact is that entertainers have better ways to make a living than radio, the music today simply isn't that good, and no one cares about local content unless there's a hurricane or a traffic jam. And they get that information quicker and more accurately on their phone than radio.

Ten years ago, we had a sociological and technological revolution. No matter how much you wish for the good old days, it won't change the fact that the world has changed.

 

[KB1OKL]

Good entertaining jocks, good music, and local content, those are the three keys to great radio, too bad it is almost extinct today.

Hate to break it to you, but it's not the 60s any more. Just because you enjoyed those elements 40 years ago doesn't mean today's young people want the same thing.

The fact is that entertainers have better ways to make a living than radio, the music today simply isn't that good, and no one cares about local content unless there's a hurricane or a traffic jam. And they get that information quicker and more accurately on their phone than radio.

Ten years ago, we had a sociological and technological revolution. No matter how much you wish for the good old days, it won't change the fact that the world has changed.

Actually on WBCN in Boston it went on until I would say at least the mid 80's, Parenteau and Laquidera were personality's you wouldn't forget.

 

[TheBigA]

Actually on WBCN in Boston it went on until I would say at least the mid 80's, Parenteau and Laquidera were personality's you wouldn't forget.

Hooray.

 

[JimmyJames]

It's pretty subjective to say the music isn't "as" good. Some of the best music isn't even put on the air for consideration, so that's a very personal and hard to prove point.

 

[davideduardo]

So why couldn't a marketable station be built around the principles of:

1. local information first
2. credible personalities that weren't reliant on gimmicks. (the anti-top 40) so to speak.
3. a certain degree of selection freedom in the music played

1. Stations that played music quit trying to stick a slice of news and information into every hour when the FCC quit basing expectation of renewal on percentages of news, PA and Other programming.

2. Personalities are either polarizing or disliked; look at the success of, for example, Jack in LA... no jocks at all because there is a segment of the audience that does not want them. It's not 1959.

3. I've seen enough attempts at this in the last decade or two and none has gone up or even stayed the same in ratings. It's radio's kiss of death, in fact.

e

 

[TheBigA]

It's pretty subjective to say the music isn't "as" good.

You're exactly right.

Some of the best music isn't even put on the air for consideration

It's pretty subjective to say it's the "best music."

 

[Savage]

Counterpoint to the abrasive/contentious usual suspects on this board, and a second to recent comments from Freebird and Local Oscillator:

"Those who claim something can't be done are constantly being interrupted by those who are doing it." - James Arthur Baldwin

 

[hubcity]

Hate to break it to you, but it's not the 60s any more. Just because you enjoyed those elements 40 years ago doesn't mean today's young people want the same thing.

The fact is that entertainers have better ways to make a living than radio, the music today simply isn't that good, and no one cares about local content unless there's a hurricane or a traffic jam. And they get that information quicker and more accurately on their phone than radio.

Ten years ago, we had a sociological and technological revolution. No matter how much you wish for the good old days, it won't change the fact that the world has changed.

So forget about killing HD Radio - it's radio itself that needs the plug pulled?

Okay, I guess it was fun while it lasted.

 

[KB1OKL]

2. Personalities are either polarizing or disliked; look at the success of, for example, Jack in LA... no jocks at all because there is a segment of the audience that does not want them. It's not 1959.

e

People that like Jack don't like radio.

 

[davideduardo]

2. Personalities are either polarizing or disliked; look at the success of, for example, Jack in LA... no jocks at all because there is a segment of the audience that does not want them. It's not 1959.

e

People that like Jack don't like radio.

If you listen to the best of the Jack iterations... and KCBS-FM is in the top group... you will hear lots of personality. But the personality is just not from DJs. The Jack listener is burnt on the puking-talk-up-to-the-post-motormouth DJ, and KCBS-FM offers the opposite: cleverly edited, never repeated listener comments that range from the traffic to Vegas on a Friday to the rare rainstorms in LA. It's topical and different.

It's for people who have used radio a lot, and are tired of the DJ and find them annoying. Even among listeners to more conventional stations (that is, they have live announcers) the most annoying thing among many (including commercials) is "talking over the songs." They expect commercials, but don't expect DJs to step all over the songs... and thus the rejection.

 

[TheBigA]

So forget about killing HD Radio - it's radio itself that needs the plug pulled?

Not to hijack the already-hijacked thread, but why do people have this need to kill things?

Nothing has been killed, nor does anything need to be killed.

 

[tomservo]

If you listen to the best of the Jack iterations... and KCBS-FM is in the top group... you will hear lots of personality. But the personality is just not from DJs. The Jack listener is burnt on the puking-talk-up-to-the-post-motormouth DJ, and KCBS-FM offers the opposite: cleverly edited, never repeated listener comments that range from the traffic to Vegas on a Friday to the rare rainstorms in LA. It's topical and different.

It's for people who have used radio a lot, and are tired of the DJ and find them annoying. Even among listeners to more conventional stations (that is, they have live announcers) the most annoying thing among many (including commercials) is "talking over the songs." They expect commercials, but don't expect DJs to step all over the songs... and thus the rejection.

There's a Jack FM here in Mobile that's doing that exact same thing. It actually caught me by surprise that there has been almost no repetition in the comments so far. I was also equally surprised to hear two back-to-back comments from two different "listeners" use the term dumbass on the air in reference to the music.

(It's also by far the most robust and best sounding of the HD stations, to keep it vaguely on topic for the forum.)

In the end, though, it still sounds like I'm listening to someone else's mp3 player, with the added (in)convenience of commercials.

 

[TheBigA]

In the end, though, it still sounds like I'm listening to someone else's mp3 player, with the added (in)convenience of commercials.

That's the idea: "playing what we want." Which is also the concept behind file sharing. Excepting the commercials, of course.