Why does radio have to be local?

[Surfer]

I like syndicated programming. It's simple, quick and easy to deal with and it's cheap. Local means having to deal with high salaries, huge egos and who knows what else. The headaches are less. I think local programming needs to take lessions from Satellite broadcasters.

 

[ClarkKent]

???

Please tell me you're kidding.

 

[RandomGuy6]

If he's not, I say we hunt him down like a dog.

 

[mouthoff]

Surfer, keep talkin' like that and you'll get hired as a PD. And soon, an ex PD.

Kidding aside, you're right, it doesn't matter if you're local or syndicated, so long as you're good. It's just easier to be successful if you have a local personality. It's like this morning, which syndicated personalities would have been talking about the Falcons? Atlanta's too big a city to not have big, local personalities. Too much stuff going on locally.

 

[livingfruitvirus]

I like syndicated programming. It's simple, quick and easy to deal with and it's cheap. Local means having to deal with high salaries, huge egos and who knows what else. The headaches are less. I think local programming needs to take lessions from Satellite broadcasters.

I don't like to see local hosts lose their jobs for the sake of saving money, but that's basically it. Most of the programming I listen to is national because I've been bored by all the local options here. Even though every other medium has gone national, and we all watch national television, radio shows for some reason have to stay talking about that huge pothole on the interstate that everyone in town just hates, and then take calls about it. Several other countries have radio "networks" like our TV networks that have the same programming on stations all over the country. There's even stations in South America and Europe that broadcast at such high power that the signal reaches the whole nation.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Worth noting: the USA is the 4th largest nation on Earth by land mass size. Belgium is small enough that three or four Class B FM equivalents would cover the whole country. Most European countries are the same way with the exceptions of Russia, France, and Germany.

In the USA, Croc Talk from WSB doesn't interest me too much here in Indiana. Limbaugh really doesn't because I don't give a **** about most of Rush's issues. Heck, WIBC's local talk is mostly bad-joke-telling (AM & PM drive), not local talk until the two long-form news programs they produce at Noon and 8PM.

I'll admit a bias against talk radio. If their demo is 35+, I'm still a way from that.

 

[briandavisradio]

Uh, Did he actually say "high salaries" ? LMFAO !!!

Which local market would that be ?

 

[davideduardo]

Worth noting: the USA is the 4th largest nation on Earth by land mass size. Belgium is small enough that three or four Class B FM equivalents would cover the whole country. Most European countries are the same way with the exceptions of Russia, France, and Germany.

And Italy and Spain and Poland and the Czech Republic and Greece and.... the list is too long. The Spanish FM nets use over 100 FMs to cover the country, and still miss areas, just to use one example. Heck, even the US Commonwealth of PR takes 3 B's to cover an area of 100 by 35 miles.

In the USA, Croc Talk from WSB doesn't interest me too much here in Indiana. Limbaugh really doesn't because I don't give a **** about most of Rush's issues. Heck, WIBC's local talk is mostly bad-joke-telling (AM & PM drive), not local talk until the two long-form news programs they produce at Noon and 8PM.

That has nothing to do with localism. It has to do with those stations not being the "right" choices for your taste. That is why we have more than one station in nearly evera area of the US.

I'll admit a bias against talk radio. If their demo is 35+, I'm still a way from that.

Traditional AM talk radio is mostly 55+, although the same format, Rush and all, moved to FM, does quite well in 35-54 as well. None of these stations is looking for many under-35 listeners.

 

[davideduardo]

[ There's even stations in South America and Europe that broadcast at such high power that the signal reaches the whole nation.

Maybe a few of the European AMs that are in the megawatt range get close to national coverage, but there are very few of those... and only in small countries. In the big ones, like France, it takes a dozen of so AMs of over 100 kw to cover most of the population.

In South America, there is no station that covers an entire country or even comes close to it without dozens of repeaters.

Even the smallest country, Uruguay, has no AM that covers even a third of the nation, and it takes 10 or 12 FMs to cover it all. Argentina takes maybe 40 to 50 FMs to cover the major metros representing 80% of the population (I worked for one network 1999 to 2004). In Ecuador, I built the first FM in the country, and did the planning for a national network... 65% of the population with 30 repeaters of 10 kw into the antenna each, and more than 50 microwave locations (Ecuador is the second smallest country).

The best example is the 1 million watt AM in Saudi Arabia that only covers about 1/3 of the country. Remember, it takes 4 times the power to double coverage. At some point, more power is not effective.

 

[kenhawk1160]

I like syndicated programming. It's simple, quick and easy to deal with and it's cheap. Local means having to deal with high salaries, huge egos and who knows what else. The headaches are less. I think local programming needs to take lessions from Satellite broadcasters.

That depends on what daypart you're talking about, the format, and the size of the market that you're in. There are positives and negatives to syndicated formats. The big advantage is that the price is right: For what you pay for a full staff of live jocks that do airshifts in real time, you can pay much less or nothing and in most cases, get better talent.

If you have a major market station with a powerful signal, it would best serve you to be local, provided that you have the ability to be informative and entertaining. If all you are is local, then you're going to get beat. No ifs ands or buts about it.

If you have a small market station with a very limited budget, it would best serve you to go on the bird or voice-track. A lot of people (mostly jocks) don't like to hear me say that, but there's a lot of jocks out there who dug their own graves by causing problems among their fellow staff members and management. This is where satellites and automation programming services came into play. They catered to management's gripes about 'talent', and walked away with signed deals.

Unfortunately, satellites and automation providers became their own worst enemy. Satellite programming services today are voice-tracking some of their own shows, or refeeding hours for West Coast listeners. Automation providers started buying each other out and then raised their rates accordingly.

So there's no real way for me to answer this question, since there are so many variables. I know of a station operator in Tennessee who brought a small AM station that had gone dark back on the air, and is finally making money at it, where half a dozen people failed. He uses a voice-track service for very little money, takes care of programming functions, and his wife goes out and sells airtime. Once they start making real money (they're running in the black now, but it's only been back for a year so more has to be done), they can start hiring more people. But call it what you want...automation and satellite are here to stay. Had it not been for such technology, there would be many listeners unserved by local radio. That's something XM and Sirius will never be able to replicate.

 

[BRNout]

Argentina takes maybe 40 to 50 FMs to cover the major metros representing 80% of the population (I worked for one network 1999 to 2004).

True, but aren't most of Argentina's FMs running low power? When I was in BA, it seemed like the vast majority ran with flea power and had a range of only 10-25 miles. Few seemed to cover the whole metropolitan area - let alone the surrounding Pampas. As there's so much empty space there - perhaps only the populated areas are covered by translators and/or repeaters (as in rural Canada).

 

[davideduardo]

Argentina takes maybe 40 to 50 FMs to cover the major metros representing 80% of the population (I worked for one network 1999 to 2004).

True, but aren't most of Argentina's FMs running low power? When I was in BA, it seemed like the vast majority ran with flea power and had a range of only 10-25 miles. Few seemed to cover the whole metropolitan area - let alone the surrounding Pampas. As there's so much empty space there - perhaps only the populated areas are covered by translators and/or repeaters (as in rural Canada).

The major nationally licensed stations are running higher power than the US. The net I was programming was Mega 98.3, coming from a 300 meter tower with 200 kw ERP. All the majors in Bs. As. are around that power, and the major provincial stations (meaning the legal ones, not the 3,000 pirates or ones licensed by the local governments or the neigbhb orhood LPFM stations) are in the 10 kw to 50 kw range, depending on the market. Out Mar del Plata affiliate was 100 kw, for example. Once you get the big markets like Rosario, Cordoba, Salta, Stgo. del Estero, Mendoza, Tucumen, etc., you are going to have about 80% of the population with maybe 20 stations. Add another 30 in places like Ushuaia, Venado tuerto, Viedma, etc., and you get nearly everybody and have pretty much the same coverage as terrestrial TV.