kenhawk1160 said:
You are absolutely correct. It CAN work IF it IS done CORRECTLY.
You are going to have a newsman anyhow in the studio probably from 5-9AM being you want to keep local on up to the minute news, and he can go live at anytime should the need arise. Mid day can be total bird, maybe with a top of the hour news update at noon which was pre recorded before the news guy went out to cover some stories for the next day.
I am not really too familiar with that area out there, and being it would be more of a "serve the locals" station, you would have to look at what the needs are of the community.
For example, when I was at WKMC, which was a little AM daytimer (5K) in Roaring Spring, the studios ran out of the same building as WHPA FM in Hollidaysburg. Of course this is when you had to have an op in the building at all times. The AM carried the SMN big band/oldies format and the FM had the SMN AC format. One person babysat both stations all times .as both were strictly bird, no live programming except for special events.
The newsguy came in at 5AM Mon thru Sat and gathered the news and such for both stations. He recorded the news each hour for the FM on cart and would do the news live on the AM. Now on the FM, it was just a 3 minute news, sports, weather, etc, update at the top of each hour from 6AM to 9AM and then at noon, but on the AM it was more intense. The folks who listened to the AM wanted to know who was admitted to the hospital and who died, so he would do the "hospital report" and "obituary report" in the extended news at noon, plus the farmers report of what the daily price was going for on animals, etc. Oh yeah, so much fun!
On Saturdays on the AM, you would have the "trading post" for an hour or two where folks could call in and sell their items, and on Sunday mornings, the church services. Bird at all other times.
Basically the only time the FM went live was for live remotes or if the bird went down. That is it!.
Now on both the FM and AM, the liners that played throughout the shifts were geared to the "local area" making comments to places and events. In addition, there were also weather liners from each jock that could be put into rotation at anytime. Also, 24 hours a day, the op on duty had to record a 5 second liner with the current time and weather outside that played at 3 min 30 sec past the hour. It was to give the audience a more "local" feel.
Both stations were locally owned and operated and they did make very good money. The owner (Lou Maierhofer) even went out and sold as well as the 5 or 6 other ones he had working. They were the only stations in the area that were in a really nice building and looked classy. Heck, the building even had racquetball courts and a hot tub/steam room in it.
So it can work if it is done correctly. Here was an AM serving a very rural area with an older demographic that provided more local product and a FM that worked on a "more music, less interruption" idea with hardly any local product.
