WNCI had 21 minutes of commercials in the 11:00 am hour

[xmusicmatt]

We used to see some of this with Stern, where he would not "call for" a break and stations ended up with two breaks having to run consecutively.

Yep, I remember back when Stern was syndicated on FM and aired here in Columbus on 99.7 towards the end of his show it was not uncommon to have a REALLY long ad break! (Sometimes over 10 minutes).

 

[xmusicmatt]

I know Seacrest isn't live on WNCI, so theoretically, they can do whatever they want, I just am wondering if all the iHeart stations get a national afternoon feed or if WNCI just gets the clips and can air them however they feel.

Seacrest show for iHeart stations is Wancast/FTP so basically drop in "voice tracks" where they locally attach an ID (to make it sound local) so technically nothing says the local station has to follow the format clock! If they want to double up an ad break or deviate from the format clock they can because they're just playing a recorded file - it's not like their rejoining a "live" feed that has fixed breaks that you can't miss the rejoin. (and truthfully given the music is not attached to those voice tracks nothing says they can't drop a song for another ad break or an extended one).

 

[BruceB]

See the new numbers and WNCI is still doing nothing. Couldn't be the long stop sets, right?

 

[TheBigA]

See the new numbers and WNCI is still doing nothing. Couldn't be the long stop sets, right?

They run the same number of spots as WCOL, so no.

 

[delgriffith]

They run the same number of spots as WCOL, so no.

I agree. WCOL has some crazy long stop sets too. CHR is struggling in most markets. But long stop sets don’t help.

 

[K.M. Richards]

So someone opens a thread about the super long commercial break and here comes the usual haughty screen names trying to make the poster look like a dumb ass.

The "haughtiness" derives from posters who are not in the business replying to those who are with "you're wrong" (or a similar sentiment), which only makes it more necessary to point out where the opinions of the non-professionals conflict with what we know to be true from experience.

TheBigA already, many posts back, determined that for some reason this station does this every Thursday. He also gave several probable reasons why. And yet many of the replies are saying "but it's still wrong" and extend the discussion (if you can call it that when we've hit the same point on the circle several times going around and around.

As I write this, we have devoted more than eight pages of posts to the subject. I don't believe it's the "haughty screen names" who have made this go on so long ... more like the "radio fans" trying once again to prove the professionals wrong. Given that nothing one can post on a message board is ever going to change policies at stations, I simply don't see why they keep trying.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Of course, he had to throw in he was in the military (what does that have to do with anything).

In reading that post, I get the impression that when the poster was in the military, he got moved around from post to post and therefore was able to form opinions about the markets he was assigned to during his tour.

That is what that had to do with anything.

I would also like to thank The Diamond for his service to our country.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Just giving you the answer national shows have more commercials then when the station is local. I suppose my ears are lying to me though lmao

I was just thinking about that this morning, listening to KRKE running "American Top 40: The 80s". The breaks were in entirely different places on the clock as the regular format and were roughly twice as long when both the network inventory and local spots are tallied. (And bear something else in mind: The national shows are fixed length, with the number of commercials already tallied in. Is a station supposed to not fill all of the local avails and then have dead air until the next hour begins?)

 

[vw86]

There won't be dead air if you don't fill the local avails. These shows aren't coming in via a satellite. I listen to AT40 the 80s on Sunday nights and there are many times the local avails aren't filled. The show will simply end early and/or the station can add fill songs at the end of each hour.

 

[K.M. Richards]

There won't be dead air if you don't fill the local avails. These shows aren't coming in via a satellite. I listen to AT40 the 80s on Sunday nights and there are many times the local avails aren't filled. The show will simply end early and/or the station can add fill songs at the end of each hour.

Ummm, I know the show isn't via the satellite. I run AT40: The 80s on KRKE (I am its remote program director and consult the other stations in that ownership cluster). Premiere does include droppable "extras" but even if you run those, Sunday night is usually problematic for us ... the morning run always plays without a hitch.

"Simply ending early" means the legal IDs are falling in funny places as well, and when Casey says "welcome to the fourth hour" at ten minutes before the hour, it sounds ... well, dumb. The dead air would be preferable.

 

[BruceB]

Ummm, I know the show isn't via the satellite. I run AT40: The 80s on KRKE (I am its remote program director and consult the other stations in that ownership cluster). Premiere does include droppable "extras" but even if you run those, Sunday night is usually problematic for us ... the morning run always plays without a hitch.

"Simply ending early" means the legal IDs are falling in funny places as well, and when Casey says "welcome to the fourth hour" at ten minutes before the hour, it sounds ... well, dumb. The dead air would be preferable.

You mention Sunday night, I thought KRKE was daytime only. Do you have FM translator now?

 

[K.M. Richards]

You mention Sunday night, I thought KRKE was daytime only. Do you have FM translator now?

Yes. When Don (Davis) put 1100 on the air in the spring of 2022, he initially simulcast it with one of his FMs. Then he called me (which is how I know the rest of this is accurate).

In 2013, Don built a translator at 93.7 (K229CL) for a business associate, Philip Vanderhoof. It initially rebroadcast KDSK-FM, then KDSK (AM) before its long-time association with KIVA. In March 2021, K229CL went silent, a combination of Vanderhoof's death and philosophical differences with KIVA's owner Eddy Aragon.

Don stepped in and made an offer to buy the translator from Vanderhoof's estate, then reoriented the antenna slightly so that the signal remained within the 1100 contour. That was all accomplished in late September 2022, and we relaunched The Eighties Channel™ on the combo a few weeks later.

 

[talkers]

I've never known AT40 to come down by satellite back in the day. We always got it on CD. The classic AT40's now are sent over WAN at iHeart.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I've never known AT40 to come down by satellite back in the day. We always got it on CD.

I go back far enough to remember it on vinyl LPs. The current FTP method is okay (although I wish it wasn't in MP3 format*) for shows that don't need to air in real time, because that lets us "make ready" for the airing anytime that we have several minutes to do so.

*-Two reasons: One, our automation will not play MP3s so when we "tone" the files we have to remember to save them as WAVs, and we do lose some audio quality (I am certain you all know that the audio information lost when creating a MP3 cannot be restored by saving in the better format).

 

[Allfirdup]

So.. Im curious, how did this riveting discussion about downloading files get into a discussion about WNCI and how far down hill they have gone.

 

[K.M. Richards]

So.. Im curious, how did this riveting discussion about downloading files get into a discussion about WNCI and how far down hill they have gone.

Go back to post #147 and read forward from there.