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WNCT-FM

F

firecop947

Guest
I made to make a trip to Carolina Beach this weekend. In my travels I listened to WNCT-FM in Greenville. Low and behold I heard a friendly voice on the radio....Allen Vick! Allen it was refreshing to hear a jock on-air sounding like he was having fun. You always did. It sounded to me like you were live, hope so. I know in today's radio voicetracking is the rule on the weekends. Again great to hear Allen on the radio. He and I come from the same school of radio. If ya know what I mean :) Allen, we need to get together and share some old "war stories."

Kris
 
Yes, my friend Allen is live on the weekends and everytime he is on. He is truly a great on-air personality one who I admire. He has a super passion for the radio biz I too share this same passion, but I am powerless to do anything about. So my passion is beginning to wane because of the state of current radio practices. I wish I was able to be on live and even more than I am now, but as you stated voicetracking is the rule on weekends. Maybe one day when I get as good as Allen, then I will. Until then it's voicetrackingland (hell) for me. Allen is a true friend and I am glad to have him as a friend.
 
Hey Rick,
Thanks to you and John for the kind words.I was live although some declared me dead a long time ago.I always have fun because it is a great priviledge for me to get to still do radio after 25 years.As you know I am passionate about live & local radio.I believe in this business.I have nowhere near the talent of most but I try hard & I'm willing to do anything to make the station better.I guess I'm considered
a rebel or a maverick who doesn't like to play the game but really I love radio so much that it is sometimes tough for me to deal with what has happened to some stations.I know alot of people who feel the way I do and I believe if you outwork the competion,have new outside the box ideas,do it live, and local and refuse to copy anyone else you will win.It is all about passion for what we do and it ticks me off when I see someone in the business who is just in it for a paycheck.With the technology
available combined with using people who will do whatever it takes to be a winner
we have the opportunity to have another golden era in radio.... You guys know it,
you have the talent and passion but so many in the business don't seem to anymore.

Allen
 
War stories... do we have some war stories??No soap opera on TV comes close to
some of the things I've seen in radio.That's why I love it and the people in it.
You simply can't make this stuff up..

Allen
 
Yes sir Allen. I got in this business in 1981, I'm so glad I was able to have to learn how to cue a record, splice tape, rewind carts...you know. Alot has changed since then. Maybe we will win the lottery or something and we can buy our own little station and have some fun doing what all of us love. We sure ain't in it for the bucks.

Rick
 
I agree you can have fun and make money in radio at the same time.This will always be a people business.You have to hire the best,compensate them fairly and alllow them to do their jobs without micro managing them.Our business is one that requires some long days.It is a tap dance to have harmony between management,sales and programming.All of us in radio have our quirks and ego's but if everyone is pulling in the same direction good things will happen.People who are happy and feel appreciated and know that what they do makes a difference are productive.The same set of rules have to apply to everyone or they are useless.
Being in radio is a privilege not a gift.We should never take for granted how lucky we are to be able to do this.That being said, some things have got to change in this market if stations are going to survive.This is a critical time in our business.Its time we started thinking about the listener again,its time to start taking some chances and quit being scared to fail.There are alot of mid pack stations who are
just spinning their wheels because they are not willing to step up and say dammit
I'm tired of the same old stuff,I'm ready to shake things up and if I fail at least I know I was aggresive and made my best effort.There are too many meetings where
the focus is what can we cut to survive instead of what can we do to get better
and get noticed.I don't know it all..I'm no genius but I know the status quo ain't
cutting it for alot of stations and its sink or swim time.Doing nothing leads to nothing...This market has too many stations fighting for that piece of pie but it is there for the taking.Again, I say this because I love this business....

Allen
 
You are right ny friend. This business needs to stop copycatting everyone else, playing the same 200 songs until the listener pukes, moving the studios out of the city of license to a "bigger" city. Radio can and will survive the onslaught of "new media" just as it did with television, the Walkman, and the CD. It's the poeple IN this business who have to change their ways of thinking and stop using old business models or reuse thos business models that worked rather than putting a small band-aid on a gaping wound. Technology is only a TOOL give those with talent and whatnot in positions to USE the technology to do their jobs better. Unfortunately too many station owners see the automation system as a way to get rid of the one thing that makes the station work - people. Yes, you need sales, but if you don't have compelling programming to sell to advertisers then what are you - a free jukebox. That said, it takes good salespeople to actually SELL your station to potential clients something that I don't think most radio salespeople actually KNOW how to do. They (the salespeople) have to believe in your programming, know it, understand it, love it in order to understand the potential clients for your stations. Just as you can't put a car salesperson in an electronics store to sell electronics, they wouldn't know or understand the product or the potential customer. Same goes for radio, you can't put a person say as your country stations' saleperson in charge of you urban stations' sales because they don't understand the listeners, lifestyle etc. of the format in question. Put the right salespeople in the right places and no matter the format you can have a winning station. Same goes for programming put the people in who understand the lifestyle of your listener, who live and buy in your community too not just some consultant in some far off metropolis that wouldn't even know or understandf your local community. I too am not a genius, but I have seen this business go from great to really crappy in only 23 years.

Oh war stories I too remember cuing up records and you having to manually start the next cart to play. Technology has made the job much easier and has made the quality much better. I miss the old days - sometimes.
 
Very well said Double J.You are more articulate than I.Not all is doom and gloom. I am lucky to work some very passionate people who are very talented.Beasley is doing well and for the most part I think they get it.We exchange ideas and thats what this forum is all about.When its not our money involved its easy to say you oughta do this and that.I realize this business is not easy and alot of factors go into a successful station.With that said radio is not the most difficult business to grasp either.Here is what I have seen as a trend over the years

1)Too much micro managment.I used to see pepole get hired to do a job and get left alone as long as they were doing their job.If they didn't produce results changes were made.Today I see alot of people with titles who don't have the authority to make decisions in the areas they were hired for.

2)People in positions of authority pushing their own agendas and not doing what is best for the station

3)Too much turnover in sales.Maybe 20% of those hired make it because alot of kids coming out of school want a great job with a super salary immediately.They simply don't want to put in the time and effort and hours to be successful.Alot of sales people don't get the proper training,get thrown to the wolves too early and leave.Selling an intangible good is not easy.Management expects too much too soon.It takes alot of time to properly prepare a sales person for the obstacles they will face.

4)Too much management via email and conference calls and not enough face to face attention to detail.You can thank corporate for that.Its hard enough to manage from another city much less another state.I include consultants in this.
I don't care how much "research" you do if a consultant is not in the station on a daily basis they have no idea what is best for the station.The consultants I have met are nice people but they can give you general ideas but really don't help you day to day.

5)Technology replacing humans.We are in the people business.Technology has certainly made our job easier but using it to replace humans instead of assisting humans hurts stations.

6) Monkey See Monkey Do.When one station finds success there are three that copy it.Where is the creativity that once drove the business??? Just scan the dial there is always one station that sets itself apart and boom here comes two more
that try to latch on to its success.

7)Underestimating the passion,intelligence and memory of a listener.Listeners want something different.They get tired of the same old stuff.They usually don't turn to another station,they turn the radio off altogether.Music and the way you present it
is still #1.They want to hear a live person who is talking to them.That is still as important today as it was 20 years ago.

8)Corporations buying stations as investments with no passion or love for radio.How many examples of failure have we seen???

9)Managers with just a sales and numbers background and no programming experience..

10)Managers with a programming background and no sales experience.Either way this has hurt alot of stations.

11)A Set of rules for some people that don't apply to all of the staff.Bad for morale
and when morale is bad everything suffers.Again radio is all about people.

These are just my thoughts.There are more but I type slow and I'm tired.What are your thoughts??? I am just stating one guy's very humble opinion of some of the things I've seen in 25 years.I have seen just as many positive examples of things that are right with radio.The last thing I want to do is to offend or unnerve anyone.
I am again not trying to be a know it all.I'm just trying to maybe start a disscussion
and read the thoughts of those who know alot more about the business than I do.

Allen
 
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