Would radio stations abandon overnight broadcasting?

[boombox4]

Well, lots people here always disagree when I make my points in some of the forums. All I can say is if you expect and plan to fail you will. If you try to put something on air worth listening to it may work and be competitive. Instead so many advocate that the battle is already lost so why bother. Put on prerecorded news, infomercials, maybe the sound of a fog horn. Who cares - no one is listening so why bother trying to get anyone to listen. It's amazing to me how so many are in favor of just standing by and watching the ship go down without a fight.

I'm just a listener - I have no stake in the game. I love good radio and will listen when I find it - but if the radio industry won't provide that anymore it doesn't affect my my income and I'll find something else to do for entertainment. Those of you losing radio jobs because you resigned yourself to defeat can take my order at the McDonalds drive thru.

The fact that there is something other than all night infomercials tells you that the stations are trying to put on something reasonably interesting. I tune the AM band at night and hear interesting stuff most of the time. The FM stations play music all night, usually the same songs they play during the day with a few deep cuts thrown in here and there perhaps.

NPR overnights is the BBC on the local FMer and also on the AM NPR and JPR stations I hear from Oregon at night. Some Canadian stations have all night talk as well. The CBC plays various replays and sometimes the BBC overnights. One SFO station replays San Francisco Giants games before it goes network sports talk.

The problem is that the money isn't there for them to have local, top draw shows like maybe they did 30-40 years ago. But the stations make do.

 

[TheBigA]

The problem is that the money isn't there for them to have local, top draw shows like maybe they did 30-40 years ago. But the stations make do.

The painful truth is that for some stations, there wasn't money there 30-40 years ago either, and those were the ones that signed off at midnight. But that was before computers and before Selector, so you actually had to have a human in the building. That was all before 1975. By the 90s, you could schedule entire days of programming in less than an hour. So it's really easy to keep the station on 24/7.

 

[Harvey_Dogg]

The money you'd save by going off the air overnight wouldn't buy dinner for you and your wife at a good restaurant.
And, if someone sets their alarm to wake up to my station, I need to be there for them regardless of the hour.

 

[vchimpanzee]

But how many actually do, besides relaying EAS alerts?

I had one of those when I needed it. When I went to the mountains last week, I could see a terrible storm was coming. I wasn't sure if I would go through it. The EAS alert came on the station with the satellite format. Not a great signal so it's good they were somehow able to air an alert for what might not have technically been inside their signal range. But on the interstate away from power lines, I was in their range. We were warned of hail big enough to cause damage and 60 MPH winds. No winds but there was some hail. I was off the interstate by that time and waited at a truck stop.

 

[davideduardo]

What about truckers who drive all night?

Almost all use satellite as the signal is national and they don't have to be changing stations every 100 miles or so for FM-quality audio or fading and static on a low-fidelity AM.

 

[gr8oldies]

Almost all use satellite as the signal is national and they don't have to be changing stations every 100 miles or so for FM-quality audio or fading and static on a low-fidelity AM.

There is also day and night trucker programming

 

[nd2023]

What about truckers who drive all night?

I’m not a truck driver but I drive between New Jersey and Nevada often. I remember which FM stations I like in each market. And I also like discovering new stations.
It feels like an accomplishment whenever I have to change the station when it fades out, because it means I’m closer to my destination

 

[landtuna]

Really?

Ever call the gas company or the power company at night or on the weekend? I have. No one's there.

You must be talking about the billing or public affairs departments. Virtually every utility has an emergency number manned 24X7. Some smaller utilities use a ring-thru to the local 911 service.

 

[TheBigA]

You must be talking about the billing or public affairs departments. Virtually every utility has an emergency number manned 24X7. Some smaller utilities use a ring-thru to the local 911 service.

My gas company suggests 911. We had an outage in the middle of winter, and we had no heat for a couple of days.

But radio listeners "expect" a live body in the studio 24/7. Call your doctor on the weekend. You'll likely get a recording.

One more thing: If your utility has a 24/7 emergency number, I bet you the person answering is not local.

 

[landtuna]

My gas company suggests 911. We had an outage in the middle of winter, and we had no heat for a couple of days.

I'd agree with that. Chances are the fire department can get to your site much faster than the gas company.

Back in January 1972 I went to work for a small company in midtown Manhattan. No heat in the building for a bit over one week. Two weeks later the elevator jammed with just myself and a hysterical woman inside. Needless to say I left shortly thereafter.

But radio listeners "expect" a live body in the studio 24/7. Call your doctor on the weekend. You'll likely get a recording.

For several years while in high school I had an early morning rural paper route. Thank goodness KYA (AM) had a live guy on air during that time. Lifesaver. When I couldn't get my local station I'd DX a 50K blowtorch out of Oklahoma. They were also live overnight.

I never depend upon my doctor's office to answer the phone. Usually goes to vmail and they are hours, if ever, returning my message. Utterly worthless.

One more thing: If your utility has a 24/7 emergency number, I bet you the person answering is not local.

That shouldn't matter as long as you can be understood. They pretty much all use similar dispatching systems.

 

[TheBigA]

That shouldn't matter as long as you can be understood. They pretty much all use similar dispatching systems.

Same thing applies to non-local radio staffs. It shouldn't matter. Especially overnights. If an emergency happens, everyone's on call.

 

[davideduardo]

I never depend upon my doctor's office to answer the phone. Usually goes to vmail and they are hours, if ever, returning my message. Utterly worthless.

That depends on the doctor and health care system. My GP has a service through the hospital system he is part of where any off-hours call is answered live and a determination is made whether to call paramedics or to get a callback from the doctor or to schedule a call during daytime hours. I once had a callback by my doctor at about 2 AM, and within an hour was picking up a prescription at an all-night pharmacy..

That shouldn't matter as long as you can be understood. They pretty much all use similar dispatching systems.

Here in the Palm Springs market, every emergency staff member, whether gas, electric, fire, water or police is either bilingual or can switch you to your preferred language instantly. All are live. Over the years, either our household or neighbor friends have had to call all of those at least once, and all were live and responsive.

 

[tall_guy1]

I wonder if any stations throw any "curve balls" during those hours? Even one song or so that is out of the ordinary. Some pop stations are more "cutting edge" during those hours, but I wonder if any stations play things totally out of left field.

 

[TheBigA]

I wonder if any stations throw any "curve balls" during those hours? Even one song or so that is out of the ordinary. Some pop stations are more "cutting edge" during those hours, but I wonder if any stations play things totally out of left field.

If they do that kind of thing, it's probably going to be currents-based stations looking to spin new songs for the chart without affecting a more critical daypart. Of course the labels can see when you're spinning their songs, so you're not fooling them.

 

[davideduardo]

I wonder if any stations throw any "curve balls" during those hours? Even one song or so that is out of the ordinary. Some pop stations are more "cutting edge" during those hours, but I wonder if any stations play things totally out of left field.

Stations run few ads in overnights, so often we have a marginally testing category of music that can be used where, in other hours, we'd have commercials. We also might play recurrents on a faster rotation... same with gold.

Generally we don't mess with current rotations as they are so close and so mechanical that changing the number per hour upsets the whole rest of the day... it is sort of like adding a couple of extra teeth to a gear... it will run irregularly!

 

[Kelly A]

I wonder if any stations throw any "curve balls" during those hours? Even one song or so that is out of the ordinary. Some pop stations are more "cutting edge" during those hours, but I wonder if any stations play things totally out of left field.

Sure, you can schedule something different on overnights. It just won't count for anything. That, and as David mentioned, going out of your way to insert a unique song into a 24 hour playlist just for overnights? Juice isn't worth the squeeze.

 

[landtuna]

Here in the Palm Springs market, every emergency staff member, whether gas, electric, fire, water or police is either bilingual or can switch you to your preferred language instantly. All are live. Over the years, either our household or neighbor friends have had to call all of those at least once, and all were live and responsive.

Makes a lot of sense in SoCal. Same in my neck of the woods (no woods, just sand). 😎

 

[Phil Harmonic]

I wonder if any stations throw any "curve balls" during those hours? Even one song or so that is out of the ordinary. Some pop stations are more "cutting edge" during those hours, but I wonder if any stations play things totally out of left field.

used to play "Blackbird" Paul McCartney... around 3 or 4 in the morning, every few months or so....

 

[OLDRFGUY]

When I worked at WLW in the 90's we had a very successful over night show - The Truckin Bozo (Dale Sommers)
Bozo focused on and programmed to OTR truck drivers. The show was it's own product - with its own marketing and sales people and website. An d brought in quite a cheerful revenue. Dale worked hard on the show and the results were good.

At some point ten to fifteen years ago, Clear Channel (now iHeart) dropped this in favor of another show aimed at truckers (Maybe Road America or something - I don't listen or work there any more so i don't know.) I think Dale's son Steve carried on the Bozo show for a while but my understanding is that it is now all gone.

One may speculate why. Maybe OTR truckers use their phones for everything now so a large nighttime AM signal is of less value - don't know. As WLW's signal was more than useable most places in the US east of the Rockies this was a popular and lucrative program.


On our other 50 kw am signal in Cincinnati - WCKY - we ran syndicated religion programming overnight. That signal covered much of the eastern seaboard and was in some demand as a vehicle for this type of targetted programming. we had several sales people who made most of their commissions from these shows, so it was pretty lucrative too. And cost us nothing to originate - just play the tape. One of the regular preachers had, in fact, been dead for several years, but his church still paid to run his sermons (eternal life???).

Again I don't know if a large signal has any value for this type of programming anymore. Perhaps it has been taken over by groups like EMF who have FM translators just about everywhere.

My take on AM (and FM) radio is that if you have programming that the audience likes, you'll be able to sell it and make money. I know several small broadcasters who still do. My guess is that the owners of the big signals just haven't been able to come up with that kind of programming.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

My gas company suggests 911. We had an outage in the middle of winter, and we had no heat for a couple of days.

But radio listeners "expect" a live body in the studio 24/7. Call your doctor on the weekend. You'll likely get a recording.

One more thing: If your utility has a 24/7 emergency number, I bet you the person answering is not local.

Not here!!

Emergencies with the gas station (which provides gas for vehicles, planes and fuel for heating) and the power company.. are answered and handled locally.

911 is answered in fairbanks 250 miles away by a live dispatcher24/7 .. after decades of dialing 524-0911 and pressing a button tripping a radio relay on someones two way in town.