Button Pusher said:
Big Boys Neighborhood, On Air with Ryan Seacrest, The Kevin and Bean Show, Valentine in the Morning, Jojo on the Radio, John and Ken, Piolin por la Mañana, El Show de don Cheto, are all syndicated shows, not to mentions alot of weekend canned shows. Just because they are done from LA, doesnt make them a local show...these shows have to appeal to their national audience, and therefore lose the LOCAL appeal
Actually, the Seacrest LA show is done for LA, even though many of the bits are also distributed to assemble the show in other markets. The loosely syndicated show is made up of work parts that are combined with music in each market.
Much the same system is used for the Spanish language shows, which include the KRCD/KRCV show, which also goes, in several versions, to 5 other top 15 markets.
And shows like Big Boy's offering and Kevin & Beane are done in LA, with guests, sidekicks and production all done in LA. Being "LA" and "Hollywood" is a big plus in other markets. The localization of shows like that consists of talking about stuff that is particularly local to LA.
And as for LIVE shows...being tracked is NOT live, which most of overnight shows are these days...and I happen to work some of LA's overnight shows myself, and know alot of the board ops who do overnights in LA (small group these days).
Considering how little listening there is overnights, and the fact that essentially no revenue comes from the daypart, it's interesting that stations still stay on the air overnights.
Just as the main reason stations began running in overnight hours was to avoid catastrophic transmitter failures at the start of morning drive when technology was more labor intensive, technology now has made it unnecessary to man a station for it to run reliably.
But, aside from that perspective, an unhosted program that is board opped is still local. KCBS-FM is not hosted at all, but it is definitely local because the entertaining listener drops are local.
So you are confusing "Live with a jock" with being live and local. A station with a board op playing songs and tracks in real time is live and local. Many formats do not require a live jock, yet they are local.
And just because stations spend thousands of dollars in research, doesnt make them right.
Of course not. Research can be badly done or badly interpreted or badly implemented. But not every station in the entire market gets it all wrong... and ones that do mess it up will see the results in Arbitron and change the reasons for the screwup rather fast as there is too much in play.
What is the guy from New York know about the LA music scene?
Who is this mysterious "guy" you are mentioning? If you mean people who "conduct" research, you should know that research is conducted locally, with input from the local station, and recruited by local recruiting organizations. It's the station's job in the end to decide their target, songs to test, or lines of questioning or discussion in perceptuals.
It does not matter where the research company comes from.
Unless he is here going to the small dive bars, or local music festivals, all there Research is just crap.
I see. Music played at a place where the lights are turned down, liquor is served and the whole atmosphere is escapist is a great way to find out what to play on the radio. Combine that with request line tabulations and you have to win.
It used to be if a song didnt test well, it wouldnt be played
That is the entire purpose of music tests... to decide the degree of playability of each song. Of course, this does not work for new/newer music, which is better tested in callout or controlled intercepts after songs have gotten around 100-125 spins.
...now companies like CC just force feed the music they want you to hear. You have Ryan Seacrest pushing Rebecca Black over the airwaves...what genius in research said that her music was any good...have you heard it??
There is certainly some interest, as a look at the hits on the YouTube video will show. And if there is that kind of interest, then the artist and the song are very definitely the best kind of material for a morning show. Good or bad, the topic is entertaining as is the controversy about the lyrics, etc. Great stuff.
And Seacrest's "local community" is the collective mass of people who like the Idol-like topics and discussion, whether they be in Sylmar, Spokane or Sarasota. Communities today have nothing to do with geographic proximity but, rather, with commonality of interest. That's why Seacrest's show is local everywhere he is heard.
Just goes to show you what corporate suits know.
In your quest to prove that everything on the radio sucks, you are saying that the #1 morning show and one that reaches one in every 5 to 6 18-34 women in the whole market, book after book, is bad because they play and talk about an artist that everyone in that demo is talking about.
The bottom line is the only thing that matters, and that my friends, is a sad state of radio these days.
I put my first station on the air in the 60's, and my friends, it was all about the bottom line because if there was nothing written in black there, the station would not have stayed on the air. It's always been about the money. It's a business. And the listener benefits, because to make money you have to justify your rates, which means doing the best programming you can afford.
