Wow, we use to have great Radio in ATL, those days are Gone with the Wind

[BIGSTICK]

So many incredible memories, here are some amazing air checks of Power 99, before they failed themselves. Ye old saying: If it ain't broke don't fix it. Which has NOT been the case in this f'ed up market. What happened????

http://airchecked.com/category/atlanta/99-7-wapw-power-99/#.TwJhnkKZ7oK

I am not a great fan of 90's music, but we do;t even hear this even of Journey, or 98.5 whatever they are.

 

[caller10]

So many incredible memories, here are some amazing air checks of Power 99, before they failed themselves. Ye old saying: If it ain't broke don't fix it. Which has NOT been the case in this f'ed up market. What happened????

http://airchecked.com/category/atlanta/99-7-wapw-power-99/#.TwJhnkKZ7oK

I am not a great fan of 90's music, but we do;t even hear this even of Journey, or 98.5 whatever they are.

I agree and I miss it. But it's not Atlanta but it's the status of the industry as a whole, as well as a reflection of Susquehanna as a company. With all of the different media options today there is simply not the economy of scale and basic economics to make the effort that went into a Power 99 profitable. Heck there wasn't even true in 1992 when the bottom fell out of CHR and Power 99 flipped to 99x, so we were left with the more cookie-cutter conservative Hot AC/Adult CHR approach of Star 94. (Although in fairness to Susquehanna IMHO they put that same effort into 99x during much of it's existence, as well as they did a good job with the beginnings of Q100 2001-05). Heck there's not even the economy of scale to put a Fred Toucher on 7-midnight in the last decade and allow him to grow into what he became as mornings on 99x, then Boston.

 

[taylorengineer]

Good post, Caller 10. Susquehanna was a class outfit and always did their respectable best. I remember when they put Q100 on the air - it was all ready to go on launch day, every detail attended to.
And it is every market in the US.....not just Atlanta.
Supply and demand dictates the quality of the delivered product. Brent's real issue is with his fellow radio listeners - not the stations themselves. Radio is delivering pretty much what most people want.....those of us in the minority must find other outlets.
May I suggest WRFG as an outlet? Go down there and volunteer. They will probably let you do you own show and then YOU can supply the much wished for oldies!

 

[jondavidvox]

"Gone With The Wind" you say...? I wonder:

What do you suppose these "Genius Giants" of American Corporate Broadcasting are going to do to stop the destruction/deterioration/brain drain so prevalent in todays Radio?

(Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn....)

I'm waiting for the inevitable (planned for) financial implosion of these monuments to pathological maladroit media....and the subsequent reforging of the vibrant, creative, industry-leading Media Giant called Radio....

(Tomorrow is another day....)

Rest up, Real Broadcasting Colleagues....The Meek Shall Inherit The Mess....

Jon-David Wells
The Wells Report
Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX

 

[atlantaboy]

So many incredible memories, here are some amazing air checks of Power 99, before they failed themselves. Ye old saying: If it ain't broke don't fix it. Which has NOT been the case in this f'ed up market. What happened????

http://airchecked.com/category/atlanta/99-7-wapw-power-99/#.TwJhnkKZ7oK

The presentation is exciting, but the music is terrible - CHR in 1991 sucked!!

It does show you, though, how Q100 could be if they pumped some caffeine into their jocks (and listener phone calls etc.)

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Good post, Caller 10. Susquehanna was a class outfit and always did their respectable best. I remember when they put Q100 on the air - it was all ready to go on launch day, every detail attended to.
And it is every market in the US.....not just Atlanta.
Supply and demand dictates the quality of the delivered product. Brent's real issue is with his fellow radio listeners - not the stations themselves. Radio is delivering pretty much what most people want.....those of us in the minority must find other outlets.
May I suggest WRFG as an outlet? Go down there and volunteer. They will probably let you do you own show and then YOU can supply the much wished for oldies!

I have to agree with Taylor on this one. In spite of all the new competition, radio listening has not declined that much. And when major market ratings show voice-tracked and syndicated programming doing as well as live content, I can't blame the debt-ridden radio consolidators for cutting whatever corners they can.

Don't take what I said to mean I'm happy with what's happening. It just means it's hard to be critical when listeners apparently don't notice. Radio still has the best delivery method. If the audience did defect in big numbers, owners would be forced to change.

And it's not just Atlanta, Brent. I was in Savannah recently and had a hard time finding anything live and local. On Urban AC Love 101.1, a weekend voice tracker, who's based at WDAS in Philly, didn't even tell listeners to visit Love 101.1's website. She said to go to "the radio station's website," suggesting her voice-tracked show was airing on multiple stations.

 

[ArtyBoy]

We proclaim radio to be dead, but have we done a thorough autopsy?

I sometimes go to the gym at the local college. When I see the late teen and twentysomethings on the treadmills with their earbuds in, and I can't imagine any of them are tuned to the radio. It's got to be MP3's. I don't think they can name the DJ's like I used to know every name on 96 Rock and Z-93, and they're certainly not tuning in for the 5 o'clock whistle to find out what major concert tours are coming to town, or listening for the pre-concert warmup.

On the other hand, the most-downloaded podcaster is Adam Carolla, with 2 million downloads a week over five shows. Rush Limbaugh has 10x more listeners than that in an hour. Plus it's not costing Limbaugh $15k a month for bandwidth like it is Carolla. The second most downloaded podcast is Marc Maron with 230,000 a week. I'm sure the Bert Show, the Regular Guys, etc., pull more than 230,000 in Atlanta alone.

Most people I know have never listened to a podcast and may have never heard of Carolla or Maron.

Satellite-wise, the last time I looked (last week), XM/Sirius was trading at $2.16 a share.

So all logic may say radio is dead, but I think it's changed, but relatively healthy.

 

[kilamanjero]

All I'm going to say is this, apparently somebody is listening. Otherwise, V-103, Kiss 104.1, and Majic 97.5/107.5 wouldn't be in the top 3 overall. Maybe in this market, urban music (R&B, hip-hop, and soul) listeners are listening to radio, thus they are the hot commodity here...?

 

[taylorengineer]

@John David: Once again, I insist radio is providing what the majority want. Market forces, in a free economy, always prevail.
Were broadcast corporations told what to program by the government then I would say you have a valid point. But every company is free to deliver programming which delivers maximum profits to it's owner(s)
Too bad we Americans are more concerned about social dribble than what's really important.
We reap what we sow......

@Art: My teen daughters listen to radio but can't tell you a single personality on Q100 or Wild 105.7/96.7. They can't even name the stations they listen to....they just know which button to push. And they push that button every time commercials start - they have never heard more than 5 seconds of the first placed spot in the set.
My two sons, one 21....the other 17....can't name a single radio station in Atlanta - including any that I work for. Both are intensely into music and play multiple instruments. Both can name hundreds of obscure websites to listen to new music but they never listen to radio.
Radio must evolve into something more than a jukebox. That's why so many programmers are moving towards spoken word and personality based programming. I expect, and welcome the coming changes. I only wish we, as a society, would expect more of our leadership.....political as well as media. We do get pretty much what we ask for.......

 

[ArtyBoy]

It does show you, though, how Q100 could be if they pumped some caffeine into their jocks (and listener phone calls etc.)

All those DJ's sound like they must have had to fall back against the ropes and be given some oxygen after every break. Mellow out, man!

Actually, they were doing that because teenagers and early 20-somethings were expected to be a big part of the listenership back then, so you had to be loud and fast, and include calls, because they couldn't just post to the Facebook fan page to feel involved. Nowadays the hit radio audience is 32+ soccer moms who probably don't enjoy being yelled at at 120 mph and will just tweet their request from their iPhone.

All that phone stuff reminds me why I thought being a music DJ could be daunting. I'm terrible at threading up reel-to-reel machines and was always amazed at how the DJ's I watched work could record that stuff and drop it into the broadcast right in line with the program log.

 

[pbf1]

She said to go to "the radio station's website," suggesting her voice-tracked show was airing on multiple stations.

ALL the Premium Choice trackers do that.

 

[acheron1982]

In most cities, urban does tend to do much better and the reason has everything to do with demographics. You have a much larger black population density in urban areas and that tends to be what urban formats aim for. Always have and usually always will. If this was Seattle or some other northwestern major city that is dominated by a more white demographic, you would see a little something different.

I would also be interested to see the percentage of black listeners of FM vs Satellite and Internet radio compared to White listeners of FM vs Satellite and Internet radio.

I have a friend in South Georgia who produces music and says that FM does the best when it comes to American rappers and so he listens to FM vs internet radio. More personal.... That is very important in some demographics where with me, I'm much more adventurous and get my music from many different locations, not excluding FM.

All I'm going to say is this, apparently somebody is listening. Otherwise, V-103, Kiss 104.1, and Majic 97.5/107.5 wouldn't be in the top 3 overall. Maybe in this market, urban music (R&B, hip-hop, and soul) listeners are listening to radio, thus they are the hot commodity here...?

 

[jondavidvox]

Taylor....

Thanks for the reply. Here's what I'm trying to figure out:

Is Radio providing what Listeners want....Or is Radio providing what Radio wants?

Form follows function....

Following The Telecom Act of 1996....Radio Corporations got the opportunity to grow their station holdings beyond their traditional capability to "...operate in the public interest as a public trustee...". Consolidation, mass reorganizations, and wholesale layoffs of Product-Side Broadcasters, ensue at roughly the same time among the top 3 Radio corporations....encompassing most stations in the US.

Who gets the axe?

The most experienced, most talented, most expensive On-Air Broadcasters in the industry.

Other corporations follow suit, seeing an opportunity to save product costs to the bottom line, adding to the deflation of the On-Air Product Talent pool....First the Jocks....With entry-level Music Formats being reduced to iPods with lousy commercials....Then the Imaging/Commercial Production Artists....Now the Programmers....(If this music list works here, it'll work anywhere....) Leading to the overall Product-Side Brain-drain now pervasively critical in Radio.

Is Radio more profitable? Yes....On paper. (It has to be, otherwise the Stocks-based/Insanely Leveraged/and yes, Short-Term Management bonus game implodes.)

Is Radio more popular? No....This money chase has opened the door to greater competition than Radio has ever faced before....Just in time for Radio's acute brain-drain to damage the industry most.

Who's listening now? Those who always have....Plainly (and painfully) apparent in PPM Ratings.

Who will listen in the Future? Hmmm....

An ebbing tide lowers all boats as well. We have allowed Non-On Air "Broadcasters" to reduce the perfomance level of Radio's Product to their ability comprehend it. This is made even more difficult by very effective ear-plugs imposed by Corporate financial edicts.

On-Air Broadcasters have to find our way back into the game....Many of us have, by paying off debt, taking far less pay, moving to stations with greater On-Air participation.

We must also consider moving into management, and providing a way back for this self-imposed mediocrity. How? We must first stop, and affirming the argument that On-Air Radio is just fine. It's not. We must stop allowing that narrative to remain the reality....challenging it at every turn.

(Like now, for example)

We must first argue for our indispensibility. Then, we must prove our indispensibility.

On-Air Radio has become a part-time proposition at best. We must make it possible for On-Air Radio Broadcasters to make a decent living.

We Product-Side professionals must first reclaim and then re-create our relevance....In On-Air Performance, Off-Air Production, On & Off Air Promotion, and Programming.

Now....If you're reading this and saying, "Here's another dinosaur refusing to evolve...." Or; "Radio will never return to this level of relevance...." Or; "Nice dream...."

Please do leave Radio immediately. You are enabling the erosion of the Radio Product Arts. If you are in management, you are killing the Golden Goose. Please stop.

Thank You For Reading This....

Jon-David Wells
The Wells Report
Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas

 

[taylorengineer]

@Jon-David: I think we can say this about the "state of the art" today:
1. Deregulation will prove to be one of the biggest historical blunders in U.S. history. Never has so much power been consolidated into so few hands.
2. The advent of FM radio and liner jocks has stunted several generations of radio talent. Most on air people have never had the opportunity to develop a "personality." And there were no mentors to help shape and mold the few who did.
3. PPM has further damaged the tendency of programmers to allow those few jocks who can entertain off their leash. There is a difference between being a real conversationalist and being someone who has a nice voice and can coherently read a 10 second liner and backsell the last set.
4. Most of todays programmers grew up in liner jock land and can't tell the difference between real conversationalists and bores.
5. Bean counters have taken over the entire decision process. Bean counters like to reduce risk, maximize profits, and reduce complexity.
I would seriously like to see the industry broken up - just like big oil back in the twenties. Go back to a maximum of 7 AMs/7 FMs/7 TVs. Companies were making gobs of money before dereg.....I can't believe Americans didn't howl in protest when the big media groups cried about "not enough profits" and needing a larger slice of the pie. The pie pieces were huge back then - media did NOT need bigger slices.
As I keep saying, our only hope is wireless Ethernet expanding the range of choices. We already can get news from Drudge and no longer must depend on "those lyin' TV networks and newspapers." And more and more we can get any music, news, or information anytime we want it - be it at home or in the car.
I question whether wireless will be allowed to mature. My guess is that the media conglomerates, in collusion with our wonderful elected representatives, will make a power grab and keep their monopoly intact. We'll see........

 

[ArtyBoy]

2. The advent of FM radio and liner jocks has stunted several generations of radio talent. Most on air people have never had the opportunity to develop a "personality." And there were no mentors to help shape and mold the few who did.

Here here! I got interested in radio due to seeing Howard Stern's old WOR-TV show, and a college professor who said if you wanted to break into radio and TV, the place to do it was overnight talk radio.

So I was stunned when I did my Star 94 internship to find that the job consisted of playing songs by the playlist and then reading concert promos. You might get to say, "Boy, what a tough work week, huh?," before the verse of a song kicked in. At the time I didn't have the historical perspective to know that the creative environment that had given birth to Stern and even Rush Limbaugh had passed in the mid-1970's, and by 1992 it was a vastly different landscape.

I question whether wireless will be allowed to mature. My guess is that the media conglomerates, in collusion with our wonderful elected representatives, will make a power grab and keep their monopoly intact. We'll see........

Already in podcasting land I'm noticing that the ones that make it to the top of the iTunes charts have some affiliation with Viacom (Adam Carolla), or Comedy Central, NPR (Marc Maron), the BBC (Nerdist), HBO, etc. In the end we're going to have the same old radio and TV from the same companies, only the delivery format will be different. It'll be "on demand" as in podcasts for radio, and a Hulu-type setup for TV, but ultimately the same media companies in control and the same personalities at the top.

 

[TheBigA]

Who gets the axe?

The most experienced, most talented, most expensive On-Air Broadcasters in the industry.

Really? I'm still working in the industry. What are you saying, Jon?

I remember when AM radio was extremely popular. Then all of a sudden it wasn't. Did consolidation or bad programming or bad management or bad regulation or any other excuse cause the listeners to shift to FM? No. It just happened. And the exact same thing is happening again, except they're not all going to one place. They're diversifying. I call it Balkinization. Yugoslavia becomes a bunch of smaller weaker countries. That's what's happening to radio. And the idea that you or anyone else could reverse that is absolutely silly. I'm not giving up my cell phone or computer no matter what you say or do, and you can't make me. So there!

 

[TheBigA]

1. Deregulation will prove to be one of the biggest historical blunders in U.S. history. Never has so much power been consolidated into so few hands.

Huh? So much power? Did you read Jon's post? People are listening to other devices. So radio ain't as powerful as you think. In fact, the collapse had begun in the 80s, before deregulation. The minute people could buy personal music devices like walkmen, the use of radio began declining. It's why deregulation HAD to happen. And NO ONE (save for a few out of work radio people) want the old ownership rules to come back. Because all the profit was taken out of radio after Docket 80-90. That's when GE and lots of other heritage companies decided to get out of radio. And lots of major corporations have had the opportunity to buy into radio lately, now that proces are back down to pre-dereg levels, and not one has stepped up to the plate. Is Google buying radio stations? Microsoft? Apple? No. If the current companies had to divest, most of the stations would simply go dark. Especially all those 5K AMs. And Congress doesn't want those stations to go dark. They need them to stay on the air in case of an emergency.

Yes, companies were making gobs of money before dereg. And women once stayed home to take care of the children. Then everyone got greedy, women left housework and got jobs, and broadcasting got Docket 80-90 that over-licensed the spectrum, making it impossible for a single station to make a profit. The toothpaste won't be going back into the tube. We won't be going back to 7-7-7 because companies were losing money in the 80s. If you've ever done a station budget, you know how impossible it would be to make money without spreading costs over multiple platforms. Back in the 80s, stations began outsourcing engineering. Why? Because they could. That was one of the first steps. A single station can't afford that many full time salaries. The problem today is there are too many radio stations, too many media outlets, too many places for consumers to get free content, and not enough money in content creation. There are lots of people who gladly run internet radio stations for free. That hurts those of us who want to make a living at it. So you can dream all you want about the past coming back. It won't. I try to live in the present.

 

[jondavidvox]

"....I'm still working in the industry. What are you saying, Jon?"--The Big A

What I'm saying A is this: This isn't about you. Frankly, what you're saying is in my view, truly disturbing: "I'm OK, so who cares about anything else?"

With that statement A, you fall into the group that needs to leave the Industry forthwith. Since it's inception, Radio has been about "...operating in the public interest as a public trustee." Therefore, You are operating in The Big A's interest unworthy of the public trust you currently hold. Please do either find or discover your true Broadcasting ethos, or take advantage of your lofty accomplishments and earnings, and retire at your earliest opportunity.

I remember when AM radio was extremely popular. Then all of a sudden it wasn't. Did consolidation or bad programming or bad management or bad regulation or any other excuse cause the listeners to shift to FM? No. It just happened.--A

No, it didn't "just happen".....

KFI, KGO, KFRC, WLS, WOR, WSB, WLW, WJR, KCBQ, WBT, KOA, KHJ, WGN, KCTK, KNX, WINS, and until recently KLIF and WBAP either owed, or still own the markets in which they operate.

What did happen? Bad programming, and incompetent, narcissistic, egocentric selfish off-air management happened. (This is currently being espoused by you in this very conversation, by the way) It isn't just killing AM Radio. It's killing Radio....period. Believe me....Radio Management this bad will get around to killing FM radio too. Just give them a little more time.

"They're diversifying. I call it Balkinization. Yugoslavia becomes a bunch of smaller weaker countries. That's what's happening to radio. And the idea that you or anyone else could reverse that is absolutely silly."--A

Silly, huh? Really? Then please do explain:

Bill Drake. Buzz Bennett. Wally Philips. Gerry Cagle. Tyler Cox. Bob Shomper. Rush Limbaugh. Tom Tradup. Al Brady Law. J.P. McCarthy. Todd Storz. Gene Taylor. John Records Landecker. Gary Berkowitz. Walt Sabo. Phil Hendrie. John Rook. Bruce Gilbert. Robert W. Morgan. Phil Boyce. Pete Spriggs. And yes, Jon-David Wells...Have all "reversed this"....Several times, in fact.

What's silly is that you don't already know that. Again....You're right. It's "silly". Now, stop enabling the mediocre status-quo, and leave this industry to those who can and will prove you wrong.

"I'm not giving up my cell phone or computer no matter what you say or do, and you can't make me. So there!"--A

Apparently, when I was discussing the narcissism, self-centeredness, and ego-centricity....I should have added juvenile petulance.

A....I sincerely appreciate the guts you show to say what you do. Truly, at the very least you provide a springboard to advancing the conversation. But you need to entertain the notion of looking beyond yourself, and either lead, follow, or get out of the way.

J-D
TWR

 

[taylorengineer]

Please offer up a few examples of broadcast companies losing money in the eighties. I'm sure there is an example or two.....there is, and always has been, mismanagement in every type of industry. But most broadcast companies were doing quite well! I worked for Taft, later Great American back in the 80's and early 90's. Atlanta alone was doing over $10M in revenue - there were no markets "losing a penny!!" The argument was as hollow then as it is now.
I agree that 80-90 split the pie but only because of content weakness. WSB AM still did double digits.....V103 did, and almost still has double digits.....there are still stations making tons of money BECAUSE they have content which is superlative to other programming. It goes back to liner jock radio and how the lack of "showbiz" has affected the delivered product. The product has, for the most part, become pretty boring on most stations. People are reacting......
People do use other devices for music. But the numbers still show over 90 percent of the population use radio daily. Daily TV use is even higher. So to argue radio/television has become impotent ain't gonna' fly!
You're correct, Big A.....you can't turn back time. And that is not what I advocate. I simply think it is stupid to allocate finite resources to just a few people. There should be, for example, more minority ownership.....someone with more of a clue than Alfred Liggins. We can create a "diversity" list, if you like. It's simply insane to allow a couple of people to set the political and social agenda for this country. I believe diversity of cultural and political thinking would have a positive effect and the better programmers will still make millions - the weaker ones will fail.
When, and if, the broadcast frequencies are devoted to wireless....and IF (big IF) we have a free, unfettered market, then companies should have as many outlets as economically feasible. But as long as spectrum is scarce and must be equitably divided then we should have more diversity in it's licensed use. The winner should not be just whoever has the biggest checkbook.

 

[jabba17]

It's simply insane to allow a couple of people to set the political and social agenda for this country

Like NBC, CBS, and ABC did for decades?

But as long as spectrum is scarce and must be equitably divided then we should have more diversity in it's licensed use. The winner should not be just whoever has the biggest checkbook.

We could go back to the mid 1980s, when ATL had SIX (count 'em) SIX adult contemporary stations at one point--Peach, B98.5, 94Q, Warm 100, Fox 97, and Lite 106. Each with a separate owner, drooling over that 25-45 baby boomer woman demo.