wpht

[kevinob]

Bean counters have ruined this bisiness. as long as it's profitable, why make it any better? Remember when radio was an entertaining medium wher talent and formats were constantly being developend instead of the same lousy focused grouped crap over and over?

 

[kzewdude]

Crazy thought--maybe it's time to repeal the Telecommunications Act and re-regulate radio? And bring back the Fairness Doctrine? Remember when stations were mandated by the FCC to air a certain amount of news content and public affairs? They had to actually serve the public interest? These greedy owners would hate that. They're only into radio for money. It might force them to sell their stations to people who actually love radio and would put the product above everything else.

 

[jimwalsh2001]

Don't kid yourself. Telecom '96 and the Fairness Doctrine revocation are not the problem, and rolling them back won't fix anything. I worked in radio for many years and these problems were there for a long time. Trust me - the biz was not exactly an idyllic wonderland before the nineties. The aforementioned changes only served to bring to the forefront the problems that were already there.
I see the same kind of hangups in other industries (for just one example, google "Maytag" and read about the hard times that have fallen upon that once-venerated brand). It all boils down to a lack of patience and long-term thinking among the current generation of businesspeople. Kinda makes you wonder what the hell they're teaching these days at Harvard Business School... :

 

[Slant]

The thing is PHT could be a much better station...BUT cbs has no desire in improving it. All it would take would be to bring in a creative, qualified PD who actually has a programming background. It seems Rayfield would rather have a glorified account ex act as the default programming guy. Really dumb. But why hire a real PD...I mean after all, WABC and KFI have "REAL" PDs and they are not really successful....oh wait, yeah they are.

 

[MarcB]

I've said it several times and I'll say it again. They need to copy their sister station in Hartford. Its always number 1 or number 2 12+. (Then again Hartford doesn't have a all news station to canabilize on). But in Hartford they are live and local 73.5 hours per week if UCONN or The Redsox aren't playing. Thats 55 hours Mon-Friday, 13 hours on Saturday, and 5.5 hours on Sunday. (Granted one hour of live talk is simulcast from their sister hip-hop station). Plus they do local news updates every half hour. (even on the overnight, tho 12am-5am the updates are only 2 nins at the top of the hour since they run CBS).

 

[davideduardo]

Crazy thought--maybe it's time to repeal the Telecommunications Act and re-regulate radio? And bring back the Fairness Doctrine?

That would again make radio and TV the stepchildrend of the news media. Newspapers don't have to do it, nor do magazines. And the Internet guarantees plenty of different opinions. At the same time, station owners wil fill significant voids if they exist... it's simply the profitable thing to do.

Remember when stations were mandated by the FCC to air a certain amount of news content and public affairs?

Yeah, I remember. We did the PA shows from 4 AM on Sunday to about 7 AM where they would bother nobody. Listeners did not listen, but the worst thing was that every station in every market was calling the same cummunity voices and leaders every week to do those shows. It was a burden on the very people who should be doing things for the community, not spending time on interviews nobody listens to, even if put in prime listening hours.

They had to actually serve the public interest?

They do. The government decided news and boring talk shows were in the public interest. Nobody listened. For most stations, entertainment and music are what the public wants, so it is a public service to provide them, too. If there is interest in news and commentary, one or more stations will go after that audience.

And I remember the days when there would be two or three Top 40s in many markets, and all the listeners knew when the news came on, so they instantly switched to the station with music.

These greedy owners would hate that.

In nearly every market, there is a station that does the news and information for the market. That is their thing. Some greedy owner gets a good income from news and talk, while others make money doing music.

Those old rules came from the AM only days, before the number of viable stations in each market doubled, trippled or even quadrupled. Forcing things on listeners that they do not want is an absurd, almost Orwellina, idea.

They're only into radio for money.

We always were. When I owned stations in the 60's, I fully expected them to be very profitable, and I did everything possible to get as many listeners as I could so that would occur.

It might force them to sell their stations to people who actually love radio and would put the product above everything else.

We all know that product drives ratings which drives revenue. It is really not a hard concept to learn. The problem is that you have swallowed a vat of the government issued kool aid and you really believe that all that regulatory crap was in someone's best interests.

 

[WTUX]

WPHT is doing what any smart owner with a 50KW AM signal would do: air the top hosts in their time slots. Most listened to national hosts, with the exception of morning drive, give you the best shot of good ratings and good revenue.

From the very start of network radio, that is what stations have done. Networks searched out the best talents to put on the most powerful stations, to make the most money for all involved, while giving listeners the entertainment and news they wanted. It's worked almost non-stop since the 1930's. Much of radio content was national network programming then, as it is now.

The only reason for more local content in the 50's and 60's was due to television taking the soap operas and comedians from radio. Network radio was dead. Radio had to find something to remain profitable (or in business at all!). Enter the local disc jockeys. Live and local was because they could think of nothing else to do to survive.

Then along came FM and a more than 100% increase in the number of station options listeners had. Music went to FM and AM was left to again wonder what to do. The answer came again from disc jockeys. People like Rush, Imus and Stern stopped playing music and started doing talk in a basic Top 40 Radio style. Imus went for humor, interviews and guy talk. Rush went to political talk. Stern went to a cutting edge humor on AM (remember his PM Drive show on WNNNNNNNBC?) and AM radio was saved. Or at least the big stations were.

Basically, AM radio was left to go back to the business plan of the 1930's and 40's. Only now, they could choose from many networks instead of just one, whether it be Mutual, NBC, CBS or ABC. Stations compete for the best network shows, hoping to put together a winning line-up.

The reduction in regulation takes into account the modern day number of stations and demographics. Before, all stations had to carry religion, farm reports, sports, news, etc. Now we have enough stations so that some can specialize in sports, religion, news, and in farm country, farm reports. I worked for a city station in the days when they had to carry "X" number minutes of agricultural news a week! The only crop our listeners could raise was a few weeds in their front yard (if they had one). Now stations are freed from those nonsense rules and can concentrate on whatever their main product is.

We do not need to return to radio as it was in the 50's and 60's. Today, WFIL and WVCH can concentrate on religion, WIP and WPEN can go for sports, 990 can do whatever it is doing, KYW gives us news and WPHT gives us sports.

What we no longer need are the hundreds of small suburban AM stations which can no longer find anything of merit to air. The revenue is not there to support them, they can no longer afford to be the minor league system of radio, and who is listening anyway!

Radio is a business. And it is a business that somehow has survived despite many good reasons to fail.

 

[imhomerjay]

WPHT is doing what any smart owner with a 50KW AM signal would do: air the top hosts in their time slots. Most listened to national hosts, with the exception of morning drive, give you the best shot of good ratings and good revenue.

From the very start of network radio, that is what stations have done. Networks searched out the best talents to put on the most powerful stations, to make the most money for all involved, while giving listeners the entertainment and news they wanted. It's worked almost non-stop since the 1930's. Much of radio content was national network programming then, as it is now.

The only reason for more local content in the 50's and 60's was due to television taking the soap operas and comedians from radio. Network radio was dead. Radio had to find something to remain profitable (or in business at all!). Enter the local disc jockeys. Live and local was because they could think of nothing else to do to survive.

Then along came FM and a more than 100% increase in the number of station options listeners had. Music went to FM and AM was left to again wonder what to do. The answer came again from disc jockeys. People like Rush, Imus and Stern stopped playing music and started doing talk in a basic Top 40 Radio style. Imus went for humor, interviews and guy talk. Rush went to political talk. Stern went to a cutting edge humor on AM (remember his PM Drive show on WNNNNNNNBC?) and AM radio was saved. Or at least the big stations were.

Basically, AM radio was left to go back to the business plan of the 1930's and 40's. Only now, they could choose from many networks instead of just one, whether it be Mutual, NBC, CBS or ABC. Stations compete for the best network shows, hoping to put together a winning line-up.

The reduction in regulation takes into account the modern day number of stations and demographics. Before, all stations had to carry religion, farm reports, sports, news, etc. Now we have enough stations so that some can specialize in sports, religion, news, and in farm country, farm reports. I worked for a city station in the days when they had to carry "X" number minutes of agricultural news a week! The only crop our listeners could raise was a few weeds in their front yard (if they had one). Now stations are freed from those nonsense rules and can concentrate on whatever their main product is.

We do not need to return to radio as it was in the 50's and 60's. Today, WFIL and WVCH can concentrate on religion, WIP and WPEN can go for sports, 990 can do whatever it is doing, KYW gives us news and WPHT gives us sports.

What we no longer need are the hundreds of small suburban AM stations which can no longer find anything of merit to air. The revenue is not there to support them, they can no longer afford to be the minor league system of radio, and who is listening anyway!

Radio is a business. And it is a business that somehow has survived despite many good reasons to fail.

Well, very well, put.

I would only add that on top of not being necessary to go backwards from a practical standpoint, I for one do not want one penny of my tax money going to the likes of Kevin Marin or his successors to add staff and red tape in some misguided effort to determine what is or isn't in the public good. I'm quite capable of determining that for myself, as is everyone else. Big Brother need not apply.

 

[WTUX]

Amen.