Ya' Know What's Wrong With Talkradio?

[ctkatz]

You realize how absurd this scenario is, don't you? The programming you're describing will be more or less non-profit, and that's not by design.

Do you think talent, the better talent, does this for kicks? Do you think it's a hobby? Do you think they are independantly wealthy?

No real talent will be a part of that mix you describe for long. All you'll have is a bunch of wannabes who will not do a show when they're not in the mood, or are sick, or are busy doing something else.

Doing a talkradio show is work---a lot of work if you're any good. You don't get good by jerking around doing a little internet "radio" show.

Everybody thinks they're a visionary on this subject. Instead they just sound uninformed.

you are also assuming that people who are doing this on major syndication networks are all that good. or the ones who do talk radio for a living do it for megaprofits as well, or that these people are talking and giving their opinions in the hopes of going bigtime. not mainstream, as in getting on an actual broadcast station. bigtime, as in wide distribution across the country on actual broadcast stations. you are also assuming that people LIKE the syndicated stuff that the media conglomerates force down their throats day after day after day. those are awfully big assumptions to make about the average listener.

speaking for myself only, i prefer those shows with small affiliate numbers and a bigger internet presence. they are not as dependant on the man to get them the affiliates rather than hard work. it is my opinion that there are a large group of people who feel the same way i do about the stuff offered in syndication, or rather the stuff NOT offered. not even given a chance to fail. do you really think that rush limbaugh has to work all that hard to get a new affiliate or do you think his servants at premiere/clear channel will clear out the programming of the market he wants and insert him in the daily lineup?

the hosts at the smaller operations seem to be a lot more connected to the people that call in or e-mail the programs. while i don't always agree with them, i do listen to ian's show, a program i found on THE INTERNET and something i never would have found out about had i not been poking around on THE INTERNET. this is what is wrong with talk radio- the corporate masters assuming that i like the crap they put out. so once internet availability gains enough penetration so that you can stream radio in your car, its game over for the radio industry. the people will finally get to choose what they want to listen to, and chances are, it's not what is being broadcast on the traditional airwaves. wonder why the crowd who is saying that satellite radio is a failure and is going to go under soon come from the terrestrial media sympatheisers? wonder why players such as slacker or pandora are so popular? wonder why some people are saying that the iphone/ipod touch is a bad thing for traditional media because now people can access what they want online very easily as long as there is an internet connection? the traditional media is dieing because the corporate heads care more about the bottom line than they do about the listener. and your posts say as much. it is a failed business model. just because something is being pushed on a crowd does not make it popular. or very good. because keep in mind, there are some very good talkers out there who do NOT make a lot of money, but strangely seem to have been around for quite some time. every radio personality is not like limbaugh pulling in a few million every year.

btw, speaking of "not getting good jerking around doing a little internet "radio" show", i suggest that you speak with mr. reginald finley, sr. of atlanta, georgia and his little radio show that he has been doing and how much he has done by himself for so long.

 

[DaleGriffin]

Don, just curious, how many talk radio stations have you run?

Tell me, Ian, keeping an $8 million bonus while [bl]loads of employees are being fired right and left[/b] sounds important to you?
You call that broadcasting?

And for Dale, please tell us why you, as PD of that crummy station owned by an even worse corporation, decided to gut the entire news dept
Isn't news broadcast throughout the day, not just in the early a.m. like your show?
That was your call, as PD, right?

Dale, there are scores of national hosts that could fill your slot better than you, yet none that could do the same for your local radio news.

How is your show more important than the rest of the day?

No Don it wasn't my call and you know that. Get a clue and look at what happened nationwide that day, newsrooms everywhere got gutted. Your letting some sort of personal issue with me cloud your thought and looking like an idiot in the process.

 

[FTL_Ian]

I thought that "violent monopolist" known as the federal government regulated the allocation of frequencies to maximize players while minimizing interference. In other words, someone had to be the traffic cop.

Common misconception. That may have been the original purpose, but now they are simply a protection racket. The FCC only lets players in who pay the bribes and jump through the hoops, and that's only if they are feeling like accepting applications - which many times they are not.

 

[Don62]

Don, just curious, how many talk radio stations have you run?

Tell me, Ian, keeping an $8 million bonus while [bl]loads of employees are being fired right and left[/b] sounds important to you?
You call that broadcasting?

And for Dale, please tell us why you, as PD of that crummy station owned by an even worse corporation, decided to gut the entire news dept
Isn't news broadcast throughout the day, not just in the early a.m. like your show?
That was your call, as PD, right?

Dale, there are scores of national hosts that could fill your slot better than you, yet none that could do the same for your local radio news.

How is your show more important than the rest of the day?

No Don it wasn't my call and you know that. Get a clue and look at what happened nationwide that day, newsrooms everywhere got gutted. Your letting some sort of personal issue with me cloud your thought and looking like an idiot in the process.

So you're not the PD? That irresponsible programming decision was made by corporate?
What kind of programming decisions do you make?

 

[Don62]

Cumulus is one of the most mediocre "broadcasters" out there.

The company's leader, Lew Dickey, lays off hundreds and keeps his $8 million bonus.
He initiated a series of mass firings for his dying company- $1.87 a share -- and wasted several dozen great and loyal employees.

According to Tom Taylor "the most likely to be riffed were midday personalities, nighttime jocks and morning co-hosts. But also office managers, some GSMs and AEs. There even are reports out of markets like Toledo and Fayetteville, NC that management is ordering part-timers to work for minimum wage. Several news staffs were vaporized, leading the Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune to ask whether talk WFRU (1400) can still call itself “the station Columbia depends on.”

Long-time personalities such as Rose at Magic 108 in Topeka, Kan., was kicked out the door, as was the entire news department of Dale Jackson's so-called radio station.

From what I have read, survivors feel more cuts are coming.
Interesting how this greedy CEO has not volunteered to give up one cent of his nearly $8 million signing bonus[

Here's what one observer said.

The consolidators are taking compensation for themselves like there is no recession -- no advertising downturn, business as usual. But for everyone else, it's Armageddon -- the battle between good and evil. Of course, they are the good. Everyone and everything else is evil.

$8 million. Lesss see... that comes to 200 $40k jobs without benefits considerations.

This so-called broadcaster has no conscience as he keeps his "signing" bonus while he buries his workers.

This kind of wrongheaded decision making is what is killing talk radio and radio in general.

 

[DaleGriffin]

Don, just curious, how many talk radio stations have you run?

Tell me, Ian, keeping an $8 million bonus while [bl]loads of employees are being fired right and left[/b] sounds important to you?
You call that broadcasting?

And for Dale, please tell us why you, as PD of that crummy station owned by an even worse corporation, decided to gut the entire news dept
Isn't news broadcast throughout the day, not just in the early a.m. like your show?
That was your call, as PD, right?

Dale, there are scores of national hosts that could fill your slot better than you, yet none that could do the same for your local radio news.

How is your show more important than the rest of the day?

No Don it wasn't my call and you know that. Get a clue and look at what happened nationwide that day, newsrooms everywhere got gutted. Your letting some sort of personal issue with me cloud your thought and looking like an idiot in the process.

So you're not the PD? That irresponsible programming decision was made by corporate?
What kind of programming decisions do you make?

This is where I exit the conversation. Let me know if the adults show up.

 

[Don62]

I'd still like to hear why one little morning show is more important than a whole day's worth of news.
I think we both know what's better for the community.

Again, corporate radio makes the wrong cuts.

 

[uncamark]

I'd still like to hear why one little morning show is more important than a whole day's worth of news.
I think we both know what's better for the community.

Again, corporate radio makes the wrong cuts.

Nine-out-of-ten Ma-and-Pa business are registered corporations. Would you rather have Communism instead?

 

[Don62]

I'd still like to hear why one little morning show is more important than a whole day's worth of news.
I think we both know what's better for the community.

Again, corporate radio makes the wrong cuts.

Nine-out-of-ten Ma-and-Pa business are registered corporations. Would you rather have Communism instead?

So it's Communistic for a radio station to run local news? Talking about flame-throwing here.

Cumulus' cowards can't even figure out how to air local news on the too many stations they own.
Who gave them the right to run roughshod over so many stations? They don't own the airwaves, though they think they do and worse yet, think they can do anything they want to their loyal employees.

I still haven't heard why Dale is a supposed PD. I thought a PD's responsibilities were regarding "programming."
I see that station is all-satellite after his all-important a.m. show.
His "station" has some get-together tonight. Wow. Many people from the station will be there, right?

Cumulus' "brain" trust couldn't keep one news person? All had to be kicked out the door, but the great a.m. show - and only that show - gets to keep going on business as usual?

This really shows us what's wrong with corporate radio these days. They - and their PDs and GMs- have no idea how to run their stations.

They're only "program schedulers" and hatchet men.

 

[justareporter]

I'll offer to run and editing class for some who can't make their point in less than pages!

1. Corporate programmers have no idea what LOCAL radio needs to survive. They are in **wherever** and not **here.**

2. Live morning shows are important. So too vibrant news departments. Look how far we have gone down the slope when we argue for one OVER the other.

3. The FCC has failed. That doesn't mean they should go away. All government is not bad just some badly run. A real FCC would require local programming for at least 50% of the day and if that means half the stations go dark because their management either cannot or is incapable of making money then let me help get the plywood and nails to board them up.

4. And after 30+ years of **doing this thing** and not just talking about it I actually have some experience.

 

[gr8oldies]

So many subjects it's hard to know which ones to address. First of all, I doubt Terre Haute is going to be leading the way with a 24/7 live/local format. It's a small market with a pretty depressed economy. It would be nice to have a local morning show there eventually. Guess they're taking a stab at "fairness" with Bill Press.

The issue of whether peopel like the syndicated programs...well, are they listening to them? Outside of people on boards like this, no one cares. Does anyone care that Oprah is in Chicago or David Letterman is in New York? No one cares that Rush is in Palm Beach or Bob and Tom are in Indianapolis either.

I don't see a world where everyone is listening to obscure talk shows on the internet, any more than I believe they'll all be listening to obscure way-out musical styles. There may well be someone who breaks out of the internet to mainstream media (Matt Drudge may be an example), but by and large, it won't happen.

50% local is unworkeable. There still has to be a legal definition, particularly for music stations that play only national artists. How much does the jock have to talk and what does he have to say?

 

[justareporter]

The fact is the audience for talk radio is shrinking. The reason I believe is that there is no local involvement. Local people talking about local issues is what started talk radio. It is what makes the genre possible.

As for the 50% rule...of course it is workable. ANYTHING is possible if you are willing to work at it.

Unfortunately it is just too easy to take it off a bird.

The audience for radio will shrink and die and we will have the consolidators and the short sighted to thank.

 

[gr8oldies]

OK. I would ask why, in Dayton, Ohio, Mike Scinto on WAVI isn't beating the pants off Rush. If local is all-important, you would think that would be happening. No one really cares about whose butt is in a chair in what city (and trust me, it doesn't get more boring than talking about Dayton politics...which even the suburbanites couldn't care less about).. You really think a 1000 watt station in Lafayette, IN could afford to hire enough people to cover 12 hours, 7 days a week? OK, they could sign off at the minimum schedule of 10pm and make it 8. Would you the nrequire over the air TV to air 50% local programs? Bowling for Dollars? Hosted children's cartoon shows? Local theatre groups? Suppose no one watches?

You still have to provide a legal definition of "local content". If the hard drive is in the COL is that OK? If live spoken words must be utterred how many minutes per hour and what is the DJ required to say?

There are those who seem to believe that radio can and must exist somewhere where the laws of economics don't apply. I don't know where that is.

 

[Don62]

OK. I would ask why, in Dayton, Ohio, Mike Scinto on WAVI isn't beating the pants off Rush. If local is all-important, you would think that would be happening. No one really cares about whose butt is in a chair in what city (and trust me, it doesn't get more boring than talking about Dayton politics...which even the suburbanites couldn't care less about).. You really think a 1000 watt station in Lafayette, IN could afford to hire enough people to cover 12 hours, 7 days a week? OK, they could sign off at the minimum schedule of 10pm and make it 8. Would you the nrequire over the air TV to air 50% local programs? Bowling for Dollars? Hosted children's cartoon shows? Local theatre groups? Suppose no one watches?

You still have to provide a legal definition of "local content". If the hard drive is in the COL is that OK? If live spoken words must be utterred how many minutes per hour and what is the DJ required to say?

There are those who seem to believe that radio can and must exist somewhere where the laws of economics don't apply. I don't know where that is.

So everything off the satellite, with little or nothing local, including no news, that's fine with you?

Broadcasters who think their role is to be a repeater or translator of national programming should just surrender their licenses to people that really believer in broadcasting, not to those who think paying someone to talk on the air is a drag on their profits.

 

[del_griffith]

OK. I would ask why, in Dayton, Ohio, Mike Scinto on WAVI isn't beating the pants off Rush. If local is all-important, you would think that would be happening. No one really cares about whose butt is in a chair in what city (and trust me, it doesn't get more boring than talking about Dayton politics...which even the suburbanites couldn't care less about).. You really think a 1000 watt station in Lafayette, IN could afford to hire enough people to cover 12 hours, 7 days a week? OK, they could sign off at the minimum schedule of 10pm and make it 8. Would you the nrequire over the air TV to air 50% local programs? Bowling for Dollars? Hosted children's cartoon shows? Local theatre groups? Suppose no one watches?

You still have to provide a legal definition of "local content". If the hard drive is in the COL is that OK? If live spoken words must be utterred how many minutes per hour and what is the DJ required to say?

There are those who seem to believe that radio can and must exist somewhere where the laws of economics don't apply. I don't know where that is.

For the same reason Bob Conners isn't on 1230 in Columbus and something syndicated put on WTVN. Even though local, Bob would tank! He somewhat experienced that when he ventured over the 1460 in the early/mid 70's. He could not replicate his audience on a handicapped signal. And that was when AM was still not only viable but king.

Handicapped AM signals (limited output, weird directionals, daytimers) find a very difficult time getting an audience, even when the talent and programming is superior.

That question is like asking why that little daytime country station in Xenia isn't beating Cox's FM country station when they compete head to head. Xenia covers Dayton pretty well signal wise.

 

[justareporter]

It is astounding how many people miss the larger point. Radio has always been defined by localism. Taht means bodies sitting in local chairs with local talking heads. If not, then why didn't the FCC just license four or five networks and let a thousand repeaters license themselves around the US. The INTENT was to provide localism.

As for the stations that can't provide Live and LOCAL programming with live bodies in seats in their city of license...pull the plug. Who needs 'em?

As for one guy not beating Rush or Hannity....you forgot to factor into the equation a thing called TALENT. Many of the folks who call themselves "talent" these days have little to none.

 

[gr8oldies]

I was responding the oft-repeated idea on this board that says that local will always beat national no matter what the level of talent is. The mere fact that someone's butt is in a chair in Dayton, Ohio; Fresno, CA; or Pensacola, FL will beat the national talent, which has proven to be false, unless you have a WLW that has a 20-year head start.

If you want requirements for "local programming", you haev to get Congress to pass them, and get taxpayers to pay for monitors or inspectors to police them. You would obviously say that audiences that may like, say, Fox Sports should lose that signal because the station isn't featuring two guys at a bar talking about the local girls' softball team.

As for WHIO's case, Kent Voss was very popular, but after he left for Philadelphia they tried several hosts, including a local newspaper columnist, and couldn't get close to matching Voss' numbers. Yes, they have syndicated hosts, but with three and a half hours of local news in the morning, news at the top and bottom of the hour through midnight and continuous coverage of every weather emergency, they do a great job of serving the community...even if they're not talking 24/7 about Dayton's city council.

Geesh Just, you want to put 3/4 of all radio stations out of business and bore everyone else to death.

 

[The Ultimate Warrior]

It is astounding how many people miss the larger point. Radio has always been defined by localism. Taht means bodies sitting in local chairs with local talking heads. If not, then why didn't the FCC just license four or five networks and let a thousand repeaters license themselves around the US. The INTENT was to provide localism.

As for the stations that can't provide Live and LOCAL programming with live bodies in seats in their city of license...pull the plug. Who needs 'em?

As for one guy not beating Rush or Hannity....you forgot to factor into the equation a thing called TALENT. Many of the folks who call themselves "talent" these days have little to none.

This just is not true. National networks were around and more prevalent when stations were much fewer in number.

Ignore talk radio and tell me how you mandate localism on music stations.

Here's why 1 person has actually attempted to answer the question I posed. (http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,121161.0.html)

+ This is about shutting down political opposition
+ No one on these boards cares about music radio, it's politics

 

[justareporter]

Okay...so I am going to have to amend my initial comment to clarify the patently obvious:

"Radio has always been a local medium. Clearly by the 1960's management reduced the role of the network and increased the role of the local talent."

Happy now?

Marconi is rolling in his grave like a lathe.

 

[The Ultimate Warrior]

Okay...so I am going to have to amend my initial comment to clarify the patently obvious:

"Radio has always been a local medium. Clearly by the 1960's management reduced the role of the network and increased the role of the local talent."

Happy now?

Marconi is rolling in his grave like a lathe.

Sure you corrected your statement, congrats.

But I don't think you attempted to address the obvious innacracies in your posts.

It is astounding how many people miss the larger point. Radio has always been defined by localism. Taht means bodies sitting in local chairs with local talking heads. If not, then why didn't the FCC just license four or five networks and let a thousand repeaters license themselves around the US. The INTENT was to provide localism.

One guy has 600 stations\, one guy has 500. No one has thousands.

Music stations which are gaining being ignored are not being called on to play local music, what is the difference?

I got it, politics.