The morning shows on the Buzz, Jammin and Z are different. Honestly they all have their own flavors all of which have qualities I enjoy.

I'm glad that a great FM morning show is based in Portland (yes I mean the Playhouse), it would be a shame for the community to lose it. My question for you experts is how viable is the Portalnd market in terms of financially supporting an FM, full bells and whistles morning show? I've noticed the staffs shrinking of local shows, the number of bits disapating, and the number of stock bits increase. Thoughts?

I think the day is coming where the "morning zoo" FM morning show format becomes the exception rather than the norm., regardless of whether or not the MARKET would "support" a FM "full bells and whistles morning show" with a lot of "bits".

You probably won't see much investment in talent in most of the radio markets. With the way stations are run under group ownership, it's all about return on investment. What we all enjoyed about the industry in the 60's, 70's and 80's is no longer the business model. Fewer stations and more private ownership before de-regulation allowed for a lot more competition for more dollars. The pieces of the pie are way too small for a high invester return AND spending more money on talent. Reducing the number of stations in any market could generate more competition and dollars to pay for talent. More choices= mediocre entertainment.

Most of the "morning zoo" style were born of the 80's. Prior to that, it was a one or two man show. As for morning shows going away, lets see:

K-hits: Live morning show
Jammin': Live mornings
Kool: Live mornings
The Buzz: Live Mornings
The Fish: Live mornings
K103: Live mornings
KINK: Live Mornings
KUFO: Live Mornings
The Wolf: Live Mornings
KUPL: Live Mornings

Looks like companies are still spending money. Thing is though the mornings shows require more ability these days. No longer is it some idiot who cracks jokes and just does funny voices, they need to be able to produce content that can be used for podcast, blogs, and even video.

I applaud the excellent thoughts and analysis on this topic. Like everything else, there are many different ways to looks at this and definitely no one "RIGHT WAY". It is all dependent on what a particular corporation wants to accomplish.

I've been listening to a oouple of morning shows lately and have been amazed at the comments on the lack of prizes they have. How much influence does the quality of prices have on the listening audience?

Less than 2% of all radio listeners have ever called a radio station for any reason in their lifetime. When it comes to winning prizes, you're talking to only a few hundred people. The rest of the listeners couldn't care less.

Done correctly, with the right prize, you can improve or boost your station image and increase listening time. And, that includes those who don't even pick up the phone.

The interaction with the winner makes for interesting listening, assuming it's done well. It can add much excitement and anything that's not scripted is a plus.

Allow me to add my opinion on this;

In my 30 + years in the biz, I have heard countless morning shows, and to tell you the truth, they have never been more boring than they are today. I attribute that to corporate ownership, and the lack of creativity that the shows are given because of it. Consultants- NOT morning shows are running the morning shows. Allow me to comment on all of the afore live morning shows mentioned.

K-hits: Live morning show: When it was at CBS, I counted no more than 3 different host/ shows within the first 3 years; all of them doing the same thing in a different way. VERY boring. CBS from what I understand is completely controlled by consultants, so this doesn’t surprise me.
Jammin': The Play house. This show had potential as it was syndicated on several stations. However, it lacked the “ snap” , if you will. PK is talented, most of the other personalities are not.
Kool Live mornings: John Williams. Not a bad personality, but he sounds dated.
The Buzz: Once again, another dated/ boring/ predictable show. Nelson and Terry were once funny, but have since lost their zest. Time to hang it up guys.
The Fish: Live mornings: Where hasn’t Tim Taylor been on the air? Once again, not my cup of tea, but I’m sure it fits a small portion of the Portland audience who wants’ to hear a Christian based morning show.
K103: Live mornings. Eh. Celine Dion and Billy Joel played over and over aren’t my cup of Tea, but they’ve have had good ratings.
KINK: Live Mornings: Boring. Sounds like NPR. Morning shows should want to make you feel awake. AAA stations used to be cool to listen to back in the day ( usually with some kind of illegal substance being smoked) , but have de- evolved into light FM stations where excitement and enthusiasm is prohibited. AAA will soon be the new “ music of your life”.
KUFO: Live Mornings. I heard the buzz about Rick, and listened to him on one of my many slogs on from Eugene- Seattle, and personally, I think he’s in the wrong place. He’s razor sharp, but defiantly belongs on a different station.
The Wolf: Consultant programmed. Predictable.
KUPL: From what I understand, Lee Rogers, who I worked with several years ago is actually in Arizona now, and does the show from a home studio/ ISDN line. Just a sign of the times. The show isn’t bad, but isn’t great either.

Once again, I offer my criticism not offend/ hurt any one, just to offer an opinion of someone who has worked for years in the biz, and thankfully has made a great living and continues to do so within the industry.

Guess you need to go back to the era of Fred Winston and Larry Lujack at WLS and WCFL, Gary Burbank at CKLW, or Robert W Morgan at KHJ to really appreciate an entertaining, fast paced morning show. Of course they were all groomed by top notch program directors that really knew what they were doing, and were allowed to do it.

.......knew what they were doing, and were allowed to do it.

That goes for ALL day parts!

".......knew what they were doing, and were allowed to do it."

And therein lies the problem for the future of radio. Nobody is being trained either as talent or programming management.

That's sadly so true. I was out on the Oregon Coast a couple of weeks ago and couldn't help but think how few opportunities (except for Astoria's rather cool community radio operation) there are for people to get started and get trained in radio these days. I may have been earning minimum wage at KVAS back in the day, but what a great opportunity to learn the business and get experience. I'm sure I've used some of what I learned there at every station since. I remember something you said, Deane, when you hired me at KCYX...that you always looked to hire people who were students of radio. I wonder (and it is a question) where people are going now to "learn the ropes?"

Brade...I so agree. 20 years ago, I drove to Lebanon, OR. to work at KIQY, twice a weekend. Between that and making the jaunt between Portland and Seattle every week...I learned the biz. I was hungry and would do ANYTING to get on the radio. Anywhere.

Do people still do that or was I a COMPLETE idiot??

"Deane, when you hired me at KCYX...that you always looked to hire people who were students of radio."

Damn Brad, did I actually say something that insightful? Must have been an accident.

Actually, one of the things I enjoyed most about KCYX (along with the best vending machine coffee I've ever tasted) was sitting around drinking coffee and talking about radio!

Brad, you've hit on something that is rarely discussed these days. We ate, slept and breathed radio. Whether it was a McMinnville size station or a major market, the "radio guys" not only created the ideas, but got to put them in practice and try them. But most of all, we just plain had a good time doing it.

That's true for sure! Michael Jordan once said that if the NBA and all the big contracts went away tomorrow the best players would still be playing ball somewhere. I think that's also true of radio, and probably anything. One of the shifts I've noticed is from having fun and making money (we've always had to do that) to a radio environment that's focused almost completely on the bottom line. That, I suppose, came in large part from the transfer of ownership from individual owners to big corporations...The best owners have been those people who love radio!

Since we're reminiscing radio (KCYX in particular), I remember following you Brad at 11am-3pm. You would get done with your talk show and then we would talk even more as I did my first few breaks.

What was fun at KCYX you could try things out. Experiment. Fail and then try again. I recall on several occasions Deane coming in while I was on the air and saying, "Good break, that's what I'm talking about." Then I'd also hear " need to be more prepared if you're gonna try that again."

Lander- I worked initially part-time at KCYX, KCNR and KWIP at the same time.

I was doing afternoons on KCNR AM 1410, would get call from Eric Norberg at KWIP and ask me to fill-in last minute for the evening guy whose shift was 6-mid. I didn't get off work until 6pm. So I'd drive to Dallas and be on the air at KWIP around 7:15pm

I would get off my Saturday morning shift at KCNR and then go do the Sat. afternoon shift at KCYX. It was challenging at times to keep the call letters straight with both stations starting off with K-C...There would be a rather awkward pause as I searched for the right call letters to end with. Thankfully at KCYX the mic itself had the call letters which saved me many a time.

sitting around, talking radio.... WHAT A BLAST.

This is where All the ideas came from.... You'd think of something, kick it back and forth, write it down, cut it, sprinkle in another voice and SFX
and you had a great bit or spot ready to go and everybody had some input. a TRUE CREATION.

Lander, in the early 80s I was willing to make the trip from Tacoma to Newport every weekend...passed the interview and we were ready to go....
The station decided not to risk a breakdown or something worse in route and changed their mind, but I would have done it in a minute.

Scott Lander--No you are not an idiot. You love the business, like I do and many others. Not everyone has given up.

Are you sure??? Thanks, Steve! Much appreciated.

I've been away from the mic for eight years, and anytime the subject of radio comes up, I still light up like a Christmas tree! You just can't shut me up (talking is in the blood I guess).

Many of the best times were me and the gang just sitting around talking about the biz. About a killer break or a monster segue you had. Evaluating your station and the competition. Complaining about how if only the sales department would catch up with our brilliant programming, we could all get a raise beyond minimum wage!

But, we never really did it for the money, did we...

Actually I WAS on the air briefly in 2008. Sort of an on-air audition, since I hadn't been on for so long. It was very close to becomming a full time thing, but it didn't work out.

For me it was still the happiest month of 2008.

And you know, it felt as if I had never been off the air.