I think the title of this thread pretty much says it all. I am an old fashioned radio listener who likes to be entertained by a good local DJ who likes the music they play and puts effort into their show. Corporate radio seems like 50% ads, no DJ's or people just reading lines without any show, and either to narrow or to broad play lists. Low dollar production with lots of ads. Quality radio like it used to be and a few stations still are is good DJ's with entertaining shows, less ads which probably cost more per spot as a result, just right play lists and as a result of this obtains a dedicated audience. Am I wrong that without any show there is nothing to hold the listeners to one station and thus they will just channel hop without any one station they stay tuned to? These new formats that have appeared lately are prime examples of low cost no quality radio. One is Jack or Dave or whatever the name is in that market and the other is MOVIN. I have listened to both but I have to say I am sorry that I would rather listen to my seventeen year old sons IPOD.

I do not mean to sound negative but just wanted to express my opinion of why I listen or do not listen to radio. Demo 40WM

Why does corporate radio not care about quality radio, you ask?

Simple......$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Why?

Because the government handed radio to the largest corporate interests. It has gone from being a medium to serve the public interest to a commodity to serve the corporate interest.

It's that simple.

This began in the 80's and reached a pinnacle in 1996.

The rest is mostly partisan and political and has been discussed in numerous threads.

Is it not possible for private ownership anymore? Have the corporate goons messed it up so bad it is not possible for any privately owned and operated station in a large market to make a go of it? Would be nice to win a huge lottery and open 1 or 2 stations and show them clowns how radio is supposed to be!

Yes Joamon4sure it is safe to say that corporate goons have messed it up. There is not really much we can do to fix the awful state of radio EXCEPT turn your radio off, and turn on the IPOD. ANd If Arbitron Calls Don't mention any stations.

What a shame to waste such a great venue for local on air talent. Right now there is really only one FM station (no names mentioned) that I listen to on a regular basis when not listening to my CD's.

So who are the major stockholders in XM and SIRIUS then? Could it be these same people driving everyone towards sat radio so they can collect on the monthly subscriptions instead of spending and effort or time developing quality free radio?

SCREW RADIO and these corporate companies that have DESTROYED legendary stations. I'll make my own Goddam Radio station in my bedroom. I Put 2 1987 sony Ghetto blasters side by side, press Record on one ghettoblaster and play on the other ghettoblaster.
WALLA! Pure Radio pleasure that is live and local(in my bedroom). I can talk over all the intros of songs and pretend I am a dj.

Open the window and get an audience! People would probably rather hear that than some of the garbage radio on the air!

I'm falling out of my chair, Mayo. That was beautiful. Right on the effing money.

Yeah Mayo, I used to do that when I was about eight. I had a fake microphone made from my Erector Set and a little turntable on which I could play actual 45 rpm records.

By the way, Walla is half a city in southeastern Washington. The interjection (expression of staisfaction) you were looking for is voila.

All the Djs on NRK all seem to love the music and say so.

Yes there are a few stations whose DJ's love what they are doing and you can tell! Not many though these days. Good FM is there just have to find it.

voila.....

????

I thought That was just a bigger VIOLIN...

That would be a Cello!

"Viola" is the stringed instrument, and a character in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"

...also pronounced with a long "i" when used as a woman's name or flower.

> Yes there are a few stations whose DJ's love what
> they are doing and you can tell! Not many though
> these days.

In my opinion, Dave Stone on 910 AM definitely falls into this category. Go Stoner!

I've noticed that the mid-day girl on k103- Shari wright (sP) is gone. Im assuming they fired her and replaced her with a voice tracked woman.
Nice Job K103, you're making some great radio.

I am listening to one of the AM stations with a three letter callsign, and they just did something quite sinful. There was some airtime to fill between a program and a commercial, so the automation spit out several different station IDs, back to back. What ever happened to filling these gaps with public service announcements??

sal says

I've noticed that the mid-day girl on k103- Shari wright (sP) is gone. Im assuming they fired her and replaced her with a voice tracked woman.
Nice Job K103, you're making some great radio.


Another jock kicked to the curb, and replaced by a voice track. Gotta love Cheap channel.

Maybe she just had to take some time off and they don't have a live fill-in. Would hate to see another DJ end that way regardless of the station.

Alfredo, I've heard these on a coupla 4 letter AMs as well.

Annoying as all get out.

That happens because the $9 per hour entry level person in charge of the final mix and presentation of the content developed by the highly paid creative staff at the multimillion dollar radio station failed to properly calculate the exact time needed to hit the top of the hour.

It happens occasionally to even the best board ops.

If he/she misses by 25 seconds they then have to very quickly find something of short length to play until the network news rolls at the top of the hour.

Seems to me, some nice music loops mixed in with the top of the hour would at least sound better than, "you are listening to kxxx, stay tuned to kxxx, your best programming here on kxxx, kxxx is your local source for corporate programming, kxxx am 676, keep your dial tuned right here on kxxx, who gives a rats arse about kxxx, your news here first on kxxx, kxxx your choice for the stars, kxxx is simply the best in class kxxx, kxxx is kxxx, thanks for listening to kxxx, kxxx -your choice for bland, the best part of your day is kxxx, hot girls listen to kxxx...

I heard Lori Bradley and she was talking about what her kid did that day. If she was voice-tracked, I couldn't tell and if she makes a connection with the audience, why would they care if she were live or local?

K103 is definitely better now. They let a marginally talented jock go, to improve both programming **and** their bottom line at the same time. Local, schmocal. Talent counts.

Lori lives in Washington. So she is voice tracked, but sounds really great. I agree with Sutton on this one.

Sal>> the mid-day girl on k103- Shari wright (sP) is gone. Im assuming they fired her and replaced her with a voice tracked woman.

What makes you think Shari (a woman, not a "girl") was live & local?

Lori Bradley did (still does?) some work for Air 1, and yes, she is good.

>>Lori Bradley did (still does?) some work for Air 1, and yes, she is good.<<

Lori most recently was live on-air at KLSY in Seattle but decided to stick to voice tracking to spend more time with her kids.

If you Google her name you'll see she voicetracks for a number of stations.

There are a lot less jobs in TV and radio for reasons obvious to anyone that hasn't been living under a rock the last 10 years. This results in a smaller "talent" pool (I use the word "talent" graciously) since anyone pursuing electronic journalism or entertainment through the traditional ladder should have their head examined. The future is on the internet where you don't need to be affiliated with good ol boy networks with glass ceilings. The automation that so aptly fills the corporate need for higher profits and less loading will ultimately be the undoing of many major networks. Wait, you'll see. Consolidation of broadcasting is a noose and it's getting tighter as advertisers continue to downsize their traditional TV radio budgets for other electronic venues.

Throw this in for debate:
If you look at this whole thing you say that I as a listener and listeners in general can also be the cause of Radio cutbacks. As we look elsewhere for entertainment (the internet for example) then the advertisers want that also and maybe cut back in one area in favor of the new? Is that kind of what you are saying?

sutton says...K103 is definitely better now. They let a marginally talented jock go, to improve both programming **and** their bottom line at the same time. Local, schmocal. Talent counts

sutton, I read your comments about my "marginal" talent and I just wanted you to know that I forgive you. I work hard at what I do, and have managed to support myself all these years. I have also been blessed with great numbers in all my markets. I truly hope that you will learn not to judge people. Negativity never benefits anyone. I wish you well in your future endeavors in radio, even though I have no idea who you are... I will pray for you.

sherry wright

Im not sure how ANYONE can defend THAT PIECE OF SHIT COMPANY CLEAR CHANNEL! THEY CONTINUE TO DESTROY THIS INDUSTRY!

Best of Luck Sherry, I thought you sounded excellent! You were too good for that worthless company!

Cheap Channel Blows! Im hoping people like Stoner realize how awful that company is, and STOPS ADVERTISITNG on the Cheap Channel Stations.

I also thought you were awesome Sherry! You will land on your feet in no time.

Ps- Sutton You're an ass, Im guessing you are a cheap channel employee. Let me Know when Cheap Channel throws your butt out the door ok?

Just thought of something.

Maybe this whole thing is a matter of perception.

Quality to us, here on this board, means live, local, relevant, compelling --in general.

Perhaps, quality to CC means something really different. Anyone care to comment on that aspect of this discussion? I'm curious. It might be helpful to clarify this.

Lots of good ideas end up here. We've lots of opinion too, many with pretty sound support. What we don't have is the same from inside the beast!

(if you cannot post, e-mail it to me and I'll post it here by proxy --no one has to be the wiser.)

Where is Val RING??????

I would think local HR decisions would be made by local management rather than "corporate" types.

Sure corporate could demand a certain budget which the station and group must adher to but again it is probably up to local management to determine how best to spend that budget.

My guess is that nobody from CC corporate proclaimed K103 must voice track mid-days.

Probably similar with the other large group owners...CBS, Entercom, etc.

Might be significantly different among the smaller higher leveraged group owners... Cumulus, NNW, etc.

Just as it would have been in the pre consolidation days.

Hey Notalent - you are right about that to a certain degree.

Local decisionmakers determine how best to spend the money they are given, and while it's not a corporate-wide mandate that you track, budget constrictions often limit your options.

This is not an attack! I just find it interesting: Talkedout registered on October 10th but didn't make her first post until the 15th when she commented on a post from the 14th. Welcome aboard!

Hi Sherry...thank you for posting under your real name and for your input. To hear somebody from inside real radio is a bonus...see my posts "ad nauseum".

Have to say God won't help you in radio and prayer is unlikely to do much either.

Deb and Donovan worked on the Fish for a couple of years and after God canned them, Donovan is now praying that he doesn't have to get up at 5 am on a Sunday morning to read an interns weather report from the night before. Prayer ain't working for him.

And I think Deb is praying she can lose weight by doing v/os for some scam weight loss program. While getting on her knees each night to pray for the next check.

Hallelujah

In this business you’re always being critiqued. From your PD and your listeners to an extent. This message board has allowed many who have never cracked a mic to share some pretty harsh feedback about on air talent, even when that talent has taken the time to share some insights from the front lines.

Yes you do need thick skin to handle the criticism that naturally comes with the job. It’s easy to give critical feedback hiding behind a message board moniker.

Radio fascinates people. I have posted this before but anytime I am in a social situation and people find out I’m in radio I get an endless stream of subjective points of view about this radio station or that radio station or my cousin is in radio, or I was in radio …..blah blah blah. I read a lot of blah blah blah at times on this message board from the armchair experts.

Joamon4sure asked a valid question on this thread. I am fortunate that I am able to voice track for a small market, locally owned radio station. I am in regular contact with the PD who gives us updates on new music, promotions, and other important local goings on. We spend time on local web sites finding content we feel the local listener wants to hear. We try and package it in a well-executed, informative and entertaining way. I have been criticized by many on this board for Vting but that’s for another thread. I am outside of corporate radio right now and I do like it, but I have spent many years inside of it’s walls.

I can’t change corporate minds but what I can do is try and be the best damn jock I can and if that ain’t good enough for some….then take number and wait in line.

My prediction is that this time next year k103 will be fully automated no live jocks period. The Morning show, GONE! And replaced with a syndicated show that will save cheap channel lots of $$$$$$$$. I also predict that Buckhead will be gone come Jan 1 with a new syndicated show. Talent will be a thing of the past. Clear channel has killed off the disk jockey!

They renewed Bruce Murdock's contract. Besides, if this were really to happen, John wouldn't report it and we all know that if John doesn't report it, it isn't news and never really happened.

They renewed Bruce Murdock's contract.

Whats your point smoochie. Contracts get renewed every day, and people get let go the following day.
Remembere this is Cheap channel we are talking about. Renewing a contract means NOTHING!

Arbyboy: "Donovan & Debb" did not get fired by "The Fish". They both quit to come back to Kisn-FM on April 7, 2004. In hindsight, they should have stayed with The Fish.

Sherry Wright: You Are A Class Act! Hang in there. Don't let these Bozo's get to you.

Thank you Craig. I stand corrected.

If God knew of the eventual fate of KISN-FM he wouldn't have let them leave the Fish then. Perhaps he was very busy that day and wasn't paying attention.

> Quality to us, here on this board, means live,
> local, relevant, compelling --in general.
>
> Perhaps, quality to CC means something really
> different. Anyone care to comment on that aspect
> of this discussion? I'm curious. It might be
> helpful to clarify this.

My guess is that a big "content provider" company like Clear Channel sees the quality of its programming in terms of how much revenue the programming brings in versus the cost to produce it. In this light, a call-in talkshow is preferable to a documentary show that takes a lot of research, production, and editing. Music formats with computer automation are preferable to ones with personalities. From a management point of view, this is a question of the financial efficency of the company, and everybody's mission at the company is to find ways to enhance said efficiency.

I've started reading _Murrow:_his_Life_and_Times_ by A.M. Sperber. So far, it has been a pretty good read. What fascinates me is that 40-50 years ago, Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly were having this same type of struggle against the management at CBS. The writing was on the wall, even back then. In his frustration with the attitude of his management towards the high cost vs. low ratings of news programming, Murrow presented a speech at the 1958 Radio & Television News Directors' Association that would torpedo his career with the company. He quit in 1960. Friendly stayed on a few more years, but eventually he became so frustrated with the corporate politics that he quit, as well. Friendly went on to work in Public television and as a college profesor.

Lets call it VT103 !

Quality is costly, it costs a lot more to put out a perfect product, than one that is ok.

And I doubt there is much data suporting the idea, that a high quality station generates an equivelant increase in income.

Then you get into the definition of "quality", I readily admit to being a redneck, whaat I find entertaining, probably isn't what someone that attends the symphany regularly finds entertaining.

The Oregon Symphony is terrific, but its musicians don't make any more than an average jock--maybe less. Scale under the Players' Association contract is a little over 40K. A few years ago, things got so bad that players took a 5% pay cut, but unlike in radio, the Symphony usually protects the product; recently, the business side of the operation got whacked by budget cuts while the musicians stayed intact. And so far they haven't replaced the percussion section with a drum machine.

Is the symphony self supporting, does it bring in enough through ticket sales to operate, or does it depend on donations?

I dont think its business model is comparable to a for profit company.

just a thought (getting back to the thread) it is and from now on will always be about the almighty dollar!!!!!! It used to be about the listner (no kidding). Corporate does not care about the listner, but about the bottom line....even though all the advertising is geared for the listner.....it is really more about how many spots can they sell (no kidding) to the client. If corporate really cared then why do all the corporate radio stations sound like crap? I know several PD's who are handcuffed as to what they can do without corporates approval. (NO KIDDING)

That is sad because that rolls downhill all the way right to the listeners. I mean if the PD is so clamped down then the poor DJ who actually has to field calls form listeners has to deal with it on the frontlines. With that kind of rigidity you may as well have Robby The Robot sitting behind the console, oh wait some stations already do, MY BAD!

At least it's comforting to know that I am in the money target for advertisers and that the stations that dish up tunes for it still have good people there. It's seems like the less than 25 target stations that seem to have OTTO the DJ dishing out tunes to the "No Money" group.

There's and old saying:
Absolute power corupts absolutely.

Well with corporate radio:
Absolute programs SUCK absolutely.

Did I get that right...my minds kind of fuzzy today?

I can appreciate the need for some measure of control but you gotta leave a little room for some creative freedom for the on air guys!!!!!

Hey Joaman4sure,
Cut back on using bold. Even though you think it looks good and reads good, netiquette says when used the way you are using it, you are yelling/screaming your words.

We can all read in normal voice. You do not need to yell at us to get your points across. All Bold is akin to All caps.

Already thought of that and have begun doing it....TY

Another way of looking at it.

Normal font is normal speech.

This is announcer type professional speech, or speech with serious emphasis

And the WINNER IS: "Bob Bitchin"

Add THE CAPS and it's YELLING, either ordinary yelling, or announcer type yelling.

Just bugs my eyes with the colored background and the faint font. Wish it was just set to bold for everyone....would be less eye strain....

Corporate radio has three reasons for what they do (or don't do)

Bottom line
Bottom line AND
Bottom line

Paying the executives seems to be the only time they aren't concerned about the bottom line.

Ipod: Freedom from corporate radio.

I dont remember getting rich working in the pre corporate radio days.

radio has always been a hard business with the supply and demand curve not in the favor of the average jock.

no matter who owns the station it was never good when 1000 people are available for every 1 job and many willing to work cheap.

In the 60's and 70's you had to have a certain ammount of credential to get a job, like a first phone. that kept the "marconis" of the world in the fringes and kept trained dedicated people in the larger markets.

now any schmoe with enough BS skills can get on the air.

I think the lack of any accredation and the need to go to a broadcast school, even if it was just for the ticket has cheapened the air talents position in the job market.

I dont blame it on corporate radio at all... never ever have i seen an owner of a radio station not be bottom line oriented. corporate or not.

This "corporate" thing is just a canard brought up by those who couldn't, can't,or dont want to cut it in a tough business.

I know first hand since I am one who only made it as far on the air as PDX and when the going got tough I did not have what it took to hang on.

now i am no longer a talent but still in radio (in a bigger market than pdx) and 29 years in the biz is what gives me this perspective.

Notalent, I agree, but there is one big difference. Job security today is less tied to your job performance, and more often dependent on a decision made outside the market.

Lots of CC people with talent were let go in the last couple weeks, to skinny the budget in preparation for the leveraged buy-out.

I never heard "...has ordered 5 per cent staff reductions nationally..." in the days of 12/12/12 ownership limits.

and the really sad part is that most of the layoffs are not made to keep a station in the black, but rather to nudge the margins.... Akin to cooking the books..... Too many "clusters are so understaffed, that the quality of their product suffers. For some reason, the decision makers can't see that angle.

I would imagine that one part could be left off of every piece of equipment built by Ford/GM/Boeing/Whoever with no harm done..... then maybe a second, then a third........

but, at some point, the quality-reliability-safety suffers. In radio that line was crossed at many stations. The result wasn't loss of life, but rather loss of listeners. Tough to get them back from other alternatives when you've lost them.......

Spot billing is way down. The stations can sugar coat it anyway they want, the TRUTH is agencys are getting steals & deals & selling clusters lowers the margins. Then take in consideration
the different venues advertisers have now. I can see why they cut the fat..However if they spent a few bucks to bring radio back so it sounds creative and entertaining, they would not be in this boat. Throwing stations on auto pilot in many day parts is not smart. But don't tell wall St that story. They won't LISTEN

Maybe private ownership would change that. No more wall street, no more forced margins and short term decisions.

Somebody with the right pitch might get real radio sold to the people holding the purse.

If you guys, currently employed in radio, had a say, what would you change for the longer term?

(Probably should be another thread...)

Assume it's still gonna be corporate, it still needs to scale and still needs some solid margins.

but what is a fair Return on investment?
What is the real value of a station?

Some of these that will hit the market will be over inflated as to actual value. when the previous owner paid too much to have six stations in a market, I doubt that they will be sold at a loss. It makes for an even bigger nut to crack!

there are some real issues forthcoming. The biggest is the owners will be looking for "RETURN" rather than using the income to make a living. That is a big difference.