Live Shifts Left on FM Radio in Providence

It's sad that it has come to this, and such a post needs to be made. But which shifts in Providence radio remain live? I would assume that WBRU is nearly completely live, but many consider it a college station. Rounding up other stations:
1. PRO-FM - morning drive is likely live. Other than that, I would bet that Jess and Davey are largely voicetracked.
2. Coast - outside of morning drive, likely 100% voicetracked. I am guessing that portions of morning drive are voicetracked, as Jen frequently appears on Paul and Al's show.
3. HJY - outside of morning drive, 100% voicetracked. Portions of Paul and Al's show are definitely tracked, as I've heard the 6 AM hour repeated at 9 AM. Some bits are also repeated. Perhaps Charles' two hour show, which is piped in from Atlanta, is live.
4. Cat Country - morning drive is likely live, as is Kevin Lawrence's shift (he is constantly updating local traffic). Otherwise, I am not sure if middays are live. Nights have long been tracked.
5. B101 - only morning drive is live
6. Lite - morning drive sounds live. So does afternoon drive. I don't know about middays.
7. Hot - AM and PM drive sound mostly live. Middays are tracked from out of town. Nights are also likely tracked.

Please correct me where I'm wrong!

I don't understand the big deal. There was a time when all the music you heard on the radio was live performance. No recordings. That ended over 85 years ago. Somehow, we have survived. People still listen. It's not a big deal. The first voice-tracker was Bing Crosby, who recorded his radio show. Bing invested in a little California company called Ampex, and got rich. That was in the 1930s. People have been voice tracking ever since. Casey Kasem was pre-recorded. All of those stories you heard were taped. All of network TV is recorded. Jimmy Kimmel made a big deal when his nightly talk show was live, because none of the others are. Nobody cares. Morning drive radio is live because a big part of it is information. Mid-days are not because it's mostly music. Same with overnights. If there's a reason to be live, such as a major snowstorm or some other disaster, they can bring in an extra person. But otherwise, music radio is about the music. That's why people listen. And all the music is recorded.

Even if I accept your premise, then what about the dishonesty of the radio ownership and PDs, who encourage voicetracked jocks to pretend that they are live? There are tracked jocks who read phony temperature reports, air phony listener calls, and claim to be attending station remotes (when they are not even in the market).

This is yet another factor that has reduced the quality of local radio. 25 years ago, there was almost none of this.

ScottBurns said:

This is yet another factor that has reduced the quality of local radio. 25 years ago, there was almost none of this.

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That's what you think. Computer assisted control rooms started in the late 80s. Even when music was on cart, the carts were triggered by computer relays. But sure, by 1992, we had disc drives and could load all the music and commercials on a hard drive, and that made the process even simpler.

But I take offense at your assumption that quality is affected by any of this. The goal was to IMPROVE quality. How many times did we have an overnight jock fall asleep at the board, missing commercials or the end of a song? It happened a lot. I know. It happened to me. Pre-taping the overnight show ensures all breaks are hit, and I get a good night's sleep. That's good for quality. Pre-recording breaks means I get those breaks correct. No mistakes. I used to pre-record my bits even when I was in college radio, on reel to reel tape, because I did multiple voices and used sound effects. I wanted to get everything right. So I recorded it. Recording bits means you can do more complicated things, use it again, and then post it online. Quality is improved.

I also take offense that it's dishonest. At one time, commercials were all live reads. Now almost all are recorded. Do we tell you the commercials are recorded? No. Does Jimmy Falon tell you his show is recorded? Is his show dishonest? You tell me. Would it make a difference if once a day, there was a disclaimer? Not to most people. Just to you. My advice to you is: Get over it. Did you have a computer 25 years ago? Did you use message boards 25 years ago? If you can use modern technology, why is it such a problem if anyone else uses it? We use modern technology because it makes what we do better. It means we can have dinner with our families and sleep normal hours. Sure it's not how radio was done 30 years ago, but nothing is the way it was 30 years ago. You have voicemail now. Back then, people had secretaries answering phones. You have ATMs at the bank. Used to be, the only way to get money was to see a teller. Not any more. Do you use any of those conveniences? Do you use email? Then why do you resent the fact that people in radio use the technology that's available to them?

ScottBurns said:

Even if I accept your premise, then what about the dishonesty of the radio ownership and PDs, who encourage voicetracked jocks to pretend that they are live? There are tracked jocks who read phony temperature reports, air phony listener calls, and claim to be attending station remotes (when they are not even in the market).

This is yet another factor that has reduced the quality of local radio. 25 years ago, there was almost none of this.

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Phony temperatures are as old as radio itself, practically. I knew a Syracuse jock in the '70s whose station's dirty little secret was that all the suburban temperatures read along with the Syracuse temp at the end of the reports were determined by simple math -- 2 degrees colder than Syracuse for one town, 3 degrees warmer for another, and so on. Only the Syracuse temp was the real thing. There were a dozen or so suburbs in rotation and only one or two were used after each forecast, so the listeners never suspected a thing. I would imagine other stations elsewhere did similar things.

CTListener said:

Phony temperatures are as old as radio itself, practically.

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Exactly. Before voice-tracking, there was automation. About a third of the 70s radio stations were automated, running reel-to-reel formats. Satellite formats from TranStar and the Satellite Music Networks were designed to replace reel to reel formats. They came about in the mid-80s. Voice-tracking was a way to replace national syndication with local origination. It's mythology to say radio was all live and local in the 80s.

The Big A, while you are entitled to your opinion, this post was not intended to be personal or something with which to take offense. Quality of radio is subjective. And many of us are radio enthusiasts who tune in, at least partly, to be entertained by the jock. Such entertainment is gone. 25 years ago, there were lively night shows that featured call-in contests, countdown shows with listener guest DJs, and more. None of that exists today.

Moreover, I'm not comparing radio to other media. I'm comparing radio to what it once was. It is far more compelling to hear a jock discuss local events or happenings than the iHeart Music Festival.

And of course it is dishonest. How is it anything but dishonest for a jock to claim to be at an event when the jock has never set foot in the city in which his or her voicetracked shift is being heard?

Finally, I would appreciate some respect here instead of a "get over it." I'm entitled to my opinion, as are you. If you think the quality of local radio is good today, then I respect your opinion. But I disagree with it.

ScottBurns said:

Moreover, I'm not comparing radio to other media. I'm comparing radio to what it once was.

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Unfortunately, your memory of "what it once was" is mostly mythology. As I said, there was a lot of radio automation in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Maybe you didn't hear it or know about it, but it was there. The quality of radio today is about the same as it was 25 years ago. And the listenership is about at the same level as it was then. Those are the facts, not my opinion. They come from someone inside the business, not an "enthusiast," although I'm extremely enthusiastic about radio. People your age want radio to sound the way they remember it. Unfortunately, your kids have a different experience. They want more music and less chatter. We're programming to people who are the age now that you were then. They like what we're doing. That's why we do it, and why we'll continue to do it, regardless of your opinion. Continue to enjoy all of your modern conveniences, and don't belittle us because we choose the same.

The Big A, I never belittled you, and I didn't introduce personal attack to this conversation. You did.

Nonetheless, I am very aware of which shifts were automated in the 1980s and early 90s and which were not, at least in the city in which I grew up. I know many people that worked such shifts.

It's probably best that we agree to disagree, and respect each other's opinions.

ScottBurns said:

The Big A, I never belittled you, and I didn't introduce personal attack to this conversation. You did.

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I take my job seriously and personally. So when you call my line of work "sad" or "dishonest" or talk about "quality" it's an attack. My advice is to enjoy the stations that do what you like. Don't criticize those that don't. Especially if you're going to post in a forum visited by professionals. What you say among your friends is your business.

I never criticized you personally. I have no idea who you are.

Instead of telling me what to do, I suggest you allow me to engage in free speech. I have always followed the rules of this message board. Good day.

ScottBurns said:

I suggest you allow me to engage in free speech.

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Free speech is a two way street.

Of course it is. Feel free to say whatever you want.

I think I understand some of what ScottBurns is saying as well as some of what TheBigA is saying. In the 50s, 60s,70s and most of the 80s, many listeners tuned in more for the personality of a particular disc jockey than they did for the music they were playing. Radio was definitely more personality driven (whether it was tracked or live) and, at least for some of us old timers, vastly more entertaining than it is today. That said, everything changes and today's terrestrial radio is what it is and for what programmers have to work with and in the parameters they have to do it in, I am sure that they do the best that they can. Personally, I am very grateful for satellite radio where I can still get a taste of what once was. Peace.

RI Radio Nut said:

Personally, I am very grateful for satellite radio where I can still get a taste of what once was.

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I hate to break the bad news to you, but most of what you hear on satellite radio is voice-tracked. None of it is local. So if it's OK for satellite, why isn't it OK for OTA radio?

There's a lot of personality on radio today, but today it has its own format. It really didn't exist in the 50s and 60s.

Some additional thoughts on voice-tracking:

--Voice-tracking is a tool. Like any tool it can used well, inefficiently, misused or over-used.
--Yes, there are many stations that are highly rated today and which are heavily voice-tracked.
--Voice-tracking is a "defensive" measure used to deliver cost savings (expense management); a fundamental reality of business.
--Other than spreading capable talent over more hours and more stations, nobody uses voice-tracking as an "offensive" measure. There is not a single radio manager, living or
dead, who would suggest, "Let's voice-track afternoon drive, that's the key to winning the day-part and beating the competition".
--Yes, voice-tracking has become excessive. Too many stations in too many day-parts are now voice-tracked.
--The quality of voice-tracking has deteriorated in some, even many, markets. Where stations once took pride in voice-tracking shifts on a daily basis to sound "live" and
relevant, I'm now hearing what now sounds like generic voice-tracking that is infrequently updated (and on big stations in big markets, too).
--Lost with voice-tracking is the "live" aspect of radio, audience participation and the ability to provide up-to-the-moment information important to listeners of a given format.
--It is also a relic of the pre-digital era, where you could get away with voice-tracking because listeners had few other options. Today they have an abundance of options and
the absence of personalities, human interaction and the immediacy of "live radio" are a definitive weakness.

Can some stations survive voice-tracking? Yes, but overall it does not make our industry stronger.

Radio360 said:

Can some stations survive voice-tracking? Yes, but overall it does not make our industry stronger.

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Depends what you mean. In some formats, live shifts are unnecessary. People aren't always tuning in for the talent. I know that's hard to accept, but they're not. Live talent is a relic of the pre-computer era, where you needed a human to cue up records and take transmitter readings. Now all that's automated, and has been for over 25 years. The need for someone sitting at a console to jockey discs no longer exists. So there's a lot of wasted time for the talent. Typically VT is used in dayparts when listenership is low, and its hard to find a quality talent to work, such as overnights or weekends. Yes it saves money but it also prevents on-air mistakes. If you go back 30 years, there were problems with talent falling asleep, missing the end of songs, or just unqualified to be on the radio. No excuse for that now.

There is no reason why there can't be audience participation during VT. It happens all the time. Audience participation is usually recorded during live shifts anyway. As far as competing with other media, online radio and satellite radio is all voicetracked, and no one cares. Pandora, Spotify, or Apple Music have no personalities at all, and no one cares. There is no reason in the world why digital media isn't live. Apple has lots of money for human staffing, and chooses not to do it. If there's such a demand for live talent, they have no reason not to provide it. The only people who complain about this are radio people. It's inside baseball.

A great example of a jock that listeners still tune in to hear: Big Joe Henry in New Jersey. Can anyone say that he doesn't put on a compelling show?

ScottBurns said:

A great example of a jock that listeners still tune in to hear: Big Joe Henry in New Jersey. Can anyone say that he doesn't put on a compelling show?

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What's compelling about it?