Seriously, this is getting really annoying. Do companies think listeners don't notice that the DJ on their favorite station is actually syndicated? I've heard this on iHeart stations for a while, and you'd think I was listening to a station owned by that company yesterday, but it was actually owned by Townsquare. What I'm talking about is the jock break that starts with a station tag dropped in, then there's a space before a generic break that could be on several stations. I've heard this on syndicated shows like Open House Party, but it's fairly clear in other ways that that is a nationwide broadcast, and I think it actually works there. However, for a generic shift on a given weekday afternoon that is not billed as a nationwide broadcast, it makes for really bad radio. Why do these big companies think this isn't going to drive away listeners?
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Do companies think listeners won't notice?
- Thread starter bobdavcav
- Start date
If a station is properly voice tracking their airshifts, I'd wager that very few listeners would know. Regarding the ones that sound more obvious, especially to "radio people", I'd wager that most listeners still either don't realize or don't care. I mentioned before that back in the early 1990s when automation and satellite systems were newer and less refined, there were stations where the generic jock banter and music were delivered in real-time via satellite, and the local automation system in each station would be triggered to drop in positioning or just the local station's frequency and calls, recorded months or years previously by that same host. On some stations it sounded OK, but on others in was clearly obvious that the local liners had been recorded at a different place and time due to the difference in volume, voice pitch or cadence, etc. I still had friends outside the business tell me how much they liked the music on XYZ station, and they even had favorite jocks. When I explained how many stations were receiving that same content via satellite and that the jock was thousands of miles away, they challenged me, and asked how they were referring to that particular station's frequency and slogan if they weren't actually there. I explained. At times they still didn't believe me.
I contend they don't know and don't care. If you're in radio you know but if you aren't you haven't a clue. Like Mikey Radio, people didn't believe me when I said "Z Rock" was a satellite delivered format based in Long Beach, California, where the first Z Rock station was located. The people that would call me again, ticked off, because they thought I didn't ask Casey Kasem to play their requested song thought Casey was right there in the studio.
I had my "I ain't the Wolfman" moment at a small AM in the mid-90s, when a guy stopped in to leave something for morning host Jeff Rollins. Problem was Jeff Rollins was the morning host on Westwood One Adult Standards (or "AM Only"). I had to explain that the music hosts were networked, and that being a small station, we wouldn't be able to hire even one of these guys, but when a couple of hundred stations like ours pooled our resources we could have these professionals, while still keeping you in touch with all your local news, weather and sports. I guess he bought it.
That may be your personal definition, but in the industry "oldies" means, principally 60's to earlier (pre-disco era) 70's. Some "oldies" stations that don't care about "sales demos" may go back into the later 50's as well.
That happens. A friend ran the board at the San Diego station that carried Art Laboe's Sunday oldies but goodies show. One evening, a whole bunch of homies showed up in low riders and filled the parking lot. They wanted Art to do a shout-out to them.
Except Art was not in San Diego. A hard concept to explain when "but we can hear him right now on your station". Fortunately my friend found the station's old Polaroid camera they still used in remotes for "client proof". He did some shots and told the crew that he would send them to Art and ask hime to talk about it the next week.
The next Sunday, the low riders were back. They did a concert of horns programmed to play things like La Cucaracha and La Ley Del Monte and the like as a way of thanking my friend for getting art to say hello to the San Diego Home Boys the on the radio.
As a kid I didn't know AM Only was a satellite format, until another station in my reception range began carrying it. Then I noticed how each station adds in their own pre-recorded IDs done in the DJ's voice. Once you recognize it, the difference between the live (or at least voice-tracked) DJ voice and canned DJ ID is obvious, but to the average listener, as long as they get the timing right, it doesn't stick out.
Because this isn't a new thing. Stations have been using some form of syndication and voicetracking for over 30 years. The other alternatives aren't any more local. So if they're unhappy about the loss of local DJs, moving to Sirius isn't going to fix that.
For years stations would say they can't run a syndicated host in morning drive because listeners need local information. Then Howard Stern and Steve Harvey came along, and the listeners didn't care. So no, the listeners have shown how they feel about syndication on the radio. If they like the host, they don't care where he is.
In fact, Drake-Chenault started syndicating "Hit Parade" on tape going back to 1968. And in that same time period around the start of the 70's, we began getting syndicated oldies, country, beautiful music, MOR, Big Band and other formats distributed on tape with voice track updates as part of the package.
By the 80's, thousands of stations were running taped or satellite distributed music formats that came in a complete package with announcing and promos and music an even customized IDs and liners.
It would definitely be interesting to hear airchecks of one of these formats from the '80s. Do you know if any exist? On a somewhat related note, I've noticed the national formats have gotten better in recent years. Do they still use satellites to deliver their programming, or have they shifted to internet-based delivery with local automation? I've listened to several of those stations over the last year and one thing I've noticed is that I'm not hearing as many spaces as I did a couple years ago. I will agree that total automation sounds way better now than it did in the '70s from airchecks I've heard, but there's still some pretty bad sounding transitions out there. Even if we used to bash iHeart for tracking so many stations out of market, at least outside of Premium Choice, those jocks sounded local. Now, it seems like outside of maybe the top 25 markets, they're not even trying to sound local anymore with the exception of the dropped in IDs.
Both. It depends on the company.
Here's the bottom line: If a station can make more money by hiring local talent, that's what they'll do. Thousands of stations have hired thousands of local DJs in practically every market. The owners know if their programming is driving away the audience. But they also know what their budget is, and they can't hire people if there's no money in the budget to pay them.
A lot of formats are delivered in "kibbles and bits"... my way of describing workparts. Those are received online by the stations, and then the local log assembles everything, adding a song if there are fewer commercials, etc.
When formats were delivered already assembled, stations that were not sold out had to put in fill spots. Now, they can add extra music and even do "all music hours" and other local promotions.
The Seacreast show is a good example. It is assembled for broadcast from bits and pieces Seacreast and his team assemble during the day and week. Individual stations have different playlists, and some have fewer Seacrest participations per hour. That way each station determines the music, amount of news, weather and traffic, commercial load, etc.
In the mid-80s I worked at an FM station that was a Transtar Format-41 affiliate. One of my jobs was to dub the network talent liners/magic calls/etc. to carts.
Whenever the network hired a new talent, we'd get a reel with the new guy's cuts and I would dub them to a set of carts. On at least one occasion, we got a reel with just gobs of hiss behind the talent's voice. Maybe about 6 dB down. I was handed the reel on a Friday night and the guy's first shift was the next day, so I had no choice but to use it.
And yeah, it sounded like @$$ on the air. Fortunately it was an overnight segment (at least in our time zone) so it wasn't really a big deal. I don't think the guy worked there very long anyway.
The AM station in the cluster ran Transtar's Oldies format, with Beau Weaver doing mornings, and that guy was absolutely the most local-sounding talent in the bunch. He would drop in a magic call in the middle of a talk set and it sounded like he was actually right down the hall in the studio.
people better get used to it, locality is on its way out, and national network feeds are the new thing.
Awsherrill, do you have any airchecks of that? I'd be interested to hear how that sounded. My problem with Seacrest isn't how it's done, but the content in general. I know he was one of the first, but how many entertainment gossip shows does CHR need?
Getting back to the topic though, take the break I heard the other day. There was a station tag for 94.9 HOM, then the jock said "What did you do this labor day weekend? We'd love to see your pictures, you can upload them on our app." If I were in charge of putting that together, it would have sounded something like the following:
"94.9 HOM Hey what's up it's (insert jock name) and I want to know what you did this Labor Day weekend. Send in your pictures through the HOM app." Those differences are admittedly suttle, but if done correctly, they can make a big difference. I'm not sure if there's a way to eliminate the space between the station tag and the track with current methods, but that's my big issue with a lot of what I hear these days. Seacrest doesn't bother me as much because I know he's syndicated and if you're into that kind of stuff, he has compelling content.
Getting back to the topic though, take the break I heard the other day. There was a station tag for 94.9 HOM, then the jock said "What did you do this labor day weekend? We'd love to see your pictures, you can upload them on our app." If I were in charge of putting that together, it would have sounded something like the following:
"94.9 HOM Hey what's up it's (insert jock name) and I want to know what you did this Labor Day weekend. Send in your pictures through the HOM app." Those differences are admittedly suttle, but if done correctly, they can make a big difference. I'm not sure if there's a way to eliminate the space between the station tag and the track with current methods, but that's my big issue with a lot of what I hear these days. Seacrest doesn't bother me as much because I know he's syndicated and if you're into that kind of stuff, he has compelling content.
How many are there? Who has better contacts in terms of what's happening musically right now?
If you're going to get gossip, the challenge is to get it from a credible source. Not just someone who has a mic.
We talk a lot about the importance of talent, but it's an amorphous word. Just living somewhere doesn't make someone talented.
Actually, a lot of music programming is not "networked" but built locally out of format elements fed by the program provider. This allows each affiliate to customize shows to their music mix, commercial load and service elements.
In the case of Seacrest, he has credibility. He is known for actually knowing and socializing with the artists and stars and is highly visible due to his TV presence. And his show is "lifestyle" and not just entertainment news... but his listeners tend to have a lot of interest in music, TV and Movie stars and that is what he is good at and... that is where he has "insider" contacts, friendships and involvement.
The listeners absolutely don't notice or largely care. Only minor correction, Z Rock was based in Dallas. Their first affiliate was in Chicago.
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