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Floyd Wright on DRC-FM

First post from me. I served many years in CT radio, and finally left to make money, but I've never left what radio really meant to me: music, personality and communication. I was privileged to work with Floyd at 'YZ when the station first went country in '88 - and I was there when it hit #1. I've worked with a lot of the folks mentioned in this discussion, and from my perspective, Floyd is one of the most professional and best-prepared radio personalities in the market. I'm glad he got a day shift at 'DRC, but there's no shame in an overnight gig either. It's where I (and a lot of people) started in professional radio, and also where I started at 'DRC (on weekends, no less) until a daytime slot opened up. That kind of progression is what radio folks do. You don't come into a new station demanding, "Gimme my slot or else I'll pick up my marbles and go home." Even Murray The K came into WINS on the overnight shift. (The other radio professionals here will tell you the same thing: unless you're hired as a name draw, you're glad to be where you are, at least for the time being. And if not, walk out; someone who really cares wants your place.)

Re: Floyd staying in CT, he's following in the footsteps of such broadcasting giants as Charlie Parker, Bob Steele, and (said with reluctant admiration) Brad Davis. CT, particularly Hartford, is a great market to live and work in (at least it was for me through the '70s and '80s), and convenient to two top 10 markets without the incredible cost and pressures of either. CT offers far more than other markets of its size, in my opinion. I thought I'd grow old and "die on mike" in Hartford, but life happens when you're making other plans.
About that comment that CT radio sucks: it may now, but when I came to town after the classic 'DRC/'POP "wars," I found the market to be overflowing with outstanding talent, especially on the Top 40 side - and the album rock side soon caught up with it. It has been a long sad slide downward since at least a dozen years ago, but this is no different than most other markets. I'm in the NYC metro now, and frankly, I find that just about all of the commercial radio stations are unlistenable. One probable exception: FM 107.1 out of Westchester, where you can tell the jocks usually have the studio monitors on - but they're probably being paid in satisfaction, not dollars. (My first fulltime year in voice-overs netted me 50% more than my best-money year in radio, and it's has gotten much better since then.) Most of the rest of the NY area stations are just reading flashcards and playing the same hundred tired records in a slightly different order. Borrrrrrrrrring!

A couple of words about Greater Media, who someone said respected the talent they hired: Well, maybe. I live in the signal area of their WMTR in Morristown, NJ. A few years back, they traded in a "music of your grandmother" format for a 1954-1964 oldies sound with live jocks (including some VT shifts), most of whom really gave a damn despite the tracking even if they didn't match the talent level one would expect. There were some interesting musical surprises sprinkled in with the predictable hits, but they were usually worth waiting for. The oldies format doubled the "mewzak" ratings. But then the consultants got hold of the station and messed around with the format, and the ratings attritioned thanks to "research," as opposed to staying with the kind of gut instinct it takes to keep an oldies format fresh (see: 'CBS-FM before it got Jacked off vs. the new floundering post-Jack version). Then one day a few months ago, the live jocks were gone and it's now on the satellite. Results: one more pre-digested yawn for the listeners - and pink slips for the full-time staff.

Opinions are like eyes, everyone has a couple. Those are mine for today.
 
I'm glad he got a day shift at 'DRC, but there's no shame in an overnight gig either. It's where I (and a lot of people) started in professional radio, and also where I started at 'DRC (on weekends, no less) until a daytime slot opened up.

Earth to progressive. The graveyard shift is where you start out. Not where you end up after midday's afternoon's in New Haven, CT. Afternoon's for close to 20 years in Hartford. Then end up doing overnights to pay the bills?
Next step should be Afternoon's in Springfield or Boston. So he hung out until another hartford radio personality was sent to the radio guillotine. But like most CT radio vets they choose to be the big fish in the small pond. DRC is just another example of a CT radio recycle bin. ::) It's time to step aside and let some fresh talent surface. :)
 
It's the person who makes the position, not the position that makes the person.

Jerry Kristafer once said even if he were working at McDonald's he'd still be involved in the community. Radio has been a vehicle for that involvement. People do radio for different reasons. It's not all about the "big prize" that tells everyone you've arrived.
 
Clear indication that Floyd isn't really there for his midday shift: He promotes DRC-FM's latest concert ticket contests by saying "Call in to win, mornings with Jerry Kristafter and afternoons with Larry Wells." No call-in-to-win from 10 to 2? Buckley saves money AND gives its audience one less reason to listen to the midday show.

I'm also noticing that the playlist seems to be tightening up outside of weekends. Not nearly as many of the quirky "Up the Ladder to the Roof"s and "Morning Girl"s and "Since I Lost My Baby"s that set DRC-FM apart from other oldies/classic hits stations, more of the tried and true. If the jock says the Grass Roots will be coming up in the next hour, it's "Midnight Confessions," not "Two Divided By Love." If it's the Honey Cone, they're doing "Want Ads," not "Stick-Up." I know that it's been proven in ratings over and over again that shallow-playlist, safe and familiar is the only way to go in a music format, but still, I'm missing the DRC-FM difference already. And with Sirius apparently set to remake XM's decades channels by next month, satellite will become more "FM without the commercials" and less deep-playlist alternative to FM.
 
CTListener said:
Clear indication that Floyd isn't really there for his midday shift: He promotes DRC-FM's latest concert ticket contests by saying "Call in to win, mornings with Jerry Kristafter and afternoons with Larry Wells." No call-in-to-win from 10 to 2? Buckley saves money AND gives its audience one less reason to listen to the midday show.

I'm also noticing that the playlist seems to be tightening up outside of weekends. Not nearly as many of the quirky "Up the Ladder to the Roof"s and "Morning Girl"s and "Since I Lost My Baby"s that set DRC-FM apart from other oldies/classic hits stations, more of the tried and true. If the jock says the Grass Roots will be coming up in the next hour, it's "Midnight Confessions," not "Two Divided By Love." If it's the Honey Cone, they're doing "Want Ads," not "Stick-Up." I know that it's been proven in ratings over and over again that shallow-playlist, safe and familiar is the only way to go in a music format, but still, I'm missing the DRC-FM difference already. And with Sirius apparently set to remake XM's decades channels by next month, satellite will become more "FM without the commercials" and less deep-playlist alternative to FM.
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Listeners get tired of the same songs over and over again. And the line that PD's use "These are the songs that people relate back to certain times in their lives" doesn't cut it anymore. Listeners are sick of the same songs being played. Eventually the ratings will show that.
When a jock on DRC promos a song coming up by an artist you can practically guess what song it is cause their playlist is so short.
A couple of years and that station will change format. ;D By then the dish will have taken over :-[
 
Kudos to GlenO and Ken Gilbert.

On another note...
It was very clear today after Jerry signed off that Floyd is voice-tracking as the pc had obvious buffering issues during a grassroots song and then proceeded to only play a minute of Player-Baby Come Back, jingle, Spoonful (?) for 20 seconds, jingle, then Floyd did the weather without giving a current temp (surprised they even give the weather!). If radio is to survive, voice tracking *must* be eliminated! Radio is about humans entertaining humans, not about machines entertaining humans. Personally If I have to hear a mistake on-air it'd be more acceptable if it was a human mispronouncing a word/name or stepping over an intro versus that of a pc having buffering issues and changing the pitch of a song several times through out it's airplay, but then again since the early 90's quality of the product isn't priority anymore if at all.
 
I know of a few FM stations that are voicetracked and it is impossible to detect it unless you knew what to listen for. I've heard voice tracking that sounds just as good as a live jock as far as being tight, personable and performed in such a manner that the deficiencies are hard to detect.

I would have liked to have heard the computer problem on DRC-FM. I'm sort of surprised considering that Tom Ray had been pretty active in fine tuning things up there, but I suppose anything is possible. A computer not keeping up with things is the spoiler that will give away the illusion of a live jock in the studio, no matter how good the jock is on an actual live shift.
 
Listening to Mike Stevens this evening it sounds like he is voice tracked. Some what generic show tonight as was said earlier about Floyd Wright, no current temperature at the end of the weather, thus far no requests and very jingle heavy between songs. Also, the wrong legal i.d. jingle was used introducing the 70's at 7. The generic id was used instead of the 70's id. If this is going to be the regular plan for this show it is another disappointment for me as a listener of the station.
 
Typical of DRC going the vt route. They are a ridiculously cheap station! It's very easy to discern between a live person and a vt liner. Gaps of dead air, liners crushing vocal intros, delivery and voice inflection of jock.

Does Buckley compensate the personality half of his/her salary for a vt shift lmao :D
 
Bill DeFelice said:
A computer not keeping up with things is the spoiler that will give away the illusion of a live jock in the studio, no matter how good the jock is on an actual live shift.
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Perhaps that's the push for HD radio?... so that across the screen when the windows computer blows up it can read "Blue Screen of Death" as the current playing track? ;D ;D
 
Many stations use a board-op to run the tracks and many stations don't. I can usually tell when there's no board-op. Now, if you can VT well enough, the only give away would be the lack of temp in the wx, as many have talked about on here. I used to VT a station's overnights when the APD was filling in on another shift. I would leave minor stumbles/mistakes in to make it seem live. If a show is too perfect, it sounds fake. I also know of people who use phone calls from their on-air shifts and use them in VT for other stations. It would take me an hour to an hour and a half to VT one show and show prep for it because I actually cared about it sounding live. Some people would tell me it took them half an hour and their shows sounded that way. I would also make up names of people to say hi to during a VT. Sorry, a bit of an over achiever, but I care that much.
 
The Big D Fan said:
Listening to Mike Stevens this evening it sounds like he is voice tracked. Some what generic show tonight as was said earlier about Floyd Wright, no current temperature at the end of the weather, thus far no requests and very jingle heavy between songs. Also, the wrong legal i.d. jingle was used introducing the 70's at 7. The generic id was used instead of the 70's id. If this is going to be the regular plan for this show it is another disappointment for me as a listener of the station.
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This has corporate cutbacks written all over it. Buckley must be financially strapped if prime shifts are being vt'd. Or it's an experiment???? What next vt morning drive??? lmao :D :D
 
Is that when he does the night before Christmas? I know he did something like that on WRCH last year.
 
[Listeners get tired of the same songs over and over again. And the line that PD's use "These are the songs that people relate back to certain times in their lives" doesn't cut it anymore. Listeners are sick of the same songs being played. Eventually the ratings will show that.
/quote]

Unfortunately, much to the disappointment of PDs believe it or not, listeners may say they hate to hear the same songs over and over again, but they keep filling out diaries with stations that feature the tightest playlists. It truly is the fault of the diary method - but it is all we have right now. I was once told by a very successful PD that the biggest complaint launched at the top rated station is that they play the same songs over and over again. Maybe someday, hopefully, that will change, but as of today it still rings true.
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DRCFM_Rules said:
SallysPizza said:
Why is he washed up? Because he chooses to stay in Connecticut and not sell his house in a horrible economy? Because he has lived there his whole life and made a lot of money and now no one wants to pay ANYONE that kind of money any longer? Did you ever check his ratings? He had incredible ratings at WWYZ n afternoons. They let him go because he made more money than Wendy Steele and they now VT middays. So that makes him washed up? How unfair of you! I happen to know Floyd and and many others in the market and I know what the deal is. He wanted to stay in CT. because his family is there and he had hoped something would pop for him there. He's got a TON of friends in the market and they encouraged him to make the move to DRC-FM because nothing would come of WRCH as they would be sold soon. Make uninformed speculations all you want to, but the comment you made was completely ignorant and uncalled for...very tacky. I hope you never have to read something like that about yourself or have anyone in your family read that about you. You may not like someone's style, but let's keep this a little more respectable or even slightly professional.
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Sally's Pizza, THANK YOU. I have been reading these boards for years and it really pisses me off when people say stupid things like that. Floyd, like many other talented radio people, have devoted their whole careers to entertaining the public. And over the years evil empires like Clear Channel and CBS have ruined the industry, making it sheerly for-profit, and not-for-listeners, driving out the mom and pops and making cuts to the marrow while they fill their fat, stinking pockets with the blood, sweat and tears of the people who got into radio because it was in their hearts and souls. Radio is going the way of the teletype machine...and unfortunately, there aren't many lifeboats on this sinking ship. Sit back, Mireckj, and throw those insults around. I hope they come back and bite you in the ass in your own profession.
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Ditto! Floyd Wright is part of the fabric of CT. radio AND he deserves to be working. There are many mainstays who reach the $ ceiling and must go. Multitasking abilities come into play here. But not always. BIG groups with stock prices now sitting at 70cents a share or lower don't care about "community" or the jocks that haul them in to the cume. The group heads are too embarassed by the public humiliation of wall street. There are legendary GM's and sales executives who get washed out in this process as well from the lack of direction over them. Floyd has no reason to feel low about this assignment. The cream will always rise (back) to the top. Things just have to play out in the economy. NO..I am not Floyd Wright. I have never met the man but just a working radio pro who is very thankful (at present) to be working. Too many talented people o-u-t to be bashing on these boards. Oh Sirius/XM stock price: 53 cents a share! LOL (11/4)
 
Please allow me to applaud you all for taking this thread to the unexplored corners of the universe. I thought I knew quite a bit about this business but from what I'm reading, Floyd Wright must be GOD! No offense to Floyd, but this has become the most contrived thread in the CT Board. Whew!!! Air it out already!!!
 
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