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A bit of humor

rbrucecarter5 said:
Pretty accurate description of Houston radio, though!

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=e0c58dcd92c954d0b30f3253e8f7baf4&oe=5A937C24
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While non-offensive stereotypes are the fodder of comedians, this 4-panels-of-stereotypes is not "a bit of humor". And it is nearing a quarter of a century in being out of date and out of touch.

Sports is talk for guys. It works because a large percentage of guys are sports fans, if not fanatics. The format is a nice alternative to music and to politicized talk.

Country stations neither overpower the dial nor do all songs sing about pickup trucks, beer and fights. If you want to understand what country is capable, go from Alan Jackson's "Where were you when the world stopped turning" to Florida Georgia Line's poetic "H.O.L.Y" and you have a music form with amazing variety in style and lyrics... from Merle to Maren.

Alternative is actually a format with considerable variety... so much so it is hard for a station to find the right consensus music for airplay. And if you have not seen Imagine Dragon videos, you are not recognizing the great talent they and many of the groups have within their style. (And in the last 4 hours, The Buzz played exactly one R.E.M. song and no Morrissey... so much for stereotypes.)

And it's been a long time since 99.9% of college stations were so free-form that there would be any humor in the panel about them.

You show your lack of understanding of all radio except the dwindling number of stations that play what you personally like. I was at the movies the other night, and I spotted a perfect analogy: of 8 movies playing, there were two we had seen and one we were going to see. The other five were of genres that I don't particularly like or had subjects or actors or directors I don't enjoy; my taste. But I saw that the people leaving the other theaters looked pleased, and had, similarly, enjoyed their experience with films I would not like.

At the movie multiplex, there were movies for literally everyone. But I would imagine that most ticket holders were like me, and would not enjoy all the movies being screened. The choice is theirs. And if certain kinds of movies bomb, the film makers will react by not gree-lighting more of the same kind. Same way with radio: nearly no Westerns in the movies, nearly no oldies stations on the radio.

But mostly it is about "live and let live".
 
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Come on David, lighten up! It was supposed to be funny! It would have been more accurate, though, if instead of REM it would be the Eagles Hotel California. For a while in 2009 and 2010, you could almost set a clock to The Eagle playing Hotel California. Even a big Eagles fan like the guy playing the station in the lab was starting to groan every time that song came on, at least 3 or 4 times a day. At least that is what it seemed. All of us are so burned out on that song we still can't stand it any more. The best thing that ever happened to the Eagle is when the Arrow shut down, and they could expand their playlist. As for country dominating half the dial - not one station but what seems like every 3rd or 4th station. And I think the comedic description of slob sports stations is all too accurate. I don't watch that stuff on TV, and the amount of detail in the information presented by people over the air is bewildering to a non-fan. I wish they would devote that much intellectual energy into a pursuit that benefits mankind, instead of wasting it on irrelevancies. The college station is a satire, I have heard some pretty unprofessional things done over the air, and that is what makes it interesting.

Your movie analogy is accurate enough, but it assumes that there are movies of interest to everyone. That is not the case with radio, which has settled on a handful of formats, none of which is interesting to me. If radio abandons an audience segment, they will return the favor.
 
Thanks for the cartoon and the followup, rbrucecarter5. Sad that DavidEduardo comes across as so upper-crusty-rusty, he's forgotten what humor should be . . . fun.
 
ThatVoice22 said:
Thanks for the cartoon and the followup, rbrucecarter5. Sad that DavidEduardo comes across as so upper-crusty-rusty, he's forgotten what humor should be . . . fun.
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Think about what you are saying for a second, will you? Those are jabs being taken at a profession that he has apparently spent nearly a lifetime building, and the subject material that this entire website is built upon. I don't find the humor in it either, so add another tally to the upper-crusty-rusty group.
 
rbrucecarter5 said:
Come on David, lighten up! It was supposed to be funny!
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It wasn't funny when it was published in 1995 and is not any more funny now. It's the worst kind of stereotype at work: the one that is not even based on facts, but, instead, an individual's personal taste.

As for country dominating half the dial - not one station but what seems like every 3rd or 4th station.
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That's the market at work. If there are listeners, and the listeners patronize the advertisers, then such stations will thrive. In Houston, you are obviously counting the edge-of-the metro small town stations as well as the two major Houston country stations. Country, in rural Texas, is the state's most viable format because folks like it.

And I think the comedic description of slob sports stations is all too accurate.
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From your perspective, no doubt about it. But many people from all walks of life enjoy sports and sports talk. Some are possibly as you describe, but most are just nice guys who like their favorite teams.

I wish they would devote that much intellectual energy into a pursuit that benefits mankind, instead of wasting it on irrelevancies.
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And I wish my kids had eaten more veggies.

The FCC tried to impose "Public Affairs" quotas on radio for several decades. It did no work... and people did not listen, even to the best of those efforts.

The college station is a satire, I have heard some pretty unprofessional things done over the air, and that is what makes it interesting.
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That does not take away the stereotyping... as most student staffed or run stations in the past actually tried to serve their constituency with appropriate programming. Anything unprofessional was, just as has happened to all of us in our earlier careers, due to lack of experience and judgement.
 
ThatVoice22 said:
Thanks for the cartoon and the followup, rbrucecarter5. Sad that DavidEduardo comes across as so upper-crusty-rusty, he's forgotten what humor should be . . . fun.
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There is noting humorous about disparaging the career choice of tens of thousands of radio folks past and present, and nothing funny about humor that is based on hyperbole that is not "amusing exaggeration" but the perpetuation of "fake news".
 
Some commenters here specialize in over-reaction, this time regarding a 1995 cartoon which was humorously accurate about radio in 1995. At least one admits he's part of the upper-crusty-rusty group while the other demonstrates it by pontificating about "disparaging the career choices of tens of thousands" - that quote is the only hyperbole here.
 
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