IS IT REALLY THIS SIMPLE?

[tfsports]

Came acroos this very interesting article, which basically charges that today's powers-that-be in radio can't see the forest for the trees. See what you think

http://melphillips.blogspot.com/2010/05/terrestrial-radio-gets-failing-grade-in.html

 

[foursider]

Terrestrial radio is quickly losing the glamour it once had as a medium where you could hear your favorite tunes as well as entertaining personalities. Gordon McClendon taught three tenets of a successful radio station. Programming, Personalities and Promotions. Without one, the other two are worthless.

Radio, today, has lost it's programming compass. There isn't any entertaining programming. On any given day, you can listen to one station for about an hour and hear their entire current playlist. And, none of your favorites. Forget about request shows. Even the news stations repeat the same news stories over and over all day long. Hear the news stories for the day in the morning and don't even bother tuning in that afternoon. You'll just hear the same stories; even if there's been new news breaking during the day.

Most stations now voice-track everything except morning and afternoon drive. One announcer voice-tracks twelve stations in different markets. Holy cow! No time to to be entertaining. Just get the positioning liners in and be done with it. No jokes. No satire. No parodies. No fun. Even the drive announcers can't do anything funny. Might offend some advertiser, ethnic group or looney cause.

And when was the last time you saw a radio station out on a for-real promotion. Not a fund-raiser. Not a remote from a car dealer. Just a fun promotion with a personality hanging in a basket over a pit of rattlesnakes or a remote from the monkey cage at the zoo. Or some other such nonsense. If we can't make a buck off of it; we won't do it.

Where the hell did fun radio go?

 

[poops]

The sad part about it is, there is talent out there waiting in the wings who could get radio back on track, but alas, the suits are deaf and DUMB!!!!!

 

[tfsports]

Foursider, I don't know where fun radio went, but I sure wish it would come back. And Poops is right when he says there are a lot of talented people just waiting for a chance to be a part of that again. Remember when we all laughed at Muzak? Now with voice tracking, that's all most terrestrial radio is now days.

 

[ultra_defense]

KSBJ still has DJs full-time around the clock. KSBJ still does a lot of community-related promotions along with free brown bag concerts. On any given month KSBJ will have 2, 3, 4 or more fun free public events. Radio is very much alive on 89.3

www.ksbj.org

 

[mrbeasley]

Yep. A lot of talent waiting to get in and a lot of talent waiting to get back in. Like Foursider said, voice-trackers aren't real talent. They don't engage the listener and keep them tuned in. So, what does a station rely on to keep their listeners?

KSBJ does have live personalities. And they do concerts to promote themselves and the artists that they play. And, most any time, you can reach a live, sincere jock on the phone. Gotta hand it to them. They're still doing real radio.

 

[AndyWaldrop]

KSBJ does have live personalities. And they do concerts to promote themselves and the artists that they play. And, most any time, you can reach a live, sincere jock on the phone. Gotta hand it to them. They're still doing real radio.

Yes they do and yes they are! And quite honestly, their ratings reflect that!!!

 

[tfsports]

KSBJ might be the only station doing real radio, and perhaps those big wigs at the big commercial ventures might want to examine why this station has the ratings they do. All good point raised by Andy, beasley and ultra.

 

[schmave]

Yep. A lot of talent waiting to get in and a lot of talent waiting to get back in. Like Foursider said, voice-trackers aren't real talent. They don't engage the listener and keep them tuned in. So, what does a station rely on to keep their listeners?

KSBJ does have live personalities. And they do concerts to promote themselves and the artists that they play. And, most any time, you can reach a live, sincere jock on the phone. Gotta hand it to them. They're still doing real radio.

They're not a commercial station but I used to very much enjoy listening to KACC when I lived in the League City/Friendswood area. They sounded better as a college station than many commercial properties in the area. Certainly a better variety than the Arrow and while they played some songs I didn't know, they played a lot more I liked or hadn't heard in years. Try getting that on commercial radio. The late Cathy Forsythe did a great job down there and her legacy continues to live on.

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

Yep. A lot of talent waiting to get in and a lot of talent waiting to get back in. Like Foursider said, voice-trackers aren't real talent. They don't engage the listener and keep them tuned in. So, what does a station rely on to keep their listeners?

KSBJ does have live personalities. And they do concerts to promote themselves and the artists that they play. And, most any time, you can reach a live, sincere jock on the phone. Gotta hand it to them. They're still doing real radio.

They're not a commercial station but I used to very much enjoy listening to KACC when I lived in the League City/Friendswood area. They sounded better as a college station than many commercial properties in the area. Certainly a better variety than the Arrow and while they played some songs I didn't know, they played a lot more I liked or hadn't heard in years. Try getting that on commercial radio. The late Cathy Forsythe did a great job down there and her legacy continues to live on.

Amen.

 

[whatever39]

On the subject of noncommercial radio, KUHF offers intellegent national and local news coverage and does tons of fun events as well as sincere community outreach, not to mention, they have the last radio newsroom in Houston.