Damn I should have known to post this instead: Quick quick quick in 5 seconds name the last TV commercial you have seen advertising an English language radio station in SoCal. What station? Need 10 seconds?
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The old KRTH
- Thread starter David Shapiro
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Damn I should have known to post this instead: Quick quick quick in 5 seconds name the last TV commercial you have seen advertising an English language radio station in SoCal. What station? Need 10 seconds?
It sounds to me like you haven't been anywhere near a radio station in 20 years. My "theories" as you call them are based on today. I don't care about what happened at KRTH 20 or 30 years ago. It has absolutely no relevance to radio operations today. I don't care about your ancient history or mythology. I still have a job. I'm not here to remember the good old days. I live in the real world.
With regards to interns, I doubt very much that anyone the age of an intern today even knows who Lloyd Price is. I'm sure you can find someone who does, but it's all a complete fantasy.
K
KayJayJay
Guest
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Damn it, someone needs to just come out and say it:
Damn it, someone needs to just come out and say it:
"Girls, you're ALL pretty!"
The Sound. Relatively frequent flights, although apparently not ongoing.
And why would Spanish language stations be exempt from the question?
And KayJayJay is the weird guy who stands around yelling in the station parking lot.
K
KayJayJay
Guest
You continue to argue the same argument about the same radio station with the same person for five years...over and over and over and over and over...
And I'm the weird guy?
And I'm the weird guy?
Point taken.
After reading Michael's response, I thought that perhaps a follow-up was warranted.
First, those of us in the industry (including Michael, BigA and myself) who are employed by companies that are CBS's competitors in at least some markets are definitely not going to be allowed in KRTH's studio at any time of the day.
Further, in overnights there is nobody in the KRTH studio doing anything. And for years and years, nobody in the studio at any hour actually caused a song to play as the station has used digital storage and music log automation for a long time; the system pulls up the cuts and sequences them.
And your assumption about working in significant stations is unfounded. You are getting the most objections to your theories from people who have been there and done that many times over.
In my case, I worked with the creator of the History of Rock and Roll of which your "Number one songs" idea is a derivative (and may indeed be copyright). I worked for 20 years with the creator of American Top 40. I've had a number of successes in markets with populations that are in the 7 to 8 digit range. And I am cautioning you on making assumptions about ancient music because of my experience in programming, ownership, management and research.
There is a saying in Spanish that goes "the worst deaf person is the one who does not want to hear". Maybe not a politically correct statement in today's more sensitive era, but it fits you and Oldies76 as if it were tailor-made for you.
Try benefiting from the many rational voices, both listeners and radio pros. Read the comments by CTL and many more intelligent posters who understand that the #1 song in 1956 or 1976 is only playable if today's listeners want to hear it. Radio plays songs that appeal to listeners today, and we are not a museum.
Good point. But there is always the risk that other interested listeners who do not know radio will be mislead by such enormously inaccurate statements.
Besides, a good game of rope-a-dope is genuinely fun and ranks up there with the greased pig chase and the charity celebrity dunking for entertainment value.
True. The internet is forever. And any misinformation that is allowed to stand unchallenged runs the risk of being taken as Gospel tomorrow or years from now.
And that misinformation will shortly become the basis for a Wikipedia article.
The buck has to stop somewhere.
K
KayJayJay
Guest
Mr. Eduardo and Mr. Hagerty - Quick history. I'll try to make my point. And then I'll depart for greener pastures yelling in the nearby iHeart cluster's parking lot.
I broke into large market radio in 1978, just five months after I first cracked a studio mic. In the almost forty years since, I've never achieved at anywhere near the level the both of you have. I never will. I will always admire persons like the both of you who have lived the career I only dreamed.
But I learned one thing that I'm surprised the both of you seem to have forgotten. My first large market station was a Heftel owned disco music radio station. The endless litany of "disco sucks" made answering the request line a joy. At first, I tried to defend the format. I knew that the "disco sucks" crowd was commenting based on personal taste. I knew that (at least briefly) the facts were on the radio staton's side.
But after a time, I began to realize that I was never going to win the war. I realized, admittedly after my PD called me on the carpet about arguing the format with a caller, that the best I could do was offer a quick thanks for the input and thanks for calling. And sure, history tells us disco did suck.
I've read these threads. I've enjoyed how the both of you have so capably stated your case. I've tried to interject some middle ground between emotion and fact. I quickly realized that middle ground isn't going to be found.
A half hour later and I'm now thinking that I probably should have just held my tongue. But I wanted you know a little about why I wrote what I did.
Now off to the iHeart parking lot...should I rail against Premium Choice playlists today or hold to my usual "Ryan Seacrest sucks" rant?
I broke into large market radio in 1978, just five months after I first cracked a studio mic. In the almost forty years since, I've never achieved at anywhere near the level the both of you have. I never will. I will always admire persons like the both of you who have lived the career I only dreamed.
But I learned one thing that I'm surprised the both of you seem to have forgotten. My first large market station was a Heftel owned disco music radio station. The endless litany of "disco sucks" made answering the request line a joy. At first, I tried to defend the format. I knew that the "disco sucks" crowd was commenting based on personal taste. I knew that (at least briefly) the facts were on the radio staton's side.
But after a time, I began to realize that I was never going to win the war. I realized, admittedly after my PD called me on the carpet about arguing the format with a caller, that the best I could do was offer a quick thanks for the input and thanks for calling. And sure, history tells us disco did suck.
I've read these threads. I've enjoyed how the both of you have so capably stated your case. I've tried to interject some middle ground between emotion and fact. I quickly realized that middle ground isn't going to be found.
A half hour later and I'm now thinking that I probably should have just held my tongue. But I wanted you know a little about why I wrote what I did.
Now off to the iHeart parking lot...should I rail against Premium Choice playlists today or hold to my usual "Ryan Seacrest sucks" rant?
Whack-a-mole was more what I had in mind. Once I take a whack at one of you guys, another one seems to pop up.
You're not roping anyone in. I'm here because I'm having fun.
KayJayKay:
We haven't forgotten. It's just that no one out there could hear the folks on the phone. Millions (over time) could read this or what's written based on it. That's why it matters.
There was nothing to compare with working for a station that Cecil owned. He valued talent, and was one of the "the jocks should drive Cadillacs and the sellers can drive Chevys" proponents. He knew that it was so much easier to sell the #1 station, so that is what he focused on.
Just as you had to deal with the "Disco sucks" callers, I had to take the calls on LA's Spanish talk station in the mid to late 90's when it was getting top 10 shares. I learned that the better the format did, the more annoyed people there would be. If I did not get angry calls, we were not pushing the right buttons. So I would do the same thing that you learned to do... say "yes, I understand" over and over; the listener generally said "thanks for listening to me" and hung up.
And that reminds me of another story. Back in 1979 I switched a Beautiful Music station for a contemporary format. Today's equivalent of switching a soft AC to Hip Hop. I got loads of calls (so many we had to bring in staffers for the whole weekend of the shift) and they included comments about bad taste, the low income of the potential listeners and forecasts of total failure. We did the "thanks for your call" to all of them, and less than a month later the first ratings showed us at a 22.5 share and #1 in the market. If we listened to the calls, we would have been playing Mantovanni and barely in the top 10.
I guess that this statement pretty much defines the old adage of "ignorance is bliss".
Exactly, and I think that's the motivation behind this thread. You don't see any threads here about KKGO.
The real world of mega broadcast corporations, eliminating thousands of other radio jobs in the process. I get it.
My internship ended in 1987. You obviously have zero and flawed knowledge on what I've done in my stint in radio, so please quit while you are ahead of the game, sir.
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Thank you. I appreciate the support. I've bolded points you've made that tell the story. In the meantime Labor Day is fast approaching.....Catch you later man!
Another flawed assumption, on behalf of Vinnie. Wow.
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