What's going on with WRKO?

[Cap-n Spackle]

They've been looping the Happy Days theme since the top of the hour.
A stunt?

 

[Cap-n Spackle]

Apparently a snafu, as they resumed their regular programming as the bottom of the hour approached.

 

[Cap-n Spackle]

Could iHeart be any worse? I keep noticing, on any of their streams, that they'll sometimes fail to come out of an ad break and return to the scheduled programming but instead keep playing a series of PSAs and/or podcast previews. If I hit Stop and then Play again, the show's segment will already be in progress.

 

[nowradioguy]

About 15 years ago, WRKO ("an Entercom station" back then) fired its entire news staff and began outsourcing its newscasts, from (then) Clear Channel's Total Traffic and News (TTN) service. Overall, that worked well, except when there WAS no newscast to broadcast. I understand they were pre-recorded and a few never saw daylight, so, dead air.

When iHeart took over, they decided WRKO was going to use feeds from WBZ NewsRadio 1030. Could it get any better than this?! EXCEPT that these feeds were also pre-recorded. And often a single pre-recorded news feed used once was worth re-using over a span of several hours before an updated one was recorded . Now that's just plain sad. And, no, this is not restricted to the stream; this is what's going over the air.

 

[Tired Of It All]

About 15 years ago, WRKO ("an Entercom station" back then) fired its entire news staff and began outsourcing its newscasts, from (then) Clear Channel's Total Traffic and News (TTN) service. Overall, that worked well, except when there WAS no newscast to broadcast. I understand they were pre-recorded and a few never saw daylight, so, dead air.

When iHeart took over, they decided WRKO was going to use feeds from WBZ NewsRadio 1030. Could it get any better than this?! EXCEPT that these feeds were also pre-recorded. And often a single pre-recorded news feed used once was worth re-using over a span of several hours before an updated one was recorded . Now that's just plain sad. And, no, this is not restricted to the stream; this is what's going over the air.

Overnite on RKO it's the same 'BZ news feed over and over. Talk1200 repeats the same 'BZ news feed over and over for hours during the day. In fact, the same 'BZ news feed heard at 2:30am on RKO is repeated at 6:30am on Talk1200. I only listen to RKO at nite so I can't comment on what goes on during the day. I do find it amusing that at nite RKO constantly promotes the Jim Polito show, heard mornings on Talk1200.

 

[Tired Of It All]

Could iHeart be any worse? I keep noticing, on any of their streams, that they'll sometimes fail to come out of an ad break and return to the scheduled programming but instead keep playing a series of PSAs and/or podcast previews. If I hit Stop and then Play again, the show's segment will already be in progress.

Could iHeart be any worse? Don't say that, they'll take that as a challenge!

I listen via the actual radio and the same thing happens on another Iheart station, Talk1200, they come out of a break and it's nothing but PSA's over and over or worse yet, ad after ad done by Kuhner and then all of a sudden we join the program already in progress or, there's dead air or double airings, then we join the program already in progress. Talk1200 does not respond to emails or voice mails or any other kind of correspondence. They don't even answer the phone.

 

[raccoonradio]

There's all kinds of cross promotions, from BZ news on RKO to Kuhner spots on 1200 to Polito promos on RKO..and the various FMs. Again, an ad promoting a contest advises going to "jamn949 dot com" (sic)--yeah got the freq wrong but there's cross promotion.
Re running news--hey it's Classic News 1030.
A few years ago WBZ news headlines fired up by mistake about 20 min past the hour on Howie's show. And two different things running after a TOH newscast, program and PSA etc.

From CBS ownership to iHeart, WBZ listeners have complained about their fave hosts being taken off. Brudnoy in favor of Tom Snyder. Overnight America in favor of Leveille and Dyett. The protests did get some action
More recently, Morgan White Jr being benched then brought for one show--and losing an hour. Listener protests may have helped get him back; now the friends of Morgan FB group is urging they contact iHeart. "They only keep Morgan around so he can fill in for Dan"--and he gets a 2 hour show in the bargain.
That late Sat time slot isn't exactly vital to the station's success--they deem it...trivial...

Some such protests succeed...but anyone hoping EMF would just go away so WBRU and WBOQ can get back to their old formats, or iHeart not making such mockery of news-talk...won't get satisfaction.

>>>Talk1200 does not respond to emails or voice mails or any other kind of correspondence. They don't even answer the phone.

 

[nowradioguy]

There's all kinds of cross promotions, from BZ news on RKO to Kuhner spots on 1200 to Polito promos on RKO..and the various FMs. Again, an ad promoting a contest advises going to "jamn949 dot com" (sic)--yeah got the freq wrong but there's cross promotion.
Re running news--hey it's Classic News 1030.
A few years ago WBZ news headlines fired up by mistake about 20 min past the hour on Howie's show. And two different things running after a TOH newscast, program and PSA etc.

From CBS ownership to iHeart, WBZ listeners have complained about their fave hosts being taken off. Brudnoy in favor of Tom Snyder. Overnight America in favor of Leveille and Dyett. The protests did get some action
More recently, Morgan White Jr being benched then brought for one show--and losing an hour. Listener protests may have helped get him back; now the friends of Morgan FB group is urging they contact iHeart. "They only keep Morgan around so he can fill in for Dan"--and he gets a 2 hour show in the bargain.
That late Sat time slot isn't exactly vital to the station's success--they deem it...trivial...

Some such protests succeed...but anyone hoping EMF would just go away so WBRU and WBOQ can get back to their old formats, or iHeart not making such mockery of news-talk...won't get satisfaction.

>>>Talk1200 does not respond to emails or voice mails or any other kind of correspondence. They don't even answer the phone.

Aren't a lot of the frequent and frustrating fuster cluck mishaps on both WRKO and Talk1200 the result of inattention to, or lack of understanding of, the iHeart broadcast machine on someone's part?

 

[Mikey Radio]

Aren't a lot of the frequent and frustrating fuster cluck mishaps on both WRKO and Talk1200 the result of inattention to, or lack of understanding of, the iHeart broadcast machine on someone's part?

This is also part of a bigger trend of modern-day engineers, programmers and station management obviously not monitoring or listening to the stations they oversee. While I realize that some simply don't have the time and get busy with other things, this seems to happen more and more, where automation or satellite systems go into error for hours (sometimes days) on end with no one caring or available to correct it. A few months ago someone posted on here about a station where a guy was a few hours into his airshift before he got a call from a random listener who called to tell him the transmitter wasn't even on, so he'd spent all that time and effort broadcasting to...no one. For hours. Earlier this week the BIN station in this area had all kinds of weird digital noise and the audio was so distorted at times that it was unlistenable. It seems to be corrected now, but that went on for a few days.

 

[Wimmmex]

This is also part of a bigger trend of modern-day engineers, programmers and station management obviously not monitoring or listening to the stations they oversee.

Remember how many things they have to monitor.

Over-the-air signal, HD-1, HD-2, 3?, web stream......and do this for 5 stations? Modern-day staffing says there's not enough personnel to be listening to all these all the time to spot the occasional glitch. (Worse is when it's a dead-air issue or an ongoing malfuntion to see how long it is for anyone to notice!) The personnel at the station are all engage in other duties. No one's primary job is to monitor Talk 1200.

I don't know is there's even enough personnel to monitor all the over-the-air signals, especially when some signals have been given a "no hands approach" (like Talk 1200).




..

 

[Mikey Radio]

Remember how many things they have to monitor.

Over-the-air signal, HD-1, HD-2, 3?, web stream......and do this for 5 stations? Modern-day staffing says there's not enough personnel to be listening to all these all the time to spot the occasional glitch. (Worse is when it's a dead-air issue or an ongoing malfuntion to see how long it is for anyone to notice!) The personnel at the station are all engage in other duties. No one's primary job is to monitor Talk 1200.

I don't know is there's even enough personnel to monitor all the over-the-air signals, especially when some signals have been given a "no hands approach" (like Talk 1200).

I don't think anyone expects (or believes it'd be realistic) to have station staff actively listening to every signal that originates from their facility 24/7, but considering how many preset buttons modern-day cars have, one would expect management and operations folks to at least flip through their stations at least a few times per day to ensure there's no dead air, that the programming at lest sounds correct (i.e. country stations are airing country music, news/talk are airing talk programming, etc.) and that there are no blatant issues. As someone with pride in my work and hopefully pride in the station(s) I work at, I'd rather spend a few minutes a couple of times per day doing brief quality control checks rather than risk having listeners grow frustrated at all the technical issues and errors and tuning out completely.

 

[Wimmmex]

one would expect management and operations folks to at least flip through their stations at least a few times per day

I'm sure they do. But checking out a stream a "few times a day" is probably not going to catch low-level streaming spots, our outdated weather, clunky online program segues, etc.

If an engineer gets a call that the spots aren't loading on WBZ, The Hannity show network feed is not coming through on Talk 1200, WRKO's Transmitter is off the air, the mic pre-amp in Kiss108 is bad.........and there's an outdated weather airing on the stream......which do you pay attention to?

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I live above the station i work at full time, i check the radio twice and hour.. and im passing by the studio at least once an hour.. and guess what? shite still happens... dead air has happened......

 

[Cap-n Spackle]

Today 1200 was playing the 12:30 news and PSAs break and the yelled Kuhner ads at the same time.

I expect the occasional glitch, but when they're so frequent that it's noticeable when things to smoothly...

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Overnight America in favor of Leveille and Dyett.

Overnight America was a Westwood One show that is no longer produced. So, among all these things, this one isn't iHeart's fault.

 

[raccoonradio]

That was back in the CBS days...Jon Grayson's show from St Louis was being sent to WBZ AM and stations in Minn., Pitt etc.
Someone alerted Morgan to the upcoming changes and a listener organized a campaign.
Dec 2012 on this board Joseph_Gallant wrote:
>>Given the imminent switch of WTKK-96.9 away from talk, the CBS-owned syndicated talk show "Overnight America" will soon be without a Boston-area home. A few years back, CBS tried to muscle the show onto WBZ-1030, laying off Steve LeVeille in the process, but "Overnight America" lasted only about a month on 'BZ, with LeVeille returning.
___
That was early 2009:

Outraged Steve LeVeille fans want him back on WBZ

UPDATE: WBZ comes to its senses, re-hires LeV

www.universalhub.com

Then Steve retired. Dyett was relegated to a half hr and he passed on in May of 2012.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

There are many available ways for stations’ transmitters and streams to be monitored 24/7 without someone having to actually listen periodically. For stations participating in Nielsen PPM ratings, Nielsen even provides PPM monitors which can generate alarms.

And for anyone who thinks such systems are too expensive: You can’t send out bills to advertisers for spots that run into a dead transmitter or stream. After preserving the FCC license, preserving the revenue comes before anything else. Crass? Maybe, but…this IS a business.

 

[nowradioguy]

I'm sure they do. But checking out a stream a "few times a day" is probably not going to catch low-level streaming spots, our outdated weather, clunky online program segues, etc.

If an engineer gets a call that the spots aren't loading on WBZ, The Hannity show network feed is not coming through on Talk 1200, WRKO's Transmitter is off the air, the mic pre-amp in Kiss108 is bad.........and there's an outdated weather airing on the stream......which do you pay attention to?

So if any conscientious listeners try to contact the station that's experiencing technical difficulties, exactly how feasible is this?

Does iHeart or Audacy publish online a PHONE NUMBER for a listener to call in and report what's airing, or NOT airing, as the case may be?

There's a poster on these Forums who was actually able to contact a live human (!) at iHeart about technical glitches heard over the air. Many promises were made but few were kept. Eventually the live human told the poster/listener if (s)he didn't like it, then don't bother to tune in!

 

[Motown]

The average radio listener doesn’t care about most of the issues raised. Anyone on this board is not an average radio listener. An average radio listener is not going to keep track of radio glitches that happened years and years ago.
More than half of the radio stations are losing money…please correct me David if that is incorrect. There will never be any resources paid to Talk 1200. Makes no business sense. If you don’t like it don’t listen. Simple. The advertiser wanted target audience of 25-54 on Talk 1200 is close to zero.
Overnights are not a factor for advertisers so why waste money there.
Relative to EMF, they are the most successful radio company today. People are getting increasingly sick of negativity and will pay to hear positive, uplifting and spiritual music. Embracing a higher power than yourself is what this country was founded on. In God We Trust. EMF will continue to grow and prosper. Successful radio is about programming content to what people want to hear.

 

[Tired Of It All]

Here's an a idea. WHY don't stations hire more competent people to monitor their airwaves and to answer the damn phone and/or respond to emails, voicemails etc. There's no excuse for what goes on in radio these days, dead air, double airings, etc. modern technology is NOT a friend of radio. Go back to the days when people produced quality radio, took pride in their work, and when they heard a phone ring, they actually answered it, listened and fixed the problem. Talk1200 does NOT answer their phone nor do they respond in any way, shape or form to emails, voicemails, tweets, etc.

The average radio listener doesn’t care about most of the issues raised. Anyone on this board is not an average radio listener. An average radio listener is not going to keep track of radio glitches that happened years and years ago.
More than half of the radio stations are losing money…please correct me David if that is incorrect. There will never be any resources paid to Talk 1200. Makes no business sense. If you don’t like it don’t listen. Simple. The advertiser wanted target audience of 25-54 on Talk 1200 is close to zero.

Excuse me??? I AM THE AVERAGE RADIO LISTENER AND I DO CARE ABOUT THE ISSUES RAISED HERE. And yes, I DO keep track of glitches and I do try to contact the station to let them know, to no avail, and there lies the problem. The "average listener" DOES care, the station employees don't. SMH.

Hmmm, I guessing you work for Talk1200 with the "if you don't like it don't listen" attitude. THIS IS WHAT'S WRONG WITH RADIO.

Successful radio is about programming content to what people want to hear

Does programming content include double airings and dead air???? Double airings and dead air ARE NOT what "the average listener" wants to hear. SMH.