Not trying to pile on…
Don Day | February 27, 2006This from the Idaho Press Tribune:
Jeers
To all the local radio stations. When I turn on the radio, all I hear is talk shows. I do not want to listen to talk shows on the “X” or KISS 103. It has forced me to purchase satellite radio.
What is this person rambling on about?
If I guestimate it right there are well over 30 or so signals in this market. Not including all the fringe that bounces in here… A handful are AM talk stations or National Public Radio News on the FM.
I suspect this person is refering to Morning Drive? If so, he may well be right. I listened the other morning and all I heard was banter….I ended up listening to 96.1 KSRV- just hear some music-I dont normally listen except on the rare occasion they ARE talking about something LOCAL.
Given they are wanting the X format etc then I guess we just have to consider this person’s age and maturity in how they perceive the world?
So, what does everyone else out there think?
I agree with the “Jeers” about the X’s morning format.
If it helps, I’m 24, a college graduate, and work in a professional/office environment.
I used to be a loyal X listener in the mornings, but not any longer. I don’t like Mancow because it seems like the majority of the time he’s yelling/arguing with the guests and that’s definitely not what I want to hear as I get ready for work. I hear that the X plays a couple songs during Mancow’s show, but no way am I going to listen to a bunch of crap just to hear one or two songs I might possibly like.
Plus, Mancow’s social/political views are generally not the same as mine, and I don’t care for how he categorizes people who don’t agree with him (like me!).
Dear Heather,
Seriously, about those bran muffins…umm…I can’t poop. Do you have a recipe or not?
Sincerely,
Ian at 100.3 the X
Ian- I’m sorry to hear that. Maybe this will help get things moving:
http://brunch.allrecipes.com/az/ClssicBrnMffin.asp
According to the recipe, it’s “a delicious source of fiber!”
Good luck.
Allaccess 2/27/2006
One Billion Served
Jimmy Carter
The Jimmy Carter Entertainment Report
read Jimmy’s bio
(Author’s Note: I wrote this after a very long week of listening to a few “don’t-have-a-clue” programmers.)
You see the story this week about the iTunes Music Store having its one billionth download? It’s not going away boys and girls, and it’s going to get even bigger.
Meanwhile, consolidated radio gets more safe and researched, with less local content, fewer on air hosts, and jocks that can do little more than read a liner. It’s beyond sad! Are the programmers in the small markets that stupid, or is it just they aren’t allowed to do anything? I think it’s the not allowed to do anything answer. These financially overextended chains have done this on the cheap for so long that I’m not sure where all this is going in the end.
The HD Radio answer is an interesting one, but who is going to buy these radios? Car makers have taken forever to get sat radio! I know I have no plans to replace my sat radio with some CD jukebox thing. Radio is not nor has it ever been a jukebox. Tell me, please, WHERE in the history of radio was an automated station ever number one? And don’t say some market ranking of 300. When WABC was playing more music, it still had great programming to go with it.
CRS was a weird event this year. With the whole “investigation” thing and the ever-growing consolidation issues, no one is left to come unless they take vacation time and pay over $1000 for the trip (not including airfare).
Where is this train heading? You want to remain positive and hopeful, but the radio bosses of the last 15 years have screwed things up so badly chasing a narrow demo that the other animals at the farm have escaped or have died.
The only hope is to make sure your morning show is serving the town and you somehow make new music an event and not some perceived negative. Playing more recurrents is NOT going to save radio. Hell, who has the power to do anything about it, though? Hands are tied, and there are very few left who know really how it’s supposed to be done.
These WOLF/BEAR/JACKASS stations are appealing to those who can’t pay the money for a decent sat radio. No one learned anything from Howard Stern and Don Imus in a good way. People listen to the radio not so much to hear the music (while that is an important component, sure), but rather to get information (weather, traffic, etc.), feel like a part of the community they live in, and generally feel connected to city and, in country’s case, the music. They want to be entertained!
Music Row labels are going outside radio more and more to get their jobs done. Gotta get around the roadblocks of the moron gatekeepers somehow. The stick in the muds in radio are really gett6ing annoying. The great folks who really know how to run radio are getting fewer and fewer. Technology and, yes, TV morning shows, are making a smaller not larger audience for traditional. Just look at the growth of ALL those. Check percentage or growth for local TV mornings versus growth for radio.
Keep reading those research reports that say everything is fantastic. Some smart people better wake up and stop the bleeding. Radio’s irrelevance is self-inflicted by some greedy radio group owners who are too stupid to get out of the way.
Again, the best of the best make radio an exciting place to spend part of your life. More and more folks need to listen to some good radio stations and copy them! Fast! This train has left the station and it’s not coming back. You better get in a very fast car and catch it. Or like the mouse who moved the cheese tale, you will starve!
I saw a lot of the dazed, sheep-like people at CRS. Made me crazy. I am looking for about a dozen great morning folks to take over radio and make it wonderful and necessary again.
The fewer songs they play the happier I am! When talk is good on a morning show that’s a GOOD thing. Make MUSIC special. Why is that such a hard concept? Get excited about a new song, don’t hide it! Who do we need to hang that screwed all this up in the first place?
Just to let you know, I’ve programmed 5 stations and in each case threw away the liner cards. It freaked out the jocks at first because suddenly they had to think and entertain.
Two stations went from 4 and 5 to number one and the other three at least doubled their ratings.
The difference in radio is the live body, let them entertain. It may take longer than 30 seconds, but when you have something good to say it is better to tell the story with flair rahter than having to get to it quick.
Lookin’ In
I agree! Too much talk! Some of these jocks think everyone tunes in to hear them ramble on about nothing. It’s not ENTERTAINMENT! It’s a WASTE OF THE LISTENERS’ TIME! The MUSIC is what entertains the listener.
Go ahead and talk in morning drive, but in the afternoon , (with all due respect) SHUT UP AND PLAY THE MUSIC!
Entertainment is entertaining. If it’s not entertaining its crap. If something is not entertaining, then 30 seconds is too long. If something is really entertaining then 5 minutes is too short. I agree if you’re talking just to be talking, then shut up…..and play the music. If you can make me laugh and give me information that I find interesting, then shut the music off and entertain me.
I like what Lookin has to say. More power to your comments.
The reason the world is not dominated by just one big fast food drive in is because folks still like a good old fashioned home cooked MEAL…..more power to LOCAL radio and the extra effort it takes to make it that way!
I totally agree with the JEERS!!! I can no longer listen to the radio in the mornings at my office becuase of all the sex crap that the morning talk shows are spewing on the air. I work with a lot of conservative employees and customers and it is not acceptible, nor do I enjoy to hear it.
I think this is funny just because I have worked for 100.3 and 103.3 and I currently work for the Press-Tribune. You think that would have been me leaving that jeer. :)
I don’t know why that’s funny, I tried to think of why, but it just is.
I agree with no more talk on morning radio. It’s nice to have a show but people want to hear more than 2 songs an hour. Growing up with Byl and Doug, I know that morning radio can be entertaining but you need a break every once in a while (kind of like the superbowl, you NEVER have time to get up and refill your food!).
Although I worked for WHFS in Washington when the morning show was the Sports Junkies. Not one song between 5 and 10, and all they talked about was SPORTS. At least we don’t have that.
hey larry,
don’t know what you’re smoking but I wouldn’t lump all morning shows into your tidy little bundle of hiss.
i’m sorry to hear about the sort of folks you’ve surrounded yourself with but i’m pretty sure that there are a few other options out there that you haven’t discovered.
now move along.
Yah, support local morning shows.
That’s why the #1 morning show is Bob and Tom. Now, THEY’RE local. Just not here.
Why do you suppose these morning shows flip to the Mancows and other crap? Cuz they get the really big numbers in the morning and the local guys don’t. No ratings, no Bling-Bling. Yah, it’s like dat, don-chu-know, Mon?
See, most of these threads don’t hold water, everyone complains about not hearing enough music in the mornings, and that the audiences want to hear more music and less talk…..and less sex, yet the number one rated show is a all talk show, no music, that has lots of sexual content. So it just goes to show why more morning shows are copying them, because that is what the listener wants. And as for non local morning shows at last look Bob and Tom were the only non local morning show anywhere in the top 10. And it took them over 4 years to start to make a dent in morning drive ratings. If you look at all the top rated morning shows, they all have one thing in common. They have all been together on on air for at least 4 and sometimes 8 to 10 years or more together. Bob and Tom, Kevin and Brenda Mike and Kate, Cori and Debi the Khtz morning show….all have been together and on the same station for a long time. It takes a lot of time and patience for a new show to find and develop a loyal following. Most companies don’t want to spend the time and money to invest in a morning show, if it doesn’t work in a year or two, get rid of them and start over. Look at Magic for instance, they used to have huge ratings, and one of the constant things that station had going was a low turnover for their morning show. I think they only had 3 changes over about a 10 or 12 year period. How many morning show changes have they had in the last 4 years, something like 10 or more. A radio station will never find an audience doing that. The X has been going through the same thing over the past 3 years and their ratings have suffered compared to the previous 3 or 4 years when they were more stable.
codger said…
“If you look at all the top rated morning shows, they all have one thing in common. They have all been together on on air for at least 4 and sometimes 8 to 10 years or more together. Bob and Tom, Kevin and Brenda Mike and Kate, Cori and Debi the Khtz morning show….all have been together and on the same station for a long time”
Don’t forget about Jon and Chris, codger…;)
Dear Larry & Jac & “Jeers”
I totally agree with you. Morning drive should concentrate on much more music & much less of the “yuck yuck.” You really have a fantastic idea on your hands. Maybe it’s something we should try!
Sincerely, Greg Williamson, Kool Oldies 104.3 Morning Drive Guy
that was funny shiznit there!!
A lot of great and free valuable advice has been offered here. I hope management will climb off their ivory towers and read it all and take it to heart. One aspect of longevity is the synergy that develops between an on-air team. You can tell without knowing it or maybe noticing it when a show is right. There is great interaction. Kind of like a good marriage. It might take a few attempts to get it right, but when you find the right partner it tends to last for a long time.
If they are having a good time at what they do and it is no longer work, thats when the listener is going to want to stick around as well….stress and strain are very apparent to the listener…its just there like being on a bad blind date.
Hats off to Chris and Paul J at KBOI, they are doing a great job (in my opinion) there is a good repoire here and it shows, they compliment each other! One of the reasons I dont listen to KIDO in the morning, is the staleness that seems to exist… its not fun for me as a listener, its stagnant…but they must be doing something right becuase they are still going strong and the ratings seem high.
That would mean that management did something wrong in the 1st place. uh- Dont think that gonna happen.
Personally, I think if Chris & Paul J would just shut up & play some more music, a lot more people like Larry would listen to them too!