Comments on: Voicetracker fabrications: good radio or listener manipulation?

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:19:19 +0000

The said:

The analogy of Ford to contemporary radio doesnâ€™t really work very well.

I don’t favor Ford radios. Delco/Delphi/whatever makes better radios.

By: The

The — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:43:31 +0000

Rocket said:

“I never mentioned Ford -

“My point is the comparison of the world moving forward and embracing NEW technology, while the horse-and-buggy crowd keeps looking BACKWARD and laments the â€œhorse-and-buggy daysâ€..”

True, you didn’t mention Henry Ford by name, but he was the dominant guy in the car industry back then.

By “horse-and-buggy days,” do you mean when radio paid a LIVING WAGE and treated its personalities AS personalities? Sorry, but I don’t see voice-tracking as “progress.” It’s just a cheap way of doing business.

By: ken bass

ken bass — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:49:15 +0000

yeh, but, JIM SMITH….there were other perks! like….uh…..wait….its coming to me…..uh….free coffee…yeh…..and……uh……oh, you remember, don’t you? those were the days, weren’t they?

By: Scott Nicolino

Scott Nicolino — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:36:42 +0000

…and by the way, for those of you who think VT’ing sucks because callers can’t call in or “stop by and see you”…I agree, that is a downfall, but remember the actual number of listeners who do try and “call” or “stop by” is so INCREDIBLY SMALL! Your majority of listenership is just that…listeners…they listen…and don’t participate…

By: Jim Smith

Jim Smith — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:33:58 +0000

Well since you did mention Henry Ford, the pay for voice tracking seems to be only slightly better than was the pay for working on a Ford assembly line 100 YEARS AGO!

By: Scott Nicolino

Scott Nicolino — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:31:41 +0000

Again, I want to state that I wish Voicetracking was not a part of everyday radio life…however it is, and I VT on a lot of stations for some extra cash…and the bottom line is, if it is done correctly and professionally there is NO WAY possible to tell that it is not live and local! Unless you are in the “Biz” and have that trained ear to pick up on the occasional subtle nuances that might clue you in to a VT’ed show! With local content updated every single day from the station’s PD, callers from what ever market you are currently in recycled on to your VT’d station, as well as contests too… In my situation I run contests that are all about the music…and those can run on my classic rock station in Idaho as well as any Classic Rock station around the country I VT for! Not a single person can tell it is not LIVE AND LOCAL! So, done correctly VT’ing Can sound great! I wish we were all live 24/7…but in this day and age we are not…and the entertainment value can still be there with a VT’ed show! That’s what I try and bring to the radio table with my VT’s. And, done correctly, it works!

By: Rocket

Rocket — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:22:47 +0000

The says “The analogy of Ford to contemporary radio doesnâ€™t really work very well.”

I never mentioned Ford –

My point is the comparison of the world moving forward and embracing NEW technology, while the horse-and-buggy crowd keeps looking BACKWARD and laments the “horse-and-buggy days”..

By: Cynaera

Cynaera — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 01:00:28 +0000

I tried to slog through all the posts. Really, I did. But I kept coming back to my personal bottom line – radio, from its inception, was intended to inform a lot of people as accurately as possible, for the least cost.

Now, technology has made all manner of wonderful things possible. I know a guy with 36 years of radio experience who’s so good at his trade in radio that he can be waxing rhapsodic about something taking place in the community within minutes of his voice, and I’ll see him, as I’m listening to his voice on the radio, in my rear-view mirror, on his way to the laundromat.

I hate it. I live in this one simple dimension. Two, if I’m particularly creative. That whole “My voice is here, but my body is in Barbados” thing is just mildly traumatic for me. I’m from that stupid, archaic generation when a radio station had live bodies 24/7, unless it couldn’t or wouldn’t pay for more live bodies, and when there were no live bodies, there was dead air.

I remember KELK radio in Elko, Nevada, back in about 1973 – from ten p.m. until midnight, there was Tim Blissenbach. He’d bring in his LP collection (hello, kiddies? Remember vinyl?) He’d light candles in the studio, and he’d kick back with his feet on the console and he’d just love the music. We were treated to an entire side of Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” or something from Lindesfarne or Strawbs or It’s A Beautiful Day. That’s the stuff with which I grew up, and I guess the whole experience stuck, because I now base my radio listenership on what I know can be done, because it was already done. The technology might be different, but the soul is the same.

So, until I hear a radio station that gives me live LOCAL bodies and great music that encompasses all the cool stuff going on in music now, I’ll just tune y’all out while I listen to “Got My Way” by Steve Lukather on my newly-purchased CD, which I obtained as a result of listening to http://www.pandora.com .

By: The

The — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 08:28:24 +0000

Rocket said:

“Reading this thread, I imagine the debate mustâ€™ve been the same from the horse-and-buggy operators when the automobile was introduced into the mainstream because of the assembly line.”

If you know your history, Rocket, you know that Henry Ford, for all his faults, treated his workers well, making sure that they knew that the assembly line didn’t mean that they were going to be out of jobs. He also paid a then-unheard-of $5. a day.

The analogy of Ford to contemporary radio doesn’t really work very well.

By: Janice

Janice — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:55:38 +0000

Hey Ken, it worked for them when they had to get the Governor off their backs about the Capitol restoration/expansion. He can’t stand being called a dork.