KXLT’s new “better” brighter jockless format
Don Day | December 26, 2007
KXLT/107.9 Lite FM returned to regular programming today – cutting (most of) the Christmas music in favor of its regular mainstream AC lineup early this morning. The station is still mixing in a few holiday cuts per hour today – in case folks just didn’t get enough in the last month.
There’s something missing of course: on-air talent. The station lite-ened its payroll by cutting Melissa Dawn and Greg Williamson the day before Thanksgiving. Now, the format has picked up song tags – with each song ID’ed at the end by a neutral female voice. Kevin & Claire still hold down the morning fort.
Who needs jocks anymore? With automation performing the job function of a DJ – and now song tags taking care of the personality (that’s a joke) – what’s left for a human being to do?
The station rolled out new liners that attempt to back up their no-personality format: “We think sometimes the best company is just some really good songs.”
So they’ve stripped away the only thing that differentiates them from a hard drive full of MP3s or Internet radio – and that’s a positive?
Remember when Peak Broadcasting launched, execs planned to turn KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM into a Bob FM format station – but Tester Broadcasting outmaneuvered them and got on the air first with KSRV/96.1 Bob FM.
Now, the company has basically launched a “Bob FM” station for women. Variety hits aimed at females with no jocks.
“So they’ve stripped away the only thing that differentiates them from a hard drive full of MP3s or Internet radio – and that’s a positive?”
Couldn’t agree with you more. In fact, a hard drive full of MP3’s has at least one advantage over personality-free radio–YOU choose the “playlist.”
The radio industry is run by imbeciles who don’t understand the first thing about show business. When I’m elected Pope of Show Biz, every one of these losers will be put on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific where they can tell each other how they ruined the best medium in the world.
Personalities in radio are NOT an expense, they are a profit center.
Oh, I forgot–your hard drive full of MP3’s doesn’t have any commercials.
The fact that you think a “jocks” job is to backsell songs is the problem.
The reality is that being a radio personality goes beyond that was and this is. Unfortunately, there’s not enough real personalities in this market.
If you have non-compelling, typical DJs announcing songs without anything entertaining except the occassional witty catch phrase, why pay them when you can accomplish the same thing with great imaging?
Jockless is something an athlete does. Without personality is all too common in today’s radio. Radio needs to wake up and realize it’s not about the music anymore, but what you do in between.
peace.
Sad. Very Sad. Why should anyone in this business be surprised by their programming decison. Lets wait a while and a year from now at this time… See what new format they have running on that frequency.
If they strip all the reasons people want to listen out of their format, it will have that other thing in common with a hard drive full of mp3’s as well ….. eventually they won’t have any commercials either.
As a social scientist, the discussion regarding automation replacing human talent in radio and other areas of employment intrigued me. My questions centered upon the issue of automation leading to human displacement in the labor force, and the impact outsourcing has had as a result of automation.
According to a brief article on Wikipedia, “…when automation was first introduced, it caused widespread fear. It was thought that the displacement of human workers by computerized systems would lead to severe unemployment. In fact, the opposite has often been true, e.g., the freeing up of the labor force allowed more people to enter higher skilled jobs, which are typically higher paying. One odd side effect of this shift is that “unskilled labor” now benefits in many “first-world” nations, because fewer people are available to fill such jobs. Some argue the reverse, at least in the long term. They argue that automation has only just begun and short-term conditions might partially obscure its long-term impact. Many manufacturing jobs left the United States during the early 1990s, but a one-time massive increase in IT jobs (which are only now being outsourced), at the same time, offset this.
It appears that automation does devalue labor through its replacement with less-expensive machines; however, the overall effect of this on the workforce as a whole remains unclear. Today automation of the workforce is quite advanced, and continues to advance increasingly more rapidly throughout the world and is encroaching on ever more skilled jobs, yet during the same period the general well-being of most people in the world (where political factors have not muddied the picture) has increased dramatically. What role automation has played in these changes has not been well studied.
One irony is that in recent years, outsourcing has been blamed for the loss of jobs in which automation is the more likely culprit[3]. This argument is supported by the fact that in the U.S., the number of insourced jobs is increasing at a greater rate than those outsourced[4]. Further, the rate of decline in U.S. manufacturing employment is no greater than the worldwide average: 11 percent between 1995 and 2002[5]. In the same period, China, which has been frequently criticized for “stealing” American manufacturing jobs, lost 15 million manufacturing jobs of its own (about 15% of its total), compared with 2 million lost in the U.S.”
This is a tragedy. The only way to win is with personality. It is what built radio and it is what will save radio. It’s sad when there’s not a jock who can relate to you and keep you company. I miss the old days of live radio. Voicetracking and jockless formats be damned. Again proving that it’s not mp3s killing us, the danger comes from within. Radio is killing itself. A little off topic, this can be extended to the awful marketing the HD Radio Alliance has done to itself, telling people how rotten regular radio *primary signals* are. All Access has a fascinating take on the matter, but I digress,radio is cannibalistic! Build a better radio station and they will come!
People don’t hate radio. They hate what’s ON the radio.
I’ve never read anything that convinces me that today’s audience wouldn’t respond to compelling personalities on the radio just as audiences in the past did. It certainly works in talk radio, where they can’t do without personalities. They would if they could, but but they can’t figure out how to make that work.
The companies that are the Big Players in radio today do not have Clue One about what works in radio. They just look at the balance sheet and think, “Hmm, why are we paying these disc jockeys?”
Eventually, someone will come along and realize the answer to that question, but it may be too late for the medium called “radio” by that point.
The Says, elchupacabras, RDS, RadioActive … DITTO!!!! It’s personality that drives great radio.
As for Buster Bronco … SHUT UP!!! You are limited to 2 sentences from now on. NOBODY CARES!!!!! Hold on a second “…. partly cloudy through tomorrow with a high of 36 today. 27 degrees now at the Boomer!” OK, we’re back. And what does the new Lite-FM have to do with 15 million Chinese loosing their jobs … Gotta go, we have Rockin New Years Eve tickets to give away!
Big Jack & Bryan, Boomer 100.7
Elchupacabra’s statement, “This is a tragedy. The only way to win is with personality. It is what built radio and it is what will save radio. It’s sad when there’s not a jock who can relate to you and keep you company” and The Says comment, “he companies…do not have {a} clue…about what works…They just look at the balance sheet” illustrates a problem that is present in radio, television, education, and religion and one of the reasons people have been revolting against these entities in recent years.
Each entity seems to have forgotten they are entities composed of, by, and for the people. They are agents of the people providing a service society has demanded they provide. However, the are also entities composed of people, of personalities, not corporate puppets and high tech machinery. Because of the focus on the almighty dollar, we have forgotten what the original mission of the media, religion, and education was. Instead, we rely on providing information, academics, and religious support as quickly and cheaply as possible. We have not helped solve problems. We have simply been getting by as cheaply as possible and hoping nothing happens that causes us to get our hands dirty and fix the issue at the time of origin and at it’s source. Religion has forgotten it’s original mission. Sister Joan Chittister, Executive Director of Benetvision, a national resource center for contemporary spirituality and social psychologist, a renowned international speaker, and a widely published author, stated, “The purpose of holiness is to change the way we live in the world, not for our own sake but for the sake of others.” Instead of helping change the world, or at least our little corner of it, we focus more on the business of religion and whether or not the pastor’s salary or the power bill is paid.
The same is true of education. It has been said true education releases capacities, develops analytical abilities, confidence in himself, will power and goal setting competencies, and instills the vision that will enable him to become self-motivating agent of social change, serving the best interests of the community. Instead of becoming agents of social change we focus more on standardized testing and teaching methodologies that allow education to operate as cheaply as possible instead of providing students with tools they can use to improve their world.
We now see automation in media. Personalities are being stripped of jobs in favor of a profit margin. We need to re-focus our attention and energies toward restoring the original missions of religion, education, the media, and other things so that we use it as an aid to or a channel for social change and loving and helping our neighbors as ourselves as the original mission of religion asked us to do.
after being in radio for over 33 years i have seen a lot of changes. but not as much as the last year. radio has gone out of the entertainment mode and has shifted to purly the sales mode. live jocks telling you information
about news, weather, lifes daily travels, who needs it
ownership says. did it bring in enough bucks to justify having them around??? in their eyes or by their wanten numbers “no” bye bye live jock. what gets me is these higher ups many of them have never set at a console for hours at a time doing what we do and if they have they havent for a long time……it will be interesting to see what 2 yearsout will bring when the area has been glutted by the ad barons and the pricing tosee if those little businesses can afford to buy the airtime. just a thought
Buster Bronco ….
You are now limited to only 2 sentences a week … PERIOD!!!! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??? Stop the novel writing already … geez … stick to the subject of “no jocks”!
You write: Sister Joan Chittister, Executive Director of Benetvision, a national resource center for contemporary spirituality and social psychologist, a renowned international speaker, and a widely published author, stated, “The purpose of holiness is to change the way we live in the world, not for our own sake but for the sake of others.”
Explain to me what that has to do with KXLT going to liners as a result of firing Melissa Dawn and Gee Dub????
Like Glenn Beck, I too am wrapping my head with duct tape so it won’t explode. You make reading this great service produced by Don quite painful … STOP IT!!!!
“Big Jack”
Hey Bronco Buster, how about full disclosure of who you are? No more hiding behind a football mascot.
The purpose of my novel was to support Elchupacabra’s and The Says’ positions that radio has become dehumanized in order for corporations to make profits. This is why Melissa, Gee Dub and other have been canned.
Mass media, mostly owned by corporate enterprises and not private individuals or groups, has dehumanized radio in order to make a profit. K.J. Mac, Big Jack, Larry Lomax, etc. became radio icons because they were (and are) colorful personalities that people had fun listening to. Today, we have “roboradio” playing canned programming. People don’t relate to “roboradio” because it has no personality, no warmth, and is no fun.
The rant regarding religion and education (which should have been written in another forum) was simply meant to illustrate the corporate attitude prevalent in religion and education today and how that attitude is dehumanizing society.
As far a full disclosure, maybe someday. Stay tuned.
For the love of Pete……Have any of you ever listened to Lite! When was it EVER a personality station? You think Mellisa and G W saying “That was Elton John and this is Josh Grobin… would make anyone listen for the personality?
Stop already!
Yes, I have suffered through Lite Radio when I go to the Dr. or am in an elevator. It’s as impersonal and sterile as the health care system and many of the health care employees. However, “Big Jack” has asked I limit my rants so he can hold his head together. None of us would want a cranial explosion. And Glenn Beck doesn’t ramble???
I will say I’m a big fan of shorter comments. Especially comments with paragraph breaks. :)
VT said: “The fact that you think a “jocks” job is to backsell songs is the problem.”
No, I don’t – I was being flippant.
I will endeavor to be more brief and grammatically correct. If I feel a discussion is necessary, I will offer it to you in smaller doses.
:)
Don’t misunderstand – write as much as you want. I just know I personally tend to zone out during long comments.
I knew I was getting carried away. There are so many socially relevant comments on the site that are worthy consideration that I can’t resist authoring lengthy responses. It comes from having two writing intensive majors: Political Science & History. I shall take note and do better.
Peak is doing the same thing in Fresno (listen to y101hits.com). I also hear sales are down 30-50% at Peak and they are having major cash flow issues. Expect them to let a ton of people go next year.
KJ
I was talking with a friend in Las Vegas recently about the problems at the Tropicanna Hotel. The main focus of the company that owns it is cutting costs to the bone and assuming people will tolerate the poor service that results. Maybe, for a while, but competition is stiff and eventually people will decide to stay at a well-run hotel.
The owners of the hotel are thinking in reverse. A casino is a revenue-based business with specific, fixed costs, which must be met in order to meet the expectations of the audience. The goal in running this kind of business is to figure out how to generate more revenue by getting as many people to stay as possible.
Its the same with radio. Radio in particular is a revenue-based business. Cutting costs and creating a jockless format just says “We give up and can’t compete, so we won’t try. Why bother.”
The emphasis really needs to be in the other direction: Creating sources of revenue and putting a quality product on the air. I hope the jockless format works. I always try to hope for the best. However, those who manage radio stations seem to be acting out of desperation by cutting costs.
The audience will say the same thing and tune out, along with advertisers. My attitude is: If radio is going to become little more than an iPod with commercials, let me save a step and listen to better programmed radio stations on my computer. They may not be local, but at least I’ll be entertained by personalities who will relate to ME.
Perhaps the fault lies in owning clusters. When stations were stand-alone business entities (the competition between KJR and KOL in Seattle comes to mind) there was a real drive to compete for audience numbers and advertising revenue. When you own 6 stations in a cluster the need to really compete seems to disappear.
I hope the jockless format works. I always try to hope for the best. However, those who manage radio stations seem to be acting out of desperation, cutting costs instead of trying to put a quality product on the air and expand their sources of revenue.
I want to respond to a couple of things Rainshadow said:
1) Rainhadow: “The audience will say the same thing and tune out, along with advertisers. My attitude is: If radio is going to become little more than an iPod with commercials, let me save a step and listen to better programmed radio stations on my computer. They may not be local, but at least I’ll be entertained by personalities who will relate to ME.”
It seems to me that as automation slowly consumes radio stations and those station cut personnel and become I Pod-like, listeners in the Boise market are clambering toward the stations who have, at least to date, been able to retain their local personalities (e.g. KFXD with Jon & Chris, KBOI with C-Dub & Paul J., K-Hits with Tracy & Margo, and a couple others). People have developed a trust and interaction with these folks that will not happen in automated radio. As automated radio develops more of a stronghold, people will turn more toward talk radio (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Barry Farber, ESPN Radio, etc.) for their interaction. Soon, local people will discover we will have to communicate with one another locally to solve local issues. So, communication could revert back to actual human to human communication. Wouldn’t that be nice?
2) “Perhaps the fault lies in owning clusters. When stations were stand-alone business entities (the competition between KJR and KOL in Seattle comes to mind) there was a real drive to compete for audience numbers and advertising revenue. When you own 6 stations in a cluster the need to really compete seems to disappear.”
Owning more automated stations and more clusters will only make people want to communicate with actual people more. There will be an initial wave of support for automated radio, but it will be relatively short lived and soon moderated by a movement for more human interaction in radio and then the return for interaction with local talent.
3) “I hope the jockless format works. I always try to hope for the best. However, those who manage radio stations seem to be acting out of desperation, cutting costs instead of trying to put a quality product on the air and expand their sources of revenue.
Expansion of revenue sources will mean more human interaction in the community. The stations who ask for community support will have to give back something to the community for tolerating automated radio. Where ties are cut for the sake of profit will mean having to anchor ties someplace else in order to be relevant in the market. If the new ties are established in community relations and stations can help society become a better place, maybe automated radio is worth a look. I just doubt that will happen.
Hey Jack… I’m blown away you took the time to read ALL of that… there’s 15 minutes of your life you’ll never get back. Lets do lunch and I’ll teach you to “skim”. :-)
Just like the listener, I loose interest if it takes me more than 15 seconds to get your point.
Next
Radio is an entertainment based industry. If I think the jock is funny, entertaining, or just plain relatable I will listen and probably listen often. It’s the talent that makes the connection with the listener. It doesn’t matter what format. We have conditioned the listener on formatics. How many people switch while in their car during commercial breaks? They’re not as dumb as the higher ups want to think. If a station hits a liner card then goes into a 3-7 minute stop set after playing that “12 in a row”, the listener is GONE and the advertiser gets screwed!!!!I love the fact that so many people preach “Local, Local, keep it Local, that’s how we will win”! How the hell do you keep it local without a TALENT that can be LOCO!. A lot of this “old school” programming needs to go in order for radio to survive. Again it’s not about how many songs you can cram down a persons throat it’s about talent and entertainment. Look at the more successful morning show!
Happy New Year!
As I become more chronologically challenged (older), I find that I like radio that will challenge my mind and make me think about issues of the world (i.e. current events, politics, sports issues, etc. ) I tend to listen to the KBOI Morning News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, et al. Whether or not I agree or disagree is irrelevant. They present issues and thoughts I have found interesting and educational. Being stimulated by such shows allows me to engage in discussions and yell and scream if I so choose. I like that interaction and the local feel I get from listening to KBOI. But, maybe I’m just too old school to be willing to accept dummied down radio.
WARNING!!! I feel a soapbox coming regarding the dummying down of American media and education. I better sign off before I cause Jack another cranial implosion.
Daver … are you in town? Call me.
Doolyduwad … RIGHT ON! “it’s about talent and entertainment.” and the right music mixed in too. 104 in a row, 98 in a row, 12 in a row … how cares?!?! Make it live and local with personalities (not disc jockeys)and with the right music … UNSTOPPABLE!!!
Now that’s more like it. A colorful, interactive personality instead of “roboradio” Big Jack has done a lot of great things for the community too and that’s why he is as popular as he is. The more personable and interactive, the better.
Big Jack, I tip my glass of New Year’s Coors (or other carefully selected adult beverage) your way in salute and tribute. I wonder what you would be like in a talk radio format. Hmmmmmmmmm.
:)
Rainshadow said:
“I hope the jockless format works.”
I don’t. I hope it fails miserably so that the owners of those stations have to sell them at fire sale prices. Then some would-be owners with more enlightened ideas of how to run radio can buy them up and do it right.
Other than that one sentence, I agree with just about everything you said, Rainshadow.
You guys say it’s about talent??? I guess that explains why I’m not on the air anymore!!! Gimme my shovel, I got guvment work to do…
Well, Jim, I know of some local civilian employment that is run like a gov-ment operation and its in your own back yard. BUT- Somedays even it beats the radio biz as it seems to be shaking out right now!
Like so many others who contribute to this site on a regular basis I often dreamed of owning a station, but the more I read of how things seem to be going it makes me question that dream. Maybe things will “shake out” and in the end it will be worth trying again, after this little bout with corporate conglomeration is done with.
I have bitten my tongue so hard for so long I now speak with a lisp.
Bronco Billy: you are living proof that those who can, do. Those that can’t…expound on message boards in a verbose fashion.
Radiochick: Nice try. Sales are actually way above anything CC ever posted. Perhaps you’re peakaboo with a different URL.
Big Jack: 4 sentences from you are worth 25 posts from the peanut gallery.
The KXLT death-watch: It’s a format that really doesn’t require live, local announcers to sell the product to doctors, dentists and lawyers. That’s not a slam at GW and Melissa. I worked with them for years and love ‘em both, but it’s freakin’ elevator music! Their talents need to be applied where they’ll be appreciated and better utilized.
The rest of you: Stop beating a dead horse. A dufuss that cracks a mike in Boise Idaho is NOT automatically better than anything else coming out of your speakers. If you want more opportunities for compelling local announcers then it may possibly be incumbent upon you to practice your trade to the point that hiring you makes more sense financially than voice-tracking or going “jockless”. It’s about growing an audience. If you can make that happen by virtue of talent, you’ll get hired. The fact that you have a pulse and live here doesn’t guarantee you a job in ANY industry. Why should broadcasting be any different?
Hey, I’m just a listener. I prefer my radio live and local with real live, honest to goodness personalities that I can relate to.
So how exactly does an “honest to goodness” personality compell you to spend more quarter-hours with Celine Dion, Michael Bolton and Gloria Estefan when you’re not already pre-disposed to listen to that pap?
Don’t get me wrong. There are at least a dozen formats and sub-formats that benefit from articulate, informed, talented and entertaining personalities. Lite AC isn’t one of them. But hey…it’s an opportunity to pile on, so don’t let common sense get in the way.
Knowing Don’s Dad,
Regarding your comment above, I have not, will not, and would not want to considering the state of radio today. I’m too busy trying to educate our children in an educational system that, like radio, is slowly becoming a “corporate conglomeration” (thanks for the phrase, RadioActive) that has sacrificed the quality of education for profit motive by creating standardized testing and dry, boring, uncreative curriculum. Teachers no longer have creativity in the classroom because we find ourselves under a profit motivated mandate to teach curriculum that adheres to a test. As a result, kids do not have analytical skills and cannot analyze situations because the curriculum and the standardized test don’t ask them to. I ask them to read and analyze something and they say they can’t. Sad part of it is, they are telling the truth.
We are losing the quality of media, education, health care, and religion quickly. We need to find out why and get it corrected or we will slowly become servants to the corporate powers that be.
Knows Don’s Dad said:
“If you want more opportunities for compelling local announcers then it may possibly be incumbent upon you to practice your trade to the point that hiring you makes more sense financially than voice-tracking or going ‘jockless’.”
And who would be doing the hiring currently for that, please? Oh, that’s right, no one.
I realize that light AC is generally a format that is better suited for background music than other more exciting formats such as talk, hot AC, and active rock. However, it does not hurt to have occasional interesting commentary from a living human being to stir the interest of the listener. Why? Simple. If listeners zone out of the station’s typical program content, they certainly won’t pay attention to the commercial spots. Those are how the money is made, and if they don’t work, neither will the entire format. That will then turn out to be a 50Kw station benefitting no one. Especially Peak Broadcasting.
knows don’s dad,
i am not using the name of “radiochick” on this blog, but thanks for thinking of me. i’m just sitting back with an ice cold beverage, reading all the comments and realizing the truth is coming out without me saying a word. cheers to you.
Knows Don`s Dad, you are absolutely correct. And Peak is NOT going to be cleaning house ANYTIME soon. That I can guarantee. They had to let some go… And of course that is hard. But do NOT assume this is going to happen.
Peak is bleeding. A salesperson in Fresno tells me it is bad, and they are having problems paying the loan back. They let a lot of people go in Fresno, and more cuts are coming. Tobin tells me that Peak has blocked access to idahoradionews at Kev’s request.
Prohibiting employees from the site while keeping them figuratively chained in a cave unable to see the shadows of truth, huh??? (reference to Socrates’s Allegory of the Cave).
Someday very soon a key will unlock the padlock that prevents the truth from being known and the truth will be known.
Maybe Idaho Community Radio will soon be on KIDO or KFXD.
Like Peak is going to block access to any given site for their employees who have home access, internet cafe, WiFi, or other means to log on and “see the light” etc away from the work site. If that is true its not very smart. If you want to really demoralize your employees morale go ahead and do petty, childish, stupid crap like this and it will go a long ways to building long-term loyalty from your employee base. Even basic reverse psychology or child psychology is more advanced than this kind of behavior. I hope this is not true. I have no way of knowing one way of the other. If its true, its another reason for me not to want to work for an organization like this.
it is true. idahoradionews.com cannot be viewed from inside the peak building. if you look through previous entries on this very website dating back to october, you’ll see it posted.
A top Peak manager told me in the early Summer that access to this site would be blocked once they got control of their own servers away from Clear Channel. Sure enough, they made good on the threat. But just as happened when those same managers blocked this site at Citadel – traffic went up… since everyone started checking from home.
The odd thing is that I still get a few user sessions a week from Peak — which means SOMEONE inside that building is able to log-on and take a look. Doesn’t seem quite right, does it?
the tags are anoying as hell!
Maybe it’s because they want you to WORK and not waste time on viewing posts from folks that are, I must admit, quite bitter at times. I get the impression, at times, and not always, mind you, but at times from folks who do not work in the “biz” anymore and have nothing better to do than to whine and complain about everybody and everything. Look, I realize folks would like radio to be like it was “in the good ‘ol daze”… At times, I do as well. But, let have a reality check… It’s NOT GOING TO HAPPEN ANY TIME SOON! So, wether you, I, or anybody else likes it, all we can do is trudge forward and make the best of things. It sucks sometimes but someone has to do it! I have my job, and I do it to the best of my ability, and as long as I am happy and my boss is happy, life is good. ‘Nuff said!
I’m semi-retired from the “biz” so I’m still involved in a small way (I fix movie scripts). I listen to stations in major markets (New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle to name a few) where they have excellent talent and well-managed formats.
I admit these markets have a more dynamic talent pool and certainly more financial resources to produce a better product, but I have also heard incredible formats run on a shoestring that would put much of the programming on Boise stations to shame (and that includes all local talk formats).
The listeners of Boise deserve better than they are getting. I don’t think telling the truth about the state of things is being bitter.
Stripes, you don’t have to read tbe blogs. If you don’t like it, go back to your “world” and enjoy life. Not all is bad, I have to give credit to my owner for allowing me total programming freedom. At my station, I still run a full-service format with 60 hours of LIVE, non voice tracked programming a week. Stripes, it’s just like radio, you don’t like a station, by damned you don’t have to listen to it.
Rain, and Elchupa, I would agree to an extent of what you are saying. Bigger markets have much more, if not, an unlimited cash supply to get what they need to do done. The REASON I read this, and post only in limited fashion, is when I hear rumor and speculation of things that are completely false and have no basis. It makes me bust out laughing! I’ll admit it, I work for Peak! I couldn’t be happier! It is absolutely nothing like the days of Clear Channel. I have more freedoms with regards to content, programming, imaging, etc. than I EVER had with CC. Management made the decision to block this site at work for a couple of reasons… One, they would actually like you to WORK, not sit around reading a gossip column. We are more than free to read it at home. I am sure management from time to time reads it themselves. It would be nice if someone would actually do homework and know facts about us before they make statements. Someone above said something about “Seeing the light” reading this posting site. At times, the light seems a little dim.
Rainshadow, not to rain on your…er…uh…but, I, too, have listened to stations in much bigger markets than Boise….and yes, they do have more money….but, I wouldn’t say that the talent is necessarily better. some is..but not all. I have heard some pretty bad talent …or lackthereof… in some of those same markets. the market size is not necessarily the best guideline for gauging quality. that goes for both TV and Radio talent. A lot of media folk figure out that they can be just as happy in a smaller market….so there are great talents in small markets. not all…but some. And having worked in several markets in other states myself, I feel I can truthfully say that there are some well-programmed stations right here in Boise. ironically, some of those are on shoestring budgets compared to some of the “big boys.”
Honestly if they really wanted listeners to stick around after the Christmas music was gone the best move they could make would be to get rid of Kevin. We loved Tobin & Claire together, they really play off of each other well. Kevin sounds like an idiot, interupts Claire while she is doing a bit and talks over the top of what Claire has to say, then tries to reclarrify what she just said as if the listeners are morons and don’t get the joke and then snorts –yes, I said snorts — at this own dumb jokes. Snorting really attracts female listeners, NOT!
Bring back Melissa Dawn – she was wonderful to listen to. Her, Claire and Margo (107.1) are the only female voices in this local market that don’t sound like they smoke 4 packs of Camels a day.