Loaded-Gun.Com - Anti-Social.Com's Rejects!
General Category => Politics, Philosophy, News and/or Current Affairs => Topic started by: Daddy on October 13, 2009, 11:03:39 PM
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Working in radio for the past ten years has brought forth quite a few lessons in business and people. I've had the privilege of working in a few different formats (news, talk, sports, and presently, music radio) and though the dynamics may be slightly different, the application of product knowledge and marketing are essentially the same. You are in a business where you want to attract the greatest number of listeners for the longest length of time to expose them to your advertisers' commercials. In turn, these potential consumers would patronize the advertisers from the compelling commercials aired on said station and upon seeing the increase in sales would maintain, if not increase, the monies spent with the station to increase more foot traffic to their businesses. However, the main goal of attracting listeners to your radio station must be from a good quality product.
That raises the question of what is quality programming to your radio station. This simple endeavor has started many stations from the ground up, brought in people who evaluate and cultivate radio show talent for networks large and small, inflated egos and broken spirits, and all with the end goal of raising advertising revenues. Some of these consultants and talent coaches are former executives of radio firms, program directors, or even former DJs and show hosts who think they have a keen insight into trends and the pulse of your audience. You can lease those acute perceptions for a fee, of course. How high usually depends on how well their research has worked before for other clients. Others are just the cost of one's own swollen and wounded pride after they were likely unceremoniously let go after a station format flip or new owners ran out the previous employee roster.
That said, radio in its infancy was a remarkable invention and served great tactical and practical uses in the military and navigation fields, but then was commercially utilized in such a manner of everyday life that whole families gathered around the radio to enjoy several programs throughout the week. As other broadcast technology evolved, such as television, radio had to do something else to reinvent itself to the consumer. In the 1950's, the process of completely remodeling radio began. Sadly, it has been coasting on that paradigm ever since. Then, in the early 90s, the world of radio took a pass at looking at the internet as another avenue for listeners until websites took their listeners away years down the road.
Television turned out to be a weathered storm for radio, but with the digital age, radio is being outpaced by mere portability. Some formats will always have a place on the dial such as news, talk, and sports. However, music radio is in a rather difficult spot. Beyond the world of mp3 players and internet radio is on demand music access. At the touch of a button on a phone, you can have access to any song and commercial free music service on the net, if your phone is capable that is. There are satellite radio services that broadcast for a fee, with limited commercials, but with a wide variety of channel offerings. I find it ironic that many mp3 players have FM tuners, but wished the ones I buy had an AM tuner. The AM band is the home of my local sports stations, but I digress.
In the time radio has expanded and shrunk in cycles, one thing remained the same. The science of building and refining content has become something of soothsaying by peer committees. With everyone caught up in acronyms of TSL and AQH, it morphs into a mighty catch all, WTF. By design of the advertising principles pointed out in the above paragraphs, there must be an appeal to the audience the format is targeting, naturally. That appeal has not been tracked properly. There is a discernible lack of originality in so many stations across the music format spectrum and I am engaged in such discussions on a daily basis with the very people these people are targeting. Working professionals, both blue and white collars, who have discretionary dollars in their wallets to spend.
The overwhelming reaction and criticism I hear of any station comes down to too much repetition and regurgitation of the same songs almost in the same place. Be it CHR, Urban, Country, Rock, etc. It all follows the same pattern and it leads to the same end result. More people tuning out and powering on their own playlists that they set themselves. Not to mention that with the advent of technology, MySpace Music, and just good old fashioned seeking, there is no longer an authoritative stance that radio can take for unveiling new music. If that hot new band from Sri Lanka takes off around the world, you won't hear it in the States until years later. Same goes for Taiwan, Brazil, and Poland. Techno, hip hop, rock, or any genre. Many bands go unheard of for almost a decade at least in this country, because simply put, if an artist doesn't sound like something already on the radio, it doesn't get on the radio. The exceptions to that rule is if it heavily sells its way through the underground with pure numbers or there is a major label push for an act to be on the radio. (I'm aware of other countries and their restrictions on radio, such as France's language requirement)
This leads to the "tried and true" version of radio that we(at least I) have experienced ever since around 1993. A few stations across the country shake things up and buck the trend to define their station as something wholly unique. For that, they get my admiration and applause. We need more leaders, not followers. We need people to stand up and put forth the effort to make stations that sound like nothing else on the air. Don't fear what you might lose. Take heart in what you could achieve in numbers, listeners and yes, advertisers.
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Clear Channel owning every damn station also does some damage, right?
This is why Zoomie listens to XM radio.
Local radio guys here had a great idea: BALLS FM. All American Classic Rock (no Canadian, British, or otherwise). Didn't fly, even as a spanner for the afternoons, and I don't get why. I love the idea.
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Radio must be playing something that somebody likes. Otherwise they would be out of business.
I used to listen to radio because they played new music that I liked and would encourage me to try new things and branch out (AS A CONSUMER OF BOTH MUSIC AND PRODUCT ADVERTISED).
Now I listen to the MODERN ROCK stations and they play virtually nothing but Early 90s Grunge mixed in with a few top hits of the day. They conveniently forget that rap metal ever existed, and I feel like I'm in a flannel-clad version of groundhog day where it's 1994 all day every day. Virtually no new singles are worth a shit, and when I actually hear something good I am literally floored because like a thief in the night you can bet that song will never be heard again, so I make sure to write down what it was.
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Australia has decent radio.
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Clear Channel owning every damn station also does some damage, right?
This is why Zoomie listens to XM radio.
Local radio guys here had a great idea: BALLS FM. All American Classic Rock (no Canadian, British, or otherwise). Didn't fly, even as a spanner for the afternoons, and I don't get why. I love the idea.
Dude, you're 40% correct.
I listened to Sirius radio, had it for 5 years. Good shit. Clearchannel and CBS (formerly Infinity) own like 80% of what is openly broadcast in this country, and they do their damnedest to control what we hear. Now I listen to NPR and my iPod.
Balls FM sounds like a great idea but you can't have a classic rock format without, at a bare minimum, Led Zep and The Who.
Sorry, EPIC FAIL.
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you can't have a classic rock format without, at a bare minimum, Led Zep and The Who.
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I listen to the radio when I get tired of the CDs I have in my car, or otherwise am not in the mood to listen to them. I mostly listen to NPR or do a lot of channel surfing if I'm not interested in what is on NPR. I also surf through the commercials. I mostly listen to punk/goth/industrial music, which really isn't played on the radio anyway outside of an occasional NIN or Rancid song.
I never remember to charge my mp3 player.
One of the local stations does feature new local music one night a week and put on a show at one of the clubs featuring local bands. That frequently features bands in which I have little to no interest, but it does serve a purpose for people interested in that style of music. My roommate's band played it and he got a lot of positive feedback from it.
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Positive feedback being in the form of blow jobs from chicks, or a bunch of dudes telling him his music rocks?
Because one of those is awesome, and the other one isn't.
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They conveniently forget that rap metal ever existed
If only we were all so lucky.
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Positive feedback being in the form of blow jobs from chicks, or a bunch of dudes telling him his music rocks?
Because one of those is awesome, and the other one isn't.
Do offers of BJs he has to turn down because his girlfriend is standing 5 feet away count?
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I listen to NPR and classical music now because I'm tired of most music . I once came into my office and the 3-11 girl was listening to gangster rap. I walked over to the radio and turned it off. When she said, "hey! I was listening to that," I turned to her and said flatly, "if you want to be a wigger, do it on your own time." It hasn't changed from the classical station since.
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I once came into my office and the 3-11 girl was listening to gangster rap. I walked over to the radio and turned it off. When she said, "hey! I was listening to that," I turned to her and said flatly, "if you want to be a wigger, do it on your own time." It hasn't changed from the classical station since.
She's probably a little intimidated/confused. I would imagine black chicks aren't used to being called wiggers, after all.
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She's a white lesbian from Russia.
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Sasha Dith - Russian Girls (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf3DHEaHSO8#normal)
???
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/me listens to 3RRR.
That is all.
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And then there's this...
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/entertainment/101X_hosts_suspended_for_on_air_remarks (http://www.kxan.com/dpp/entertainment/101X_hosts_suspended_for_on_air_remarks)
Whereas, the Mexican radio stations are always talking down about gringos and white people. But I guess if you say it in Spanish, it doesn't matter as much.
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I actually listened to them going home from work on the day that they were talking about the wet vac. I don't get how people could've thought they said, "wetback." The british dj on the radio station said something along the lines of, "ever since ACL all the grass that the city had put on the ground has been replaced with mud. With all the rain that has been coming down the city has just decided to wait until the mud dries so that they can spray down the park to clean it up. Maybe they could suck up all the mud with about a 1000 wet vacs so that they could speed up the process." People are fucking morons for not understanding what a wet vac is. We all know that wetbacks don't suck up mud, they wade through it in order to illegally immigrate.
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Weve been having floods up in NE Tx. I wish they could suck up mud. Ill try to teach one, then we can start calling them wet vacs again.
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My music library is 90% techno, with the majority of that from 1998-2002. Mostly because 2002 is when I stopped having money to throw away. Anyway, I've condensed my 260-ish albums (includes multi-disk sets) down to 25 mp3 CDs. When I'm tired of those I listen to either the college station (88.9 The Impact) or MIKE FM (101.7). MIKE plays pop from the 70's to about 2 years ago.
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Philly radio is fucking terrible.
There's a shit ton of hip hop stations, playing today's latest, greatest garbage. The one top 40 station plays the same shit every hour. Then there's the two easy listening stations, heavy on the 80s pop, the only oldies station spins garbage from the disco age, classic rock is following (or plays the same, old Led Zep songs), and theres two rock stations. One loves rock-rap, the other? Poison. There is one classical station (until 6 pm, then it poisons the airwaves with bad jazz)
jam a pencil in my ear, please!
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I've been listening to CSPAN radio again when I drive.
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There is one classical station (until 6 pm, then it poisons the airwaves with bad jazz)
You talking about WRTI? I don't mind the jazz actually...
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i need to listen to more music. being over here I haven't bothered to keep up with what's what
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You're not missing anything.
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that's what I figured
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Philly radio is fucking terrible.
There's a shit ton of hip hop stations, playing today's latest, greatest garbage. The one top 40 station plays the same shit every hour. Then there's the two easy listening stations, heavy on the 80s pop, the only oldies station spins garbage from the disco age, classic rock is following (or plays the same, old Led Zep songs), and theres two rock stations. One loves rock-rap, the other? Poison. There is one classical station (until 6 pm, then it poisons the airwaves with bad jazz)
jam a pencil in my ear, please!
Lets see... Lansing radio:
one hip hop, one "easy listening" that plays harder stuff from the 80s than the one that plays "everything", the one that plays everything (70's-2 years ago), the dumbfuck top 40 station that has a playlist of 20 songs and repeats 4 of them 3 times an hour, cuntry (spelled wrong on purpose), and an ungodly amount of talk radio. Seriously, what does it say about where I live when sports talk warrants a place on the FM dial?
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When however many of you make it down here make it down here and get to sample the selection of radio stations available, you'll all shut the fuck up about your crap selection.
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http://www.radiozdk.com/history.html (http://www.radiozdk.com/history.html)
is there anything to stop you from broadcasting your own pirate radio station?
also, i'm not sure i understand how their online station could have static in it.
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I worked for a pirate radio station once. It got shut down pretty quick by the FCC.
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I want to work for a radio station.
I've been on it before, it seems cool.
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FM Radio will becoming home of sports and talk more and more. Until some program directors get their heads out of their asses, music radio gets worse and worse every year. I'm not only a listener, but I am the media, too.
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I had a college radio show for a semester.
I liked to talk about having sex with zombies and whether that constituted rape or bestiality in between playing MDC songs.
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What infuriates me is the shrinking audience that radio has and these number one rated stations do nothing but go on autopilot. If your goal is to dominate an audience the size of a backyard bonfire, have at it. Stations need to GROW their audience, not scale down the playlist to hold on to who you think you have in your audience. I can rail on this for hours.
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Radio used to know this. Then consultants using focus groups figured out that as long as you're selling time, no one gives a shit who is listening or what they think. Right. Hello, Jack FM...
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I secretly want to get into CB.
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10-4 good buddy!
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BREAKER!
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Perfect for intersuburban backhaul
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I think my radio station wants me to kill myself.
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Why would they want you to do that?
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Ratings, of course.
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Naturally.
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You'd better be making scale for that...
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8 bucks an hour
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Dude that sucks ass. I make more than that scrubbing boats. So if you do it, take the GM and the PD with you.
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In 8th grade Electronics 1, I made a radio transmitter.
In 9th grade Electronics 2, I made a 100 watt amp.
10th-12th grades I had my own semi-regular weekly shows ...
I never got caught ...
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The FCC will bring a crane and destroy homes to shut down pirates. I do radio as a hobby and not to pay my bills. That is why I work in Defense. There is always war to prep for.
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I had a college radio show for a semester.
I liked to talk about having sex with zombies and whether that constituted rape or bestiality in between playing MDC songs.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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The FCC will bring a crane and destroy homes to shut down pirates.
Well, yeah, but Si lives in Antigua. Do they even have an FCC? Is it just a guy with a hand radio and a really mean look on his face?
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Somebody needs to jump on the abandoned bandwidth left over from the digital TV changeover. A pirate (analog ) TV station could go great guns for a while.
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It seems my partner and I may possibly get suspended.
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Dude you know what that's about You crossed somebodies line even though they won't tell you what the line is until after you cross it. Ever since Janet Jackson they gotta cover their asses. It's politics.
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Sirius sent me a message about getting 5 months for 20 dollars. I am tempted.
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I know why. It has a lot to do with vague and arbitrary guidelines with regard to profane, indecent, and obscene speech. The FCC and the fear they incite in radio owners and managers is unsightly. Fear clouds the mind and tames even further that which is already ballsless.
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The FCC rules are stupid.
People use profanity and talk about sex. What is allowed in broadcast should fit the times, not some imaginary world where the community standard is someplace the puritans could only dream of living.
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Every radio talent I've ever known has been suspended at least once, even the jive AM guys I knew in the 70s. "Take two days without pay while we kiss the commission's ass. You'll be a hero to your fans". Whatever.
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The very nature of our job is to serve advertisers first and listeners second. We get our listeners to go to the advertisers, then the advertiser has to seal the deal with their product first. If me telling a story about jerking off on a pop tart to get my then girlfriend to come to terms with swallowing my semen gets foot traffic into a shop, I have done my job in a proper fashion. In all honesty, we did do something against our boss man`s orders, unintentionally though. Miscommunications really blow.
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ELVIS COSTELLO "Radio Radio" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j7JFP6ZOCI#normal)
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joy division (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZwMs2fLoVE#normal)
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Queen - Radio Ga Ga [HQ] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBUr1pSWTVI#noexternalembed-normal)
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ZZ Top Heard It On The X April 1980 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPAR2zSV84I#normal)