RSS | 
Twitter
| 
Be a fan!
Radio isn't failing listeners just during times of trouble
Initially, a few e-mailers determined radio couldn't react to the snowstorm because of a lack of staff. In turn, the small staff was blamed on an ever-shrinking listener base. No argument there. But why are listeners turning to Internet radio, iPods and other sources for their music pleasure? Consider these observations:
• Radio isn't fun, anymore. Talk show hosts are vitriolic, most disc jockeys are forced to read from cue cards and the morning "zoo crews" have been recycling the same off-color remarks and idiotic gimmicks (let's call a celebrity at 5 a.m.) for more than a decade.
Ask people to name their favorite disc jockey, and it's likely to be someone who hasn't been on the air for years - Chuck Brinkman, Clark Race, Porky Chedwick, Jack Armstrong - or a long-dissolved morning team such as O'Brien and Garry, Quinn and Banana, or Jimmy and Steve. All genuinely entertaining. And one of the reasons those folks connected with fans is that they were at events ranging from mall openings to county fairs. These days, remote broadcasts are handled by interns. No doubt, most radio fans would be hard-pressed to associate a face with a radio voice.
Rate This Story:
1 the lowest - 5 the highest
Current rating:
Radio also used to take some cues from TV. So why hasn't oldies radio picked up on "Double Lovin'" by the Osmonds, which is featured in a popular commercial? Sure, it's not exactly a classic, but does ensure a few "oh, wow" moments for female listeners - radio's most cherished prize.
Radio also fed off popular movies in the '70s and '80s. But no one is playing the theme from "Avatar," or, for that matter, recent movie tunes by U2, Paul McCartney, Beyonce or one of a dozen songs from "Valentine's Day." Not all may qualify as hits, but the songs would at minimum provide fodder for relatable disc jockey conversation.
• "This commercial break" is way too long. Programming geniuses long ago decided to package commercials into five- to eight-minute segments. How is that beneficial to either the advertiser or the listener? Certainly, advertising pays the way for radio, but a couple commercials inserted after two or three songs is far less likely to drive people away than annoying advertising chunks.
We are, of course, referring primarily to large-market stations. Local radio, for the most part, still has it right: a large and interesting song selection, DJs who talk with the listener instead of at them, local news that's actually local and commercials that are sprinkled instead of clumped into the mix.
That comparatively free-form radio - wildly popular in the '60s and '70s - is considered antiquated by today's radio corporations. Those same corporations wonder why today's listeners pale in numbers compared to those bygone days. Even if the light bulb went on, the suits would never see it. It's buried under research.
A few more comments from snowbound radio fans:
From Patrick Cloonan of the Daily News:
I was at KQV on March 13, 1993. I remember four of us keeping that station on the air that weekend and sharing a room at the Westin William Penn when exhaustion called. I had one of the few copies of the Sunday Post-Gazette to come out before that paper stopped publication because of the weather.
From John Swanson of KVSV, Beloit, Kan.:
Read your article about radio not responding to the snowstorm ... that doesn't happen in Kansas or Nebraska!
From Kevin Fodor of Dayton, Ohio:
I'm a broadcaster who's worked over 35 years in the radio business. I remember every radio owner in every major city had a working news department of anywhere from five to 25 people who worked at least from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., if not till midnight or around the clock, depending upon staffing size.
Today, your "music stations" may have one to three "newspeople" (depending upon the number of stations in the cluster). They all work in morning drive only. And their jobs consist not of actually looking for news or developing stories, but ripping and reading AP copy and rewriting the news out of the morning paper or from TMZ.com. I'll bet few of these people even bother to call the local police agencies when they get to work.
Your article suggests that the Pittsburgh news station also didn't cover the news, and that's simply reprehensible, but not uncommon. All that's cared about is 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. because that's where the station makes its most money. I work for a company in Dayton where we still have a functioning 24-hour radio news department. On occasion, we even pre-empt the syndicated talk shows and go on the air to talk about the situation at hand. (We did that for three solid days about a year- and-a-half ago, when the winds of Hurricane Ike blew into town and put hundreds of thousands of people out of electric service.)
The FCC a long time ago took away any requirement for stations to make a commitment to airing local news. And as belts got tightened, news was the first thing dropped. Local news does live, though. Thought you might appreciate hearing it.
Terry Hazlett can be reached at snowballrizzo@aol.com.
radio : 3/1/2010
man terry...last i checked, satellite radio is radio too & the content is widely varied with interesting hosts & music. the same dire critique could be made of tv if you used the basic line-up as opposed to an expanded cable one!
radio : 3/1/2010
in my opinion, radio will never come back because there is no way to charge one every last nickle possible to listen to it.
Radio : 3/1/2010
With only battery power I do believe people were looking more the the emergency broadcast system. We have to listen to the test, however in a true emergency not one word. WJPA was off the air Friday after 10:00pm and nothing I could find until prerecorded progaming on Sunday. KDKA was on but not relevent to Washington area. We needed to know where the shelters were, when did the power Co. anticipate the return of electricity?. When we have trick or treat in my neighborhood you can't swing a cat a miss an policman or fireman , but this event no one comes around?
LOCAL RADIO IS NO LONGER LOCAL & REALLY DON'T CARE! : 3/1/2010
I would like to note how radio has changed since the last Major Snowstorm in 2003. I was working at WANB on the weekend of February 14th, I would end up spending "100 HOURS" at the station, along with Doug "THE GREASER" Wilson. We kept the station LIVE & LOCAL for a majority of the time. The only time we did go to satellite programming was overnight to catch a "few small hours of sleep". The only other time we did not get out LOCAL INFORMATION was when we experienced a minor power outage. I think it should be a requirement of the FCC that before a station is granted a license, the owner should show they have a source of alternate power, in order to keep the station on the air. This could be a generator powered by diesel, gas, propane or natural gas, A windwill or Solar power. The owner of WANB was made aware of this way back in 2003 but here we are, 2010 and nothing was ever done. The WANB transmitter site's location is on top a hill just South of Waynesburg & we always have a breeze blowing, that would make the Windmill a possibility. We also heat with natural gas, which would make the generator also viable. In closing, there is nothing more frustrating than turning on 103.1 and on Saturday, 6 February 2010 @ 16:30 hours hear still the same "LOOP OF OUTDATED INFORMATION". I do admit, that as I was helping a family shovel snow of the roof, & all the trees were snapping away, we had SUNSHINE and the LOOP was saying,...." The snow should be leaving the area within the next 2 days."
Blah : 3/1/2010
You can thank ClearChannel for putting the final nail in radio's coffin.
Satellite Radio : 3/1/2010
I LOVE IT!
- Keep it civil and stay on topic.
- No profanity, vulgarity, racial slurs or personal attacks.
- Comments that harass others or joke about tragedies will be deleted.
- Keep it brief and turn off all caps.
- No URLs.
