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Sulphuric Sundae posted:I got an HD radio a couple years back, and the local AM news station had a nicer-sounding HD broadcast. Hearing Rush rant in crystal clear stereo instead of fuzzy and muffled AM was actually kind of unnerving. One of the few with HD Radios - I have one in my car, and whenever I go under an overpass it blends to analog fuzz. I work for a 50,000 AM talk station that runs many of these horrible programs (Gallagher, Huckabee, Dave Ramsey, etc), and the only reason we run them is because the syndicator (Dial Global, Premiere & Cumulus) PAYS us just so that their spots get cleared in a major market. Conservative talk radio breathed new life into am 20 years ago, but now that entire generations have grown up hating AM, their lease on life is getting short. And simply switching to FM won't solve it - Rush on FM doesn't do any better with the money demos (25-54 M/F) than on AM. Straight news gets great ratings on FM (WTOP in Washington DC, KCBS in San Francisco, WBUR in Boston to name a few). That's why you hear ads for gold, health care, Life Lock, and other barely legal companies on all these programs. FWIW, not many people who work at the station believe anything they are saying - it's just business. The fact that Rush and the rest of them can't young up the demos gives me a small glimmer of hope for the future - and by the same token WNYC in NY gets better ratings than WOR/WABC in the money demos. Time is not on their side, but Clear Channel/Cumulus are just willing to run this type of programming to grab whatever cash they can till the ad agencies quit buying. In the meantime, I just have to resist the urge to dump the transmitter plate current whenever we are off the bird...
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Oct 20, 2012 01:38
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VideoTapir posted:They loving destroyed commercial radio in general. They are in the process of destroying where I work - the station was purchased in August by Clear Channel for $40 million (while at the same time they are trying to renegotiate loan payments....that alone should signal to the FCC that they don't have the money to run the station right). They purchased us to make sure that Premiere syndicated programs have a place in market #1, and to keep all the revenue to themselves (why share the local avails with anyone else when you can keep that to yourself). The only thing that makes me think that I'll keep my job is that I record/produce/edit paid programming, and that can't be automated from Cleveland like most other things. Deregulation once again is to blame - Reagan (and Clinton with the Telecommunications Act of 1996) gutted the FCC ownership cap rules, along with many of the other regulations (Fairness Doctrine) that made sure stations served the local community along with the public interest. So what we are left with is Wall Street run amok - Clear Channel has over 800 stations, a boatload of debt, ad revenues in the toilets, and as a result they are running things on the cheap - stations that used to be live & local are now run mostly on syndicated programming (Beck from 9 to Noon, Limbaugh from Noon to 3, Hannity from 3 to 6, etc) with the music stations taking feeds from "Premium Choice" where the major market talent tracks shows that are sent to local stations automation computers over the company intranet. CC's founders (Mays Brothers) have a political right wing bent, but now it's just about the bottom line and serving Wall Street. This Salon article (old, but the corporate culture is still the same) spells it out nicely http://www.salon.com/2001/04/30/clear_channel/ I hate what Clear Channel has done to radio - but unless the FCC suddenly gets religion and starts re-regulating, nothing will get better. This is why outlets like NPR are so important to make sure that there is more than Hannity and Limbaugh on the dial.
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Oct 21, 2012 12:56
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Looks like people have been jumping off the "Stop Obama Express" - http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sean-hannity-big-loser-2012-election-article-1.1228269Daily News posted:"In a fitting coda to 2012, we’ve learned that the ratings for rock-ribbed conservative Sean Hannity cratered after Barack Obama won his second term, with viewers tuning out the Fox News Channel talk-show host in droves. I get a perverse joy out of seeing his ratings crumble...I just wish the guys radio ratings would fall like his Fox News Channel Neilsens have.
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Dec 31, 2012 08:59
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watt par posted:Only in the 25-54 demo. If you look at their total numbers, Fox News still has over twice the viewership of MSNBC. Old people watch cable news. Old people don't matter to Madison Avenue ad buys - only if they are selling retirement investments, health insurance, reverse mortgages, or other products targeted specifically to 55+. AM radio stations are running into the same issue - not too many people under 35 listen to AM radio, unless it's sports. 25-49 is the money demo for TV, vs 25-54 for radio. That's why all the "oldies" stations are playing 80's music and no more Chuck Berry or The 4 Seasons...and why classic rockers are spinning Green Day. THAT'S the challenge for conservative talk stations - all the young'ns listen to NPR. It's why WTKK, despite being on a full class B FM signal in Boston, is flipping to jammin oldies today/tomorrow - no ratings to sell.
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Jan 2, 2013 08:20
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Zwabu posted:I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree on this. I definitely felt radio programming that was more strongly influenced by local DJs was far preferable, warts and all. In my travels it definitely seemed that it was the mid to late 90s where the homogenization of playlists made stations sound identical anywhere in the country and more or less coincided to me stopping listening to the radio at all. It did seem like the Clear Channel takeover era had a lot to do with this. Once again, deregulation has a great deal to do with the fact that radio sucks as badly as it does these days. Used to be that you had to prove to the FCC you were a competent owner, had enough money to operate the station even at a loss for a period of time, and *GASP* even have a live body behind the controls at all times. Deregulation screwed all that up, and now you have stations that run either off of satellite automation 24/7, or in Clear Channels case, off of "Premium Choice" with everything sent to the local NexGen machine off of the WAN - voicetracked personalities and all. Just pray the EAS box is working properly in case of an emergency. Many radio execs want to do great local radio - but the Wall Street financial types won't let them hire or nurture talent to do so in many cases. The effects of deregulation have been harsh - time spent listening and cume are both down, and radio stations haven't seen revenues recover from the 2008 crash. Kinda hard to sell commercials when the programming sucks it seems. I can scan the iHeartRadio app and during the night/overnight hours almost all of the oldies stations are running off of the same playlist - scary how homogenized it is. Car trips used to be fun, listening to the local flavor of radio. Now? All sounds the same. And the listeners can tell - one station I worked at went BACK to local jocks and music because all the listeners ran away when the company tried to save money by using satellite. I worked at a station that was bought out by Clear Channel recently - first thing they did was fire as many union people as they could, regardless of age, salary level, or competence. All these cuts are to try and keep the bankruptcy off as long as possible - will Rush and the others on wingnut welfare be gone? I doubt it - Cumulus will be there waiting to sign him up if he does ditch CC, same with the rest of 'em. As long as there is a GoldLine, there will be Rush...
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Feb 23, 2013 06:43
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Ender.uNF posted:But your main point stands... You'd need to shut down at least half of the FM band to get a decent chunk of space, though frankly if they just depopulated half the band and converted that portion to digital radio you could get way, way more stations in the same space. Then maybe we could have actual low power regional FM, something the Bush FCC managed to kill rather effectively. IBOC (In Band On Channel) is the digital radio standard in the US - the NAB put up a big fight to make sure that their existing analog facilities wouldn't be rendered obsolete with a standard like DAB (and have to share transmitting facilities and be on equal footing signal wise). HD Radio has been a dog from the get go - expensive radios, dubious improvements in sound quality, and coverage that even at elevated power levels that doesn't match the analog signal. On AM, it cuts the analog audio quality down to 5 kHz from 10.2, and on FM if you have any multicast channels, the main HD-1 signal is 64kbps using a proprietary modified AAC format. It sucks, the equipment is expensive for both consumers and broadcasters, and will end up being the AM Stereo of the 21st century. The dial is congested enough as is in many places, so don't bet on any more stations going on the air with any decent coverage. The upside is that the FCC is so out of it that you could throw on a pirate, and as long as you don't make a plane fall out of the sky, you won't be bothered. Just ask the Caribbean pirates in and around NYC... Good news: latest 6+ Arbitrons has WBUR in Boston at a 4.4, with conservative talker WRKO-AM at a 2.3. In NYC, WNYC AM & FM has a combined 3.1 vs WABC with a 2.7. Thus begs the question:"If Rush Limbaugh is speaking, and nobody under 45 is listening, does he still matter?"
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Feb 24, 2013 06:41
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Vertical Lime posted:Not only that, but 2 right wing talk stations in Boston (including one that Clear Channel started for the purpose of carrying Rush, Beck, Hannity and ilk) went belly-up recently. WXKS (AM 1200) is a dog of a signal in Boston - only AM with full market coverage is WBZ. Even Rush couldn't get 1200 more than a 1.5 overall in the ratings. WPGB in Pittsburgh (conservative talker on FM) lags behind KDKA...only examples of AM to FM spoken word success stories are when it's straight up news (KCBS in San Francisco and WTOP in Washington DC). When its a conservative talker, results are mixed at best as far as lowering the demos. That gives me some hope that these may be the last few years for Rush and his ilk to pull down ridiculous sums of money while CC/Cumulus is sending out pink slips like candy to the rank and file. Cumulus is worse than CC in many respects, but because they aren't as big as CC, they can fly under the radar. WABC has almost zero local programming during the week outside of the 5A news hour, and on the weekends it's infomercials for krill oil and other crap. A far cry from the station that it was once a powerhouse top 40 station. Can't wait to hear what Rush has to say about Michelle & Babs at noon today...should be engrossing radio! bigtom fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Feb 25, 2013 |
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Feb 25, 2013 06:43
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Vertical Lime posted:I live in the NYC area and another message board killed WABC for having infomercials on a Saturday morning when parts of the area were getting a couple of feet of snow earlier this month. They might be in even bigger trouble now that Clear Channel recently brought another talk station and everyone is assuming Rush and such are gonna move there the first chance they get. I worked at that other talk station (WOR) until the day CC officially took over in December. The way the station sale was handled was a mess from the word go...and I didn't want to work for CC anyways after hearing the horror stories from others. CC will be moving Rush over as soon as the Cumulus contract is over...but they may not get Hannity due to the way the deal was done with Citadel regarding airing the show on what was the ABC O&O's. Yeah...the DC station is sucking wind against WAMU (NPR outlet) and WTOP. Content is still king, and putting FM lipstick on a pig doesn't fix the demo issues RW talk radio has. Huckabee is doing horribly ratings wise for Cumulus, but since they distribute the show and own the bulk of the affiliate's, so long as they make a few bucks they don't care. Easier to pay a $14/hr board opp (or in most cases...just program the automation) than pay for full time talent.
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Feb 25, 2013 17:46
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Install Gentoo posted:There's also that you can receive a basic AM station a lot further and more consistently in a service area then FM, and I'd bet a lot of the "move the talker to FM" things end up with having less reception in the given radio market. It depends - most radios suck balls when it comes to AM reception, noise from power lines, newer traffic lights, and other electronic devices has rendered even the big 50kw blasters neutered in many major metropolitan areas. There's also the fact that many radios are FM only (especially newer portables)...and overcoming the fact that many people under 40 never even think to go to the AM band due to the lovely sound quality and awful reception due to the nub antennas on most cars, and the crappy receivers. FM can have multipath issues, but for most markets a FM will be better than a AM - especially if the pattern changes at night, or if it has co-channel interference with other stations skipping in. The issue with WMAL-FM is that it's a rimshot...kind of like WNEW-FM 99.1. It covers the market, but not as good as a station like WASH-FM. CBS Radio has begun putting it's sports franchises on FM - even with stations like 660 WFAN & 610 WIP having some of the best AM signals in their respective markets to keep the demos where they need to be for ad buys. AM is dying...guys like Rush gave it new life after all the music formats migrated to FM 20+ years ago. But even moves to FM can't save these guys in the major markets from the NPR outlets and news stations. Should be fun to watch over the next few years... Edit: Radio Nowhere beat me to it! bigtom fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Feb 25, 2013 |
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Feb 25, 2013 18:47
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Guilty Spork posted:Oh, absolutely. The WWE had a giant storyline/stable making fun of the PTC as revenge for the ridiculous number of FCC complaints, they've done every ethnic stereotype imaginable, they've done some really phenomenally sexist stuff now and then, and there have been some storylines (like that one necrophilia angle) that even hardcore wrestling fans totally hated. But apparently making fun of poor people, rich people, black people, Japanese people, Mexicans, fat people, little people, the Irish, and women is fine, but mocking the tea party is where it went over the line. They can dish it out, but can't take it - I think they fundamentally cannot grasp the concept of humor...whenever they try to go toe to toe with Stewart or Colbert (or Franken), it fails spectacularly. I may start to watch the WWE now...this stuff sounds like it's pretty funny if you just take it at face value.
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Feb 25, 2013 19:21
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Rockopolis posted:That makes them sound vulnerable to hacking, actually. How long before they start broadcasting Chinese propaganda? Easy....just hijack the EAS encoder! Somewhat easy to do, since engineers sometimes forget to change the default passowrds. Like this guy did for the Zombie attack in Montana: http://www.mercurynews.com/weird-news/ci_22589105/hack-that-broadcast-zombie-attack-warning-due-easy That reminds me...I should check to see if our EAS units are still on the factory defaults...
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Feb 25, 2013 21:12
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GoatSeeGuy posted:Talk radio particularly is having a hard time dealing with the new ratings system Arbitron uses. Where guys like Hannity used to bank on impotant old men telling Arbitron they listened to (insert Hannity affiliate here) for 3 hours a day every day(!) it turns out their actual listening when monitored is just a fraction of that since they're not actually sitting by the radio for hours at a time. They're trying every trick in the book they can think of to try to get some of that time spent listening back. Thank loving God for PPM (Personal People Meter) - it has done more to kill conservative talk radio than anything else. Turns out the NPR outlets get better ratings in some major markets than the RW talkers...even when they do migrate to FM they still don't translate to younger numbers (anybody over 50 is dead to most advertisers, unless it's retirement funds, gold, or Life Alert). PPM can be gamed with as well, but trying to do that with a syndicated show is tough especially when the smaller markets are still on the diary. Worst part of working in master control at a talk station was having to listen to Mike Gallagher and Huckabee - I would be shouting at the monitor speakers in between dubbing spots and monitoring the various feeds. I listen to Morning Edition & the BBC World Service...then check this thread to see what is going on with the usual gang. My blood pressure has dropped so much since leaving that job it isn't even funny.
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Jul 20, 2013 07:00
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Nice Davis posted:Is there anywhere I can see these numbers? It would be neat to see the historical trend. This article is a good read for the basics - http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2009/07/new-ratings-technology-pummels-local-talk-radio. This article also has a side by side comparison for Seattle - http://blog.seattlepi.com/thenewschick/2009/07/16/new-seattle-radio-ratings/ The new measurement system is killing syndicated talk radio in PPM markets, but some local talk stations are doing very well under it (NJ101.5, one of my old places of employment, is #1 overall in Middlesex/Somerset/Union under PPM). You can look up the overall 6+ numbers on AllAcces.com (registration is free), but they only go back a few months for PPM (or a few books in diary markets). And yes...the fact that you can't buy a decent AM radio these days is also hurting talk radio - the only radios that come with AM it seems are cheap portables or car radios. Unless it's sports, almost anyone under 35 never listens to AM given all the noise issues inherent with the band. That is also why you see stations like WIP in Philly, WFAN in NYC and WEEI in Boston going to FM to make sure the demos don't get too old.
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Jul 20, 2013 17:13
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Radbot posted:I can't wait until the FCC shuts radio down, it's a huge waste of spectrum for poo poo content that you can find elsewhere. It is a very efficient use of spectrum given that the FM band occupies only 20 MHz of space, and the AM broadcast band even less. IBOC is a failure like AM Stereo due to the expense of the receivers and poor reception (I was an early adopter and spent $625 on a Boston Acoustics Receptor HD...that died a year later). 24 news stations are some of the top billers in the country, with Washington D.C's WTOP the highest billing station in America, with WCBS-AM #3, WBBM #6, WINS #7 & WFAN #8. Only one talk station, KFI, made the top ten list. Why do you think 50kw blowtorches like WABC & WOR run penis pill and other snake oil infomercials all weekend long? Can't make any money selling ad time since the programming has been gutted, so give it to the dollar a holler people to make a buck.
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Jul 20, 2013 23:34
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Vertical Lime posted:WABC and WOR are respectively owned by Cumulus and Clear Channel. That explains a lot. I worked at WOR during the last of its ownership under Buckley and during the transition to Clear Channel (the first day they took over almost all of the union people got fired. Good times.) As GoatSeeGuy has pointed out, it was less about ideology than making money. They only got rid of Glenn Beck when he started causing trouble with advertisers. The local hosts were moderates (Joan Hamburg could be liberal at times), but the syndicated stuff was whatever WABC wasn't running that Premiere wanted cleared (they paid for Coast to Coast to be put on for example). Plus with news/talk stations you can cram in more "brought to you by" and other sponsorships to make money moreso than on a music station. WABC used to be a decent talk station in the 80's and 90's...but with the death of live & local came with it anyone with a viewpoint to the left of Attila the Hun. I have a friend who board opps there, and the place is a ghost town - the news department is non existent, and outside of a 5AM news block it is just fed off the bird. 96.9 has been a basket case for years...between Imus, the failure to lure Howie Carr over and the inability to keep a consistent schedule for more than a month, no wonder it failed. Plus WBUR and WGBH are some of the best public talkers in the nation....and the 300 lb gorilla that is WBZ - that station has one of the best signals out there and is always consistent...even if they do lean right at night with Dan Rea. Most new car radios are worse at pulling in AM/FM signals than older ones - the RF sections are an afterthought, and unless you have a 31 inch whip antenna on the fender reception can get dicey. HD Radios are amazing analog receivers because they use DSP to decode the signal. HD can be a crapshoot depending on your location - in an area with a relatively clear dial (like Los Angeles), HD reception on FM can match that of clean analog stereo. But in the northeast with the dial jammed from Boston down to DC you are lucky to get clean reception 15 or 20 miles out from the transmitter antenna depending on conditions. WABC has neglected its facility to the point that the once legendary signal now has issues in Central NJ where it used to boom in. Many operators seem to just be milking places dry until they can find someone else to buy, or like Clear Channel keep restructuring the debt to keep out of bankruptcy. Rush's $400 million contract is up in a few years, and I don't think will be getting anything near that again, especially with Cumulus blaming him personally for losing them money - http://www.ibtimes.com/rush-limbaugh-leaving-cumulus-media-conservative-radio-host-may-end-contract-over-ad-revenue-dispute. Side note - some of it is an act with these people, but with others it isn't (Mike Gallagher is a true believer). I'm up for a A/T thread to take the mainstream radio chat elsewhere... Edit: I have a collection of HD Radios since they are great on analog FM, and I kind of am engineer (on air/production are my main duties with me being the backup engineer/IT guy). I bought the radio when WCBS-FM was banished to a HD-2 channel during the Jack-FM fiasco...with my friends making fun of me when I did buy it - "Dude...you can get an iPod with accessories for that money? Are you retarded??" I was... bigtom fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Jul 21, 2013 |
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Jul 21, 2013 06:07
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McDowell posted:Since we're talking Sprawl stations I have to endure the bullshit of NJ 101.5 at work. NJ101.5 is a strange beast....topics range from the inane "Name Your Favorite M&M Color" to the usual political conversations of "Chris Christie - great or greatest governor??". I used to like the talk programming more when Roberta Gale was on at night since she was one of the few moderates. But given that the signal covers the suburban sprawl, with a big chunk of it the Republican strongholds of Monmouth/Ocean counties, it's not shocking that they tack right. Most people listen just for the traffic/weather, and the news - which is the best in the state. And with WWOR-9 shutting down its NJ operations, and NJT gone, there are few strong NJ news outlets. And no other stations with a signal footprint like 101.5. Fun fact: what helped put the station on the map was basically running Governor Florio out of office in '93 over tax hikes (John and Ken spoke at rallies and devoted a good chunk of airtime to it...they are now on KFI in LA and simulcast on WOR). Also, when they first launched, they would play oldies in between phone calls since they didn't have enough listeners - eventually they just moved the music to the weekends. I worked there as a music jock, and it was strange going from wall to wall oldies (err, "classic hits") to talk and vice versa. Can't you just snip the antenna lead to the radio at work, or do they stream it online?
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Jul 21, 2013 06:59
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Paul MaudDib posted:For comparison AM broadcast radio gets 1,100 KHz in the frequencies from 531-1611 KHz. The very longest band amateur radio operators get is 1800-2000 KHz, which is about 20 meters shorter in wavelength and less than a fifth the size. People would literally salivate to get that spectrum. The problem with AM is that between all the badly designed switching power supplies, LED traffic lights, and broadband over power lines in many spots what used to be a listenable signal is now drowned out by noise. I'm sure the hams would love that spectrum, but what do you do with all the stations that occupy that spectrum now? Pass out FM licenses could work in some areas, but in the Northeast where there is no more spots on the dial there could be an issue. I still think that the FCC should have used the old Channel 6 allocation to expand the FM band and migrate all the AM's over to it, but hey, they didn't ask me. Or just turn it into whitespace so I can finally realize my dream of having a AM pirate and seeing just how far I can push an Optimod 9100 playing oldies before it smokes the transmitter  I used to DX AM all the time when I was a kid...I loved picking up stations from all over the East Coast and Canada - but that was when oldies music on AM had a resurgence. With more syndicated crap, why bother DX'ing if there's nothing to listen to but AM 740 from Toronto? I'd love for some of the restrictions from the bad old days to come back - there were limits on the amount of commercials you could run per hour, the Fairness Doctrine, etc. But between the 20+ minutes of commercials per hour, new ratings metrics, and advertisers not wanting to be associated with anything that reeks of controversy, the right wing welfare of talk radio may peter out on its own in a few years. Look at TheBlaze.com to see where the future lies - subscription services to tell people what they want to hear to make them feel better about themselves.
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Jul 21, 2013 18:55
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McDowell posted:It is a good thing a Doppler Radar App and the Google Maps Traffic layer make them completely obsolete Before Townsquare, it was the "Millennium Radio New Jersey" network with local bureaus in Toms River, Trenton, and Asbury Park. Erick Scott is very conservative, but hides it most of the time when reporting. And yeah...most times Google Maps is better than what is fed to Traffic.com. But some of the older traffic guys know decent alternate routes that aren't on the maps. Dennis & Judy are a odd couple...both made their bones as music jocks (Dennis was at WFIL Philadelphia in the 70's, Judy at various stations along the shore) - but neither are exactly geniuses. Was it Judy's dad on the phone who had the gout? I took law classes in college, and the professor new I was a comm major - he used to poke fun at Rush and Fox News and would ask what the hell someone as smart as me was doing in radio. I wonder myself...
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Jul 21, 2013 23:33
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Those filthy poors, needing air conditioning to keep from dying of heat stroke.... Where's that Fox News "refrigerator poors" graphic when you need it?!?
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Sep 12, 2013 15:08
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GoatSeeGuy posted:This is going to be so great. Hannity may have lost some luster in the last few years but Savage is an actual He did HORRIBLE when he was on WOR in NYC. This is gonna be fun to watch...
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Sep 26, 2013 19:52
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HootTheOwl posted:Did he? Like ninety percent of his callers came from WOR when I listened. 50,000 watt station that covers the tri-state area, including radio markets #1, #20 (Nassau-Suffolk), #38 (Middlesex/Somerset/Union) and #52 (Monmouth/Ocean). Plus Southwestern CT...lot of people even if the station only tops out at a 2 share 6+ in all of those markets. Also, I'm sure his screeners bumped callers from the WOR coverage area to give the impression he was successful in godless commie liberal NY. Used to do it all the time whenever I screened (from a hot ZIP with diaries or meters? You get put on air first!) Hated his show the most aside from Gallagher...his satellite always had poo poo audio quality and the artifacting stood out like the veins on his head when he would start screaming.
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Sep 28, 2013 06:44
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HootTheOwl posted:I don't understand how ratings work. Is this bad? The station is #21 overall in NY, with a 1.2 share and a cume of 495,000 - for reference the #1 station has 5 million cume and a 6 share. So yeah..pretty bad. It does slightly better in the suburbs (1.5 share on Long Island, cume of only 62k), but even the NPR stations are beating it. Plus if you look at the breakdowns, it's all 55+ that listen - advertisers generally don't want anyone over 49, and they want women more than men (why oldies stations no longer play 50's & 60's songs...and why the soft rock station in your area is dropping the 70's & 80's songs). The lack of compelling content, and the fact that nobody under the age of 50 listens (thus, no advertisers aside from GoldLine and other scams), will be the death knell for the conservative talk on the radio as a major force, at least locally. Stations run on the cheap will keep it on, just to have something moving the meters - may not make much, but cheaper than hiring anyone locally.
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Sep 28, 2013 20:50
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The Ape of Naples posted:I can't wait to hear all about it. I love the old ribbon mics - so warm sounding. I think he has a Vorsis M1 mic processor...that might be a factor. Give me that or a SM-5 over the junk RE-20/27s that most stations use Shame the man is a crazy huckster..has great taste in equipment. Wonder when he will start doing the "Hillary is a secret lesbian" stories...
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Oct 9, 2013 17:45
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BiggerBoat posted:Since I've started to read it, I've caught myself wondering why more people don't try this approach. Get inside and intern for Limbaugh or FOX and then come forward. Seems like it'd be kind of fun. As much as those of us who work in the media would like to write something like that, the sad fact is that the business is small and getting smaller every year - and it would put a big crimp in my ability to get a job in the future since this industry is so incestuous (especially radio). Not to mention that I get a decent paycheck from one of these outfits (the outfit treats employees very well compared to other places - it's very strange). I mean, if you have no other career aspirations, go for it! Hell, I'd gladly help. But in this climate, I'd have to win the lotto first.
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Feb 8, 2014 12:39
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Centripetal Horse posted:Maybe ten years ago, I was listening to my favorite morning radio show (Lanigan and Malone - shout out Cleveland!), and they opened the phones to talk about taxes. Early on, this guy called in absolutely FURIOUS about the amount of taxes he's paid the previous year. He named a number, $85,000, and he pounded on that number. $85,000... I'm sure the hosts were sooo happy that for the length of that call, Majic went from being a non offensive oldies station to Galt-FM. It seems like these types of people are the kind to try and interject politics into any conversation...and it just makes me feel weird and work hard to steer it back to more neutral topics. I was in Jacksonville NC the other day, and this guy walks in and asks me "Are you one of Baracks people?" - simply because my car had NJ plates. I replied that no, I was more of a Bernie Sanders socialist...he looked at me like I had three heads. In other news...http://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n28432 Radio-Online posted:Syndicated talk host Phil Hendrie has made the decision to leave terrestrial radio. In a post on his website, Hendrie said he's making the move in order to have time to focus his energy on his successful podcast and other ventures in media. He will also continue doing "The World of Phil Hendrie Show" on TuneIn, iTunes, the Sideshow Network and philhendrieshow.com. The last day of "The World of Phil Hendrie" terrestrial radio broadcast will be March 14. Guess terrestrial radio isn't the easy money it used to be...
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Feb 15, 2014 05:23
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comes along bort posted:Kinda surprised you made it out of there in one piece with that attitude. It helps that I'm 6 foot 1, 320 pounds, and look like a mobster (in stereotypical fashion, I drive a Cadillac - maybe he thought I had some dead bodies in it or something). The fact I had a date might have been a factor as well - I didn't want any trouble, but I was taken aback by his way of introducing himself. Guy was very nice otherwise (he did drop the obligatory "I have black friends" when talking about how Obama has divided us by race and income level) - but it was a big reminder why I only lasted 10 months living in Eastern NC and got back to NJ as fast as I could. I had forgotten how many stations down there carry Rush, Beck, Levine, Savage, etc...almost as many religious stations to boot too.
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Feb 15, 2014 19:23
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Install Windows posted:Overall, do all those religious stations actually get listened to or what? Lots of them seem like they're running on shoestring budgets and the sheer determination of a few local Guys Doing Well For Themselves to make sure the Word goes out, regardless of if anyone actually listens. The spoken word/prayer stations are cheap to run, and the True Believers fork over the dough (Harold Camping had supporters thru multiple false end of the world campaigns somehow). Most of the programming is syndicated, so only a bare bones staff is needed. The CCM stations do nicely thru a mix of donations and commercials/underwriting - the guy who gave me my exam at the New Bern DMV said the local CCM station was his favorite (I worked for the devil rock station in Jville, so I don't think he was one of my listeners lol).
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Feb 16, 2014 05:06
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kik2dagroin posted:Today Limbaugh celebrated the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Must have been on the the daily talking points fax - all of the shows on The Blaze today were repeating the same thing (in between taking swipes at the UAW and Hillary for being old...and fat?). Knowing I'm in the same industry as these people makes me wonder why the hell I want to save radio instead of just letting it die...
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Feb 18, 2014 05:08
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McDowell posted:I see Rush and Hannity in the cycle of an electronic billboard, the big orange tagline is 'YOUR NEWS YOUR OPINION' Ahh yes, the new WOR billboards along the Turnpike. I see Clear Channels brilliant marketing strategy is in full effect (you knew the tagline, but not the station that they moved to). Looks like WOR will continue to be a bottom-dweller while the right wing welfare ship sinks as the demos get worse and worse. The lines have been blurred for over 20 years now...and continue to get smeared. Beck's The Blaze now has a 24/7 news service (tagline..."Truth Lives Here"..Oy) - care to take bets if there is a firewall between the news dept and the "entertainment" offerings at The Blaze radio/tv? Not that I take what Colbert & Stewart say/do as gospel...but given how much traditional news has circled the drain over the last 30 years, it's no wonder younger people like me treat those shows as "news" vs what else is on TV/radio.
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Mar 17, 2014 02:51
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Sucks to be Glenn Beck today: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/31/muslim-victim-of-boston-marathon-bombing-sues-glenn-beck-for-defamation-and-slander/Raw Story posted:Authorities quickly determined that Alharbi, a Saudi national of Middle Eastern descent, had no involvement in the attacks. I truly hope this guy wins a nice chunk of change off of Beck's stupidity. I eagerly await his spin on how he's the victim in all of this...
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Mar 31, 2014 21:24
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You can't even escape Right Wing Media on the holidays it seems. At Passover seder, the Rabbi had passed out an additional handout along with the haggada - titled "The 10 Plagues Of Modern Life." Part of the seder was a discussion, when the topic of immigration and assimilation came up...and the elderly woman across from me drops the phrase "BORDERS...LANGUAGE...CULTURE" when talking about how signs in anything but English are just awful After dessert, I asked her what she listened to...and of course, she just loves talk radio and Michael Savage. At least the brisket was good.
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Apr 15, 2014 16:46
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ProperGanderPusher posted:Ironic how this exact same sentiment was more than likely directed towards her Yiddish-speaking ancestors at some point, who were probably just a generation or two behind her. Bingo. NYC used to have Yiddish newspapers and block programming on radio stations in Yiddish (as well as Italian , Polish, etc) for the immigrant population. However, this person believes in exceptionalisim (also a topic at the seder), so if that was brought up her response would have been like Tony Soprano telling AJ that his ancestors worked their asses off instead of being lazy with their hands out.
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Apr 15, 2014 21:40
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Article from Esquire, which could be alternately titled "Why Ratings & Mainstream Advertisers Don't Matter To RW Media" - http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Political_Payola#commentsEsquire:ALAN FREED IS SPINNING AT 78 R.P.M. posted:A POLITICO review of filings with the Internal Revenue Service and Federal Election Commission, as well as interviews and reviews of radio shows, found that conservative groups spent nearly $22 million to broker and pay for involved advertising relationships known as sponsorships with a handful of influential talkers including Beck, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh between the first talk radio deals in 2008 and the end of 2012. Since then, the sponsorship deals have grown more lucrative and tea party-oriented, with legacy groups like The Heritage Foundation ending their sponsorships and groups like the Tea Party Patriots placing big ad buys. Doesn't matter if GM, Ford, etc bail from Rush & company - the various Tea Party groups are right there with the checkbook to make sure that the message gets out. At least Alan Freed's payola put doo wop & rock 'n roll on the air. And in the latest ratings, Rush & Hannity's new home in NYC is pulling a whopping 1.5 share. In LA? A .5... What a waste of two 50kw sticks.
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Apr 18, 2014 17:02
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Phone posted:The grand irony is that Carolla got lazy and comfortable while Kimmell kept hustling. Also Carolla completely ignores all of the lucky breaks he's received; he's the radio equivalent of "I was on food stamps, did anyone help me? No." So...he's just like Rush...who was on food stamps for a period of time, eating junk food & too lazy to mow his own drat lawn (as pointed out in Al Franken's book). Radio is not rocket science (we're the used car salesmen of entertainers), but every time I see someone doing construction work in summer heat or digging thru the trash I remind myself how worse off I could be. Corolla should be thankful for what he has and that people still listen to what he has to say, sans girls jumping on trampolines.
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Jun 1, 2014 14:52
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Sir Tonk posted:They have a channel labeled iPhone. What radio station has a channel specifically for iPhones? Dumbass Talent/Board Opp:"Hey...um...yeah...I know we have this $10,000 NexGen for audio playback and recording...but can you make it so that I can play my iPhone thru the board??? Takes too long to load stuff...and I'm lazy." And that's how you get a channel on the board dedicated for use with someones iPhone. In actual news, conservative talkers across the country are still in the basement ratings wise, with KEIB-AM in LA pulling in a big 0.8 share overall. In NY, WABC & WOR both have a 1.5 (the Mets are responsible for that bump on WOR). Head here http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=78b390ff9f5b002e3f050238c&id=58f833f144&e=8d0ca9f0de if you wish to see where your local waste of wattage ranks overall. Great day to be in talk radio!
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Aug 5, 2014 03:54
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BiggerBoat posted:This. AM radio was loving wasteland in the late 80's and early 90's until conservative radio and sports talk filled the void. The thing thing that pisses me off about it is the signal strength these motehrfuckers seem to have no matter where you go. I'll be road tripping somewhere listening to idiots talk about football or something and then I lose the the signal, scan the dial and no matter WHERE I am, there's always Rush, Sean, Savage, etc. or some church yelling at me to repent. The reason Clear Channel and others have tried to move talk radio to FM, with varying degrees of success, is because AM is dying a slow death with anyone under the age of 50. Advertisers want people under the age of 49...that does not bode well for revenue. Only AM stations that do well in the major markets are the big 50,000 watters that have the signal to overcome the electrical noise and crappy radios most people have (think WBZ 1030, KDKA 1020, or WCBS 880). However, the demos still don't get better with political talk even on FM - thus CC finally giving up on 104.7 and going back to music (same thing happened with 96.9 in Boston with a different company). Crap programming is crap programming, no matter in FM stereo or AM mono at 5k. That alone gives me hope that we are headed for the end of this era of talk radio....but I doubt we will see anything better come along aside from public radio. Radio loves cheap syndicated programming instead of live and local, even if the latter gets better ratings than the former.
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Aug 8, 2014 22:28
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 12:41 |
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Chris Christie back in the spotlight...International Business Times posted posted:New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has discovered a creative new way to make sure he’s always in the driver’s seat with his state’s news media. The Republican governor -- and likely 2016 presidential candidate -- can add “sports-car broker” to his list of media persuasion techniques after he successfully petitioned an auto dealership to loan a Corvette to the radio news host who interviews him each month on “Ask the Governor,” a public-affairs program on New Jersey 101.5. It is a situation that media experts say crosses major ethical lines. Not that this is a major scandal - but it goes to show how Christie has one of the only major news outlets in NJ wrapped around his finger. The show is basically an hour long love fest that counts as "public service"...and sadly has even won awards from the state broadcasters association. Will anyone really care...or will Christie just laugh this off as usual?
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Mar 27, 2015 14:38
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