Are we as good as yesterday?

[Chris Lawrence]

Okay, I'm not going to call out anybody here because God knows I've made more than my share of on air mistakes and presided over a few unmitigated broadcasting disasters myself, some of my own making and some not.

That said...growing up I listened to A LOT of radio broadcasts. I only watched a fair amount of TV (we only got 2 channels and one of them was PBS). However, I can only recall maybe two or three times recognizing a glaring on air mistake. I'm talking about technical stuff like dead air, missed I-D's, jocks back announcing the wrong song, stepping on the first word of song while talking over the intro and the like. On TV I don't recall anybody going to the wrong video (film in those days), or anchors looking like a deer in the headlights and not knowing whether to wind thier watch or comb their hair. The newswriting back then was tremendous, powerful words, tight writing, and dramatic voices were the trademarks of the industry. Transitions were crisp, clear, compelling, and appeared effortless.

Today....if you're a listener/viewer you know what I mean, you hear constant mistakes and miscues. A lot of times trainwrecks have become "part of the deal." Like I said, I include myself in this category since I'm far from perfect. However, after doing this for 18-years I've learned a few things. First, if you're in the middle of a firestorm, dont' throw gasoline on it by drawing attention to the mistake--unless you have to. Second, witt and humor can often be helpful--people like to know you make mistakes too (this should never be the first line of defense--the first line should be don't make a damn mistake). Third, be ready for anything--live radio is unpredictable, which is a big part of the draw.

But, why is it that radio/tv of today appears so sloppy compared to the old days? I would guess the dividing line probably came around the late 80's early 90's (right when I got in, perhaps that has something to do with it). However, other things also happened. Sattelite fed stations became common place, computers firing tones replaced live humans firing carts. Tons of folks want to get into the business thinking "it's easy and fun" and perhaps the talent pool is a sort of shallow? I know for a fact running the board for a ballgame helped me tremendously. A lot of people getting into radio today have no clue HOW to board op a sattelite broadcast or understand how to read a format, since most stations are automated and true board ops aren't needed. Experience is a great teacher. Plus fewer and fewer small stations are around to even get that ground level experience. Like I said--these are my observations and could be completely off-based.

I hesitated to post this fearing I would draw a firestorm on myself for my own on-air performance, but Big Dawg talked me into it. Just wondering if I'm the only one who's noticed this...I still listen to A LOT of radio, so I have some anecdotal comparisons to draw my conclusions.

[Hoosier Daddy]

The problems started when radio stopped being an "art" and became yet another machine-driven profit center for beancounters hellbent on making money hand over fist. Mistakes happen when you have one person overseeing four, six, or eight stations at one time, and heavily depend on automation to mix and match everything going over the air.

I undertsand that radio is a business and that profit is necessary to survive, but we made a wrong turn when the goal became replacing every payroll position with a machine so we could make More-More-More-More money.

[ashton]

From a 1 man trainwreck with tons of radio warts, I'll agree with Chris that it's a beancounter problem. PDs don't have the time to properly aircheck their staff, because they have to wear so many hats. The only time I had a consistent weekly aircheck was at WINC in Winchester. Though it may not have been the best time in my life as a DJ, my experience there helped me in later jobs. It has also proven to be a very nice jumping ground for Megan Durst, who took that experience and made herself a really good jock.

[Hoosier Daddy]

I realize the smallest markets were always full of people with less than perfect voices, and newbies who messed up when cutting their teeth in the biz. We knew it was small town radio, and we knew the sound and style would be more polished in direct proportion to the size of the market. But we've pretty much lost our farm system in radio. There doesn't seem to be an entry level anymore. There is no adequate training ground for medium and large markets, where the rote mechanics of broadcasting are honed and air talent gets a chance to grow or decide the job ain't for them.

I'm just curious -- how would someone who REALLY wanted to work in radio get in the business these days? One of those broadcasting schools? College communications/journalism major? Be a board op/meter reader/janitor at anyplace that'll hire you and hope someone there will give you some love?

An open question to anyone currently in the radio business. I honestly wouldn't know what to tell a young kid who asked ...

[Boss 97]

Great topic Chris, so I'll have to throw in my 5 cents (inflation and all).

I guess I'm one of the last of my generation where I was trained in the radio business from the ground up.
Started just being a go-fer at my local hometown AM station in NJ. I was only 15 years old and the DJ's
helped me understand the business and how it works. I was also their standby to hit carts while they
took extended breaks to eat, smoke or use the restroom. I learned how to operate equipment, how to
write scripts, voice commercials, put away the records, take readings, etc.
Already I had met just about all the DJ's in the Atlantic City market and some in Philly.

By the time I was 18, I was running the board for games and church services. My big on air break
happend with the death of an old timer DJ / owner in Atlantic City, they needed someone to cover
the afternoon shift. It didn't take long from there to get more part time fill in work. I actually used
to work 3 different stations on Saturdays, I'd do the morning shift in Atlantic City, go to Hammonton, NJ
30 miles away to do the afternoons on a 25kw FM playing elevator music, then head out to Vineland, NJ
to play rock music on an AM/FM combo. Only had about 1 hour for travel between stations and I did this
for almost an entire year, plus worked my fulltime shift at yet another station. Did it all at very low pay and
had lots of fun doing it.

Fast forward to today's entry level announcers, many of them refuse to take instruction or
take the time to understand why things should be done in certain ways. The next big item is they
expect to get top pay for entry level work and while being trained. When you ask them to cover shifts
or do events during the weekend or possibly in the evenings, they grumble and complain. Some have
actually quit because the job was not just 9 to 5 Mon to Fri.

It is very rare, cause I have not come across many entry level employees that I can say really even care
that they work at a radio station, there just is no emotional ties like I remember. I always tried to be
my biggest critic, I took the time to listen to myself and tried to improve my delivery. I love radio
so much that I still do a live 5 hour request and dedication show every Saturday night on BOSS 97
just because it's fun. If it were up to me, I'd have all our stations run with live DJ's, but reality is
that even the bigger stations can not afford to be live, income has not grown big enough to cover
salaries in small markets. You might remember that most stations used to close down by midnight.
Everyone went to 24 hours when computers came in use. Then the owners figured it was cheaper
to have that computer work from 7PM on, some had the computer babysit the weekends, now
even when there are plenty of employees standing around, no one is live on air, because it's easier
to have the computer do it.

So Chris, to summarize it, radio is screwed. Certainly there will always be someone who sounds good
but just enough of them to go around.

[Dr. Whiplash]

I can't add much beyond what others have said, except to add anecdotal experience.

Like some other old farts on this board, I entered radio when superior writing and enunciation skills were required and rewarded. I was fortunate to have opportunities to learn more from some old pros than I'd learned in college. Airchecks were at least weekly if not daily. And there existed then a deep sense of responsibility to the community in general and to our listeners in particular. That was natural since the stations were directly responsible to their communities, listeners and advertisers. There was a connection with the listenership at a level which, in my opinion, simply no longer exists today at many stations in most markets, where the robots rule.

Where no live human being from their community tells listeners - not even via a recorded announcement, because there's nobody home - when the main river road has been shut down by a landslide, thus causing them to be an hour late to or from work. Where the DJ makes no mention of the most beautiful day of spring or the worst snow storm in years. Or where the smooth-voiced cool jock inexplicably and repeatedly mangles the name of a local landmark or even a city. In moments like these, even the least radio-savvy real folks realize they are being conned. People don't like that.

And in those few but extremely important moments when a community faces an urgent crisis - a tornado, a chemical leak, or such - more than a few stations in this region leave their listeners completely and utterly uninformed, other than maybe an EAS message, and we all know how that works.

One obvious solution to the decline of local radio - and I know it's probably anachronistic on several levels, but I'll say it anyway - is to revert back to the old FCC rules and open up station license renewals for challenge from the community; a challenge that the current licensees are not serving the needs of their community.

It tended to keep people on their toes, back when community radio mattered.

[Lester]

Cheap, yet crappy, automation and satellite delivery opened the door for sloppy segues, switch overs, and dead air as the norm. It didn't take long for the board ops to not know how to do it any better. It didn't take long for the rest of us to accept it as "AudioVault just sounds like that... and it replaced 3 jock salaries!".

[bigjohn]

Just from the first line...are we as good as yesterday.... the answer is... yes!!...


First up ... let's be clear.. yesterday is gone... the days of carts.. putting away records... running a board ... just a thing of the past. I was hired to run the weekend shows... I wanted to train, and get on the air !!...It's fun to remember the good ole' days.. I started at WLOG in logan.. the mighty AM.. My first pd was "LARRY KID CONLEY".. (he seems to be a loved guy on the post).. anyway.. I worked with DAVE ALLEN from WVOW.. he showed me the ropes.. what to say.. what buttons to hit .. do all the right things..make the mistakes on the small station so when i got the first overnight job on v100...I would be ready!!... Also, in the old days.. you hired people to train them to be on the air when you .. the full time person.. couldn't be on the air...

Let's FFW to today.... There's no interest in radio today because we.... program directors, we hire people to watch the computer.. some of us don't look for talent... we are looking for someone that can be in the building .. can fog a mirror.. stay awake and make sure that our tracked stations don't blow up !!... we don't even look for someone with personality to train them .. work them into air personalitys.. This is a flaw of the pd...Here in Morgantown.. Lacy Neff has had great success with part-time working into the best full time talent.. Megan Durst and EDGE are professional personalities that came from the weekend roster.. I've got a kid CADALIAC MATT who's improving every week tracking and on the air live.

So, the original question .. "Are we as good as yesterday".. WE ARE!! .. we just do it a different way.. there's as much dead air today as there was 20 years ago.. just for different reasons...

I'll always embrace the "tecknology"..We just can't forget why we got on the air in the first place.. and we need to hunt for people that would be great on the radio.. and train them!!....

big john
wkkw

[Uncle Shishkabob]

Even though I've been "off the air" for 22 years and totaly involved in sales I still consider myself a radio enthusest and listen closely and share with my friends in the radio business.I remember my first part time gig circa 1975 at 1050 WADC-99.3 WIBZ in Parkersburg doing weekends for Randy Jay while a junior at Ohio University. Even though I was "on air "from 6pm-sign off on the AM, every time I cracked the mic..it counted...I plotted what I would say ahead of time all the time, even after sign off, I'd update the weather cart on WIBZ every hour so it sounded fresh all the time, Yes I know everything has changed and the playing field is different but in general I don't hear or even at times see (on TV) the extra care to detail we all once prided ourselfs in.Too many train wrecks!Lack of detail...and yes many cheap suits in our business not spending enough for staffing to make things sound or look good A few years ago we were on vacation in Ocean City, one Sunday during my vacation severe weather was running through the area around noon.. I scanned the local stations only to hear pre recorded forecasts...no updated info. A few days later I had lunch with a good friend who worksfor the Ocean City Clear Channel cluseter. I asked why no one took the time to come in and at least update the weather his response...they won't pay us to come in. Again it ain't what it was lo those many years ago.

[Rock]

Chris, in my opinion...the obvious answer is 'no'. The reasons are many and varied, but they all have one thing in common...they all start at the top and work their way down. From the owners who've spent their entire lives in radio and think they know it all and therefore stifle any creativity, to the ones who return from each broadcaster's meeting spouting 'local, local, local', like they've heard some incredible new theory and still expect you to keep four stations on the air with 1.5 people ...it all starts with leadership.

Leadership...or lack of it. It's the Owners/Management that determine the direction of your organization. which might explain why some of you cats at WV Radio take a little heat occasionally. While I'm sure your command structure has it's flaws, radio people at the top who really want great radio and are willing to do what's necessary to make it happen...is EXTREMELY rare, and becoming more so everyday. Feel blessed, friend. Most of us don't work in that situation.

[Big Media]

I worked with DAVE ALLEN from WVOW.. he showed me the ropes.. what to say.. what buttons to hit ..

That explains why the two of you sound so similar on the air. I don't believe I have heard a break from either of you where you took a breath.

[Chris Lawrence]

To be clear...I didn't say I thought it was a "beancounter" problem. The facts are, like it or not, commercial radio stations exist to make money. If you work at a radio station--your job is to help the station create as much revenue as is possible for the station. That's nothing new--it's ALWAYS been that way. If that's not your number 1 priority--you aren't long for the business.

What I was talking about was the actual "craft" I guess. It's hard to explain. When I put together Day in History segments I hear those radio guys of the 1940's and 50's...and even later doing GREAT work. It's stoic stuff that captures your attention. You just don't hear those kinds of voices on the radio that make you stop what you're doing...and not just on national network archives. Here's an example.

Growing up in Big Stone Gap, VA. We had a tiny radio station called WLSD (I'm NOT making that up). Every morning we listened to "The Country Doctor" who was the D-J. He had a VERY distinctive voice. Now, this guy wasn't Edward R. Murrow...but if you overheard him talking in a room and didn't know his face you'd stop and go--that's the Country Doctor. He had one of those "radio voices". I'm still not sure what that means when people say "radio voice"--but I guess it's the fact that it's a familiar voice that stands out. His diction is perfect, grammar is excellent, he has a powerful vocabulary, and delivery is smooth and flawless. That WAS the country doctor....and he was working in Big Stone Gap, VA...not Mutual News. I don't really know anybody with that "radio voice" anymore.

It just seems to me like there was a greater pride in working in the industry as I was growing up. Today, it seems many regard their radio work as "just a job"..no differnt than delivering pizza, sacking groceries, or washing cars (all of which I have done--so don't give me a raft about selecting those). To me, radio was a "career" as opposed to a "job."

[Dave Allen]

First of all, I have never heard of this "Big John" person, so I couldn't possibly have trained him. Second of all, I have the distinct pleasure of working at what I am sure is one of the only stations in America that ALWAYS has a live body in the building and running the board. Anytime you hear any Braves/WVU/high school games or whatever, there is a live body pushing the buttons. One of the things that I loved about the time I started in the business (1988) was that the majority of people that were in the business then (I'm talking the now dead WLOG and WVOW..both of the Logan stations) seemed to want to be there. Most had a desire to be on air or at least around the biz. I'm sure there are a lot of kids who want to be on the radio today but a great deal of the ones I meet never even listened to the radio over the last few years, let alone want to work there. I also seem to remember a sense of professionalism in both TV and radio that are lacking today. When I was a kid the people on the tube and on the radio just seemed to be so above the average person on the street. I'm not saying that is good or bad, it just is.

[ashton]

Professionalism lacks in every facet. Look at the way many of us dress for work.

[Lester]

That's my works dress code, big guy.

[Dave Loudin]

While decamped in Sutton this week to help with family care, I had the good fortune to catch up with Al Sergi and the Summit Media crew. Having worked at the mighty 1490 WSGB back when it was an odd appendage to the Becker media empire, I was very interested in how the place has evolved. Al was very generous with his time, even taking me up to the pasture to see the completely rebuilt AM plant. Afterwards, three things are abundantly clear in my mind:

1) Al has grown his operation far beyond what I thought would be possible given his location. Even with a full Class B that reaches Charleston and Clarksburg, its still a challenge to get revenue going. Kudos for really making the most of 97.1 and using that to build up some nice facilities.

2) Webster County is a hell of an area to site an FM.

3) I still have the bug.

Thanks, Al!

[genlock]

Grassy pastures are full of ticks.
Maybe that is the bug.

[Dave Loudin]

Ha! Checked for that.

[Dave Harman]

Even with a full Class B that reaches Charleston and Clarksburg, its still a challenge to get revenue going.

Actually, the usable signal wears out out 20 miles short of Charleston, which could be part of the problem. Yesterday, it seemed not to come in until well past Clarksburg as well.

But there's still plenty of revenue in that market. Maybe someone will tap it before long.

[Dave Loudin]

I've seen the filings. Like I said, Webster County is a hell of a place to site an FM.