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Summer is finally here! This year it snuck up on me. We had a miserable Winter, and Spring was cold, then hot, then cold… but the last few weeks it just warmed up and stayed that way. Its gonna be a wonderful Summer!

Enough about the weather. I’ve decided to be positive about our industry for once. Sales numbers are up, in fact, the data suggests that radio hasn’t had a year this promising (revenue wise) since about 2000! Now, I don’t know about you, but my jaded mind thinks this is only the case because there are far fewer jobs that stations have to actually pay a jock to do, lots more barter programming, markets are about as consolidated as they can possibly be, and we’re finally emerging from the worst recession in at least 50 years. In short, radio’s fortunes had nowhere to go but up, even with the prospect of having to pay royalties looming over the industry’s head.

I don’t want to quote my favorite consultant verbatim, but Jerry Del Colliano is certainly onto something when he talks about the future of radio being in more interactive media on the web… specifically, in APPs. Del Colliano mentions the Ipad being a great medium to convey content (while providing full disclosure that he’s an Apple stockholder). I happen to agree, but I think there’s still more to be done with the on-air side of the business. Here’s a couple of things that I think show great promise:

1. HD Radio. Its really taking hold in a lot of markets now, with most, if not all FM stations broadcasting in HD. Content in many cases is now a locally produced (albeit jockless) format that is missing in the market… some examples being WALK-HD2 Patchogue, NY, a Long Island Hot AC station that uses it’s HD2 to air a modern Country format! They have customized sweepers for “Long Island Country”. Its a local format, jockless, but running from the WALK-FM studios. WDRC-HD2 Hartford airs it’s own Oldies format, skewing much older, with mainly 50s and early 60s music complimenting the 60s/70s/80s format airing on the main FM/HD1 channel. These are really great sounding stations, the music is crisp and really is CD quality! The only problem with HD programming, is the same problem that plagued AM Stereo in the mid-1980s… a conspicuous lack of decent receivers. For this to work, and it SHOULD, ALL car radios should be equipped with HD AM/FM receivers as STANDARD equipment. This should be a government mandate in order to ensure that HD radio gets maximum exposure. There is a lot of potential with HD radio and millions of dollars in untapped advertising revenue that should be sold but currently is NOT. Manufacturers of AM/FM radios should be encouraged to improve upon the sensitivity of receivers of BOTH bands and should include HD receivers in each model from now on. HD Radio shouldn’t be allowed to fade into oblivion like AM Stereo did, and if it takes legislation to ensure its survival, then that’s what should happen.

2. Internet Radio. There’s more data out there suggesting that internet radio is taking off at an unprecedented pace. When you think of internet radio, you probably think of Pandora, or something on Live 365. Well, there are lots of alternatives out there, and some are starting to monetize the medium. Took long enough! There are too many stations to begin to mention, but just peruse the friends lists on Facebook and you’ll inevitably find people advertising their own stations. I mention this to say, traditional, over the air radio is missing the boat if they are NOT streaming their own stations. They should be streaming all of their HD channels (except perhaps their News/Talk station simulcasts), and creating their own content. There’s no reason to fight the internet radio only stations, but there’s every reason for OTA radio to join in the profits!. And the good news for jocks displaced by radio consolidation: there are increasingly more slots for out of work jocks on internet radio. The downfall is, if you go that route, be prepared to generate your OWN revenue. It can be fun, but internet stations aren’t paying… at least not yet. We’ll see what the future holds.

Which brings me to the one negative, related issue. Are you looking for a traditional radio job? Well, be prepared to be put through the ringer. Stations now are taking the step of doing full background investigations on prospective jocks – even part timers. This includes, credit checks, former addressess, criminal checks (were you ever arrested, better not lie on that job app…). What this is, is a screening process, done by computer. You get a pass or fail score based upon the investigation, much like if you apply for a loan. Crazy, isn’t it? I mean, say you have unpaid bills from years ago in another state. You want to go on the air at WXYZ, just weekends / vt. You get screened out based upon your credit score. Do you believe that? It’s not fair, but that’s the process that most radio companies have adopted recently. Just another strike against someone getting into or back into the biz.

Thanks for reading, and as always… remember the good times and great stations, and pass it on to the next generation!
Steve West

Well, the weather’s warming up nicely just a week away from the start of Summer and a picture from one of my many Radio Station gigs in Winter seems nice in the 85 degree weather.

Its been a while since I wrote about the state of Radio but I had a few thoughts about things after reading many posts on Facebook recently.

You know, about a year ago, I wrote a blog in which I said that you don’t need Facebook or any social media, for that matter. I’ve since found that it’s not only a good thing to use Facebook, it’s damn near essential for any air talent to even get looked at by potential employers. But beware, what you post and what employers can dig up on you can be either an asset or detriment. And remember that your privacy is most important, and its all too easy to give out too much information for your own good. So as all the experts say in so many instances… let the user beware.

I’ve been thinking about the state of our economy lately. I started paying attention again when the Dow dropped nearly 1,000 points last week. Scary thought, and I had backed off watching the various business channels because it was raising my blood pressure. However, I’ve taken a liking to Bloomberg Eleven Three Oh (WBBR New York) due to their comprehensive and relatively balanced reporting on Wall Street. What I hear really alarms me. For instance, today, they featured a guy from WSJ Accounting (or something close… ) who said that the next correction right around the corner won’t be in the hundreds of points lost in one day, but thousands.

Thinking about things logically, with our US Dollar pretty strong, one would think that we should continue in recovery. I don’t believe that thinking however. There are too many negatives weighing in on the economy to sustain further growth. First off, today (5/10/10), the unemployment report from the government came out and showed that we lost 25,000 jobs in the previous quarter, when Wall Street was expecting a jobs gain. Not good. European markets are in a deep slide as they try to bail out Greece and it’s failed economy. Then, there’s the Euro. Once thought to eclipse the US Dollar as THE world currency, the Euro is faltering and may completely collapse. European Debt is out of control and in many ways, things are really far worse than they were in the Fall of ’08 at the height of the US Bank failures and subsequent government bailout. Then, there’s the run on Gold that’s taken hold. While Gold didn’t rise much in ’08, it’s gone through the roof, currently over $1,200 an ounce as investors run from risk for the safety of precious metals (we saw this in 1929 after the stock market crash). Runaway inflation surely can’t be far behind, although the only thing that’s saved us from it has been the aforementioned crash of the Euro. With other currencies in worse shape than the Dollar, even with the Federal Reserve printing money at a record rate (thus devaluing the currency), its still leaving the Dollar stronger than other world currencies. One day, world markets are going to realize that the US Dollar isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on and that’s when inflation will hit us in ernest. Till then, we’ll have our problems but we should be able to weather the economic storm collectively.

Where does that leave the Radio industry? Well, it’s a mixed bag. Some companies, the ones who didn’t lay off a lot of talented people, are in a great position to recover this year, providing we don’t have a second market Crash. Others, who will remain nameless, who laid off a lot of talent, will have a more difficult time. It wasn’t just talent that was fired in these cases, often, good sales reps were thrown out with the bathwater in the process.

Someone asked me recently, “how do you get into the radio industry”? My response was basically, “Why do you want to do that?” I shouldn’t be so pessimistic. After all, if you get into a line of work because you love it, shouldn’t that be more important than how much money you make? If you’re single, the answer is probably, yes. Married folks should think twice about a radio career, unless they are prime morning talent worth 6 figures. Because the disparity in pay is a great cavern, as wide as the Grand Canyon. Either you’re in the 6 figure club or you’re scratching at 25,000 – barely above the poverty level. That’s not a great choice but it’s reality.

One doesn’t really know for sure how the economy is going to fare by the end of the year, but it’s late in May, and the stock market has already erased all it’s gains for the year. And broadcasters still have far lower levels of revenue to deal with not to mention the fight to not have to pay royalties to the recording industry, ingrates as they are. My advise to you unemployed radio people: find a REAL job unless you’re THAT good. Do radio part time just to stay in it. Your dependents will thank you for it.

Steve West
Webmaster

Yep, 2009 is just about history. Notice I didn’t call this a year end rant. I really don’t want to rant and rave, lunatics do that.

I’m listening to WDRC-FM’s year end countdown, “Big D A to Z”. It’s pretty good as far as playlists go, they say it’s the entire DRC-FM library. Well, it’s Monday night and New Year’s Day is still a couple of days away, so if they don’t repeat anything then it’s really gonna be something. I don’t know why this is important other than the fact that I think WDRC-FM is the best sounding station, in terms of presentation and personalities, in the State of Connecticut. Perhaps anywhere north of New York City. The fact that this station has only had two owners since 1922 (if you count WDRC-AM 1360) probably has something to do with it. Heritage, and a small time owner in Buckley Broadcasting. Yes, I’m impressed, in a time when few things in modern radio impress me anymore.

I was reading Tommy Kramer’s blog and some of his coaching tips. You know, I love that aircheck of Tommy Kramer on KNUS that we have here on Airchexx… but I don’t necessarilly agree with his consultant ideas. Lemme give you an example.

Click that link, read it, then come back… I’d quote it but then again I don’t have Tommy’s phone number to ask permission.

While the ‘puker’ really IS bad, what is so bad about an old school delivery? (and all the consultants collectively GASP!) Lets talk about that old school delivery. Yea, have you been approached by someone wanting to hear your radio voice? They probably aren’t mocking you. The DEEJAY is still respected, he’s (she’s) just not HEARD on the air anymore.

The largest complaint I hear from my co-workers (and I’m now OUT of radio, except for a few shows here and there) is that the people they hear on the air are IDIOTS! They don’t WANT the jock to sound like the pimple faced kid who wears his jeans around his knees. Ok, maybe it works with Urban formats, but they don’t count. No, people want an intelligent deejay, and preferably one with pipes. The Fred Winston and Charlie Van Dyke types are still in demand. And, if the younger generation got exposed to and old school approach with THEIR music of today, it would be a HUGE hit! What I’m trying to say in so many words is that the consultants are just as much part of the problem as the large conglomerate bean counters. Oh, and by the way, I happen to really LIKE Tommy Kramer… didn’t mean to pick on him in particular as I happen to agree with most of his tips. Anyway, while its true that nobody wants to hear a jock puke (what’s that? When you hear it you’ll know…), its not true, in my opinion, that if you sound like an “announcer”, at times, that you’re going to drive the audience into their iPods. I got news for ya – those with iPods are gonna be listening to them over radio no matter what you do because there’s nothing INTERESTING on the radio!!

Several years ago, when the former WFMP Fitchburg, Ma. picked up the old WXLO call letters and moved the studios to the Worcester Center Galleria, one of the first consultant sessions we had, the guy who shall remain nameless said that we should NOT announce artists/songs, ever. Reason was that ‘the audience is not stupid, they know the music’. This was in March, 1984. Okay, he got it half right. The audience isn’t stupid. But listeners ARE forgetful. And they DO want to know who sang the song they heard five minutes ago. That was proven about a decade later, when a different AC consultant at a different station I was at said that the audience wants to know artist and song names (especially true in Smooth Jazz!).

So okay, this really is a rant. Well, here’s where I’m going with all this. Consultants are a two headed beast, one head is good and the other evil. Consultants, like bean counters, are responsible for the blandness we hear all over the dial. And, 2009, of course, will be remembered as the year the entire industry had a meltdown. After the October, 2008 stock market crash, nobody wanted to advertise. So ad revenues fell off a cliff. Then, of course, all the debt-laden companies like Citadel (not to pick on them but they DID go bankrupt this month) couldn’t shed talent fast enough to drop the bottom line.

It’s a lovely situation radio is in right now. Glad I’m working in a Union shop on an assembly line right now or I’d be living under a bridge. Ad revenue is way down, syndication/network programming is more common during almost any daypart now than at any time since before 1960.. in fact its far worse. Localism? What localism? That costs money. Even Howard Stern may have to take a pay cut! Voice Tracking has taken the place of live, local jocks in almost every place except for PM drive, and even there, they do it if they can get away with it. Add in streaming content available on Blackberry’s and iPhones, mp3 collections many times the size of most station’s entire libraries (nevermind the ultra-small playlists), podcasts, satellite and new, emerging media, and you see where radio is and where it’s headed. The picture got real bleak in 2009, and it looks even worse for 2010.

Yes there is a glimmer of hope for radio. Small market stations that need to actually SERVE their local community will remain relevant, at least for the time being, because they simply can’t take the local content and personality out of their programming and just play wall-to-wall music without losing their advertising base…. which, speaking of, really is LOCAL. The agencies just simply aren’t buying. Got to go LOCAL. It’s those stations that serve a small community that actually are faring better than their large and major market counterparts. And with music available on demand now and even more in the coming months and years, the stations that evolve out of the music intensive, voice tracked formats and go with a local oriented, personality based format, which also develops an interactive web presence which includes social networking… those are the stations that will survive and perhaps even thrive as we move into 2010 and beyond.

I’m not saying that hit music has to disappear from radio. Not at all. But stations absolutely must put the personality, the DEEJAY, the TALK SHOW HOST and the NEWS ANCHOR and REPORTER smack dab in the middle of their community on a daily basis. Get out of the studio and get visible. Do something for your communities. Play the music but talk to and with your audience. Remember all the iPhones that the kids have. All they do is txt all day long… more than talk. You have GOT to incorporate that into your programming efforts. Sales…. GET WITH THE STINKING PROGRAM! You can no longer go to your local car dealer and have station jocks peddle cars twice an hour for 3 hours and have 10 people show up to spin the cheap prize wheel!!! It DOES NOT WORK!!! That any car dealers in this country even get suckered into believing that they’ll sell one car by shelling out $3,000 for a Saturday remote these days is unbelievable!!!

Well, see why I call it a rant?

I have to post a correction. I wrote in my September 1, 2009 Webmaster’s Corner that jocks shouldn’t be posting to MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, et al. Well, that’s not quite true. What I should have said is be CAREFUL what you post in those blogs. Most people have an annoying tendancy to post when something is really bothering them, like political things. The one thing that personally sets me off is when I see one of my Facebook ‘friends’ posting about some far leftist dribble cause like ‘save the icebergs from evil global warming Republicans’, or some other nit witted politically oriented statement. I’m not a Republican. I’m not rich (hell I’m barely squeaking by like the rest of the country), but the loony left drives me out of my mind. Likewise, people who post Conservative things make Liberals cringe. Point is, people, especially potential employers, DO read this stuff and they will make a snap judgement about you based upon things you write about. It’s not remotely fair, but when you make a post on a social networking site, you might as well be making a willful, written statement as a condition for employment – and all the constitutional rights and employment laws that prohibit such things go right out the window. It was a simpler time before the internet – we didn’t have to worry about such things. Just be careful because when you apply for your next gig, your boss, whether its the CEO or PD, IS going to search for you on Facebook. Count on it. Because he or she knows your listeners will look for you there also, and you are going to be representing the station. But… as I recently discovered, it’s almost essential TO have a Facebook account now. Ok. ‘Nuff said.

It was a lousy year for radio, we all know that. But the good thing is, we all have Airchexx!!!! At least what we remember and loved is here, and we’re not going anywhere. We will grow this year, and I can tell you that we’ll be migrating over to a much larger server in the coming months, with some new features and a ton of new airchecks that you haven’t heard yet. I can’t wait, and I hope you all share my excitement!

Have a happy and safe New Year and we’ll see you in 2010!

Steve West

The first of September has always seemed to me, to be the end of Summer. Course, we didn’t have much of a Summer, with only about two weeks worth of Summer heat this year – comfortable, sure, but certainly not beach weather. So here it is, a mere 42 degrees at 4am – it’s not even Labor Day… and I’m wondering if Summer was this cold, will Winter be awful?

Change gears now. I read a lot of blogs… Mel Phillips, Jerry Del Colliano and others. Course, those two are my favorites – perhaps its the way they write. Anyhow, I got to thinking the other day that perhaps we’re not giving radio the chance… the positive spin it needs. When even those inside the medium say radio’s doomed and blame corporate policy, its a pretty bleak picture. But did we paint that picture ourselves? I remember someone telling me that radio is what you make of it. You’ll always have a place of SOME kind, if you train yourself to be good at more than one thing.

What things? Well, here’s a few suggestions from the Steve West School of Broadcasting…

Production. Be a production wiz! Try creating liners for your station at home or in the production room when its empty. Maybe try some imaging. Heck, present it to your PD – he might even like it, use it, and save the station some money. You see production that needs doing? Ask the Production Director (or your PD) if you can do some of it.

News. Learn how to write good news copy, how to properly get leads (got a scanner?), and how to follow up on them. Keep a digital recorder on you at all times, you never know when you might need it. Ask to fill in when the News guy is out. At very least, record a sample newscast that you’ll have available so that if a news position comes open at least you’ll have something to show a prospective employer.

Volunteer your time. Okay, so you think that’s beneath you. You graduated long ago from the street team. Well, it sure looks good if you’ve done some high profile volunteer work for your city. C’mon. Think. I’m sure there’s something you can do and attach your name (and your station’s name) to. Think future resume… Most stations still worth a damn do care if a new on air personality is willing to make a positive, visible impact on their community of license.

Notice I did NOT mention opening a Facebook or Twitter page. My feeling on this is that whatever negative or embarassing comments someone in your chain of friends or followers posts will inevitably show up on your page even if you’ve been a good little poster and kept it friendly and rated G. Sure, we’ve all seen help wanted ads on All Access and elsewhere that say the PD wants to see your Facebook page… but unless you’re applying for Ryan Seacrest’s job why do you really need that headache? If your demo tape and qualifications are good enough, your personality upbeat enough and your salary requirements not somewhere off the deep end, you should have no problem getting hired (well, in an ideal world) without the benefits and liabilities of Facebook, Myspace or Twitter. Let CNN tweet. The’re good at it.

NETWORK. Need I say more? Most good radio jobs are acquired via word of mouth from inside than those applying in the help wanted ads (many of which were posted simply to comply with EEO rules – they already have the person they want to hire picked. Sad but often true).

Now, these other things… just a bit of advise from someone who spent much of his life in radio, so, I didn’t just fall off the apple cart.

Never, EVER publicly say something negative about the company you work for. You might get away with that at 7-11 or whatever widget factory you work in, but in radio… managers are sooooo sensitive to negative press. Remember, when this gig is over, you might someday need that company to get you another job.

Never, EVER denigrate a fellow jock, member of the opposite sex or otherwise. This is a biggie. There are still so many stereotypes, and in radio, I’ve found out, so much drama. Stay out of the drama. You don’t need it.

It doesn’t matter what format you’re in. Be yourself and in public, you LOVE the music your station plays. Live the part, even if you can’t stand Brittany Spears or the four millionth Michael Jackson track this week, smile and tell the world how much you love it!! It’s YOUR station. Take ownership of it during your shift, and every time you meet someone who talks about or works at your station.

If you’re not following these rules, beware!! Your behind is open for everyone to see. These things can only help you, not hurt your career.

If, despite you following the above rules, and despite all your efforts, your employer is determined to take you off the payroll, perhaps its time to freelance. Voiceovers, cyber jocking… well, the world is endless. Desperate for an idea? Email me and I’ll discuss some different ways to do radio, get paid for it, and never have to leave your home. No, it ain’t radio the way we’ve known it.. but when radio resembled what we got into it for, the internet was either in its infancy or didn’t exist yet. So think about that!

It was another one of those hot, muggy Summer mornings that found me on the air at WCAT 1390, navigating through the Sunday morning programming which featured the First Unitarian Church live services, a recorded segment of “Through The Bible” with Pastor Jim Willis and then back to music.

Pastor Jim Willis was a wonderful man. He and his wife lived in the parsonage on the common in Royalston (Mass) and he was a powerful preacher at the Royalston church. I can’t remember which denomination it was at this point, but I was a member and enjoyed it. Pastor Willis was also a local musician and played in a band – trombone, I think he played. It was a wonderful program that he recorded himself every week, a 15 minute message that the station aired and got to count it as “public service” programming, along with the church service.

After the church services, the recorded religous programming and other miscellaneous PSA-type stuff, I got to play disc jockey again. This was in the days before 24/7 religious programming, and it was typical to hear the Word of God and ten minutes later be playing an Elton John song or something. News was very full-service – 4 or 5 national stories from the Associated Press teletype machine in a little broom closet on the other side of the sales office, State news off the aforementioned printer, and some local stories, if anything happened of interest that I could write up from my calls to state and local police and fire departments. There were two spot breaks in this 6 minute newscast which ran at both the top and bottom of the hour, separating the news, sports and weather segments. Weather was so much more detailed. Wind speed/direction, dewpoint and the barometer reading given after the actual 3 day forecast in addition to temperature. Then a jingle into music.

Our leader… slavedriver, as then owner Dick Partridge would jokingly refer to himself in an email to me a couple of years ago, he dictated that we were NOT a big top 40 station, and we were not to play two and three spots in a row, but rather, he wanted to hear one commercial between each record. This theory was that his advertisers didnt want to hear their ads buried in a long commercial break because they (the advertisers) thought the listeners would tune out.

So, we’d play music until 1:05 PM, exactly. At that time, we would join the Campbell Sports Network via dedicated phone line to the flagship station of the Boston Red Sox, 1510 WITS, at least on days where there was a day game or unless there was a rain out.

This is how it was at the first station I worked at. The approximate date: August 1982. Somewhat typical of small market radio at the time. The format, the mix of Oldies and recurrent songs.. it really doesn’t matter at this point because in retrospect, what mattered most was that WCAT, and most small stations of that time, existed to turn a small profit and serve their community. The owner was a man who just loved radio. He had been on the air in the 1960s at WNEW Eleven-Three-Oh, and had been the national voice of Lucky Strikes cigarettes in the late 50s and 60s. He wasn’t a corporate bean counter, but rather someone who loved being on the microphone, and for whom the world of station ownership was a dream come true.

And that’s perhaps the biggest difference between radio today and that of my youth: Those who ran the show loved radio, and everything that came with it… the love of putting together a good sounding station, the community involvement, even the awe of knowing that an RF signal was leaving the antenna and arriving in the receiver of some radio, tens or even hundreds of miles away.. to be decoded, rectified and converted to an electrical signal driving a cardboard speaker which turned all the electrical whiz-bang stuff into audio that someone enjoyed listening to – and that some DJ in a studio was putting together all by himself with his own voice and hands starting the various players of these audio pieces.

You know, thinking back, its amazing that we radio folks put together radio shows with both hands busy, ears listening for cues while eyes were reading copy on an open mic, with no practice… and all done flawlessly, in one take! We were so busy during an airshift, we barely had time to run down the hall to go to the facilities! Tell me this didn’t take talent! And if you’re under the age of 30, you probably don’t realize that the airchecks of this stuff you hear here were recordings of people on the air playing music and putting all that audio candy together without the benefit of computers. It seems odd today… but back then, that’s how it was done. Everywhere. We EARNED our low pay. And now, when the average show consists of pushing a button on a touch-screen once or twice every 20 minutes and reading from a liner card, we wonder why there are very few live DJ’s anymore?

I was thinking the other day just how many things have changed in our lives since the 70s. I started listening to the radio during the disco era, in a time before computers came along and completely changed our whole world. I’d guess that the average high school grad can’t remember a time when there weren’t mp3s, Ipods, cell phones or anything called “HD” – TV or radio.

Most people under the age of 35 probably never heard music on an AM station, always had some kind of computer in the house, and remember using dialup. They likely do remember just before cell phones became popular when people used pagers for nearly everything, then the early cell phones that looked like a walkie talkie, big antenna and all.

For those of us over 40, we grew up in a time when things were so much simpler. We had ONE TV in the house, a rotary dial phone, later, a touch tone pone in the 80s. We used a typewriter to do our resume’s and business communication. Cars had the engine installed the right way, where you could actually get to the spark plugs and the timing belt and there wasn’t all this computer crap – and when the car didn’t start, you could actually remove the air filter, squirt some starting fluid into the carburator and get it going. Most of us can vaguely remember being very young and watching a black and white tv. We remember that we heard most of our music on AM then we moved over to FM in the 80s. We remember 8-track tapes, 45 and 33 1/3 rpm records and cassettes. We remember analog receivers, CB radios, and those big walkie talkies that were on the CB band that you could talk about one block on (talk about fun!). We can remember after school and Saturday morning cartoons on our local TV stations, because there were 13 cable channels and usually 3 or 4 local channels if we only had rabbit ears. We remember Creature Feature – usually Godzilla or something like that, Wrestling at noon Saturday, followed by Wide World of Sports (ABC) or a Major League Baseball game. Jackie Stewart commentator on Indie Car Races. “Stock Car” racing as opposed to todays NASCAR. Howard Cosell and boxing matches. Evil Kanevil jumping 20 cars and wiping out.

And we remember that we didn’t come home from school and hibernate in our rooms – that was usually punishment from mom or dad… no, we came home, threw down our school books and went outside to play: go fishing or play basketball or something but we were NEVER caught in the house or we’d end up cleaning or doing dishes or doing HOMEWORK, YUCK!

My, my my how things have changed.

I’m reminded about how hard life has become. Back in the day, the worst that could happen to a kid was a spanking or grounding for some major offense like being caught with a cigarette or being in a fight at school. Today, both will land a kid in jail and the parents will have social services breathing down their necks. Schools today are filled with police officers, metal detectors, ‘sensitivity’ classes and all sorts of gobbldy-goop instead of focusing on reading, writing and arithmatic… leave the extras to the parents. I digress.

We sit here and worry about where our precious radio stations, DJs and formats went, and forget that our whole lives have completely changed.

Once upon a time we Americans looked upon our President and politicians as people to be respected.

Things have changed.

I read the other day where CSB – The Connecticut School of Broadcasting closed its doors nationwide, stranding students who were about to graduate and hopefully enter the ranks of on air talent. Now, I genuinely feel for these students, after all, 10K tuition costs are not cheap. But I can’t help but remember the advice I gave a number of young people who asked me, “do I have to go to broadcast school to go on the air like you?”. I always told them how I got my start at a small 1,000 AM station that turned off the transmitter at dusk, and how I never went to a broadcast school, and never even studied media even in high school. Most were amazed at that, because they had always heard that they needed some sort of training to break into radio.

I’m not going to comment on CSB or any other school and how they ran their business. I’ve read comments under the news reports and none are complimentary. I will say this, however. If you are or ever did consider going to get an education to get into radio, my advice still is, DON’T. This business is not worth the time and expense. While I love radio and always will, it makes no sense whatsoever for an individual to spend thousands of dollars in tuition fees in return for some promise of job placement or lifetime use of production studios, for a job that will pay you one or two bucks above minimum wage, and that’s AFTER one breaks into the business as a part timer on a station’s street team, and that might even be a non-paying position. It makes no sense whatsoever. Besides that, most stations don’t want someone who annunciates properly, has deep pipes, or any of that. They want someone who sounds just like everybody else, with a young, adolescent voice (think Ryan Seacrest) and who lives the lifestyle of whatever format they’d end up in.

If you’re reading this with interest, do yourself a favor and check out the job postings on the various radio-related websites, and really look. There are virtually NO full time positions. Most things advertised are for sales, street teams, part time board ops (which means a babysitting job and you WON’T go on the mic) and mobile DJs, the latter being the most lucrative but it won’t put you on the radio, just in some strip club if that’s what you’re into.

An education in media will help if you’re interested in copy writing for Newspapers or TV, but it is virtually no benefit to those going into radio. Want a job on the air? Find a studio or get some audio production software and a mic, make your own demo and send it to some stations. You might get lucky… at the very least, you have just as good a chance of landing some kind of on air position as the guy next to you who just spent 10 thousand dollars at a broadcast school. And that’s the truth, from someone who once graded aircheck tapes on a part time basis.

The parade of listeners exiting radio and switching to their ipods and online sources is seeming to gather speed. We’ve known that CHR stations have been taking a big hit, now the rock format is in serious trouble. I say this because of a number of things: First, a listen to the average “Classic Rock” station has convinced me that the ‘safe music’ approach that’s been in use for decades in AC, Oldies and Country formats has increasingly taken hold in the Classic Rock format. The format is now so stale its almost unlistenable. For instance, 99.1 WPLR New Haven has such a limited playlist, that one can hear Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Fat Bottom Girls” and “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions” EVERY day, the only separation is in which daypart it plays. The same thing with Pink Floyd, The Who, and many other so called ‘mainstream’ Rock artists of the 70s and early 80s. There were thousands of great songs in the AOR format over the years, and yet most stations have reduced the playlists to only a couple hundred (maybe) songs in a 15 year period. Its KILLING the format! Furthermore, the format has become like every other non-CHR station, with jocks reading the same slogan every break. The boredom factor is so large a factor, one has to wonder how long the Classic Rock format will stick around.

So, with that, we note that Classic Rockers are now dropping like flies… if the demise of New York’s WXRK and Philly’s rumored flip of 94 WYSP to talk are any indication. Its happening all over. Ratings and revenue are obviously the motivating factors behind format changes, but if that’s the case, why then are these stations not going out of their way to create diverse, entertaining content with a wide playlist outside of morning drive? CBS, and the like, are destroying the viability of these stations. It doesn’t cost much money to tweak a format to keep it fresh, even if voicetracked. That radio is it’s own worst enemy is an understatement. When one observes the obvious dumbing down and implosion of modern radio stations with the loss of thousands of on air jobs, combined with the apparent incompetence, laziness or apathetic programming attempts at the various formats cloned to every market, one can’t help but feel that radio industry leaders have given up, and instead of attacking the problem of increased competition with creativity and local content, would rather make deals with RIAA, BMI, ASCAP & Soundexchange, using lobbyists from the NAB to push Congress into approving internet royalty rates that effectively price the competition out of business.

XM and Sirius merged in 2008, combining programming channels, thus reducing listener’s choices in satellite programming. Over the air broadcasters reduced on air talent positions in numbers that were unheard of, opting instead to voicetrack or implement satellite feeds to stations in multiple markets using generic liners and content. This has lead to a bland sameness from one market to another. And the industry wonders why the bottom line drops lower each quarter, as listeners abandon radio in large numbers. The product is watered down, boring to listen to, and has very little to actually SAY to it’s various audiences.

If radio is to survive, it’s going to either have to invigorate it’s various music formats, or reinvent itself completely. One thing I’m sure of, trying to price the competition out of business will eventually backfire. Radio business owners are already seen as Wall Street crooks, cheats & liars, at least on a corporate level. Scoundrels at best, what, so worried about their investors profits and how low to drop the bottom line at the expense of radio itself… you’d think they’d at least make an attempt to redeem themselves or save the industry. Perhaps someone (like advertisers) might actually come to trust them again. Or not.

Every now and then, I feel compelled to share my opinion on something I’ve seen, read or heard. This time, its one of those radio help-wanted ads that set me off.
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