Nothing is off limits to these two! This recording of the O & A show on XM Radio was made shortly after the duo’s satellite radio start, and they go off on their former employer, Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS, Inc), the new format on WNEW.
This features a recording of the Frankie Blue show on WNEW which O & A are playing on their show. And, you’ll probably agree after listening… yea, Frankie Blue sounds like he’s schnockered!!! A bit of advice for you high profile local jocks… don’t open yourself up with this kind of a show, because you’ll be rewarded with national publicity, at least if Opie and Anthony hear your tape!
PARENTAL ADVISORY – for vulgarity and sexual innuendos. This is definitely not something for kids! You’ve been warned. This goes on for 21 minutes, and if you can get by the foul language, you’ll be rolling with laughter!
I have to say it’s good to see that O&A are still as brainless as they ever were on WNEW with that has been comic whats-his-name. But even as pointless, and stupid as they usually are, they have a point this time around. Thats some embarassing shit, what with Franky Blue messing up the call letters, and slurring words, and just being a loser dengenerate while on air. You all must be soooo happy that Howard finally went over to satilite radio. A few months ago everyone could hear how badly you were imitating him, now it’s just left up to the memories of people over 30, that remember Howards old great shows, and how O&A still to this day try but can’t hold a candle to him. Radio isn’t what it used to be, since the demise of WABC Music radio, it’s just gotten worse and worse year after year. O&A have a point though, maybe it’s a good idea for a new format… Lets listen to people on the radio that are just blown out of their skulls on alcohol or whatever kind of chemical concoctions, yea thats it, they’ll take calls from the public, where we all call in, and guess what the announcer is on that morning, and the winner gets whatever prizes they’re offering that day for guessing, the right mind altering mix of chemicals that the DJ is on. I’d listen every day.
The reason we posted this is just that… while O&A leave much to be desired (and certainly don’t fit the “Classic” description), they make a great point about the state of radio in general. No, most hosts don’t show up for work in an altered state (I should know, having done morning drive with many different people over the years), but there is a lax mentality in this business… an apathy which is taking over at many stations, and much of that is simply because many on air folks are depressed at the prospects that their job might be the next one eliminated.
But, Frankie Blue? If one wanted to keep their job, this sure wasn’t the way.
You know, no matter how much we complain about it, radio is NEVER going to return to the ‘glory days’ we remember from the 60s and 70s. You can never look backward in this business, only forward. So, we can only hope that stations figure it out and program real personality radio someday, with intelligent, funny and compelling personalities the way we remember… of course with a modern format. Most of today’s radio is trash, and that’s why you don’t hear a lot of newer airchecks from the last 10 years.
Hey Steve I know this reply is coming over 2 years after you posted here but here is the real deal. You say don’t look back and look forward. In a way I agree. Here is where I don’t. To qoute you here “You know, no matter how much we complain about it, radio is NEVER going to return to the ‘glory days’ we remember from the 60s and 70s. You can never look backward in this business, only forward.”
Here is the problem. I am sure there are people out there that have personalities. Maybe some like the iones we grew up with. What we have today in terestial radio is not the lack of personaliy but the lack of freedom. I feel the main reason WNEW FM 102.7 was so good was because back then management allowed the people that sat behind the microphone to be real. They were allowed to talk to you. Make you feel like they were your friend and not some cold voive coming out of your radio. They allowed them to pretty much rule the roost. Although I heard some other station claiming they were the first one to introduce “Free Form” It was WNEW FM. What we have today are no even personalities or DJ’s since most stations are 100% digital. Some of these people would not even know how to use a turntable.
The point I am getting at is this. Years ago radio was always about the ratings. Some stations got more then others The higher the ratings the more they coiuld charge for advertising. Back then for example WNEW would be playing about 40-50 minutes of music per hour and in the 10-20 minutes left over do commercials ,news weather. With todays radio it is still ratings but somewhere down the line the music and creative content of the shows were lost. Now turn on some typical FM station now and there is very little diversity. Companies like CBS and CC have someone in the home office make a list of what they want their stations to play. Some stations at night no longer have anyone on the air just a board up to baby sit in case something goes wrong. Now a typical FM station plays 10-15 minutes of music if you are lucky and about 45 minutes of commercials, PSA and other worthless drivle. When there is someone doing a show they don’t have the same kind of time to let the listeners to let them get to know who they are. There will never be another Alison Steel or Scott Muni or Roskoe.
However we do have Sirius Radio.
Michael, here’s the problem. It doesn’t have as much to do with automation systems as it does bottom line profit margins. As Dick Summer wrote to me recently, “The radio business has become more business than radio”. I think he nailed it. Radio suffers from the same illness that plagues the U.S. banking and investment industry: huge amounts of corporate greed. Remember, if a personality actually develops a strong listener base, that equals MONEY for a decent salary in the future. Doesn’t jive with the bottom line.
The Bottom Line so to speak is the one single element that drives radio today… some might argue drives the whole industry into the ground. You have a few syndicated, star-like personalities that are taking over the morning shows, nearly all the music formats have multiple syndicated night time hosts, and mid-days are increasingly cyber-jocked by someone within the company in the next market over, all in the name of saving dollars. If stations are lucky, they still have someone doing news during morning drive, and they still have their pm drive guy or girl, plus a couple of board ops to run the board for the morning drive syndication and for the pm drive guy to do weekend remotes at car dealerships.
I have to disagree with you about commercial content. No station could get away with 15 minutes of music and the rest commercials and junk features. If anything, its the same garbage music (in most formats) that all fits “that sound” for the perfect model of what music in any given format ‘should’ (according to the record companies) sound like. Somebody is getting his or her back scratched, and stations are all playing 40-50 minutes of continuous music and in your face imaging ever hour. Problem is, once the stop sets arrive, its one 5 minute break, maybe one song, then another 5-7 minute stopset, THEN the top hour into-music-sweep imager, and there’s your hour, with maybe two or three quick spots in the hour where the jock or voice talent is allowed to do a quick liner or two. And they call THAT entertaining the listeners???
This is all really about, ahem, PAYOLA, no matter what name they want to put on it… kinda like, if you put lipstick on a pig. Oops, did I go to far? Insofar as the music is concerned, no matter what format you choose, the labels want only artists that ‘fit’, for each particular format, and they work with radio to basically push music down people’s throats. As you may or may not know, all the various countdowns, song rankings, etc., none of them have to do with record (cd/mp3) sales, they have to do with frequency of airplay. Trust me, there’s a lot going on between the program director and the label executives, its just masked better. And don’t think the stations aren’t being taken care of by these labels.
No, there won’t be another Scott Muni, at least not on over the air radio, but, I will rescind one of my prior comments: radio SHOULD look at its past. At the rate its going now, there won’t be an over the air industry as we know it in a few short years, especially once the new ‘fairness doctrine’ comes along and outlaws talk radio as it is done now… there go virtually all your AM stations.
I could digress and talk about this all morning. Fact is, we both agree about the state of radio and where its heading. I think we’re just not in agreement as to how we’re going to get to it’s logical conclusion.