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Turner the burner
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| Joined: | Sat May 26th, 2007 |
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Posted: Mon Feb 9th, 2009 04:00 am |
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| It is indeed a sad state of affairs they way that the latest bunch of corporate owners have destroyed the legacy of so many great radio stations and traditions while contribution to the unemployment situation in the country. It seems that the last wave of cluster purchases was caught in the "real estate boom" and way overpaid for the property and now folks trying a make a living in he business are stuck paying the price as they trim payroll and programming. I seriously doubt that this is what congress and the FCC had in mind with deregulation. I don't look for the the situation to improve until the conglomerates are dispersed and more stations are more locally controlled. That may never happen to a large degree.
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Mon Feb 9th, 2009 02:35 pm |
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A quick Google News search this morning shows Cumulus killed staffs all over the place on Friday, including Toledo, Ann Arbor, Huntsville, Ala. (complete newsroom, too), Bridgeport, Conn. are just the ones I can find.
Morning shows replaced with syndicated satellite and PT workers cut back to minimum wage seems to be the general tenor of the reports.
David Lile was struggling with this on Saturday, and it greatly affected him this morning. I just wonder how much more blood can be squeezed out of the turnip before it turns into mush.
Last edited on Mon Feb 9th, 2009 02:40 pm by gomizzoutigers
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Wed Feb 11th, 2009 12:30 am |
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| Well its now David Gaines all the time for news. I feel sorry for the guy having to cover early mornings then record everything for the rest of the day. And I don't even want to think about severe weather coverage...
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Ace
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| Joined: | Tue Sep 11th, 2007 |
| Location: | Missouri |
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Posted: Wed Feb 11th, 2009 06:14 am |
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Strictly rip-and-read. Lucky for them, that David Gaines is a very good on newscasts.
As far as severe WX coverage is concerned, hold yer babies tight, and buy a wx radio.
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XGM
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| Joined: | Tue Feb 6th, 2007 |
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Posted: Wed Feb 11th, 2009 01:55 pm |
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| It's truly very sad for us "old timers" to see what today's radio is doing to itself. Any numb scull can run a "juke box" i.e. 20 in a row, etc. Only REAL RADIO can excite listeners with a good mix of music and news and information. We need to get back to becoming a part of the listeners day, where they feel we are "one of the family". With all the cuts going on, I really don't think it will happen, but I sure hope so.
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Turner the burner
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Posted: Wed Feb 11th, 2009 03:45 pm |
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| Will never happen with today's corporate mentality and management that gives a dippity do da about programming and only about sales. They have forgotten or never knew that strong programming leads to strong sales. Last edited on Wed Feb 11th, 2009 06:29 pm by Turner the burner
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XGM
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Posted: Wed Feb 11th, 2009 03:54 pm |
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| Lots of broadcasters make that mistake... i.e. "if you have good salesmen, you can make it happen" and forget the listeners....BAD MISTAKE! First you have to have listeners or nothing will happen when someone advertises...if no one hears it, no action. It is absolutely essential that getting lots of listeners is the #1 job for good stations, then and only then will the advertisers dollars work for them. You have 2 customers...listeners and advertisers. Listeners should always come first, then it's relatively easy to make advertisers happy and of course that's where the money comes from. It's not brain surgery, but you would think it was, the way companies are constantly screwing up by putting ads before listeners.
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Thu Feb 12th, 2009 01:39 am |
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Well, thanks to the recent layoffs, tonight I got to experience a new station service. On my way home from the office about 7:07 or so tonight, I flipped on KFRU and was surprised by a new program, replacing the rebroadcast of the "Clark Howard Show".
Called "Dead Air", this new program on KFRU appears to provide a bland background to an otherwise noisy world. Also referred to as "zero percent modulation", "carrier only", or other unmentionables by the traffic and engineering departments, it provides no entertainment, no advertising, no news, no information, no interruption - basically, no nothing.
Placing a call to the station's listener line are met with one ring and then a bridge to -- "Dead Air" - being dutifully fed from nowhere to the transmitter.
As of now, KFRU is the 30th minunte of the "Dead Air" broadcast, which I will soon turn off so that I can enjoy some visual stimulation from my LCD TV.
Update: At 8:53 the broadcast of "Dead Air" came to an end, replaced after a few promos by Clark Howard.Last edited on Thu Feb 12th, 2009 02:56 am by gomizzoutigers
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Ace
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| Joined: | Tue Sep 11th, 2007 |
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Posted: Thu Feb 12th, 2009 09:02 pm |
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| Apparantly, there was a policeman banging on the door by the time someone finally came in.
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Fri Feb 13th, 2009 02:55 am |
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Ace wrote: Apparantly, there was a policeman banging on the door by the time someone finally came in.
So, if there is a fire, evacuation, disaster, who the h*ll do they call????
(I know David Lile; I probably could have called him at home. But that's not, and should not be, his job. He puts in lots of time and effort keeping what's left of this station going. Early morning drive-time shift starting way before he first speaks into the mic at 6:05. Prep work for his next show. Doing PxP of the MU Women's basketball team, having now to drive to beautiful destinations like Manhattan, Kansas, rather than being able to fly to the game. And that's beside trying to spend time with his wife and daughter.
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bcoz
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| Joined: | Fri Jul 6th, 2007 |
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Posted: Fri Feb 13th, 2009 03:20 am |
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Ace wrote: Apparantly, there was a policeman banging on the door by the time someone finally came in.
Really? WOW! Things have reached a completely new low (as if they had not before).
Under Premier (and even under Cumulus before I left in the fall of 2004), there was always someone in the building. At times it was only one person, but they were required to monitor all the air signals. There are (were) off-air light indicators in all the air studios. So, no matter what studio you were in, you would always know if a station went of the air. That would happen from time to time (mainly on FRU because of the automation programming), but there was always someone around to make it right post haste.
Seems like that's not the case there anymore.
Might as well just turn off the transmitter and let the old gal rest in peace.
bcoz
Last edited on Fri Feb 13th, 2009 03:21 am by bcoz
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Ace
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Posted: Fri Feb 13th, 2009 06:02 am |
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My last comment on the matter, but that has to be a new, all-time low.
Even when lightning scored a direct hit, they were not off that long.
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Kent Clark
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Posted: Sat Feb 14th, 2009 04:22 am |
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gomizzoutigers wrote:
(I know David Lile; I probably could have called him at home. But that's not, and should not be, his job. He puts in lots of time and effort keeping what's left of this station going. Early morning drive-time shift starting way before he first speaks into the mic at 6:05. Prep work for his next show. Doing PxP of the MU Women's basketball team, having now to drive to beautiful destinations like Manhattan, Kansas, rather than being able to fly to the game. And that's beside trying to spend time with his wife and daughter.
I remember encountered David when I was working an overnight shift. I was rather shocked to be walking through the office at about 4:30, and there he was checking his e-mail and reading the news stories for the day. He told me he got up around 3:15 every weekday morning, and he said it was a small price to pay for being able to do what he loved.
If I got up a 3:15, you'd get a pretty antisocial response from me if you called during the evening regardless of the importance. In other words, I agree it shouldn't be his job to get the station back on-air!
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