Thursday, February 01, 2007
The World of Radio
Since it's something I know quite a bit about, I was intrigued by the editorial letter in the Iowa City Press-Citizen today by J. D. Mendenhall:
Turn on your radio and listen to a giant sucking sound
During my years in radio, I would always get emails and comments from people about the ruin that consolidation caused to radio. I didn't then...and still don't now...think that the problem has ever been as pronounced as some believe. Consolidation can be done right and in a lot of cases it is.
Consolidation in commercial radio was never supposed to be about carrying the same programming on multiple stations from one studio site. To some degree, it has turned into that but it isn't working as well as some of the bean counters expected it to work. The market place has helped "fix" a lot of those problems and stations are starting to return to more local content.
For example, it was supposed to make the programming of news easier if you had reporters in multiple areas providing news content to a central source that would make it available to all the various individual outlets and they would be able to choose what and how much they would use. Very much like the Associated Press...which is basically a consolidated news service for all the affiliates who subscribe.
The attacks on consolidation were really just disguised attempts to complain about corporate ownership of local stations. People used to complain to me and say, "Everything on the air is being programmed from the company headquarters in (insert city here)."
In fact, locally-owned stations were some of the worst offenders of using satellite services and very few actual local talent on the airwaves. In a lot of cases, the small hometown local owner/operator would have a morning DJ...and then turn the station on autopilot at 10am and have that same DJ be the chief dishwasher and carpet cleaner as well. I know...I used to be one.
Anyway...a while back, I saw the news that the Board of Regents were proposing a "consolidation" of the local public radio stations...and I laughed.
I laughed because it was a little hypocritical since many of the complaints about consolidation came from fans of public radio like NPR. Many of them hung up on me when I challenged their assertions that their beloved public radio was so "local" and had all this local content that we didn't. Hour for hour, most of the radio stations I worked for had more local content than any public radio station. NPR is a satellite service...and most public radio stations would carry sometimes up to 10-hours a day of their programming. We carried maybe 6-hours...3 hours of Rush Limbaugh and 3-hours of someone else.
J. D. Mendenhall in the Press-Citizen just makes me laugh a little more...
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Turn on your radio and listen to a giant sucking sound
Iowa Public Radio sucks. OK, technically, it's the programming changes on the new statewide IPR news and information conglomeration that sucks, but something still sucks, right here in River City.I thought it was about my former station and the continuing dyslexia they're having with programming choices. Maybe they fired another morning show host. What's that now...3 or 4 people in the last couple years?
During my years in radio, I would always get emails and comments from people about the ruin that consolidation caused to radio. I didn't then...and still don't now...think that the problem has ever been as pronounced as some believe. Consolidation can be done right and in a lot of cases it is.
Consolidation in commercial radio was never supposed to be about carrying the same programming on multiple stations from one studio site. To some degree, it has turned into that but it isn't working as well as some of the bean counters expected it to work. The market place has helped "fix" a lot of those problems and stations are starting to return to more local content.
For example, it was supposed to make the programming of news easier if you had reporters in multiple areas providing news content to a central source that would make it available to all the various individual outlets and they would be able to choose what and how much they would use. Very much like the Associated Press...which is basically a consolidated news service for all the affiliates who subscribe.
The attacks on consolidation were really just disguised attempts to complain about corporate ownership of local stations. People used to complain to me and say, "Everything on the air is being programmed from the company headquarters in (insert city here)."
In fact, locally-owned stations were some of the worst offenders of using satellite services and very few actual local talent on the airwaves. In a lot of cases, the small hometown local owner/operator would have a morning DJ...and then turn the station on autopilot at 10am and have that same DJ be the chief dishwasher and carpet cleaner as well. I know...I used to be one.
Anyway...a while back, I saw the news that the Board of Regents were proposing a "consolidation" of the local public radio stations...and I laughed.
I laughed because it was a little hypocritical since many of the complaints about consolidation came from fans of public radio like NPR. Many of them hung up on me when I challenged their assertions that their beloved public radio was so "local" and had all this local content that we didn't. Hour for hour, most of the radio stations I worked for had more local content than any public radio station. NPR is a satellite service...and most public radio stations would carry sometimes up to 10-hours a day of their programming. We carried maybe 6-hours...3 hours of Rush Limbaugh and 3-hours of someone else.
J. D. Mendenhall in the Press-Citizen just makes me laugh a little more...
On Jan. 1, Iowa Public Radio launched its statewide News and Information Service, which consolidated the programming on the three Iowa Public Radio news stations; WOI in Ames, KUNI in Cedar Falls, and WSUI in Iowa City, along with their related affiliates. The three stations had operated independently, broadcasting their own mixes of local and national public radio programming to best suit their individual audiences. And it worked very well. But like the Board of Regents, IPR couldn't leave well enough alone. Now, in the drive to create a "unified news/talk service," IPR has shattered the individuality of the stations.Read the whole thing and you too can say, "Welcome to the world of radio consolidation"...this time, your beloved government and it's mysterious ways are in charge.
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