A question for radio station employees out there

[nativeatlanta]

Being a full time visitor/part time poster,I thought of a question for people involved in commercial radio. This goes out to current and former radio employees. What would you do to fix,change,improve radio here in Atlanta?

Also,what do/what did you like about working in radio and what did you not like/dont like about working in radio?

Face it,commerical radio in Atlanta and other major U.S. cities has changed a lot over the last three decades. I just wanted to hear from people involved in the business itself.

[fussbudget]

Revive personality radio. Go live and local. Get involved in the community. Scale back on the spot load or at least distribute it so there are fewer interruptions. With so much competition out there, I'm honestly not sure radio can be fixed. To make a radio station work, you have to offer something not heard on Ipods, etc. Ipods and CD's cannot provide you with live updates of local news, events and weather. Radio can. Will it? I doubt it.

[dualmedia]

92.5 FM The Bear is a station I've been able to listen to alot lately and it sounds good.When I read this thread and the responses it made me think of The Bear.This station is live,local,community and interactive radio all day everyday.I agree that this is the kind of radio market #8 needs and deserves.Keep up the awesome programming.

[fussbudget]

To follow up on the original post: I enjoyed meeting people from all walks of life, spending time with some of the gratest leaders and thinkers in our nation and being on the scene of history in the making. I hated the low pay and the incredibly long hours, with many holidays spent laboring away behind a board.

[ClarkKent]

I'd like to see a lot more effort to promote stations as opposed to stations being part of something else.  So many stations are acting like everybody knows they're out there already. Buy billboards. Sides of buses. TV spots. Do things that make the station seem bigger than life and a part of the city/region. Be everywhere. Yeah, I know, that takes money and effort.

What I love about working in radio- when I'm actually on the air or out in public and the crowd seems really in to what we're doing. There's nothing like it. One of my favorite moments in my whole career so far has been being on stage, tossing t-shirts to a screaming audience.

What I hate about working in radio- Of course, the low pay, and being told we can't do something because "it's not in the budget." I've been passed over for positions for that same excuse. When I ask, it's not in the budget...then the company turns around and hires someone to do what I asked for. That'll make you feel really good.

[RCA77]

What's going to have to happen to make radio better, (for air talent and listenters) is the FCC goes back to the "pre-consolidation" days, where station ownership is limited to 2 stations in any market..... which will force the market to REALLY compete......HOWEVER, in that scenario (been there, done that) you have alot of local ownership that doesn't pay much, or you have the big national company that has 2 stations in every market (Cox, CC, etc  etc) that eats up the market, and does the same thing anyway

[IFB64]

Radio has a perfect opportun......well maybe not 'perfect'...but a good chance to reinvent with the the Multichannel on HD. Stations have a chance to program all of the 'niche' formats that may not work in the staid analog world.

Show me a station that programs folk, 'real' "My wife up and left me" country, Polka...Heck...JUST SOMETHING DIFFERENT....SOMETHING DIFFERENT SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Of course something "different" will be condemned by most. So it will never happen.  Nevermind. It is hopeless if the air bags that run the business continue to run the business. Air bags one and all.

Pre-censored for your protection.


Cough.

[snailboy]

 I worked in Columbia,Sc Radio for 12 years on air/engineer the people (dj's) I have had a lot of great times just cutting lose and building a long friendship with some of the dj's. The memories will be with me for ever. I still talk to alot of the dj's I worked with and still laugh about all the crazy things we did.

[X-14]

Wow... so many thoughts... so little time to type...

The stuff I love and loved about working in it:
- It's just plain fun.  Let's face it, it's not manual labor or brain surgery.  It's playing MUSIC and TALKING fer cryin' out loud.  And if you're in production or promotions, there can actually be some creativity.  I actually like working the odd hours when the rest of the city is winding down.  The free concerts and little perks are cool.
- Many of the people in radio are truly wonderful.  Yes, there are a number of real jerks out there, but that's true in any profession.  Most of the folks I've known over the years have been salt of the earth.
- If anyone denies they don't enjoy the mild celebrity factor of "you work in radio???!" then you're lying.  It ain't much, but it's kind of cool.

The bad stuff:
- the pay (for the huge majority of us)
- utter and total job insecurity
- normally an absolute lack of being able to really contribute to a station's direction since you pretty much just have to do as you're told.

How to change it, grow it, make it survive and compete:
- this has been bandied around about these forums forever.  Let's start by examining t.v.  When cable and satellite came out it could have been the death knell for local t.v. and the networks.  But they improved programming.  Some of the most talked about shows on t.v. now such as "24", "House", etc. are on network stations, NOT cable or satellite channels.  Someone mentioned the local factor... no doubt about it; that's crucial.
But I just don't see terrestrial radio taking those steps.  The playlists are too generic and watered down.  The jox are too restricted.  The commercial load way too high.  In the meantime .mp3 sales and satellite radio continues to grow at a nice clip while radio's numbers stagnate.  The clients are changing, you'd better change your product to meet their needs or they'll go elsewhere.

And they are.

[al_atl]

X-14 is right.  It is...or was...just plain fun.  I always thought about it like this:  I get to play music through some really nice equipment in a quiet, climate controlled room...and get paid to do it!  What a deal!  Something else I enjoyed, before automation, was running the board.  Doing the perfect segue, running things good and tight...something I was known for and took pride in.  At one station that took a network newscast at the top of the hour, I loved back-timing into that.  Pick a song that ends cold, punch off the legal ID, bring up the fader for the network and have it so tight you couldn't slide tissue paper between any of the elements.  Now a computer does it for you.  Boring.  Zzzzzz...  At one station I enjoyed changing power/pattern at sunrise...to 50kw non-DA on the low end of the dial...knowing that the signal was now covering a few states. (At least for 30 minutes to an hour.  )  I also enjoyed when I'd be out somewhere, running personal errands etc, and someone would recognize my voice.  That was fun.  :-)

I don't want to get too into consolidation...that's been well covered here.  But one view I have on consolidation also ties into automation.   Before consolidation we had a lot more smaller operators.  Sometimes you heard really good radio.  And sometimes you heard really horrible radio.  Sort of the same thing before automation came along.  Sometimes you heard a jock/board op who really had it together.  And sometimes you were treated to a train wreck.  The horrible radio and train wrecks were more often in the smaller markets.  But even in the smaller markets you'd occasionally hear a really good, tight station...or that one jock on an otherwise bad station who really had it together.  Now, with consolidation and automation, you have more consistent radio.  But to me, it is consistent mediocrity...at best.  Rarely do you hear anything really good.  Just bland, mediocre, uninspired radio.  I think it was better before.  Even the bad stations were entertaining in their own way...you'd wait to see what happened (or didn't happen) next!  LOL!