Water pitcher

As the radio industry undergoes yet another round of layoffs, Richard Factor takes us back to a time when things were quite different:

I was in a union long ago. It was NABET, the union for the people who operate the equipment at major market broadcast stations. Part of my job was to sit opposite the "talent," the deejays, newscasters, etc., whose voices went out over the air. I was responsible for turning the microphone on and off on cue, playing music recordings and commercials, editing news tapes, and interacting with all the technical equipment necessary to broadcast a program... WABC was an important "flagship" and "clear channel" station that ran 24/7 and there were quite a number of NABET "brothers" employed— thirty two is a number that just popped into my mind. Likewise, the talent union, AFTRA, represented a large number of employees. Seven full-time deejays, a handful of part-timers, newscasters, etc...

The AFTRA guys had their territory, but they would no sooner press the start button on a tape recorder than they would curse on the air... And when we NABET guys turned the microphone on, we turned our mouths off, not just to prevent cursing, but because only AFTRA was allowed to vocalize.  Of course there were other employees. Managers, secretaries, directors and schedulers of one sort or another. Together, union and non-union, we managed to keep this small but very successful division of a very large and very successful corporation on the air and raking in money for what we now call "the stakeholders."

But there was an issue, and it needed resolution.

Broadcasting is a thirsty business. If you talk for hours a day, you need to take sips of water frequently. So, on the AFTRA side of the broadcast console, there was a water pitcher for this purpose... Needed was a way to keep the water pitcher enabled for its critical task.

Now read on...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Radio at 22:15:41 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Brit government to study "slow" digital radio uptake

From The Register:

[U.K.] Culture Secretary James Purnell has launched the Digital Radio Working Group to work out why more people don't want digital radio, and how to change their opinions.
...
With only 20 per cent of UK households being DAB-enabled (Digital Audio Broadcasting) then 80 per cent of the population are unable to enjoy the delights of Planet Rock's 12-track playlist or the joy of hearing BBC RNanGaidheal late into the night.

"Only" 20%? U.S. broadcasters should be so lucky.


More: Read the comments thread. Expensive receivers, poor reception, lousy audio, and unimaginative programming. Sound familar?

Elsewhere: HD Radio: 8-Track Tapes Of Our Age, Or The Next Big Thing?

Posted by: Old Grouch in Radio at 21:58:23 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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It was forty years ago today...

(Well, tomorrow, actually!)

That the BBC reorganized U.K. radio:

Forty years ago today, Britain had only three legal radio stations. There was the Light Programme, full of jolly tunes for housewives. There was the Home Service, full of plummy announcers and erudite discussion. And there was the Third Programme, full of gramophone concertos and stuffy operas.

Forty years ago tomorrow, all that changed. Suddenly there were four radio stations, numbered One, Two, Three and Four, and groovy teens suddenly had something worth listening to. Broadcasting would never be the same again. So let's remember the threshold of modern radio, established 1967.

From Diamond Geezer, who offers a host of links.

Oh, and get your very own Radio 1 badge here.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Radio at 18:01:37 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Unfortunately, not satire

Lileks:

...niche genres... cannot complete with a station that decides you’d like to hear Pink Floyd’s “Money” for the 93,593rd time in your life. Because 93,592 times just left you wanting more, didn’t it?

jefferson101 .responds:

And now, we return you to your regularly scheduled hour of music-free commercials. We'll be back at the end of it to play a song or two before we try to sell you something else, and we'll try to pick the songs you hate the least!

Posted by: Old Grouch in Radio at 20:08:47 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Maybe it's just a New York thing

New York's WCBS-FM drops "Jack" and reverts to its previous oldies format, and some radio-types say "Told-ja so!"

WCBS-FM had been a ratings leader and a solid billing station for years. As congolemeration hit Infinity the usual budget cuts came in. The standard bigco imperative was invoked, even at a top performing property like CBS-FM. Cut costs, reduce expenses, spend less on promotion. Sell more! Run lean! Yes, the typical "MBA-comes-in- wearing-a-pink- tie-and- ruins-a-good-business" sort of imperative and tragedy that occurs when Wall Street types grab up businesses in whatever category has the current bloom...

The format didn't sound or feel like New York, it had minimal interaction with the audience. It might as well ahve been radio for Topeka or Cedar Rapids. This was not a New York radio station, not by a long shot. -- Dean Landsman [italics and color in original - o.g.]

But Mark Ramsey sees no earth-shattering implications.

To a great extent, the Variety Hits formats continues to be one of American radio's secret success stories. As I travel from market to market I'm always surprised to discover just how many of these stations are out there and, more often than not, how well they're doing.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Radio at 17:55:23 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Examiner ducks the issue

Instapundit links an examiner.com editorial about reviving broadcasting's "fairness doctrine":

Why do liberals like Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., keep trying to tell the rest of us what political opinions we must listen to in the media?

Feinstein says she is “looking at” reviving the Fairness Doctrine to counteract the decidedly conservative bent of talk radio...

She wants to bring it back because she thinks “one-sided programming” pushes the American people into “extreme views” — such as their current opposition to the Bush/Kennedy/McCain immigration bill. She wants “an opportunity to present the other side” by forcing radio stations to offer more liberal fare.

What Feinstein really wants is for federal bureaucrats to decide what political opinion programming we should hear. She presumes to know better than listeners what is “fair.”

Dear me, examiner, so close-- but no cigar!

Anyone with half an eye can see that this is not about "fairness." It's about suppressing anything Feinstein doesn't like, by wrapping it up in bureaucratic red tape. Reimpose "fairness," and you can bet that the Usual Suspects will be right there, jumping in to make life miserable for the owners of any station that broadcasts anything that deviates in the slightest from the standard lefty-PC norm. Feinstein doesn't want "balanced programming," she wants station owners to throw up their hands and go back to playing Mantovani records.

Too bad examiner's editorialist lacked the guts to call her on it.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Radio at 14:53:53 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Big radio shoots itself in the foot (again)

Broadcasters are already concerned about the slow uptake of HD radio. So why not increase customer confusion:

A new "conditional broadcasting" feature for HD Radio called RadioGuard, from NDS, will allow owners of compatible HD radios to pay for premium content via a subscription, a one-time charge, or as part of a sponsored deal. - Wired

So first they couldn't get the message out about what HD radio is.  Then they started promoting "extra free channels," which it seems they've now decided to charge for.  Which require a different special radio, which you can't even buy yet!  Every day in every way, it's more and more like another "AM stereo" fiasco.  (Remember AM stereo?   My point exactly.)

And wait until Congress notices this.  Don't be surprised if they decide to  re-open the questions of spectrum taxes or frequency auctions for commercial radio.  Not very smart.

Hattip Mark Ramsey, who has been following this issue for a long time.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Radio at 22:02:56 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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