Beck to the future

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Hoosier Daddy
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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Arp2 wrote: ...and, with "The SuperTower" just a mile west of those buildings and WNCI's 175,000 watts coming off the top of the Nationwide building, the whole downtown area and beyond is a splattery mess.
From DC to Daylight, baby! Multiple paging bases in the 35, 43, 152, 166, 450, 900 and 1200 MHz bands, dual 20 channel 800 MHz trunking public safety radio systems, at least fifty different 220 and 460 MHz business band repeaters, six cell phone providers providing "5 bar" signal strength into sub basements, a dozen Amateur Radio repeaters, point to point microwave networks, TV channels 4, 6, and 10, and an LPTV on 8, and no less than ten Class A and B FM transmitters within a 5 mile radius of Broad and High ...

Back to WTDA: To move 103.9's situation to the Huntington market, think about 90.7 WFGH's penetration into Ashland (this is the Tolsia High School station near Fort Gay, WV) or 107.1 Kiss FM's signal into east Huntington from Ironton. That's what NABCO is dealing with in trying to make that signal a winner.

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Post by Jay Nunley »

I don't know. I like Bob and Tom. I like Glenn Beck. Sounds like a decent talk lineup to me. Throw in Lex and Terry (tape delayed or tape delay Bob and Tom) and you have a station I would never tune away from until the local sports idgit hit the air (except during football season, I listen to sports talk then).
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Post by Mark Hallburn »

Will a local show fix a signal problem?

NO!

But it gives listeners a reason to look for you on the dial.

Bob & Tom are funny. I used to do fill-in when Mark or Ray was out at Rock 105. They had me laughing my guts out... But I just think a talk station should have a local morning drive.
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Post by Arp2 »

Mark Hallburn wrote:Will a local show fix a signal problem?

NO!

But it gives listeners a reason to look for you on the dial.
A "compelling" show gives listeners a reason to look for you on the dial.


I can't believe you just made me use "compelling"....I think it's been used and misused to a degree that's made it hackneyed and meaningless and worthless....and who even knows what's really "compelling"....and who are we to think that we can actually "compel"....making me say it has just ticked me off more....
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Post by Mark Hallburn »

Arp2:

A local show is more compelling than a national syndicated show.
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Post by Jay Nunley »

Mark Hallburn wrote:Arp2:

A local show is more compelling than a national syndicated show.
Not if the local show is less compelling. A shitty local show is still shitty.
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Post by Lester »

Agreed. I'd take Bob and Tom over the crap 96 Rock pumps out down here... and we're a freakin' top 50 market.
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Post by Rock »

Jay MF Nunley wrote:
Mark Hallburn wrote:Arp2:

A local show is more compelling than a national syndicated show.
Not if the local show is less compelling. A shitty local show is still shitty.
Friggin' A.
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Post by SPIKE NESMITH! »

Something I've noticed over the past few years (and the 'wee for a wii' clips substantiated this) is that being in a big market doesn't necessarily qualify you as a great air talent. A lot of the morning shows I've heard in larger markets have been dreadful. Driving into Pittsburgh one morning about 5 years back, I didn't hear ANYTHING that I considered worthy of my time. That's why I appreciated the sentiment when people told Wheeler and I "you guys' show sounds like bigger market radio", even if I didn't necessarily agree. ;)

I've always said that radio jobs are 20% talent and 80% right place at the right time.
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Post by Dave Allen »

Speaking as someone who proudly puts forth a shitty morning show each morning I take offense to these remarks.
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Post by Mark Hallburn »

Several WV morning shows are better than shows I've heard in San Diego and Los Angeles. Some people choose to stay here. Some just have not been discovered. Some are smart enough NOT to want to live and work in Los Angeles.
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Post by SPIKE NESMITH! »

daveinthemorning wrote:Speaking as someone who proudly puts forth a shitty morning show each morning I take offense to these remarks.
Pah, everyone knows it's your 18 year old giddy sidekick that people are listening for! :wink:
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Post by Dave Allen »

Spike, if you're talking about Erin she is way over 18 and she does afternoons, she isn't my sidekick. I do have a 14 year old Korean girl with me but I ordered her on the internet.
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Post by Mark Hallburn »

Those Internet women are the best!
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Post by Rock »

daveinthemorning wrote:Spike, if you're talking about Erin she is way over 18 and she does afternoons, she isn't my sidekick. I do have a 14 year old Korean girl with me but I ordered her on the internet.
And if my own experience is any gauge, I bet you're ready to ship her back. :x
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Post by Jay Nunley »

I think you will find outstanding radio in every size market. You will find lousy radio in every size market. Mostly, you will find middling to mediocre radio in every market.

The best country morning show I have ever heard is a guy in Mattoon, IL. The guy gets a somewhere between a 40 and a 50 share 12+ every book. It's staggering. He has had opportunities to move to top 50 markets repeatedly and has always (and will always) turned them down. He loves Mattoon. God knows why.

Look at Rod Willis at WDGG. There's another example of a "major market" talent in a small town.

I can list at least twenty other guys that most of you have never heard of that good or better in small towns (and those are just the ones I know personally).

I can also give you a list of "talent" in top fifty markets who couldn't broadcast their way out of a wet paper bag.

Right place and the right time? Many times, yes.

The trick is to stop attaching so much importance to market size. The only people impressed or even interested in that is other radio people.

If you think and behave like you are big time, you are.

If you think and behave like you are small time, you are.

Quality of life is the only thing that matters. Do you love your job? Do you like your work environment? Do you like the town? Are you generally happy?

If you answer "yes" to those questions you would be a fool to go somehwere else just because it is a "bigger market."

If you answer "no" to those questions you are an even bigger fool to stay somehwere because it is a "big market."
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Post by Dr. Whiplash »

BINGO. Very well put, Jay. And there are all the radio folk, present company included, who moved to larger markets but later returned to small towns for the reasons you cite.

If cops, teachers, electricians or lawyers work in a small or large city, so what? But in broadcasting it's commonly accepted that we are truly successful only if and when we land in a big market.

I guess that depends on one's definition of success. :wink:
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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Dr. Whiplash wrote:BINGO. Very well put, Jay. And there are all the radio folk, present company included, who moved to larger markets but later returned to small towns for the reasons you cite.

If cops, teachers, electricians or lawyers work in a small or large city, so what? But in broadcasting it's commonly accepted that we are truly successful only if and when we land in a big market.

I guess that depends on one's definition of success. :wink:
I have done the same thing for the same reasons. After college, I worked for nine years in Columbus, and left the big city to return to less crime, lower property taxes, better schools, a better "neighborhood" environment for my children to grow up in, and much, much less of a rat race.

It's funny how, in your 20s, you want to leave home and live in the big city. Then, later in life, the priorities shift and you're coming home again, and for all the right reasons.

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Post by Arp2 »

Jay MF Nunley wrote:The best country morning show I have ever heard is a guy in Mattoon, IL. The guy gets a somewhere between a 40 and a 50 share 12+ every book. It's staggering. He has had opportunities to move to top 50 markets repeatedly and has always (and will always) turned them down. He loves Mattoon....

Quality of life is the only thing that matters. Do you love your job? Do you like your work environment? Do you like the town? Are you generally happy?

If you answer "yes" to those questions you would be a fool to go somehwere else just because it is a "bigger market."
Probably the fourth-best morning show in a format I follow is in a market that's definitely below the "top 50." The leader of it knows how good he is, everybody knows how good he is. He loves the market, his wife loves the market, the weather's great, and, although its economy is plenty healthy, the cost of living is rather low. There's not even any pressure in that market to dress particularly well, to drive any particular car, or to vacation anywhere extravagant, so he's living well and putting away money like few would believe. His radio station (cluster) is part of a small chain, and the owner is in-town and listens to his show. It will likely not change hands or change formats as long as radio exists or the owner and his family live.

If he were to decide to leave, he would probably have a dozen offers...no resume, tape, or even interview necessary (his reputation, work ethic, and easy-going personality are well-known). However, he ain't goin' nowhere.

Design your own career...design your own life...sure, the journey matters, but knowing your destination is so much more important.
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