David Eduardo wrote:
"Dave" wrote in message
...
David Eduardo wrote:
"Telamon" wrote in message
...
I can't imagine any of them saying anything different, because we all
live by the same metrics and information and sales realities.
You live in a reality of your own making.

It's the reality of our entire industry.
The "reality" of your "industry" is that when you try to run it like a
factory you ruin the product. You make crap because you have no idea what
you're doing. You forget the intangibles and let the number crunchers
pick the songs. You have no one to blame but yourselves.

Huh? In markets like LA, the one you are in, all the significant stations
let the listeners pick the music. And there is an incredible amount of
talent on the air, doing spontaneous, live and entertaining radio.





But none breaking new ground. Far be it from me to agree with
Rickets, but he makes the same point I do. Breaking new ground,
taking risks is not even on the radar, today. So, what the listeners
pick is what they hear, what sounds familiar, and with very few
exceptions, what they've come to expect from contemporary music.
More of the same. Different names. Different performers. Same
clothes, same sounds, same haircuts. Interchangeably, more of the same.

Occasionally, PD's I've worked for have taken a chance, and
added 'out of the box.' In one case, a test pressing, hand
delivered from the record label on the next block. And more often
than not, these wild card tunes blew holes in the dial. Such was the
result with a PD who knew his audience better than B-A, Lund, or
even, dare I say it...you.

What wears so thin, now, is that I can turn on the radio and
hear hot, new tunes that don't sound any different than anything
else that's been on the air in the last 18 months. Even the talk is
all the same. Not just the same topic, but the same spin...the same
opinions about the topic. Nothing I don't already know and haven't
already heard up and down the dial.

So, you're making your numbers. Wonderful. Spend it wisely. But
what I have been asking, what Telamon, Rickets, RHF and the rest of
us have been wondering is, when do are you going to do something for
the listeners?

Jeff Davis used to tell me that all program directors share the
same brain cell. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the radio,
today. And nowhere is it more apparent that it's going to exact a
terrible price in the years to come as more and more young people
abandon radio, entirely.

I've said, and you've agreed, that Radio, in the US, is always
about the money. Always been. But along the way, it's been about
US,too. Those of us with our ears tuned, our wallets open....but all
you've been able to vomit up in this group is what benefits YOU.
What's good for the numbers. Research. Ratings. Advertisers.
Numbers, numbers, numbers. All benefitting you. And only benefitting
you.

We matter, too, you know.

And don't give me that same tired noise about listeners mean
advertisers, and revenue, so we must be drawing listeners. You and I
both know that if you only have 5 stations in town, your listening
is going to be done to 5 stations. Listeners tune what's available.
They accept. And while they may accept what's now available, the
indications are that the future holds a very big surprise for Radio
as the audience finds alternatives that don't treat them like
Maxwellian points on a sales curve.

Stan Freberg had it right in 1958. Money trumps everything else.

And, as much as I like a Green Life$tyle, there are other things
of importance, as well. Something that's been discussed, now, for
years...by the public about the media.

Not just the old gasbags on this newsgroup, but the rest of the
listening universe out there, who've simply resigned themselves to
taking the homogenized pablum they're given, and making empty-eyed
raves about it in exchange for a tasteless slogan on a T-shirt.

Who's showing them the potential of Radio. The theatre of the
mind. The ability to bring new sound. New ideas. New blood.

Instead, we get overresearched playlists. Overresearched
personality types. Overresearched formatics. All homogenized into 5
radio stations cloned across the nation.

The very definition of creativity is that the creative product
hasn't been seen or heard before.

When does THAT start?

Because that hasn't been the case since John Sebastian ****ed up
KHJ.

When do we hear something we've not heard before? Because until
THAT happens....it's just what Spike O'Dell calls 'that kind of
radio up and down the dial.'

The radio you describe may be live, but it's anything but
spontaneous...and rarely entertaining. It's radio that's good for
YOU. It meets YOUR needs. But those listeners...they're just bodies.
Just books of numbers.

You need to see beyond the revenue stream.

Until you see us as individuals...listeners...human
beings....even allies...until you take your head out of your
research, and your P&L's and PPM figures, and look around you....

Until you see the human factors...beyond the numbers...your
message, here, will continue to fall on deaf ears.

And that's a shame.