"Nickname unavailable" wrote in message
...
On Jul 12, 1:56 am, "David Eduardo" wrote:
Actually, in most rated markets significant stations do local music
research
and determine the playlist based on that local data. Given the hard
economic
times, many stations have reduced such costs, but they make themselves
vulnerable to competitors...
yea right, 10 companies, own 90% of almost all media. in some small
cities, one or two companies own it all. you switch the channel, and
hear the same thing. you really do need to get out more.
The top 10 commercial broadcast companies in radio own around 1600 stations
today, with the #10 clocking in at just over 70 stations. That's out of
14,000 and some stations in the US, not counting LPFMs and translators.
So the top groups own 12% to 13% of all stations, and the next tier, 11 to
20, represents only about 300 stations, and among them is a group in the
Dakotas and surrounding areas where some of the markets are 30,000 people.
Itīs precisely the local research that shows that there is no interest in
the generally bad songs by the local bands, so they don't get played.
a corporatists response.
Nah. I've watched local unsigned artist music, with one or two exceptions,
tank quite royally from the Bay Area to Buenos Aires. And by watching, I
mean this... local people who listen to local stations and go to local shows
and local clubs... take a look at it
http://www.davidgleason.com/Radio%20Research.htm
How many people go to little local grocery stores if they have a choice?
The
prices are higher, the assortment is limited, etc. In any case, customers
are going to want their preferred products no matter where they buy. The
bigger markets analyze sales data, and combined with promotional
allowances
and such, calculate what will sell and have the most shelf turns and most
profit. They can even analyze how many inches of facing to give and at
what
level and the resultant sales.
have you even been in the natural, or organic stores in your area? or
smaller chains, you would be amazed. in my metro area, there are 3
smaller grocery store chains, one has a whole aisle of soda pop, made
with pure cane sugar, in glass bottles mostly, but also pony kegs, and
many brands get wiped out over the weekend, and the pony kegs go even
faster. you really need to get out more. you are locked in a
corporatist mentality.
There will always be niche markets, where people who are looking for
specialized products will drive farther and spend more money. But that kind
of store is the equivalent of narrowcasting... and for that, we have today
iPods and the web and all kinds of other distribution models.
Not so. Playlists existed back to the time of live bands at local radio
staitons... someone determined the songs the bands would play. And since
recorded music has been a staple of American radio, going back to the
rejection of the AFM rules and Petrillo's policies, stations have
pre-programmed music in almost every instance. In fact, the format
concept
that "saved radio" in the early and mid-50's, Top 40, was based entirely
on
the concept of a playlist and zero deviation from it.
yes there has been in the past, except, they were flexible. today,
see if a jockey was to sneak in something not on the playlist, see
what would happen to such jockey. its why independents can no longer
get airtime, but when i was a kid, they did.
you are simply a hard wired free market apologist.
There is no difference in whether an independent can get a song played today
than in the past. In fact, with so many more formats than there were in the
50's and 60's, the number of new songs played per week in a market is many
times more than it was when you had multiple top 40, multiple MOR and a
couple of r&b or countrry stations.
And if the guy at the Mercedes plant near Tuscaloosa puts a green fender on
a gray car, he gets a warning, and then fired. Why would we not exepect our
product to be as finely crafted as any other? Like I said, the stations you
mentioned in the Twin Cities would not allow deviation from the playlist...
and a jock that did so would be warned, and then fired.
Hmm... in the mid 60's, the first person I fired as a PD was a guy who
played one song that was not approved.
at your station. back then, there were 1000's of independently owned
stations. are you telling me that they all operated the same?
Yeah, the ones that were successful did.
And if you worked for Storz or McLendon or Burden or Crowell-Collier or
any
of the big operators of music stations in the 50's and broke format, you
were gone.
but, was there 10 companies or less that own just about all radio
stations in america? not!
No, and that is not true today, either. The largest owns about 800 stations,
with a significnt number in a trust pending their sale. The next largest has
about half that, and by the time you get to the 6th largest, they have
around 75 stations. And, to put things in perspective, the average McDonalds
grosses about twice what the average US radio station did 2 years ago. Now,
it's probably 3 to 1 in favor of the Mickey D place.
Probably the stations have adjusted to contemporary taste of the target
audience, which is generally 18-49 or 25-54, and you are either out of
the
demographic or have not kept up with current taste.
snicker, infomercials are entertainment, that is how far we have
sunk. you are part of the problem, that is why corporate media is
failing.
Infomericals are what stations that can't compete do... or they sell
brokered hours... or run religious shows that are paid based on donations...
or they rent the station to someone who does a format in Hindi or Russian or
Farsi.
Those stations, mainly AM, can't compete because 90% of major market AM
stations do not cover the market fully day and night, so they can't
challenge the bigger stations, and they do whatever it takes to bring in
revenue. Of about 1800 AMs in the top 100 markets, about 210 are viable. The
rest can run the stuff that pays the bills and leaves a little on the side.