David Eduardo wrote:
"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
...
David Eduardo wrote:
That is and has been correct since about 1921.


Damned straight.

Are you and I supposed to agree this much? It must be the long weekend.

Meant as a compliment: I'd bet you were a great devil's advocate in business
decisions, helping to make sure the ideas were well thought out. It's really
challenging to discuss things with you, and it forces double checking ideas
and facts. And that is fun.



Actually, I was just a pain in the ass.

I really had no interest in being devils'advocate. But when I didn't
agree, I wasn't very quiet about it.

The GM didn't speak to me the last 4 months before I laid down my key
and walked out.

Less than a month later, everything I had predicted had come to pass.

As for agreeing....you and I have agreed more than either of us
wanted to admit. Usually on matters of how things work. Where we have
differed is in how things COULD work.

I don't believe that Radio need be as formulaic as it has become. I
understand why and how it's gotten that way. And the whole Genie/Bottle
thing now applies. But I don't believe it's been necessary. And Jake
Brodsky made a very interesting point...when all you have accessible to
you is formula, you get to the stage where you don't expect anything
else, and you come to accept it as not only the norm, but the good as
well. We're now at least two generations into overresearched formulaic
programming. And the public, which long bitched about the way things
have gone in business that directly address and interface the public has
stopped bitching. Not because they like things the way they are...but
because most have not known any better, and the rest...it does them no
good to complain and they know it.

Pertaining to Radio, the Jack format which cracks wise about "playing
what WE want" wouldn't have flown 15 years ago because it was perceived
as openly contemptuous to the listenership. 'We don't play requests,
don't ask,' is not the sort of comment you'd have heard on Sebastian's
KHJ. Even though requests had long since vanished from most radio, it
was something that wasn't spoken. Certainly not in the snide way that
Jack does it. But times have changed, and public acceptance of such
things is common. "Attitude" is the norm. Even required for many
stationality concepts. Even considered entertainment by a generation
that has never heard the kind of personality driven radio that brought
Wally Phillips, Jack Carney, Gary Owens, Lujack and Morgan to such
staggering shares. It was a different time, and it was a different stage
in Radio's life cycle. But it brought to bear a kind of thinking in
media that at least paid some lip service to the 'serve the public
interest as a public trustee' clause on the Instrument of Authority.

Today, there isn't even that.

And no one...not the public, not the broadcasters, not even the
FCC... seems to care.

Fort Worth gets blown off the map by tornadoes, without so much as
whistle, because the bulk of stations were unmanned, automated and voice
tracked, and what was the response? Clusterwide announcements to tune
to the one frequency where there was actual local coverage. Now, we're
all professionals, here. Does anyone really believe that today's radio
user is going to sit through hours of programming in which she/he has
zero interest just on the outside chance he/she is going to hear a
weather bulletin? Maybe after the storms hit. And only for a short
period of time. But until that moment...sitting ducks with a sky full of
shotguns.

And no one seems to be interested in a real option to such nonsense
that would genuinely serve the public in time of emergency.

Not that it's that different here. CCU, for instance, took Kiss from
pretty much all voicetracked to all live, and CBS radio stations are
mostly live overnight here...but that's not how it is in many markets.
Two companies, for which I do some contract work, still refer listeners
to the news/talk station when there is severe weather in the area at
night....but don't offer any way of informing listeners that it's time
to make that move.

That's an obscene breach of public trust. But no one seems to care.
And that's the way it is.

HD radio may be the future salvation of AM and the wall of sandbags
against terrestrial radio erosion, in general, but that is far from a
certainty, as you yourself have stated in this thread. And in the
process, trashing the band's 'unused' spectra preventing use by anyone
not interested in the local contour. Which stops being a problem when
the new technology is widespread, and HD receivers are commonplace, but
in the meantime, nothing says 'contempt for the listener' like wiping
out alternatives to the locals.

I live in between Milwaukee and Chicago. Even WLS doesn't come in
here cleanly most days. And in a populated area like this, I'm not alone
in the inability to access desired radio. But alternatives that I
regularly listened to from either city are now off the dial. Wiped out
in IBOC hash. My neighbors have also complained about their own choices
being eliminated. Boy, if you were going to create a system that
guarantees options to favor a handful of stations, IBOC sure would be
the way. And it's got the blessings of the FCC.

No, I don't agree that this is the way it has to be. You and I will
disagree on that point.

I understand why it's done this way, and how it got to be. And I
realize that only a failure of the system to catch on with the public
will really make a difference in the outcome. Because there will be no
money in continuing.

But I think there would have been a better way. One that doesn't
begin by trashing the band with all that interference.

And one that offers better audio than what I've heard of AM HD.

But then, as I said, I'm a pain in the ass. And a fossil that is no
longer served by Radio.

What do I know. And, in the scheme of things, what does it really
matter.