And her big bang, super swingin hit....
"Sign of the Times"
(by David Hinckley / NY Daily News)
In a move that’s modest but still frustrating, SiriusXM satellite radio has taken the disc jockeys off two more music channels, 50s on 5 and 90s on 9.
As it happens, this erases several jocks that New York listeners know, including WAXQ (104.3 FM) morning man Jim Kerr, Pat St. John and Norm N. Nite, all of whom hosted shows on the ’50s channel.
SiriusXM saves a few bucks in salaries here. The main goal, presumably, is making those channels music-intensive — a trend that has permeated all of music radio over the last 10 years.
The thinking is that listeners want music, not voices.
Me, I like both. I like the idea, even when it’s an illusion, that a person rather than a machine is sharing this musc with me.
That’s why stations like Z100 and Hot 97 keep jocks in the mix even when they want the more-music brand.
The disappearance of more jocks at SiriusXM also feels disheartening because it takes satellite radio another small step away from what make it so distinctive in the beginning.
XM, in particular, positioned itself as an alternative to terrestrial radio. It played a wide range of music you’d never hear on commercial stations, and it hired jocks like Matt the Cat, a young guy with an old-time personality.
When XM and Sirius merged, a lot of that got squeezed out. Playlists tightened, hosts vanished, older and less well-known music was replaced by newer and more popular. It felt as if someone had hired a top-40 consultant and was holding focus groups.
Since satellite radio used to lose money and now makes money, you could argue these have just been smart business decisions.
It also must be noted that satellite remains a good alternative to commercial radio. It still has music and hosts and programs you won’t hear elsewhere.
It just has fewer of those things — and every time it whacks jocks, especially on the channels whose audience grew up on jocks, it loses a little more of its "radio" feel.
If you're a radio professional, at least a radio professional whose radio professing takes place on the outgoing side of the microphone, then this issue is way past being the day before yesterday's news.
The continued thinning of the on air personality herd in favor of the "more music, the most music, the more than just the most music" mentality morphing into methodology.
If your radio occupation is more about occupying that desk upon which the bottom line frequently crosses, then, chances are, you couldn't care less, one way or the other, about the continued thinning of the on air personality herd in favor of the....and so on.
It's not your responsibility to make the station(s) sound good.
Good, of course, being that mischievous matter of one's own spin.
It's your responsibility to make the stations make money.
Nothing's really changed on that front since Marconi first called out to Watson to "come in, here."
Or Alexander Graham Bell.
Whatever.
Radio, no matter how technologically it has evolved, is still no more, or less, than it ever was from the first time that it ever was.
A for-profit business.
In the form of a service providing information and entertainment.
A product.
Beef-a-roni for the ears, to stretch the point.
And what's happening in the radio industry today is no more, or less, than simply those who manufacture the product tweaking and/or twerking the product in hopes of keeping it relevant, attractive, even desirable to the consumer of said product.
New and improved Beef-a-roni, to pull the point even a little farther out.
All of that said, here's a thing.
While sentimentalists, purists and/or out of work on air personalities will likely remain on the front lines of fighting for a return to those thrilling days of yesteryear, the simple, irrefutable fact stands rock solid that the times they have a-changed.
And a lot of options for that information and entertainment are now available that weren't available until they were recently made available.
Surprisingly, too, at least to sentimentalists, purists and/or out of work on air personalities fighting for a return to those thrilling days of yesteryear, there's a pretty good number of votes being cast, easily found if you do a little research, that indicates that the loss of "live voices" on SiriusXM isn't something the subscribers are seriously stressed about.
Something along the lines of "I pay for the privilege of not having to listen to blah, blah blather but, rather to all music, all the time."
Fair enough.
And nothing underhanded, or unreasonable, about a company like SiriusXM giving their paying customers what they want.
Beef-a-roni without droning dinner chat, to continue yanking on the point.
But, here's a thing, within the thing, that I've been harping about for a bit of a while now along with, or beside, sentimentalists, purists and/or out of work on air personalities fighting for a return to those thrilling days of yesteryear
When it comes to conventional, terrestrial, in other words, free radio this whole issue is a white noise of a different color.
The key word there being "free".
Because, in fact, conventional, terrestrial radio has never been, and will never be, free.
No, you don't have to pony up a monthly subscription fee, you don't have to put coins, or bills, into a meter to keep the signal signaling, you don't have to do anything but turn on the ol' AM/FM and tune in to your auditory nerve's content.
But you do have to pay a price.
And the price is the constant interruption of the playing of your favorite tunes with "and now, a word from" words.
On average, these days, in my experience, up to fifteen minutes out of every hour.
But, hey, no fair complainin', okay?
Somebody has to cough up the currency so the hits can keep on-a comin'.
And so that you don't have to pony up a monthly subscription fee or put coins, or bills, into a meter to keep the signal signaling.
And those somebodies are the sponsors who offer up "a word from" themselves.
On average, up to fifteen minutes out of every hour.
But, then, right back to the music.
Ah, but here's a thing, inside of the thing that's inside the thing.
There is now a plethora, undoubtedly veritable, of places where you can now score that music without having to either pony up a monthly subscription fee, put coins or bills in a meter or wait patiently for that fifteen minutes out of every hour to shut the hell up so you can get back to more music, the most music, more of the most music.
"When you're tuned in / and the ads make you crazy / you can always go / online"
Speaking of Petula.
And now, coming to a new model car near you, online radio in the form of podcasts.
And, literally, thousands of types of programming, music, information and entertainments.
Commercial free.
And free free.
At least until the FCC figures out how to attach a meter to the whole operation.
Which will bring us back to do-re-mi, so far, conventional, terrestrial radio is missing a ginormous opportunity.
Offering the listening public something that they, with increasing frequency (pun unintended, but, somehow, inevitable), cannot, and will not probably from here on out, be able to find anywhere but on conventional, terrestrial radio.
On air personalities.
To entertain and inform and localize and be there to actually answer the phones, to take requests and play back funny callers and be a fun "host" of a show that will entertain and inform and localize.
Even if the music format remains "heavy rotation".
Which, to you folks who aren't jiggy wit' the jargon, translates out to "the same ten or twelve songs played over and over and over and over".
Because, at least with a live, breathing, witty, experienced talent on that microphone, there will likely be something live, breathing and witty both going into and coming out of those same ten or twelve songs.
All there and available to you with the ease of turning a switch on that receiver there on your desk or kitchen counter or your dashboard.
No, I haven't forgotten that there's a price to pay for that talent.
But even the commercial breaks seem more entertaining when intro'd and outro'd by a talented, live warm body.
Not to mention the commercials themselves.
When written and produced by those talented, live warm bodies.
It really does seem like such a simple concept, doesn't it?
The one thing that conventional, terrestrial radio can offer listeners that those listeners can't get anywhere else, for free and with minimum muss and/or fuss, is the presence of a live, talented host of an entertaining and informative show.
Yet, all indications are that the owners of conventional, terrestrial radio just don't see it.
Or hear it.
It falls on deaf ears.
Ain't that ironic?
No comments:
Post a Comment