Anybody wanna be a radio jock?

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Does anyone listen to over the air radio these days?
 
I was a radio jock from 1993 to 2000... loved the profession, hated the hours and pay. I still keep in touch with all of my co-workers from those days, and was just asked to do some fill-in work at a local station that one of those co-workers is now programming. January, February and March are my slowest months for events (it's when I hibernate and collect payments for summer and fall events), so I'll likely be back in the air-chair soon, just for fun. I'm looking forward to it.
 
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I was wondering the same thing. Between Apple Music, Pandora, and a stick with a ton of music I recently dropped XM. Really I only use over the air radio for news & sometimes traffic. One station I do occasionally listen to is on FM digital & available on iHeartRadio. There is that War of the Roses program I tune into weekdays if I am in the car. It’s got to be fake but it’s funny. I would say to have listeners you better have some kind of big draw besides the music which to me seem to repeat 4 or 5 time a day.
 
My Dad called me today to tell me about his radio days. I think he was having a reminiscing moment! He gave me a nearly complete history of his radio days between how he got into radio to when "Nassau broadcasting" took the privately owned radio station he was at over, and after 1 to 2 months of owning the staiton, they fired everyone. ...His radio career ended in 2002 even though he had the #1 rated show on Sunday nights in their listener region. They downsized from like 10 DJs to 3. Now that station is a totally different format.

...With that said. There are 1/2 as many radio DJs employed today compared to just years ago. Go back like 30 years, and there have been like a 80% decline in number of radio disc jockeys.

Here is a good read:
Traditional Radio Faces a Grim Future, New Study Says - (https://variety.com/2017/music/news/traditional-radio-faces-a-grim-future-new-study-says-1202542681/)
 
adj2ent said:
I was wondering the same thing. Between Apple Music, Pandora, and a stick with a ton of music I recently dropped XM. Really I only use over the air radio for news & sometimes traffic. One station I do occasionally listen to is on FM digital & available on iHeartRadio. There is that War of the Roses program I tune into weekdays if I am in the car. It’s got to be fake but it’s funny. I would say to have listeners you better have some kind of big draw besides the music which to me seem to repeat 4 or 5 time a day.
Click to expand...

I have been considering dropping XM for a couple of years now, LOL. ...For some reason I can't do it though.
 
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XM latest offer was $5 month, even at that rate I didn’t renew. I would prefer staying with Apple Music. The stations I listened to on XM had a ton of repeats like FM for some reason. I’m really impressed with the depth of music available in Apple Music including mixes of songs I’ve never heard before. Pretty much everything I looked for was there including links to related songs I forgot about or never knew the name.
 
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DJ Ricky B said:
My Dad called me today to tell me about his radio days. I think he was having a reminiscing moment! He gave me a nearly complete history of his radio days between how he got into radio to when "Nassau broadcasting" took the privately owned radio station he was at over, and after 1 to 2 months of owning the staiton, they fired everyone. ...His radio career ended in 2002 even though he had the #1 rated show on Sunday nights in their listener region. They downsized from like 10 DJs to 3. Now that station is a totally different format.

...With that said. There are 1/2 as many radio DJs employed today compared to just years ago. Go back like 30 years, and there have been like a 80% decline in number of radio disc jockeys.
Click to expand...

Ratings really mean nothing it's what's cost effective these days. It's nice when you go number one but to remain there is costly and especially in bigger markets it's often much more profitable to be not number one. The rate card is lower but you don't pay out as much in staff and marketing

It's at least 80% in the last 30 years. In 1988 most any station would have all their time slots filled including overnights and news at least 18 hours a day that doesn't happen these days. Where I work there's me part time and 2 full time morning guys. I voicetrack 2 morning shows and do 3 live on AM and weekends on FM plus voicetrack a classic country show on Saturday nights on AM and still adds up to a bit less than 30 hours



adj2ent said:
The stations I listened to on XM had a ton of repeats like FM for some reason.
Click to expand...

Because they are all programmed by radio programmers who look at test markets and tell you what you like. A Classic Rock or Classic Hits station will only have 400-500 songs in rotation at any time. Top 40 and New Country even less than that. Mediatouch or Scott Studios software is set by default to recycle overnight also so if you heard it in the daytime unless the software has been tweaked you will hear it overnight at some point that same day. 12 songs per hour times 18 hours is 216 songs a day so in a 400 song library you will hear the same song every second day at best. There's more to it that that but you get the jist
 
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Jeff Romard said:
Ratings really mean nothing it's what's cost effective these days. It's nice when you go number one but to remain there is costly and especially in bigger markets it's often much more profitable to be not number one. The rate card is lower but you don't pay out as much in staff and marketing

It's at least 80% in the last 30 years. In 1988 most any station would have all their time slots filled including overnights and news at least 18 hours a day that doesn't happen these days. Where I work there's me part time and 2 full time morning guys. I voicetrack 2 morning shows and do 3 live on AM and weekends on FM plus voicetrack a classic country show on Saturday nights on AM and still adds up to a bit less than 30 hours





Because they are all programmed by radio programmers who look at test markets and tell you what you like. A Classic Rock or Classic Hits station will only have 400-500 songs in rotation at any time. Top 40 and New Country even less than that. Mediatouch or Scott Studios software is set by default to recycle overnight also so if you heard it in the daytime unless the software has been tweaked you will hear it overnight at some point that same day. 12 songs per hour times 18 hours is 216 songs a day so in a 400 song library you will hear the same song every second day at best. There's more to it that that but you get the jist
Click to expand...

101.9 F in my area has a "Love and Dedication Show" on week nights I think Monday thru Thursday or Monday thru Friday. ...They don't do it right now because of Christmas music 24/7, BUT for the rest of the year, the DJ, her name is Fran takes requests, and plays almost anything. They pull songs out of no where that I never heard on there. I think her show would be an exception to the general 400 to 500 songs that they routinely play, BUT you will often hear a lot of the regular format songs because that is what their listeners are used to. For instance many people will request "Girls Like You" by Maroon 5 even though that song is probably played every other hour every single day on that station right now.

I only listen to her station because in my around town beater car 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer, I only have regular radio. In my Traverse when I'm on vacation or driving to/from DJ gigs, I have XM Radio on all the time.
 
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adj2ent said:
The stations I listened to on XM had a ton of repeats like FM for some reason.
Click to expand...
I play with the "free" 3 month trial in my wife's new Kia Optima. The great thing - it displays song info - really handy for identifying music. Unfortunately, there is no fully dedicated Salsa/Merengue channel. There are two Latin channels (152 and 158), but often both will be playing Reggaeton at the same time. You'd think with 140+ channels, and a Latin demographic that continues to expand, they could have a "Oldies Latin Channel" that plays only the great old Salsa Dura of the 70's - just like they have dedicated 50's, 60's, and 70's channels - but no. I'd like to think that when the Trial ends, and I tell they why I'm not going to subscribe, that they'd give a crap, but I doubt it. Mr. Romard is probably right - "they are all programmed by radio programmers who look at test markets and tell you what you like".
 
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DJ Ricky B said:
101.9 F in my area has a "Love and Dedication Show" on week nights I think Monday thru Thursday or Monday thru Friday. ...They don't do it right now because of Christmas music 24/7, BUT for the rest of the year, the DJ, her name is Fran takes requests, and plays almost anything. They pull songs out of no where that I never heard on there. I think her show would be an exception to the general 400 to 500 songs that they routinely play, BUT you will often hear a lot of the regular format songs because that is what their listeners are used to. For instance many people will request "Girls Like You" by Maroon 5 even though that song is probably played every other hour every single day on that station right now.

I only listen to her station because in my around town beater car 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer, I only have regular radio. In my Traverse when I'm on vacation or driving to/from DJ gigs, I have XM Radio on all the time.
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I do a live request show on Saturdays on our classic rock station "The Requesta Fiesta" it's fun because often you hear different stuff. There's a noon time weekday request show too. We often break format on these shows and both are high points of the day/week in the ratings book.

Played this one today LOL

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnHKDMuoulw
 
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Ratings don't mean diddly any more.
Time was, advertising agencies would use the Arbitron or Birch ratings as a way
to decide what stations to buy.
When Birch went away, Arbitron was the only radio ratings system in town.
So, naturally...they raised their price so high, that stations stopped buying the service.
Now, the whole thing is owned by Nielson (TV ratings)...
and the numbers are used more for bragging rights.

As for "employees".... there are fewer radio station employees than ever.
 
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Ausumm said:
Ratings don't mean diddly any more.
Time was, advertising agencies would use the Arbitron or Birch ratings as a way
to decide what stations to buy.
When Birch went away, Arbitron was the only radio ratings system in town.
So, naturally...they raised their price so high, that stations stopped buying the service.
Now, the whole thing is owned by Nielson (TV ratings)...
and the numbers are used more for bragging rights.

As for "employees".... there are fewer radio station employees than ever.
Click to expand...

Up here nationals still buy on ratings but locals tend to buy with what works. But yeah it's bragging rights and likely not very accurate unless it's a PPM market but most are still books
 
Jeff Romard said:
Up here nationals still buy on ratings but locals tend to buy with what works. But yeah it's bragging rights and likely not very accurate unless it's a PPM market but most are still books
Click to expand...

Actually, considering the lack of radio station support...
I am surprised they still pursue using the PPM's.

(that's Personal People Meter in layman's terms)
It's a device you wear, that automatically detects what radio station(s) you listen to.
 
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Ausumm said:
Actually, considering the lack of radio station support...
I am surprised they still pursue using the PPM's.

(that's Personal People Meter in layman's terms)
It's a device you wear, that automatically detects what radio station(s) you listen to.
Click to expand...

Ausumm said:
Actually, considering the lack of radio station support...
I am surprised they still pursue using the PPM's.

(that's Personal People Meter in layman's terms)
It's a device you wear, that automatically detects what radio station(s) you listen to.
Click to expand...

I wore a PPM for a period of time about 4 years ago. Arbitron sent me a check for $15 to do it!
 
I still listen to a couple of "independent" OTA stations in my area. At least I get to hear a variety of tracks I would never hear from the constant repetitive garbage spewed out by the corporate owned stations who only care about paying out the least amount of royalties possible.
If I have to hear Bon Jovi's living on a prayer one more time I'm gonna slit my frickin' wrists!

OTA stations can still (if they care to) be a valuable community resource imo.
 
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DJ Ricky B said:
I wore a PPM for a period of time about 4 years ago. Arbitron sent me a check for $15 to do it!
Click to expand...

Back when they had the paper diaries that you had to fill out....
you got a WHOLE DOLLAR!
 
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