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The "personality" of radio stations

Discussion pertaining to Lansing, Jackson, Owosso, and all areas from Alma to Hillsdale
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Ed Joseph
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by Ed Joseph » Wed Feb 06, 2019 3:50 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Fri Feb 01, 2019 8:04 pm
WHMI has good air talent and great service elements, but I cannot stand their squashed audio processing. They've been using the same jingle package since the mid 90's, too. Time for something new.
I've had to make numerous trips from Flint to UofM hospital in AA the past few months. What *I* noticed about WHMI's processing is that it often sounds as if the midrange bands are no longer compressing and simply distort after a point. They have about the same level of AGC as WRSR, which is practically none. How the board is being run makes a lot of difference in the overall sound. Listen to Burke or Jeremy on 103.9 as compared to Andre'. Squashed is what you get when the board is pegged, and it's the same at WHMI. But the lack of a stiff AGC makes it easy to get wide swings in how the multiband processing sounds. If I were the engineer, I'd bring up the gating threshold on the AGC a bit so it can pull up just a bit. On both stations. Not a lot, but a "bit". Just enough to even the sound out a little while still letting it be dynamic. I accomplish this very easily with an ancient CBS Audimax 3s, Harris tribands and an Optimod 8000. I'm pretty sure that's considered "doghouse doorstop" material by today's processing standards, so why is it so many stations sound like audio vomit with modern processing? Is there like a universal preset called "damage their eardrums" or something??


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Willie108
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by Willie108 » Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:35 pm

WHMI is a great station music wise. Formatic wise, it's a trainwreck.



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HD74
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by HD74 » Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:47 pm

Since music IS the format, perhaps you could elaborate on where you think the Amtrak left the tracks?


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Willie108
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by Willie108 » Fri Feb 08, 2019 5:50 pm

OK, here's my take on the formatics. 1) Frontselling three songs that are coming up after the break...this can be turn-off. What if a listener doesn't like one or two of those songs??? That's right...they'll punch that button. 2) I don't know if it's the computer system or sloppy board work, but I've noticed a lot of bad segues, where the song fades right out dead before the next one starts. I was taught eons ago...don't let your songs die! We used to call it smash and crash. 3) I heard the weekend overnight guy not only read the overnight weather forecast...AT 5:30am, but doing the temperature as...it's currently 68 degrees out right now. Also reading liner cards verbatim with no voice reflection. And, a sticking point with me, pronouncing DOUBLE-YOU correctly.
Does the PD EVER aircheck his own people????? I'll give them credit, they re local, local, local. And they're morning show is OK.



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HD74
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by HD74 » Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:23 pm

Thanks for the clarification. You have some valid points.
I haven't listened to the overnights, but I like the news, the music for the most part, and they're pretty good at playing up the localness. (new word)
As to the frontsell, they're going in to a break anyway, the buttons already getting pushed if you're a channel surfer.
Drives me nuts having a channel surfer in the passenger seat, I'm looking for an ejection seat, slightly used........


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Calvert DeForest
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by Calvert DeForest » Wed Feb 13, 2019 10:28 am

Just about every radio station I worked for scheduled stop-sets at :20, :35 and :50 past the hour. Sometimes the :20 break would give way to an extended music sweep, but the :35 and :50 breaks were pretty standard across the board. Pretty much every station did spot breaks at the same approximate times, give or take a minute. times. Punching out of one station in a break would just land you on another station in a break. Really no advantage to jumping around.


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Ed Joseph
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by Ed Joseph » Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:12 pm

Willie108 wrote:
Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:35 pm
WHMI is a great station music wise. Formatic wise, it's a trainwreck.
I guess that is part of it's "charm".


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Ed Joseph
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by Ed Joseph » Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:17 pm

I actually heard Carole King "It's too Late" cut off abruptly in the middle of the song, then an old rock tune with a fade in started.. about 3 seconds later. Not sure if it was a bad file or human error, but it sounded bad. And I really don't know why their presence band sounds so gritty to me. I might have to see if I can rattle Craig's chain about that.


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MisterGoodrich2U
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by MisterGoodrich2U » Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:18 pm

Calvert DeForest wrote:
Wed Feb 13, 2019 10:28 am
Just about every radio station I worked for scheduled stop-sets at :20, :35 and :50 past the hour. Sometimes the :20 break would give way to an extended music sweep, but the :35 and :50 breaks were pretty standard across the board. Pretty much every station did spot breaks at the same approximate times, give or take a minute. times. Punching out of one station in a break would just land you on another station in a break. Really no advantage to jumping around.
Calvert, as a veteran in the biz, you probably know why. That was to play the Arbitron game. The thinking was that diary keepers would give you the 7 minutes of each quarter-hour for credit of a quarter-hour. Did it work? Beats me.

Some stations would try to get into their stopsets a minute before their competition, so that the listener would punch up the competition when you went into a stopset, then the comp would get tuned out when their stopset starts, and the listener would hopefully punch you back up as you exited a stopset into music. Not very kind to your sponsors (if they only knew!).



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Ed Joseph
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by Ed Joseph » Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:35 pm

You know, anymore I relish the fact I can still hear a few Mom & Pop stations on the SEMI dial at all. Most aren't perfect by any means, but it sure beats listening to sat-fed, faked-local radio stations play the same songs over and over and over. At least the M&P stations tend to throw in a few stiffs now and then to keep it fresher. A salute to the M&P owners.


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Calvert DeForest
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Re: The "personality" of radio stations

Post by Calvert DeForest » Sat Apr 06, 2019 11:56 am

MisterGoodrich2U wrote:
Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:18 pm
Calvert, as a veteran in the biz, you probably know why. That was to play the Arbitron game. The thinking was that diary keepers would give you the 7 minutes of each quarter-hour for credit of a quarter-hour. Did it work? Beats me.

Some stations would try to get into their stopsets a minute before their competition, so that the listener would punch up the competition when you went into a stopset, then the comp would get tuned out when their stopset starts, and the listener would hopefully punch you back up as you exited a stopset into music. Not very kind to your sponsors (if they only knew!).
You nailed it! I had totally forgotten about the Arbitron diary strategy. Now that you mention it I remember at one station punching up the competition in-studio so we could monitor their breaks and time ours accordingly. Management wasn't so concerned about beating their start time as long as we were out of our break before they were out of theirs. As I recall the practice was short-lived as it proved ineffective in the book and was just another diversion for the jocks. They (wisely) decided it was more important to focus on our own product rather than concentrate on what the guys across town were doing minute-by-minute.

I also remember being assigned stations and dayparts to monitor when we were off our air shifts and keeping a detailed log of what they did. My assignment was Jaz McKay's morning show on WMMQ. Never figured why as we were an AC station with a totally different demo, but hey, as long as it was on the clock and I was gettin' a check for it. :razz


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