Programming: satellite vs local

[SteveOrdinetz <steveord@xtdl.com>]

Soapbox mode on:
Someone (Rob Landry?) challenged this group to name a successful major
market station that was satellite fed.  I think the first challenge is to
find a major market station that is satellite fed.  Satellite programming
seems to be a small and medium market situation, driven more by economics
than anything else.  In a market the size of Boston there is enough money
around that even a pitiful performer like WOAZ or WKLB can get by with a sub
2 share.

Satellite programming, per se is a quality product, sure it's generic but it
has to be (more on this later).  Yeah, a lot of satellite stations sound
like crap, but it's more in the implementation.  Let's face it, a switch to
programming off the bird is a last-ditch effort to keep a station solvent.
After every yahoo who once listened to a radio and thinks they know how to
"do it better" has utterly failed, and the station is one missed CNN
make-good from going dark does the dish go up.  At this point, do you really
think they're gonna do it any way but half-assed?

I challenge someone to show me a successful major-market station that has
any local character at all.  How many of the top-rated Boston stations
couldn't be plucked up and dropped in Baltimore or Chicago or LA and not fit
right in?
Is there anything uniquely "Boston" or even "New England" about Magic 106,
Kiss 108, WZLX, or WJMN?  I don't recall having heard any songs by Teddy &
The Pandas or the Rockin' Ramrods on WODS recently.  WEEI sounds like any
other sports-talk station, just the team names change.  I'm sure every other
big market N/T does "traffic & weather on the 3's" just like WBZ.  WXKS-AM
which is, for all practical purposes, a daytimer pulls equal or better
numbers than several live, local Class B FM's.  Maybe WOAZ or WXRV should
pick up satellite programming...maybe both listeners would notice.

What about syndicated shows...last I knew Imus, Stern and Rush did very well
in their target demos, usually creaming local competition.

Lastly, where do automated stations fit in the scheme?  Is WCRB running
voicetracked Classical music off a hard-drive on 2 different stations local?
How about WJIB and it's repeaters playing VCR tapes of wall-to-wall 50s MOR
music...is that local programming?

Now I enjoy listening to bad small-market radio at least as much as anyone
in this group, but most of the Great Unwashed are not radio nuts and do not.
Most want something that sounds halfway professional, not some deejay school
dropout stumbling thru a newscast mispronouncing half the names contained,
or doing a music show where every break consists of "that was ..., now
here's ...". One rightly assumes that by the time you reach a top 50 market,
you've reasonably mastered your craft. 

Let the flames begin.

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End of boston-radio-interest-digest V1 #69
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