Re: Depth of talent lessened? (Was: WGAN)

["Douglas J. Broda" <djbroda@mindspring.com>]

It's hardly just one station that gives you that feeling. Almost every
personality-driven station I logged time listening to in years past -- and
some you wouldn't call that -- is poorer today from a talent perspective
than it was at its peak. Of course there are great talents out there now;
of course there are stations that do it well. But in the 60s, 70s and 80s
there seemed to be talent oozing from so many stations; now, major market
leaders seem to often have talent gaps. (This isn't style, either -- I hate
listening to Stern, but I'd never suggest he isn't tremendously talented.)

IOW, from a listener's perspective I think there are still many talented
people on radio, but the depth is lessened markedly. I'd love to hear
perspectives on why, but I'll throw out as possibilities the more
fragmented radio market, the addition of many more TV outlets (local and
cable), and the automation and/or satelliting of so many small stations
that were once talent breeders.

At 02:57 PM 2/5/00 -0500, Dib9@aol.com wrote:
>Some recent posts mentioned some of the people who were at WGAN in the early 
>1980's.  Listening to WGAN in the early 1980's was most responsible for my 
>interest in radio.  They had a great staff in those years: Bruce Stevens,
Bob 
>Grady, Nick Seneca, Joe McMillian, Chuck Igo, and Gary Dixon.  They did
radio 
>well and made it sound fun.
>
>Years later, at various different stations, I had the pleasure to work with 
>all the people mentioned, with the exception of Bruce Stevens.  All were 
>great to work with and I learned a lot about radio from each one.  
>
>It may just be that I am getting older, but when I listen to radio in Maine 
>now, I find most stations are lucky to have one or two people that are as 
>talented as the people at WGAN in the early 1980's.
>
>-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine 
> 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Douglas J. Broda
Broda and Burnett
Attorneys at Law
80 Ferry Street, Troy, NY 12180 USA
(518) 272-0580
djbroda@mindspring.com