Re: Lowry Mays speaks

[Rick Kelly <nuhuc@juno.com>]

On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 21:48:25 -0500 SteveOrdinetz <steveord@bit-net.com>
writes:

> I am.  What goes on behind the scenes has changed over the years, 
> but to  the end user the difference is barely, if at all noticeable. 

As the keeper of a web site that specializes in pre-voice-tracked radio,
I must (probably surprisingly) say that I'm with Mr. Ordinetz on this
one.  As a matter of fact in some ways voice tracking ends up sounding
better than what was going out on the air 25 years ago, especially on
smaller stations.  

> Listening to several old 80s airchecks of WHTT & Kiss 108 didn't 
> reveal a 
> lot of audience interaction either.  Drake radio was pretty sterile 
> for the 
> most part too, with the exception of a few high profile ones most 
> jocks 
> were pretty interchangeable.  Sure it sounds good to us now, but 
> that's 
> what most of us on this list grew up with...back then "personality" 
> jocks 
> were screaming about how Drake "ruined" radio...took away all the 
> "soul".  

Yes, there were HUGE battles in the trades in the 1960's (well, there
really only one major trade at the time... Billboard) about that very
subject... as I recall, the charge was lead by Claude Hall, stating that
Drake was ruining radio.  Not everyone on WRKO was Dale Dorman or Shadow
Stevens... and yeah, a lot of it really did sterile.  Us radio folk tend
to forget that, though...

> Somewhere on the web there's an aircheck of a WOR-FM jock 
> bleating 
> about how "the consultants" have taken over & "ruined" his 
> station...it was made in 1967. 

Yeah, that was Roscoe... it was right before Drake came in to 'OR-FM.

> Back in the 60s WMEX used "house names" that went 
> with the 
> shift...if you did AM drive, you were Fenway.  How many listeners 
> caught on 
> that this weeks "Fenway" is a different guy than the "Fenway" who 
> was on 
> last week?

Fairly common... there was a station in Rochester that had jock names
like Mike Melody and the like... totally interchangeable and ya gotta
wonder if anyone noticed.

Steve West wrote:

> but perhaps I've lost the ability to grow and adapt to the 
> new way of
> doing business...

I'm sure radio professionals have been saying this all along... in the
20's, the networks were gonna put local people out of their radio jobs,
in the 50's, the rise of TV was gonna put local people out of their radio
jobs, in the 70's the rise of FM was gonna put local people out of their
radio jobs, and in the 90's the internet was gonna put local people out
of their radio jobs.  The beat goes on.

Rick Kelly
www.northeastairchecks.com



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