Buzz Knight talks about changes at 92.9

[Howard Glazer]

----- Original Message -----
From: Larry Weil <kc1ih@mac.com>
To: 'Kevin Vahey' <kvahey@comcast.net>; '(newsgroup) Boston-Radio-Interest'
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 3:57 PM
Subject: RE: Buzz Knight talks about changes at 92.9


>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org
> > [mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org]
> >  On Behalf Of Kevin Vahey
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 11:39 AM
> > To: (newsgroup) Boston-Radio-Interest
>
>
> > Subject: Buzz Knight talks about changes at 92.9
> > The reason for the change? Arbitron's Portable People Meters
> > indicate that as soon as a jock starts talking, listeners
> > bail out.
>
> Jeez, if this kind of thinking prevails dose it mean that all the music
> stations eventually become personality-less juke boxes?
>
> Larry Weil
> Lake Wobegone, NH
>

Looks like the only way radio sees to stem the MP3 tide, at least among its
higher-income, young, suburban listeners -- the only ones Madison Avenue
really cares about -- is to try to become as MP3-player-like as possible.
The problems with that thinking are (a) commercials and (b) songs the
listener doesn't like, the two major reasons people buy MP3 players.

I'm not sure that removing the DJs or further marginalizing their role will
bring many former listeners who've become enthralled by "all songs I love,
all the time" on the iPods back to FM, even with tighter playlists to
eliminate anything any listener might possibly dislike or broader playlists
to tempt the musically adventurous. But I don't see staying status quo or
increasing the DJs' airtime bringing those listeners back, or even retaining
the current ones, so there's really no reason not to give more iPod-like
radio a try, especially since the investors like the fact that such radio
can be run on a shoestring. As Knight said, the jock talking at length means
only one thing: commercials ahead.

Howard