Why I listen to satellite radio

[Dan.Strassberg]

A lot of the Satellite feeds to terrestrial stations took (take?)
great pains not to destroy that impression. I am mainly familiar with
some of the AS services, which allowed for drop-ins of local
positioners voiced by the network talent. The positioner voices were
those of the network personality airing in that daypart. When done
properly, which some stations managed--even smoothly integrating the
satellite feed with their automation--the whole setup could easily
fool anyone but a radio pro or a total radio geek like me.

The most humorous component was, of course, the call-in contests in
which great care had to be taken to avoid any local content: "Let's
talk with this hour's winner, Mary Smith, who lives on Elm St." I
wonder if people who would otherwise have won were rejected because
their street names were not suffucently generic--and, of course, the
name of the winner's town was NEVER mentioned.

The next step, which I heard on only one network (not AS, but a
pre-teen format)--the short-lived KidStar, IIRC, was dayparting, which
became practical when high-capacity hard drives came far enough down
in price. Stations would stream the content from the bird to the local
hard drive and delay it appropriately for the time zone. Local time
checks suddenly became practical--because they could be part of the
satellite feed! (No more 27 minutes past the hour!) AND those contests
had to be localized. No fair requiring the people on Pacific time to
know exactly when to call in three hours before their local station
would air the contest. The national toll-free numbers were replaced by
local numbers. Winners could mention their towns. But, of course, the
conversations with winners had to be hosted by local talent, somewhat
spoiling the illusion.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Maureen Carney" <m_carney@yahoo.com>
To: "Bill O'Neill" <billohno@gmail.com>; "Boston Radio Group"
<boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 9:15 AM
Subject: Re: Why I listen to satellite radio


> Funny thing - when I worked at WMRC in Milford, MA there were a
> group of people who thought the satellite programming hours were
> local and the local people were actually on the bird!
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Bill O'Neill <billohno@gmail.com>
> To: SteveOrdinetz <hykker@wildblue.net>
> Cc: boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org
> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 9:35:33 PM
> Subject: Re: Why I listen to satellite radio
>
> SteveOrdinetz wrote:
>> I don't follow the logic here.  You say you've migrated to
>> satellite
>> radio because terrestrial isn't local-sounding enough.  Isn't that
>> like saying you've switched from McDonald's to Burger King because
>> you
>> don't like fatty food?
> It's like this -- I prefer terrestrial stations. When I find one
> that
> has a strong local programming presence (music or talk) I listen.
> Intently. When I find one that is pretty much automated, there's a
> chance that I will head up to the bird to see what's there.  80% of
> my
> listening is in the car in Vermont so there tends to be lots of
> hopping
> around the dial out of necessity.  Gotta go.  That Quarter Pounder
> is
> calling. <g>
>
> Bill O'Neill
>
>
>
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