Just for the Record: The Way It Was…in Radio

I’m following a Facebook group of mostly-former broadcasters these days. Among the topics: how times have changed since the group members were active in radio. And not for the better, of course.

Many of the contributors to the Facebook posts look back with some satisfaction on their experiences. Oh, they had some less than generous station management to deal with, and there were some professional bumps along their career paths, but for the most part these guys and gals (quaint, I know) had a good run as “air personalities.”

They remember the days when stations in larger and mid-sized markets were not under common ownership, but competed in ratings races and enjoyed the sometimes bitter, sometimes more friendly, rivalries between stations fighting for market share. They look back with pride on the creativity that was fed by the freedom they were given by management. And many of them thoroughly grooved on the music they played, some off vinyl, and later “carts” recorded off vinyl.

I never lived the fulltime deejay existence, but I spent a lot of time with those who did. And I understand completely the disdain they have for local stations controlled by huge out-of-town media conglomerates, as well as for the electronic gadgetry that grinds out programming without the need for human talent, that is, air staff.

I recently went to a meeting of the local county historical society to hear a current broadcaster speak about the changes that have come to the industry in past decade or so. The speaker has been around the block you might say, having one foot in the past and one in the present. He knows the radio universe before deregulation and pre-computer. And he’s still on the air, though not that pleased with how things work now.

He distributed to his audience a sheet containing the list of stations (more accurately, I guess, frequencies) that are owned and operated by one company*. The list also showed the air shifts of the stations’ personalities. I saw that the same “jocks” also had shifts on one or two other stations, with timeslots overlapping. Both naïve and curious, I asked how one personality could be on two or three stations at the same time, with those stations having slightly different music formats.

Came the “aha!” moment. The speaker said that the radio group (“chain” or common owner) has the on-air personality record (no, not on tape…good grief…that would be so archaic, so primitive) announcements for each “show” (PSAs, ad libs, some references to music played). The station’s hard drive holds the comments and mixes in the music, commercials, weather, etc. without the announcer actually hearing the mix, except for the last, say, 20 seconds of a song, in order to pick up some vibes from the music, before opening the mic and “back-talking” that song. Since that process certainly telescopes real time, the air personality has plenty of time to go to the studio down the hall and do the same thing for a sister station. And even a third time, for still another station in the group. I guess with only hearing 20 seconds of each of the last songs in a set, recording a four-hour shift might take only an hour.

Of course, the advantage for the ownership is that they can staff three stations in one market with a handful of personalities. (I was tempted to say, “..with a minimum of talent,” but that would be mean and not accurate.)

Now, if jocks used to get bored (but pretended for the audience that they didn’t) playing the same top 30 plus a few oldies sprinkled in, imagine how uninteresting it must be now to simply be computer voices, not even hearing the music the audience will hear. If there had been some fun (heck, use the word joy here…we’re talking about someone’s vocation, their calling), how dull it must be to move from one computer to another recording voice tracks and never really enjoying the “on air” experience or the live give-and-take with your listeners.

And since I’m commenting on today’s radio personalities, (we called ’em deejays, DJs, because once, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, they jockeyed disks, that is, records) …what’s with this use of only one name? As in, DJ Michelle, or just plain “Eric.” Heck, even knowing that radio personalities rarely used real names, it was kind of fun to think up “air names,” even if there may have been 23 guys named “Dusty Rhodes,” or “Rick Stevens.”  Alas! So little imagination these days.

Enough for now. I’m not really cranky about this. Just a little sad.
* Oh, yes…that asterisk. I wanted to be clear that the frequencies are not owned by any commercial entity. The airwaves belong to the public, the saying goes. Owners own the facilities, but are only licensed as stewards of the airwaves. That said, the “control” of the airwaves used to be the purview of the FCC, but truth be told…