Sign off

Aircheck has finally reached the end of the road. This is my last post for this, my original, weblog. Thanks to you, dear reader, for riding along memory lane with me. I feel that every story (fit to post) has been covered, sometimes more than once. Radio is a dead end topic; unfortunately, the blog's title, Aircheck, was chosen at a time when I still pined for broadcasting. Events of Summer and Fall of 2011 changed all that. I've moved on to other interests. This site will remain open going forward for those who may discover our legacy posts. The companion blog Peanut Whistle remains my sole active Blogger blog, for now...

Neal

You’re So Vain

Throughout my days in small market Southern Gospel radio there remained one constant: local individuals wanting their music on your station. One thing these individuals did not understand was that the station’s image often rested on a listener’s first impression. If these unsolicited recordings had been allowed airplay willy nilly, I dare say these stations would have met a very early demise due to an overwhelming lack of sponsors.

Admittedly, Southern Gospel was a different animal. A lot of its artists got their start doing “vanity pressings” (recordings made at the artists’ own expense.) The most kind term for some of these acts was “unsigned talent”. In other words, a major recording label had yet to express interest in them.

Unfortunately, that lack of interest was often deserved. A vast majority of these singers were passed over for very good reasons.

As a deejay I shied away from playing local artists. Most of their music was sub-standard. A SG format is already an uphill fight, so playing the best songs from artists with national exposure, thanks to the backing of a major record label and professional representation, was a plus. Bad sounding music only diluted format. Disk jockeys didn’t often play to their personal preferences; I didn’t even like gospel music in the beginning. Ultimately, I learned to predict listener tastes and choose accordingly, winnowing a dubious playlist along the way.

My selection standards came into question at my 4th, and final, Gospel radio home. A popular young morning deejay there defined the term clueless. He was one of those individuals blissfully ignorant of any type of professionalism, yet arrogant. He conducted his show as if he were on a personal phone call; often interrupting the middle of a song or even a (gasp) commercial to announce trivial messages. Most of the music he played was from poorly recorded cassettes of unsigned artists. (I found out later that his family was a local singing group that owned a very small recording studio located in their thrift store backroom, where a majority of those tapes were recorded.) A frequent song he played on-air was one that he actually sang: the single worst version of Amazing Grace my ears have ever heard. (Off key, awash in phony echo, accompanied by a toy Casio keyboard—cheap, cheap demo recording.)

By comparison, my show was polished and featured only the top artists of the genre using pristine Nashville production values from vinyl and CD sources. The difference became a point of contention between us. Our egos often clashed. I eventually “won”, replacing him after an off-the-air argument escalated. The kid had sicced his irate mother on me—defenseless—while my general manager (a presumed friend) looked on. The boy quit. He evidentially had used the station for self-promotion and was threatened by losing that free publicity, no matter how small our signal was.

In the aftermath, the mother bought a 15 minute block of time during my show that featured her group, which was named after her. Ironically, she was paying more for a quarter hour than her boy had been paid his whole 5 hour day. 

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Here’s the scenario: Let’s say I own a recording studio and my son works at a radio station. I promise clients that if they record at my studio I will guarantee them airplay on my son’s station. This of course is unethical and illegal. It’s called Payola.

Stay tuned.

Too Hot for Radio

excerpt from Jim O’Neal’s draft, Radio Daze:

Certain topics were considered taboo in the dark ages when I started my career. No, I don’t mean the obvious: George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words or lewd conduct. Rather, the things you could say on-the-air that would get you fired. For example: sly digs pointed at management or, even God forbid, toward advertisers.

Howard Stern changed all that. Although not in reality; most of us working deejays could never get away with the things he’s done. Those similarly situated as Mr. Stern seem untouchable until the money runs out.

At 24 I was cocky. I felt indestructible like the considerably more high profile Stern. Unlike my example I had neither the talent nor the Teflon armor he had. Near the end arrogant, although subtle jabs at management (on-air and off), reached their peak. As a result, a mutual heated discussion boiled over into a permanent separation. Jim O’Neal had yet to learn not to cross he who signs the checks. Just smile and say, “Yes, sir.” Humble pie, anyone?

Two years later I called wanting back my job. My former 17 year old protégé answered. Her dad, along with local investors, had bought the station from the old man. The new owners wanted nothing to do with me. As the old program director I had made her my doormat. Little did I know of how drastically our roles would flip. The career never recovered. Karma is, well…too hot for radio.

Stay tuned

©2011 Neal Rhoden. All rights reserved.

In the Clouds

You’d think that Aircheck would post more stories about radio. No!

Previous blog entries have had nothing to do with the industry at all. Traditional radio peaked long ago and has begun a terminal decline. That doesn’t really bother me at all because 16 years ago I noticed certain trends that led me into an unrelated field completely; never regretting my decision. I am fickle by nature and have gone through many cycles in a love-hate relationship with broadcasting. Right now, I see myself as a retired deejay and programmer who started as an adolescent with an aptitude for electronics, particularly audiophile grade gear. I figured an entry into the whacky world of radio was a necessary springboard onto a recording engineer career. Not so!

I was shocked to find that nearly every person that I encountered in radio over the years—particularly sales people—were either clueless or had no interest in high fidelity sound at all. To go out on a limb, I’d say no one I ever worked with was an audiophile, chief engineers included. My assumptions at the time were shattered by both the lack of knowledge and the apathy, contempt even, for ultimate audio quality. Initially, I wasn’t in radio to be on the radio (or even make money); rather, I was enamored with its technical magic. Crazy!

In fact, eons ago, while in my early 20’s, my capricious interests veered to the radio engineering field. I was easily thwarted by our chief engineer’s impatience with my constant questioning about emerging developments in audio that I had read about only in magazines. He was visibly peeved by my passion for all things audio and was quite dismissive, “Where did you hear about that?” He’d say. To him I was just a snot-nosed kid who shouldn’t be asking for his pearls of wisdom. (In truth, he was embarrassed by a kid who seemed to upstage him.) Lesson learned. Often my audio hobby clashed with the middle-aged sensibilities of my much older associates. Granted, my head was often in the clouds. If I had spent more time on the practical side of the business maybe, just maybe, I’d still be involved. Nah!

That’s a discussion for another day.

Stay tuned.

Translate This!

Among the things that I like about the current state of radio broadcasting is that the FCC has begun authorizing AM stations space on crystal clear FM. Now I can listen to news, talk and sports without the haze and static of the old AM band.

I have blogged about this previously. There are experts on the subject much more qualified to expound on the subject, so I will shut up and approach it from the angle of a happy listener who has appreciated great content on AM for years hoping for a migration to FM. Right now, by the looks of things, this seems to be coming to fruition. 

Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: radio,FCC,listening,AM on FM

Scoped or Unscoped, That’s the Question

An archive Aircheck recording from 1984 is below today’s post.

Since 1984 or a few months prior, I have recorded radio shows off the air for later listening—much like VCR’s and now DVR’s have been used to record television. Becoming a disk jockey at age 17 gave me the luxury of recording my own shows directly from the broadcast soundboard (most jocks called it “the board,” for short.) This method preserved the best quality sound before extra circuitry and processing were added to the signal.

My experience going into broadcasting involved my dad’s tutelage on his Dokorder ¼” reel-to-reel and other tape decks in his collection; including countless live sessions recorded on them in churches where he would sing and preach. In addition, I had educated myself  by devouring Stereo Review and Audio magazines succumbing to their admittedly stuffy technical style regarding sound and its associated high-end gear and snobby classical music reviews. Despite all that,  my subscriptions lasted well into the next decade.

My Gospel music shows were not stereophonic because the AM control room board was wired for monaural only (the turntables were stereo). It was my assumption that in those days AM station owners saw no need to install stereo mixers in their control rooms. That was, until my second radio home blew me away with its election to go full stereo although we were still broadcasted in mono.

Anyway, I recorded my own afternoon DJ shows on the station’s ReVox A-77 ½ track professional stereo deck on a recycled 1200’ reel of tape. At 7½ i.p.s. this yielded about 30 minutes of record time. I taped the last half hour each day. Bringing home the 7” reel each night, I played back the tape on dad’s Dokorder (a consumer ¼ track tape deck.) The two tape decks were slightly incompatible due to the wider track configuration of the professional unit at work. With some electronic tinkering, I made decent playback at home (thanks to a Radio Shack y-adapter.) From there I would edit out commercials and music onto either my Pioneer CT-330 cassette deck or dad’s more preferable Yamaha TC-511S. The “pause” button got a real workout. The final “scoped” airchecks laid neatly in chronological order onto a BASF Chrome Cassette. These early recordings were an invaluable teaching aide, my close companion, in improving my on-air delivery into the following years.

I found this method cumbersome and discontinued recording soundboard direct on reel. As an alternative, I would borrow the Yamaha from home until a decent cassette recorder was installed in the studio. I accepted the audio quality tradeoff, switched to cassette and seldom looked back. Not wanting to edit on the fly, almost all of my airchecks were unscoped (see the Aircheck Glossary) thereafter. I felt an extra generation of tape in the cassette realm was too much of an audio compromise. Listen below or download here.

Stay tuned.

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The photos top left and to the right are of my Pioneer rack system in 1984 with the Dokorder on the chest. A ReVox A-77 is pictured in the middle. Below is a Yamaha like dad’s. 

 

Neal Rhoden’s 1984 Scoped Aircheck Sweep

No Video, No Problem

A glimpse inside a real radio broadcast studio can be found on my companion Peanut Whistle Blog. It is a multi-part in depth series on my second radio home where I performed as Jim O’Neal—Disk Jockey and Program Director. Back then, I took quite a few photos with my Cannon 35mm SLR, but never any video like I did in the WBKI YouTube video. This series will be adapted for Aircheck and made into a page some future date. Until then…

Stay tuned

©2011 Neal Rhoden, Aircheck Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Technorati Tags: The Peanut Whistle Weblog

Faces Made for Radio

A funny expression I learned in my previous career was: that guy really has a face made for radio (A not so cryptic euphemism for ugly.) One of my favorite episodes of  That 70’s Show from season 3 called “Radio Daze” where Donna Pinciotti gets a job at a radio station illustrates my point. Golden throat DJ “Jerry Thunder” turns out to be troll, although he sounds rather godlike on the air. Jerry Thunder is played by Curtis Armstrong, best known as “Booger” in the Revenge of the Nerds movies.

I suppose that the casual listener is forced to draw a mental portrait of his or her favorite DJ; often times disappointed by a face-to-face meeting. More than once when listeners met yours truly they make an expression of disbelief because their mental picture didn’t jibe with reality. The inevitable, “Oh, you don’t look like you sound” would come up. I smiled, not fully knowing how to take the comment. Did I have a face made for radio?

Stay tuned

©2011 Neal Rhoden. My Aircheck Blog. All rights reserved.

Holiday Zoo Crew

Today marks the 25th anniversary of a show from my personal aircheck archive. It features me and two co-hosts in an impromptu chat show, post Christmas 1985. Click play below or down load here.

Stay tuned
©2010 Neal Rhoden, Aircheck blog. All righs reserved.

The Birthday Truck Returns

In 1990 this blogger found himself mid-point in a radio career as program director at a 2,500 watt AM that served the Atlanta marketplace (barely). Our owner compelled me to begin a whacky morning show with a new female host. I hated the idea. A fluff show on a southern gospel station would not work; I had never seen (better heard) these type shows work. Our audience was very old. Why would they accept two kids in their mid-20’s droning on about the hot topics of the day? My new co-host was my age; lacked any radio experience, but was a natural talent, so she quickly caught on.  I finally acclimated myself to the concept having actually putting in 100%. Despite our efforts, the show lasted mid-November until it tanked just before Christmas when the two of us had exhausted every idea for the old folks now switching off their radios en masse. In hindsight, the station’s format should have been changed altogether—perhaps talk or oldies—in order to make the morning show work. Today marks the 20th anniversary. To celebrate, Aircheck has posted a YouTube video. Exclusively available here:

Stay tuned
©2010 Neal Rhoden,Gospel Aircheck blog. All rights reserved.

Wisdom of Fools

Yesterday's post might have left the impression that Jim O'Neal didn't have any fun at radio home number two. Well, on-air we were made to be quite stiff. The format was strict. At the time the program director took herself way too seriously. In her spare time she came into the production room to record her voice reciting scripture and self affirmations for listening to later at home in "quiet time." Remember Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live, my program director, Kelley, was the female fundamentalist Christian counterpart of the beloved Al Franken character. She was only 8 years my senior, but acted as though she was a sage. 

It was in the very same production room that I was allowed to really let my hair down. I was 21 at the time and felt pressed to act much older in the control room. (I've learned that being serious is not necessarily the same as actual maturity.) Unlike what you heard in the previous post I enjoyed life. The real "Jim" is better expressed in the example below in a spot for a skating rink party my station presented back in 1987, surely considered too hot by Kelley's standards. Commercials like this one was my passive-aggressive punch at the establishment.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden aka Jim O'Neal,Gospel Aircheck blog. All rights reserved.

The Sounds of "Praize"

Transitioning to a new job isn't always easy. Back in 1987 I began what would be a three year association with a 1,000 watt AM radio station in metro Atlanta, Georgia. At least three staff members had listened to and enjoyed my aircheck tape. Three interviews later, the job was mine. The station's morning man had resigned. They wanted the guy on the tape but vowed to retrain my voice. My contemporary hard sell DJ sound was too hot for their format. Ever the compliant one I took the show, adapted my style, and adopted the pseudonym, Jim O'Neal. "Jim" wound up sounding like a host on an NPR station or a somber funeral director. Ownership lacked the sense of humor I was accustomed to at my previous employer. What could I say? My salary was doubled, so I allowed them to mold me in their image. Branded as the Sounds of Praise, WSPZ strictly forced out any personality in Jim. I was dull on air. My Program Director saw to that. To this day many of the recordings made of my early shows there serve as an example of my "going through the motions" as a DJ; forced to be super-religious. Over my 3 year run I was able to re-evolve into my former persona, somewhat. Today's aircheck is from the '87 Christmas season, my first as newly promoted program director. (Even then, in a position of authority, I was forced by rigid ownership to play 100% Christmas music from Tranksgiving forward. This was before the time when stations commonly become Christmas formatted around the holidays.) Check out the example below.

Stay tuned


©2010 Neal Rhoden,Gospel Aircheck blog. All rights reserved.

Z Marks the Spot

“Lock it in and rip the knob off!” Clever imaging, listenable music, and personalities characterized my favorite radio station as a 1980’s teenager, Z-102 WZAT in Savannah, Georgia. I have written about this station previously in a post called “Breakfast with Burl.” The FM station began life in 1971 as a top 40 automated station. Many FM stations began this way as an offshoot of a more popular AM sister. In those days AM was king. FM was merely a curiosity. By the early 80’s AM music formats almost disappeared having been dethroned by its protégé, FM.

It was during this time I really got into listening to popular music and Z-102 was the station I tuned my Walkman to most. The station was unstoppable in the market and constantly led in the ratings. Now, in an unprecedented boneheaded move, the current owners have decided to drop music and go all sports. It has been at least 16 years since I last visited the area and heard the station live. Through the magic of the Internet I have occasionally listened to their stream. What a waste of a huge signal. Just a bit of my youth is gone. Rest in Peace Z.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

Adventures in Babysitting

Here’s a repost from last year’s Peanut Whistle blog:

Throughout my storied radio career I have come across some very entertaining and often comical songs and tales geared to the Gospel audience. Sometimes the comedy was intentional. Most obvious is the work of Wendy Bagwell and the Sunlighters whose work is intentionally funny. A few local singers with minimal exposure have been overlooked for their accidental comedic portfolio. Take for example a fellow in Savannah who penned the timeless classic, “Jesus Rode a Donkey Down Victory Drive.” His poetic device, a metaphor entailing our Lord riding a burro down world famous palm lined Victory Drive on His way to Tybee Island apparently.

The next songs my cousin Ray told me about a few years back. A songster in his hearing sang, “Jesus, he will be my snow tires, in the winter he’s my anti-freeze, when I need him, he is my oil filter, and he's my windshield when there is a breeze!!! C'mon, sing it this time if ‘ya know it!!.. ” Bless her heart. And he also mentioned the big hit by country music’s Bobby Bare, Dropkick Me Jesus (Through the Goal Post of Life) from 1976. Give me a break.

Let’s not forget the Jerry & the Singing Goff’s cover version of “God’s Gonna Get ‘Cha (for that)” that was originally done by George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Ain’t nothing like basing your theology on a country song. The Jerry Goff cover version was played lyrically unmodified on Gospel stations all across the USA in the late 70’s.

Often I would host, in person, preachers live at my radio homes—actually, I was usually a babysitter of taped programming. Some were earnest but a little confused. Once in my first studio I had a preacher lady give her testimony. The rather large elderly black woman was getting very excited about her personal relationship with Christ when in her discourse claimed that, “Jesus is my boyfriend!” What!? I had to hide my face in my hands laughing hysterically as I could plainly be seen through her studio location into my control room seat by glass partitioning.  I could see thousands of radios simultaneously switching off.

Other preachers were allowed language freedoms not afforded Howard Stern. A few of these guys often used descriptive pejorative terms of certain lifestyle groups. If the FCC had known, our license might have been pulled. None of these shows were auditioned before hand or on a profanity delay when live. All required was their money for airtime.

Then there was a certain preacher from Dallas, Texas whose Success in Life show debuted on our air in about 1985. He claimed that indescribable wealth could be yours with a thousand dollar “vow” to his ministry. He was later exposed of fraud on ABC news when hundreds of letters from listeners were found outside his offices in the dumpster having contributions excised from them. He made claims of praying over each letter personally. That his very tears stained the notes until the ink bled. He also had a TV show. I think you can still see this name it and claim it charlatan on cable to this day.

I think God must have a marvelous sense of humor. Many think they are inspired. Some are. A few, well, let’s leave God alone to judge.

Stay tuned

reposted from The Peanut Whistle blog Sept 16, 2009

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck blog. All rights reserved

File Under: Audio

The dictionary defines an audiophile simply as “an audio enthusiast.” A short, all too simple definition for my lifelong obsession with sound. Thanks go to my dad for getting the ball rolling on my aural hobby. As early as age three I remember his portable reel-to-reel and microphone recording me in one of his interviews with me his toddler son barely old enough to talk. Flash forward a few years later I had taken up the hobby recording sound effects—doors slamming, thunder clapping—with a stereo cassette boom box and an electret condenser microphone. Just like Daddy I had been bitten by the audio bug.

Age 17, I began and continued a career in radio only as an excuse to play with all the knobs and switches that shaped sound. It was never for the purpose of money or fame. I was also a very young and capable soundman in church often wearing my emotions on my sleeve because older folks often lacked the deep understanding of audio I possessed. In time I learned to put my hobby in perspective: got a real job, learned how to deal with ignorance, developed diplomacy and generally became less of a nerd. As the short dictionary definition proves, society as a whole cares much less than I do for audio. That’s alright we all have our interests. If only I could combine my experience and attitude now into my teen ears.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. The Peanut Whistle blog. All rights reserved.

‘Check this

Once again answering the questions that no one asks Gospel Aircheck comes to the rescue! How exactly is an aircheck made. Well, I’m glad you asked. The most simple method is using a component stereo system or boombox with a built in tape recorder and an AM/FM radio and rolling tape on your favorite radio station. An unattended recording of a station is called an unscoped aircheck. You see ‘scoped is short for telescoped, which is technical jargon for an edited recording of a program:often with commercials, music, and ID’s removed leaving the DJ’s voice only. Therefore, “unscoped” has not been edited. The problem with editing from one tape to another is that some audio quality is lost. The upside is that you never miss anything in an unscoped aircheck. Of course, this quality reduction only applies to analog tape. Certainly you could hover over the pause button and edit on the fly, but miscues are inevitable with live programming.

Most of the recordings I made of my own DJ shows were on analog cassette tape made on professional equipment directly from the source, the station’s soundboard. The resulting recordings are vastly superior to what is possible on any consumer gear, especially the lowly boombox. The problem I have with recordings of this type is that they are often too good. They don’t sound like authentic (gritty) over-the-air broadcasts. By the late 1980’s I started recording from the station’s modulation monitor, which is a fancy very expensive radio tuner that broadcasters use to listen to their signal. A modulation monitor is factory preset to receive one frequency, your own. Capturing broadcasts this way not only preserves content it gives a representation of signal quality as well. Naturally, hobbyists don’t have the luxury of a direct recording; but I have recently read about software that automatically digitally records radio shows just like VCR’s and DVR’s have done years for TV. So far only Internet radio streaming, not old fashioned AM/FM, is covered.

I switched to digital editing of my analog originals in 1995 and never looked back. Happy airchecking!

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck blog. All rights reserved.

Brainstorming

Over the last couple of years I have been toying around with several ideas for a new type of Christian radio station. Certainly not to compromise my beliefs, this new station would feature songs and styles from the many different artists both Christian and those not normally labeled as Christian performers per se. Taking some of the liners and id’s from my previous Internet stream, the GRIN, and combining music from the separate genres I put together a demonstration of how it might sound using Ableton Live software. You know what? It sounded great!

Songs such as Foreigner’s I want to Know What Love Is segued perfectly with Big Daddy Weave’s Hold Me Jesus. Good music is good music, no matter what the label. Back in the mid 80’s I wanted so badly to play the hit by Foreigner and thought it would fit perfectly with our gospel format. Secular music was taboo on our air so we played the gospel version by the New Jersey Mass Choir, the actual choir used to back up the rockers on the original song. The gospel cover version was not bad, I just wanted to play the original. 25 years later, I still believe that playing secular music is not a compromise of personal beliefs. However, it does not fit most listeners expectations of what a “Christian” station should be.

My station would have a very deep playlist that featured songs old and new. It would not mirror the new way of thinking with Christian programmers these days: where a song that is older than, say, six months is discarded. For the first time in my life, it would be a format that I would actually listen to. Of course the idea is still incubating.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

Titanic Rant

We just wrapped up a decent restful weekend: a lazy Saturday, great Sunday service followed by a cookout at the in-law's, then an enjoyable day with the family on Labor Day. What more could I ask for? These are the things that keep me sane; they take my mind off the stresses of being a dad. 

Previously on Gospel Aircheck I reviewed a morning show that a former radio station home does. I have listened in occasionally via an Internet stream. It starts my weekdays and I have to admit, it has grown on me. The hosts provide some laughs, both intended and not. It is hilarious hearing the awkward way this former gospel station handles their new secular oldies format. The Christian owned station is out of their element. And that is their charm. I'm counting down the days until this new enterprise tanks. Changing the format is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. How long it will take to sink remains to be seen. I do not judge anyone on their musical preferences, but drifting away from a gospel format into mainstream popular (read: secular) music dilutes their Christian principles, period. No more will be invested in this topic. I'll step down from my soapbox now.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden,Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

Train Wreck?

Far outside the contour of their 2,500 watt AM radio signal I tuned in to the Internet stream of The Train and its Scott and Christy Morning Show. It presumably emanates live from the stations’ facility on Tallapoosa Street in Bremen. Georgia some 60+ miles from this reviewers location. During the broadcast I heard the tell-tale sound of an actual train passing by. It was clearly not a pre-recorded sound effect because the DJ was slightly annoyed by the quaint interruption.

Let me recuse myself from the proceedings at the outset of this review as an impartial listener. I spent a whole year of my life from 1992 until 1993 building the former WBKI-AM as an afternoon then morning show host. I have tuned in my successor, Scott Garner and the renamed WGMI crew off and on over the past 17 years. I returned once on a Saturday to tour the facilities in the mid 90’s. The Garners did a marvelous job remodeling. I do not have any other affiliation with them and admire their effort. I can testify to the train noise: rails are only a few yards away from the point of broadcast. The studio walls are thin.

On to the show. When I began thinking on how I would present this review today restraint entered my mind. What if the show is a train wreck (pun intended)? Do I rip the hosts to shreds? I decided on honesty. With caution I tread into the unknown. First, Scott and Christy are billed as “a professional DJ and a professional mom”—cute. The station is trying. The liners are done by a booming voice-over artist obviously outsourced from a professional imaging firm. Next, the two hosts are suited to their market, even though Scott tries a little too hard. Would the show play well in major market Atlanta? I think not, although I consider the ATL talent poor considering its size. That’s another story.

The two delve into morning show cliché with stories about Paris Hilton and her ilk. There must not be much of local interest in Bremen. When doing local the overdone staple of every small southern station, obituaries, provides a rocky (depressing) bridge between selections. The surprise of the show is that the hosts are a married couple. Christy, to my amazement, is the more natural of the two while Scott tows the line as a trite DJ not a “personality”. She plays an excellent foil to his wanderings, snapping him back on occasion. The man needs to relax the old worn out disk jockey banter and become more of a relevant conversationalist. We’ve all heard that ancient DJ shtick before. Scott is a musician and plays in his family’s gospel band, so he discusses the music—a lot! We share a mutual enthusiasm for Classic Rock-and-Roll history, but that type of talk causes most listeners to tune out. Introducing every record went out of style in the 1970’s. Scott may be an aficionado but is a fish out of water in the mainstream music world. The oldies format is new to WGMI and their morning pair are out of their element separated from Southern Gospel roots. In 30 years of broadcasting experience I never saw or heard of a Christian owned radio station flip to a secular format in order to save it. It is surreal. My forecast: the station will either go dark or sell within six months.

The show was not exactly a train wreck; it was about what I expected from a small market. The music is a proven commodity, that’s a given. More personality needs to shine. Chill out people, the music sells itself. Unfortunately good music is not enough. Like the man said, “It’s only filler between commercials.”  I give it an A for effort and a C+ for execution. But, I’m biased. Check it out for yourself http://www.1440thetrain.com.

For me, I’m going back to Talk Radio. 

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

Flip, Flop

In the world of radio broadcasting a format flip is when a radio station takes most or all of its music or programming and exchanges for another type of music and/or programming. Programmers do this with the hope that the new format will bring in new advertisers, that is: income or revenue to the station. Trust me, your favorite radio station is not trying to tick you off by eliminating your favorite type of music.

Not surprisingly, in fact, money is the name of the game. My first dozen years in radio were frustrating. I worked for quite a few stations—5,000 watts or less—that played Southern Gospel music. For the most part they relied on income generated from preachers and ministries that bought time. Usually, air time was purchased in blocks of 15 minutes to an hour by mainly local, read amateur, preachers. Some local businesses bought 30 and 60 second spots, but preaching shows were our bread and butter. The source of my frustration was that the stations sounded less than professional because of our association with these brokered time shows. What happens when the economy dips into recession and these ministries are equally affected? Do you pursue local business? As a business man am I to believe that I can sell my product on an inferior station? Perception being reality, the answer is: NO.

I have written about the 2,500 watt WBKI in Bremen, Georgia that was my home from 1992 to 1993. A highly qualified broadcaster, call him David, hired me to work with him at WBKI. I had worked with David at two other stations and saw WBKI as a good opportunity. He had arranged an agreement with the owner to run the small station. The owner would remain out of the picture. David intended to take over operations as he considered purchasing the property outright. It was a “try before you buy” scenario. He hired me and another friend to Dee Jay. We worked together fine, but our efforts were futile in the end. We were a flop. David dropped out and allowed the Garner family to buy the station. I quit, but our other friend stayed on with the new owners. I intend to interview my old associate in a future podcast.

Now 17 years later the renamed WGMI is flipping from a Christian format to sports and oldies—gospel music occasionally, Sundays mainly. The recession crunches us all. But my hat is off to the Garners, who hung in there for so long. See http://www.wgmiradio.com for details.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.