A month ago I wrote about the seemingly endless ads on AM radio driving away more listeners.
In Sunday's Chronicle Pink section, three letters from readers are devoted to this subject so it's just now beginning to make mainstream media.
Terrestrial radio is free and commercial spots pay for free programming but the obscene amount of time devoted to spots borders on complete disregard to you, the listeners.
When stations are running ads virtually half of the hour (not counting updates and traffic) there's a problem. Most people are simply tuning away and out, if not out altogether and advertisers know that--too bad programmers apparently haven't received the memo.
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I appreciate and support your right to express your strong opinions about terrestrial radio here, as it is your blog. But seriously, Rich, lots of readers/listeners have switched to satellite & internet radio streams so these sorts of discussions are very "old school" and non-productive for readers and listeners like me. Just me humble opinion, but I think you are also missing a lot of potential followers (and keeping those who may be drifting away) by not being more aggressive with satellite/internet coverage of both radio and TV. Since terrestrial radio and TV in the Bay area have all deteriorated so much, I make satellite/internet my first choice for both mediums. And I get so much more valuable information and entertainment, with far less (if any) commercials. Again, keep up your terrific column but please start moving more towards what a growing number of people are watching and listening. It's not the AM dial or VHF/UHF TV any longer. Thanks for your consideration with my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI read Rich's blog a lot, and have utilized the AM dial on my radio when driving even relatively recently (until the massive onslaught of commercials). Not everyone has their head well up their iPhone...
DeleteI saw something on TV, last night, that made me shudder ... radio can't be far behind.
ReplyDeleteIt was during a "Murder, She Wrote," on the Hallmark Channel. In the middle of one program, the commercial break featured (what I think they called) a "presentation."
It was a five minute infomercial for the diet plan that Marie Osmond hawks ... can't remember which one it is.
There was a 5 minute count-down clock in the lower corner, which is guess could be convenient, if you have several things to do. But, I said "to hell with this, " and turned it off.
It occurred to me that radio execs would embrace that air-time sale, with zeal.
I like terrestrial radio topics. Is there a satellite that tells me the traffic report? With instant sports big news?
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand heavy commercial loads are forcing me to stations that do what they do.
KNBR can be devious...a long break,come back and have a host say "The Giants looked good. And we will be right back to talk about it". Then another long break...
Talk radio? What talk radio? It's nothing but commercial, after commercial, after commercial, after commercial, after commercial. Throw in the traffic and weather and it's right back to commercial after commercial. "Don't go away folks, will be right back with some more commercials." "Don't forget to tune in tomorrow, we are going to have an extra special hour long program, all about commercials." There is an acronym for talk radio, L.O.T.S., Land Of The Stupid.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, it's possible we may not have to suffer too much longer a commercial heard widely on various talk stations, Kars4Kids. Apparently, the company behind the ads is being investigated for fraud by the attorneys general of both Pennsylvania and Oregon, in addition to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
DeleteKars-4-kids fraud ? ......what ?
DeleteYou mean that $9000 tax deduction receipt they gave me for my Pinto is no good ? .... Hogwash
The Pinto is a classic car.
I'm going to deduct it from my 2014 taxes !
I found consumer questions/doubts, about "Kars for Kids, when I was looking into donating a vehicle in 2005. At that time, it was the Illinois Department of Justice that was said to be looking into it.
DeleteMaybe, when a majority of the 50 states have it on their radar scopes, some radio stations will discontinue carrying the ads.
Nah ... silly me!
You, the listener, can stop this with just using two fingers. One middle finger to flip the Station Owners the Bird and the index finger to to change your radio to the disc/mp3 etc and listen to music.
ReplyDeleteDid that years ago. For news I have Google. For music I have my 5,000+ CD collection, better than anything broadcast on any station anyway.
DeleteI still wish KSFO would at least scale back on Glenn Beck's show, maybe cut the last hour or two. Why? Because I miss my favorites' Red Eye Radio. Yes, R.E. R. still comes on AFTER MIDNIGHT. I'm ready to sleep by then, and have to purposely cut them off.
ReplyDeleteOne or two hours of Glenn is more than enough for one evening, believe me.
Yikes! I never thought I'd hear someone actually wanting to listen to Red Eye Radio.
DeletePretty soon someone will ask KGO to run Ronn Owens a third time.
DeleteThey call it commercial radio or commercial broadcasting for a reason.
ReplyDeleteAdvertisers have been reckless forever. Sadly, it will only get worse. Don't be surprised when they eventually meet satellite radio. They can be that persuasive.
ReplyDeleteAnd when that happens some hipster jackass will complain to whomever is blogging about it at that time (or whatever the term will be then...) that they've moved on to the latest tech crap and why is the blogger still talking about satellite radio.
DeletePKD was right, soon the advertising fucks will be trying to hijack your dreams...
If you think Bay Area radio is bad - you should try listening to "free" radio here in Sacramento. It is mostly conservative talking heads, country music, and Christian everything. There are some rock stations thrown in for good measure. What counts as progressive is PBS. Just terrible. I listen to 1 radio station that plays mostly classic rock from the 60's and 70's. But even they tend to play the same songs over and over again.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there is way too much advertising, product placement, and testimonial ads on radio. I have very little patience for this type of programing anymore, so I turn the channel or turn it off.
I did have satellite radio but stopped my subscription as I wasn't in my car enough (no commute) to listen to it. And make no mistake many of those stations have commercials too. So I am stuck with commercial terrestrial radio. I have been beefing up my CD collection to listen to music as well as spoken word CD's while in the car. (Yes I know that I can have MP3's and the like but I still prefer CD's.)
I agree with the people who wrote letters to the Chronicle about the current state of affairs. Btw, many years I wrote to the Chron's entertainment editor and requested that they do a column about radio and that is when they brought back Ben Fong Torres to write his column.
Dusty Street Rocks on Classic Vinyl! She is my all time fav DJ - and there aren't very many of those anymore. Angela
Angela I live in Elk Grove so my "local" stations are the same as yours. They are all awful! That's why I listen to Bay Area radio so much and never listen locally. When Tom Sullivan was local he was an OK middle of the road guy at times. But when he went to work in New York he made a hard right turn. My cars have Sirius, but there are only 2 or 3 stations out of a bazillion I will ever listen to. It's all sports. Not a sports fan.
DeleteAt home I listen to the Bay Area stations a little online. Most of the time now I listen to Pandora music though. Pandora offers s much! We can choose from about 10 different stations playing Latin Jazz alone.
For "live and local," general topic talk during the day into the early evening (until 6pm), you might want to give a listen to KMJ 580AM out of Fresno. When they're talking hyper-local topics (Friday they were discussing where a new street/highway should be built to accommodate the traffic from a proposed, very large housing development) I tune out but they often do general news and lifestyle topics (the other day they were talking about the value/role of libraries in the digital age) it's pretty good radio.
DeleteIf you like jazz without commercials there are a couple of good stations that stream online. One is KSDS out of San Diego. There's KKJZ, also, out of Long Beach.
DeleteFor jazz without commercials, there's also the stream of KCSM in San Mateo.
DeleteThanks for the info - not sure if I can get Fresno but will try. I'm really going to need a traffic station soon as will start commuting to my job next month. Angela
DeleteIn the case of present day KGO however, the commercials are the best part!
ReplyDeleteSwitched to Sirius Radio last year. Don't miss commercial radio at all.
ReplyDeleteBack in the '70s when I was in the ad biz it was commonly accepted that the average American was exposed to some 3,000 ad messages each and every day.
ReplyDeleteSo being a curious kind of guy I googled that question yesterday, and found the number is still at 3,000.
Somehow that doesn't compute, considering the internet and all of its spawn.
Maybe it was a concocted number then as now (?)
DeleteEqually annoying is TV news (both network and local) spending incredible amounts of time promoting their other shows. I really don't want to hear about last nite's recap, or tonite's preview, of Dancing With The Stars, 60 Minutes, or the latest rendition of Survivor.
ReplyDeleteBetween that and teasing weather out into three or four segments where they just repeat the same things over and over means they can lay off writers, editors, production people because their actual news hole is much smaller. Next time you're watching the news sit there with a stop watch and have it going only when they're doing true news. Not promos, not recaps, not weather, just news. You'll find there's only about 6-7 minutes of real news in a half hour newscast, and only about 10 minutes in an hour's show. That way they can employ half the people they used to just a few years ago.
DeleteI have started listening to foreign radio stations ; like BBC.
ReplyDeleteno commercials.
interesting music.
I have tuned out. I listened to KNBR while driving/commuting for several years, and also while working from home.
ReplyDeleteNot anymore.
That's why I listen more to NPR. Michael Krasny, Science Friday, Terry Gross and Fresh Air; they all have one beautiful thing in common: no annoying commercials! Yes, they do have pledge drives, but those come on only occasionally, and when they do, I just put a music disc on while I'm driving for awhile.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to burst your bubble but NPR does have ads. They are called corporate sponsors and they are selling the corporation and sometimes have the same ads as commercial radio. Though not as many this is true.
DeleteAngela
I was listening to KNBR one time during a weekend post game show and they had a seven minute commercial break, followed by a quick one minute sports recap, and then another 8 minutes of commercials! That's why I never listen to the Sports Leader anymore unless the Giants or Warriors are on.
ReplyDeleteAll those terrestrial radio owner/management nitwits need to know is guys like me, commuting on average 2 hours a day, are listening to SirusXM, podcasts and Spotify exclusively. We’re sick of the inane commercials (go to the junkyard, Kars4Kids) and want content, content, CONTENT!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that Kars for Kids is being investigated. I would love to hear similar news about those goddawful TrueCar.com spots. Specifically the ones on AM910 during late night hours. The ones featuring the loud-mouthed, abrasive, brain dead young woman. She sounds like she dropped out of school in seventh grade and that she's applying her marginal English language compositional skills to writing her own ad copy.
ReplyDeleteOn the non-stop advertising front, I find it interesting that folks like the Dickeys just don't get the picture. The reason that advertisers buy air time is for their spots to be heard by listeners, who are following that station for its content, whether news, sports, or talk. When you reach the point that you no longer can attract any meaningful number of listeners, then no sane advertiser is going to pay you even two-bits for a minute of your air time.
This is a concept that the Dickeys can't seem to wrap their heads around. These greed-heads seem to think that some listener is going to tune in to a radio dial setting, just so they can listen to low-priced back-to-back advertising spots, that are only sporadically interrupted with "content breaks."
It surely doesn't sound like a viable business model that they're creating. Who knows... maybe both Cumulus Media and I Heart Radio will let their greed drive them into bankruptcy court. One can only hope!
It's about time people got their heads out of their collective asses and realize that commercial radio is full of self-serving shit. KNBR is the worst for filling their programming with ads, ads, ads. Actually, the programming is one 24/7 ad as they suck the Giants big one, massage the 49ers G-spot and cuddle with the Warriors. The rest of it, they don't care because it doesn't pay the bills. Thank goodness for satellite radio!
ReplyDeleteI think everyone knows that radio in general has issues with consumers having many choices but is there another industry that has as many self inflicted wounds as this industry. KGO is the poster child for this problem. Maybe they would be suffering a decline in the ratings regardless but they have driven listeners off with a ferocity that is hard for people on the outside to understand?
ReplyDeleteKars for kids is a total fraud and the people behind it need to be PUT IN JAIL! What amazes me is that local stations are totally oblivious to this situation and continue to take their money while playing that God-Awful jingle of theirs. If for not other reason, they should be put in jail for that monstrosity they call a jingle. If I hear it one more time, I think I will scream!
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling that stations that carry the kars4kids crap are perfectly aware of how fraudulent they are, but as long as the checks keep clearing...
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