[BC] Two Commercial Free Hours,On WABC

[Cowboy]

On Friday 23 December 2005 12:06 am, First Step Productions - Dave Golterman wrote:
>I just read the article in the New York Post...What are these guys 
>thinking?  When you're in the business of selling airtime for 
>commercials, why in the heck would you do something that reinforces the 
>belief that all commercials are bad!!!!!

 It isn't the fact that "commercials are bad" although that's the way them
 that don't understand might describe it.
 It's the fact that they are so badly programmed these days, or so it seems.

>For that same reason I've always hated hearing stations promote 
>commercial free music sweeps, commercial free hours etc.

 Worse, the stations that promote 16 in a row, and they can't do one
 in a row without some kind of spot to promote that they're doing
 16 in a row !

> promises "never more than 2 
>ads in a row".  I haven't listened closely enough to count the 
>commercial load, but it doesn't seems like it's very light.  Maybe some 
>US programmers will check this out and give it a try here.

 One of the more successful morning men I ever worked with ( retired )
 was the Ol' Jaybird.
 News, spot, bad joke, spot, weather, spot, traffic, spot, live caller, time, live read,
 bad joke, spot, weather, event promo, spot, stupid story usually leading into a live read,
 weather, spot, traffic, spot, time, bad joke integrated into a live read, spot, what he had
 for breakfast, spot, Hank Williams Sr. cut, spot, live caller complaining about the song,
 which somehow turned into a spot promo for a music store or some such....

 Never counted, but it seemed Jay's show must have had 45 minutes / hour of
 paid-for commercial load, and no one noticed !
 The programming folks, especially the rockers from the FM talked about
 how bad, and how corny, his show was, but it was a hit with the listeners !
 ( and it made serious cash )

 I'm almost willing to bet that there was only once when I heard more than
 two songs in his entire 4 hour show, but I don't really remember.

 Incredibly demanding, professional, and just one of the nicest people
 I've ever had the privilege of knowing, but "commercial free" was
 definitely *not* part of Jay's vocabulary.

 Today, we here:
 banter, song, weather, traffic, news, song, spot, spot, spot, spot, spot, spot,
 spot, spot, spot, spot, spot, spot, song, time...
 ... or so it seems.

 Jay's show, it was almost impossible to have YOUR spot buried in the
 middle of a "stop set" so EVERY spot billed top rates.
 But, that was 30 years ago, and I'm just an injuneer, not a programmer,
 so what do I know ?

-- 
Cowboy

http://cowboys.homeip.net

If you took all the students that felt asleep in class and laid them
end to end, they'd be a lot more comfortable.
		-- "Graffiti in the Big Ten"