Another victim of Clownsquare budget cuts...

[BirdieKingBobo]

Why does anyone work in Radio anymore??? And who listens to terrestrial radio.... SiriusXM has no commercials.....

[BirdieKingBobo]

Why does anyone work in Radio anymore??? And who listens to terrestrial radio.... SiriusXM has no commercials.....

[Mega Hertz]

My dumb ass originally got into it for

1. Love of the music

2. Creativity.

I found out that neither of those apply. A friend of mine spent some time in radio, too (before I knew him) and said there was no way he would be able to support a family by doing it.

So there's that.

[Realist]

Best piece of advice I got, after wanting to get into radio after I graduated from high school in the early 80’s, was from the broadcasting professor at my local community college - DON’T. Little money, bad hours, no job security, etc. So glad I listened….

[Greg Buben]

As a radio professional who's life is terrestrial radio I have to respond to some of the posts regarding Sirius/XM radio.
I understand why some people like it because of its variety and no commercials as Birdie King Bobo said in his post.
Since 2015 when I bought my car I have had free Sirius/XM radio and I don't use it at all. Why I'm opposed to it is for
the reason that you can hear it anywhere. In other words it's not aimed at any particular locality. I might be considered
old fashioned regarding terrestrial radio but I still like the idea of having the marketplace in any given market determine
what stays on the air and what does not. This is where I think the big companies who own the vast majority of commer-
cial stations have gone wrong. These companies own way too many stations and their headquarters are in far away
cities so the powers that be are out of touch with most of the markets that they serve. The best example of this is
Cumulus with their "Blunder Country". I do think that if they were more in touch with the markets that they serve the
commercial stations would change formats more often. G.R. hasn't had a flip since the fall of 2020 when 101.3 FM
became the "Big 101.3". I also think non commercial stations would change some of their programming too if the
commercial stations would flip stations more often.
Since this was a response to a post about Townsquare with the nickname "Clownsquare" I'll comment on their
Grand Rapids stations. WGRD is their most successful station with an active rock format that covers the most
significant rock of the past with the newest rock. Although I don't like their morning show nor many of the songs
they play it does a good job in the ratings as a commercial FM rock station. The other stations in the chain are
bottom feeders. WLHT should change call letters because there's nothing "light" about it with it's Hot A/C format.
WFGR the classic hits station was better when it had the 60's hits mixed in with the 70's and 80's. "The River" could
possibly make improvements and their Christmas music season starting Halloween didn't boost them much in
the December ratings. The Urban station should be on one of their full powered FM stations not that I like the
format but because G.R. is overdue for a commercial FM Urban or Adult Urban Contemporary station. That's
my commentary on the chain in G.R.

[tc]

Why does anyone work in Radio anymore??? And who listens to terrestrial radio.... SiriusXM has no commercials.....

Well, BirdieKingBobo, for a lot of us that have been in this business for many years, it's all we really know, and would just as soon "stick it out" instead of making a career change at this point in our lives. As far as terrestrial vs. Sirius XM, many people (more than you think) will still tolerate the commercial breaks on terrestrial signals than pay a subscription fee (after the "3 months free" trial expires). And, as Greg mentioned, the local factor.

Personally, I also prefer the sound quality of a good FM music station over the overly-compressed, low-bit-mp3 sound I experienced listening to SiriusXM for 3 months.

[BirdieKingBobo]

I drive a lot for my career, Sirius works great because I don't have to constantly look for channels. Plus in northern michigan, your choices are classic, religious, pop, oldies, or NPR. And the classic rock stations have the same cycle of 45 songs.

[48125er]

WKLQ 94.5 and 100.5 are the only radio stations here I actively like I'll listen to my spotify any other time especially up north I hate the stations up there

[Scratchy45LP]

Why does anyone work in Radio anymore??? And who listens to terrestrial radio.... SiriusXM has no commercials.....

For my genre of music, SiriusXM is a notch barely above terrestrial radio. They cleverly divided my rock and roll into decades. Then they picked a few songs from each decade and play those same songs over and over again and again. Here's an example. Requesting a "Lynyrd Skynyrd" song they would play "Sweet Home Alabama" because that's the only song they have in rotation by them. They have kept the same rotation since day 1 of their existence!

[Plate Cap]

I'm still intrigued reading the various opinions regarding the value of terrestrial radio vs. XM or other streaming services. I'm heavy on the 'other streaming services'....there are many tens of thousands of sources out there only a URL away, and I like them.

Personally, virtually everything we own was bought with the proceeds of putting an RF signal into the air. I lived and breathed it, and it still is kinda fun. That said, though, I'm not going to try and gaslight myself into saying terrestrial entertainment radio is great....or even mostly ok.

I just completed an 18 day, 3500 mile road trip. The vast majority of it was spent streaming Calm, Spotify, or the odd, streaming-only channels on XM. Eight of the days were spent in a home with an internet streaming radio. Smooth jazz without breaks, sunshine, 79 degrees and palm trees all go together very nicely.

Several times during the trip, I grudgingly gave terrestrial FM a try. Mostly, I looked at HD subchannel utilization in Dayton, Louisville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and several FL cities. On main channels, I noticed overwhelming spot loads, varying volume levels of spots, obvious multi-market voice tracks, and what music I heard was plain vanilla stuff you hear all the time. What I *didn't* hear were high points of the cities I was traveling through...no concert talk, no weather that I couldn't get from an NWS broadcast, no deep cuts or interesting bits on songs or artists. The memorable thing I took away was TOO MANY SPOTS.

It made me look back, and notice that most of the terrestrial radio from my past was not all that great. Yes, I was a young teen during the peak of the CKLW Rosalie Trombley days, and lived within sight of the WKNR towers and was heavily impacted by their music. Not much stands out after that, though, other than some late night WRIF stuff, the unique AOR of Ernie Winn at WIQB in Ann Arbor, and some early 'Bear' in Cheboygan....back when the jocks knew the music.

All this made me say "Gee, was the majority of broadcast radio all that great?". I'm realizing that it wasn't all that great as a whole. Like a way-too-long term girl friend that I never married, yes, there are high points in those years that make me smile, but overall it just wasn't all that great. Consolidation, voice tracking, and incompetent programmers have only made it all bad now.

I think just like my scattered fond memories of that girl, some fuzzy radio memories give me a warm feeling, and I'm sad to see those good things mostly gone. There simply is not a lot to like anymore. I think many are just holding onto a feeling that is mostly gone.

It's a moot discussion....young people, generally speaking, are not passionate about radio, and they are raising their children in environments where radio is not much present. To spend millions building a tower, installing a transmitter and antenna system, fighting the FCC battles, running a studio and a sales department to cover a 30 mile radius where fewer people are listening all the time is just not a great business plan.

[Doktor No]

Well said Plate Cap, well said.
Me? I have both Sirius and Pandora. I use the minimal advertising free Pandora, have Diana Kroll to David Bowie on the tuner and love it. Havn't listened to GRR earthling radio in years. LAV FM? Whats that?
And I have a Brother John CD from the olden days....ahhh the late 60's....

[Colonel Flagg]

I just read Townsquare cancelled its nighttime syndicated show for the Classic Hits format. Distribution will cease in a few weeks. I believe GR was the largest market where that show aired.

Format change ahead for WFGR?

I understand there are a couple new "suits" in the executive wing at Clownsquare. I've no idea who they are, but whoever is making these shortsighted, boneheaded decisions needs to remove their head from their posterior. The whole point behind the formation of the company was to NOT do things like this!