The College Radio Zone

Have We Simply Become Numbers To Be Counted?

jsadsinger — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:19:55 +0000

Power? (Photo credit: apollonia666)

The heading is really a trick questions because..honestly-we have always been numbers to be counted. In fact as long as there are people to be marketed to there will always be companies to measure who they are, what they like, where they work, how they live..even where they live. Just as the name “Nielsen” is synonymous with TV ratings so “Arbitron” is with radio ratings. Recently Arbitron announced a new way to measure us. It’s called The Arbitron Mobile Trends Panels™ . It measures our use of apps, how we surf the web, engage in social media, participate in e-commerce, are exposed to and act on advertising, and employ our device to communicate and then it provides the gathered info to marketers, content providers, app developers and wireless access suppliers. As addictive as the Internet is and how often we use it….we really should have seen this one coming . Read More…

The Inevitability of Internet Radio

jsadsinger — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:49:07 +0000

You and I both know that sooner or later all roads to radio will lead through the Internet. In fact the movement has already started! Thanks to car manufacturers embracing the same conclusion smart phones can now integrate with new car sound systems and allow access to a paradise of formats on the Internet. For all of the college stations that have seen their frequencies spirited away take heart. Your old listeners will find you along with new ones. The following stats, found inside of this posted article, clearly shows the beginnings of a trend that promises to grow much larger. As more people find a way out of being held prisoner to the same old crap on their radio dial loyalties to local stations will begin to diminish. Internet offers a plethora of excellent alternatives and soon even those, without a ton of Internet experience, will find products from manufactures who have jumped on to the band wagon to create user friendly devices that will find your Internet only station!

INTERNET (Photo credit: fisakov)

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College Radio – Helping Turn An Interest Into A Passion

jsadsinger — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:13:54 +0000

Some students join our station for the freedom and creativity that college radio provides. Others join to explore what radio feels like- sort of a ”test drive” to see if they want to take it further and then their are the music lovers who just want to share their musical knowledge with the world. The great thrill of college radio is that it’s an outlet for all interests. While everyone working at college radio has their own personal reasons for joining a station they also have one thing in common…passion. Passion can take you well beyond your own expectations. Since I was 9 years old I wanted to be in radio but I was always very shy, had low self esteem, and a relatively high pitched voice for radio. Looking back on my 39 year career (so far) in this industry I can tell you that, in every case, what helped me overcome the obstacles I had wasn’t hard work…it was passion! In the summer I practiced being on the air in my friends “practice” studio. While we didn’t go over the air I was able to learn how to use the equipment and how to talk on a microphone (without passing out from fright) and I wasn’t missing hanging out with friends at the pool because I was having a great time learning how to get better at what I would eventually be doing for a living. When passion is involved there is no such thing as hard work…just goals to achieve. This article introduces you to someone who had no intention of getting into radio but, as you will soon find out, passion get’s the best of him…Warning….perhaps your next. Read More

Claudia Lucia Cantillo González (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Run With The Pack or Distinguish Your Station From It

jsadsinger — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:37:06 +0000

While we all fancy ourselves as radio program innovators…how similar is our sound to that of other college stations? How many college stations have you heard? Do they sound about the same? I’m not suggestion that they do but if we all play cutting edge music and avoid sounding like commercial stations what separates us from each other? We are all given plenty of freedom to be as creative as we want to be so what’s your creative edge? How do we expand the freedom we have been given into creativity that really reaches our listeners? Maybe we aren’t as different from each other as we think we are.

Cows in the Mist (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Meet Commercial Radio Rebel and Internet Radio Pioneer…Soma FM

jsadsinger — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:08:20 +0000

Internet (Photo credit: hdzimmermann)

One of the most enjoyable things about music on the Internet is it’s a music lovers paradise! No one knows this better than Soma FM. Before there was Pandora or Spotify (long before) there was Soma FM. It;s founder Rusty Hodge is as much a music lover as the rest of us and backs his words up with 21 networks of music you won’t here on commercial radio. Read More…

Should DJ’s Just Shut Up and Go Away?

jsadsinger — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:17:12 +0000

Let’s revisit an old concept called ratings. The new PPM’s (Personal People Meters) that people, who are selected to participate, wear, like a pager. The device then hears what’s on the radio and sends that info to the main frame and turns it into quantifiable data… Oh yeah and it doesn’t matter if you are personally listening to the station it hears…just what happens to be on when you’re in the room, car, etc. and that’s the station who gets the credit /ratings. This tiny devise that Arbitron (The radio ratings gods) use to measure who is (supposedly) listening to what. From the beginning this little trouble maker has caused all kinds of anxiety and job loss for DJ’s across the radio dial because what some of the data clearly shows is that when the DJ opens the microphone, listening drops. Have you noticed less talking on the radio these days? In other words, according to the data, there’s a direct connection to a DJ talking and your (supposed) lack of interest in hearing them. In certain cases this is probably spot on. I, however, think many of the industry’s top brass are getting it wrong and saving their ass by sacrificing the DJ’s with this data. It’s simply in the way you read the data provided. I couldn’t agree more that those “that was-this is” jock s who bring nothing to the party are a complete bore and should be tuned out. Can you really even call them DJ’s? Those guys and the stations that even allow them to open their mouth at all are the very reason you turn your dial in the first place. They are simply annoying interruptions and should go away.

Yet the good ones can also get lumped into the same mix because we, as listeners, have become ”conditioned” to expect nothing of interest to come from DJ’s. Who’s fault is that you ask? Again it’s all in the way you read the data and who reads it. Managment could choose to interpret the data they see as – you don’t like talking of any kind on the radio and allow as little talking as possible (like the product they now offer) or they could decide that it’s not the talking you don’t like it’s just babbling on about uninteresting crap you don’t like.

How about looking at the data in a different way? What if we, as listeners, were being entertained and engaged by talented communicators who know how to reach us? What if we start being talked to and not “talked at” by these guys and gals behind the microphones? You’d hang in there if there was something you related to wouldn’t you? I think you would. That’s the difference between a professional “communicator” and a dime a dozen that was-this is” hack. Any semi trained person can do that job but does that kind of DJ engage the you? Do you even notice them? No…you change the station don’t you? So why does radio management expect any significant new “positive” results when all they serve up is the same old tired mediocre crap?

Instead of changing formats or playing more music than the other guys (by playing12 minutes of commercials in a row and expecting listeners to endure that) the management would be well served by rethinking how they choose to look at the data they get. Some new thinking (and a spine to go with it) could be worth the second glance.

We already have the opportunity to hear the music we like from many different sources(and we know how to use all of them) but including a talented “live” communicator could be a huge game changer and boost rating for the station with the guts to cross the line and try something that hasn’t been done on radio in quite a while…entertain their listeners! If we are entertained why would we even consider leaving? Today’s radio stations have become bogged down by being too careful and take themselves, and their radio consultants and data way too seriously. Radio has forgotten what it’s like to have fun with their listeners. They have forgotten the entertainment value of radio and their audience. This leaves us with little choice but to change the dial when the microphone is open. Which brings us back to what the data shows us…when the mic goes on we go away. Unfortunately, no matter where we go, it’s pretty much the same thing waiting for us no matter where we land on the dial. Read More…

A Face lift for Facebook – Good or Bad?

jsadsinger — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:59:52 +0000

We know the power of Facebook and we’re comfortable with the layout and how to navigate our way through it. Some of us may have just joined Facebook and so the question , for you, might be ” why the change?”

Even if you’ve been using Facebook from the beginning you might be someone who isn’t comfortable with change so you might be asking the age old question “if it aint broke-why fix it?” but for those of you who see change as something that ever evolves us into more ways to utilize the power of technology and the social network you’re probably saying ” how does it work and when can I start?” The answer is right now! Read More…

Rush To Judgement?

jsadsinger — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:20:31 +0000

Rush Limbaugh - Caricature (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

Let’s say you own a radio station and, while your station doesn’t have the budget to pay for a high profile announcer, you can pick up the syndication rights of that show-which has the potential to bring your station giant ratings, and, in turn, allows you to charge more for your advertising . Does the fact that you have no control over the content of this show relieve your station of the responsibility of what is said (on your staion’s airwaves) ? Do you think your station should take the responsibility of what the host says if he (in this case) offends your listeners? Keeping in mind that you knew the type of broadcaster you were getting when you signed the papers to get him? Should you lose clients along with the syndicated host-for airing the offensive content? Read More…

It’s All About Serving The Listeners

jsadsinger — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:45:15 +0000

There was a time when just playing music on college radio was enough to gain a healthy audience (college and beyond). But there are so many outlets for music now that it seems like that’s just not enough anymore. When it comes to creative use of the airwaves college stations are, for the most part, the final frontier. Yet many college stations are still searching for ways to find there audience. If you’re a college station who thinks listeners want more from you than music you might consider taking a tip from the University of Alaska’s student-run radio station KSUA. They recently were honored as one of the top 10 stations in the country. What brought the recognition to them is figuring out 2 things that all good stations need to know…who their listeners were…and how to serve them better. Read More…

Are We All On A “Need To Know” Basis?

jsadsinger — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:55:35 +0000

Internet Caffe Internet cafe , Republica Dominicana (Photo credit: Remolacha.net pics)

A service that we rarely talk about in these articles is the news. It started out with CNN giving us 24 hour access to what’s going on everywhere…all the time and now we get our news from many slants and resources. Thanks to technology and the Internet these news services are now available through smart phones and, of course, computers so most of us can get our fix…quickly. As a result of this 24/7 news hungry world we have now become a generation that MUST know what’s up….ALL THE TIME. We have been conditioned to do so…There seems to be no place you can’t get someones spin on what’s going on in the world today. There’s breaking news all of the time and we want to be the first to know about it! This need to know attitude has become an obsession for many and now, thanks to smart phones and computers we now have more access to more news, presented in more ways, with more experts on more topics, than ever before. But for those who can’t seem to get enough of it and don’t have smart phones or access to computers all day long there hasn’t been an outlet to feed this “all day” “all of the time” frenzy…until now. Read More…