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The Straight Skinny
"He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune" Eminent format pioneers/innovators consider creativity, courage and the passion-factor. Do such factors still matter today? By Carol Archer
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An article in a New York Times piece in Nov. 2008, penned by Jim Poh, the VP and Director of Analytics and Media Planning at Crispin Porter & Bogusky, whose clients include Volkswagen, Burger King, Domino's and Microsoft, reported: "From an advertiser's perspective, the consolidation of radio companies has resulted in sound-alike stations…. Group ownerships . . . tended to blunt the edges of … formats, so that each of the stations could play across more demographic groups, and that way could share more of the revenue from various advertisers…. The downfall of that is the medium isn't as relevant, the stations aren't as relevant to people as they were."
We all know how we got here.
I was in a gift shop yesterday where a college freshman had Smooth Jazz playing. When I asked what station he was listening to, he proudly pointed out it wasn't radio: "It's Pandora," he said, adding enthusiastically how Pandora works (incidentally, the service is officially dubbed Pandora Radio) and how cool it is. He said his father, the store's owner, prefers Country, but he, the kid, really loves jazz. He never said, "Smooth Jazz," just "Jazz."
I guess he didn’t get the memo.
NPR flagship WAMU/Washington's recently appointed to the newly created post of Special Projects Producer; former Talk KGO-AM/San Francisco producer; and PD of, among a long list of others (beginning with eclectic public radio outlet WDET/Detroit): WQCD(CD101.9)/New York, KKSF/San Francisco, KJCD/Denver, Urban AC WDAS/Philadelphia and WJZE/Washington; the highly regarded veteran broadcaster, Steve Williams |
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What happens in the process of understanding the Smooth Jazz situation of late is reminiscent of what happens when the experts attempt to dissect global warming: theories, perspectives and speculations abound -- expectedly passionate, but not necessarily practical or in complete agreement. And like the evidence of rising temperatures, the facts of Smooth Jazz's predicament are beyond debate.
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Steve Williams |
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When your ship is dashed upon the rocks, don't be afraid to salvage, scuttle, get to shore and plan anew. – Steve Williams |
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For example, a significant geographical shift in the format's market-share has occurred; right now, a network of stations in small markets and low-power operations vastly outnumber big city market-grade signals in a format that five years ago had at least one, and in some cases two stations in each of the nation's top 20 markets. Why?
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