Locality Switch

It’s been a long time since I have listened to a commercial station for an extended period of time. Occasionally I would surf the bands, and stay with a station for the duration of a song which I found catchy, but overall I have just been listening to community radio. To me, it’s much more personal and much more enjoyable.

This week I decided to listen to a commercial radio station for a couple of hours in the evening. Why? I’ve been on holidays, and decided to do something different for a bit. Break out of the routine, and all of that stuff.

Now I remember why I don’t listen to Commercial Radio.

The station I decided to listen to was 2Day FM, and the show which was on at the time was the Hot 30 countdown. I haven’t listened to one of these countdown type shows for a while, but I was under the impression that they typically consisted of music. What did I hear? Anything but music! With so much talking and phone ins happening, they might as well make it a talkback show.

After listening to this show for a couple of hours, I really came to appreciate community radio. Commercial radio is so, well, commercial. It may seem a stupid observation to make, but there are just so many ads! I literally couldn’t tell the difference between ads, show promos, sweepers, talk breaks, competitions and the music.

Everything just blends together into one very very tight package. There’s no room to breathe. From one aspect, this is a credit to the people who produce the show – such tight integration doesn’t happen magically, and i know it takes quite a bit of work to achieve.

However, I believe there should be a line drawn somewhere. When is enough, enough? Sure, there are bills to pay and shareholders to please, but in some ways I believe it would be more beneficial to loosen things up a tad. I was quite confused when trying to distinguish what was an ad or not. I eventually concluded that if it wasn’t a song, then it must be an ad :)

For once, I am greatful that we have community radio which is limited in the amount of sponsorships which can be played. I am grateful that we don’t play the same twelve songs over and over and over and over and over and over and over…

Community radio is a breath of fresh air, but it wasn’t until I ventured back into commercial radio that I realised this.

Will I listen to another commercial station again? Sure. But it won’t be for entertainment. It will be to analyse what they are doing, and to learn as much as I possibly can about on air presentation. Even though I want to be a technician, I still think it’s important to learn about what actually goes to air. After all, that’s all the average listener hears.

By now, I’m sure you all would be aware of the stupid stunt which Kyle & Jackio pulled on 2DayFM last Wednesday. I won’t repeat the awful details here.

Kyle and Jackio have been supended indefinently from their brekky show, and Kyle has been sacked from Australian Idol. It was stupid mistake to have the whole lie-detector segment in the first place, and it was an even bigger mistake to allow a teenage girl on the show in such a segment.

However, it has been revealed recently that 2DayFM runs it’s brekky show without a seven second delay. Why? It would seem Kyle doesn’t like it:

A 2DayFM staffer said  Sandilands believed “pure” live radio was “better entertainment” – an approach which has long made his colleagues nervous.

“Kyle believes the kill button kills the truth, but it is there for a reason and everyone who was in the studio at the time wished it could have been used,” the program source, who requested anonymity, said.

[The Daily Telegraph, Holly Byrnes, July 01, 2009]

Live radio with segments such as the ones run on 2DayFM is dangerous enough – it’s just suicide doing it without a delay.

It’s not that these delays are necessarily expensive. A basic one from Elan Audio can be bought for just over $3000. If you step up a few notches to the AirTools range, the price will increase, but you don’t need an expensive thing doing this job. If you just want to save yourself from the repercussions of airing stupid things like what we have heard, then a cheap one will do just fine.

Of course, nothing could have saved Kyle from this embarrasment – he has a bad attitude, and seems to refuse to do his show with a delay. But, that’s not a technology problem; it’s an ego problem. No amount of technology can fix that.

RadioInfo asks a simple question:

…So why do many FM announcers, like cabbies, consider it as some sort of badge of honour to travel without the simple apparatus that could save their broadcasting lives in the event of the type of emergency that occurred on 2Day… ?

[No delay at 2Day, 31st July 2009, RadioInfo]

I don’t know the answer to that.

One thing I do know is that my own station does not have a delay, but we also have a very strict rule about airing live phone calls: don’t. Sure, record it and then play it back later, but never, ever, ever, air a live call.