PhotoDude.com

Fri. Apr 05, 2002

Radio Absentia

Radio Absentia – (via Daniel Taylor) This look at ”voice tracking” at Atlanta radio stations notes that at one station, "the DJ is absent 70 percent of the time."

Ah, sweet memories. This was also true back in the old days, when music was played from 12 inch round petroleum byproducts, and dinosaurs still walked the earth. Due to ”bathroom breaks” (DJ’s love long songs), chatting on the request line, mental meanderings (substance enhanced or not), and general goofing, the DJ was absent, in some sense, about 70% of the time. Even when he was in the studio.

That’s not what they’re talking about here. They’re talking about stations that claim a dedicated local staff of hot jocks, when the reality is … entirely virtual: "Atlanta’s newest station, 105.3 the Max (WMAX-FM), a Clear Channel property that plays 1980s pop music, is almost entirely virtual. The DJs Atlantans hear, including Domino, are actually in Tampa, Los Angeles, Denver and Dallas. Only one DJ is local."

Your local live DJ may not be live, or local. It’s not exactly new, but technology has made it easier to make it fairly seamless, with timely satellite transmission replacing bulky and slow tape deliveries, and even internal ”localized” web sites so that Mr. LA DJ knows what concerts and sports events are going on in Atlanta that day or night, right down to the tip "to pronounce Gwinnett with the emphasis on the second syllable." (Gwinnett is a local county).

Is it deception? "For a year, Christopher Rude taped his 96rock (WKLS-FM) afternoon show. If a listener called in, an intern would tell the caller Rude was in the restroom. ’People bought it,’ Rude says." Let’s expand on that: they lied to listeners repeatedly, and they bought it. Sounds like intentional deception to me.

To do a four hour radio show, it used to take four hours. You walked into 240 minutes of silence, and filled it in real time. Now, one of these franchised DJ’s "says it usually takes him no more than 15 minutes to tape 25 breaks for a four-hour show."

Why do the jocks do it? "DJs prefer doing it live but voicetrack for the extra money. At Clear Channel, DJs can earn between $5,000 and $15,000 a year to do a shift in another city, says Dukes, the local Clear Channel executive." Despite the perception that DJ’s ride in the red sports car of fame and fortune, the reality is that very very few make anything approaching a fortune, or even a six figure salary. The fact they are willing to do an entire voicetracked shift for $400 to $1200 per month is indicative.

For station ownership, the cost benefit is much clearer. Instead of hiring a full time local DJ at ”full” salary and benefits, you shell out a business pittance of a grand a month to get some big city hot shot. Then you tell the public you "believe importing DJs from out of town is a way to bring cities, especially smaller markets, better personalities." This doesn’t explain why in the 11th largest radio market in the country, Atlanta, four of the top stations are ”live and local” less than half the broadcast day, and only three are 100% Atlanta based, broadcasting in real time.

The moral of this story, kids: if you want to grow up and be a DJ, you better find a way to self-publish (right after you double check to see if your parents dropped you on your head). If Clear Channel and their ilk have their way, there will eventually be about fifty DJ’s on the thousands of radio stations in this country.