WKRP saw the future.
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — WKRP in Cincinnati
Huskie_Jon — 16 years ago(February 16, 2010 01:01 PM)
There was an episode I saw long ago where Venus (or was it Johnny?) was hired by another station offering more pay. When he got there, he found out that the whole operation was going to be computerized, even down to the commercials. The DJ intros to the songs were even pre-programmed. All he had to do was push buttons to set up the next program. He decided to go back to WKRP.
Satellite radio, anyone? Internet radio?
A dope trailer is no place for a kitty.
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efs2 — 16 years ago(February 22, 2010 11:02 PM)
lol
I don't know exactly how it works. But some of the stations I hear have a live DJ who comes on occasionally and actually says something about the music. It seems live to me, although it's nothing like it used to be with a DJ connecting one song with the next.
And, yes, it does seem the goal of many morning "zoo" shows is to inflict annoyance pain. So I guess automation is not the worst possible thing.
Come back, zinc! Come back!. -
Huskie_Jon — 16 years ago(February 24, 2010 09:37 AM)
Does that mean you know of a US rock station that isn't automated? I haven't encountered a live DJ in maybe a decade, except for the god-awful annoying morning shows.
College radio is not automated. But, it is just painful when they give news updates, or try to be funny.
I hardly ever listen to FM anymore, because it is always the same Top40 songs in whatever genre the station claims to be.
Internet radio is quickly growing old with me for the same reason.
I am middle aged, so I have lots of classic rock in my CD collection, but classic rock radio annoys me. Believe it or not, the following groups; The Who, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin; actually made more than three songs each, but you never seem to hear their other songs on the radio. Listening to music radio is like only watching movie trailers, without ever seeing a whole movie.
A dope trailer is no place for a kitty.
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bgva — 13 years ago(October 16, 2012 07:08 AM)
I agree, I have the same problems with radio. Also, songs used to fade out on the radio, now they just seem to do sudden death cut offs at the 2:30 mark. It's irritating.
I realize that this is from 2-1/2 years ago, but a-ride-in-the-ocean, if you are still here, THANK YOU! I thought I was the only one who ever noticed this and hated it. One thing I love about older songs is that as the song faded, you could hear the singers and band having an impromptu jam session where they're ad-libbing and "exaggerating" the notes as the song went off.
Nowadays, it's like you said, the song justends. No rhyme, no reasonthe artists (and I use that term very loosely) look at the clock, notice it was at 2:23, 2:24, and said "Oh sh!twe've gotta end soon!" Very annoying. Either that or they just stop singing and let the instrumental beat play out for about 15 seconds.
Oh stewardessI speak jive. -
zap644 — 15 years ago(November 25, 2010 02:07 PM)
And that's why I stopped listening to the radio.
They all play an extremely small set of music. If they're going to play the Allman Brothers you can bet money it's going to be Jessica and only lose if they really decide to mix things up and play Blue Sky. -
willydoe71 — 14 years ago(May 04, 2011 04:55 AM)
I am middle aged, so I have lots of classic rock in my CD collection, but classic rock radio annoys me. Believe it or not, the following groups; The Who, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin; actually made more than three songs each, but you never seem to hear their other songs on the radio.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! I've been saying that for years. I lived in the Fort Lauderdale area for six years (2002-2008) and the classic rock station there played the ever living s#it out of just like 10 bands. And it was always the same songs. They would do these "rock block" weekends, where they would play three songs from a band at once. I kid you not, in five hours of listening, I would hear at least three blocks from the same band. Play other bands, and then, don't just play the hits.
Though with Zeppelin (the greatest rock and roll band to have ever walked the face of this earth), with a lot of stations doing "Get the Led out" or something to that effect, they would play a lot of their less popular songs (which happen to be some of my favorites) like Tea for One, Carouselambra, In My Time of Dying, Sick Again, etc. -
darryl-tahirali — 11 years ago(January 20, 2015 11:59 AM)
I am middle aged, so I have lots of classic rock in my CD collection, but classic rock radio annoys me. Believe it or not, the following groups; The Who, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin; actually made more than three songs each, but you never seem to hear their other songs on the radio. Listening to music radio is like only watching movie trailers, without ever seeing a whole movie. - Huskie_Jon
There used to be a classic-rock FM station in Los Angeles in 1990s called Arrow FM. Its slogan was "Where you know every song." As if this was a plus. It wasn't.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson -
chinaglenn — 9 years ago(August 27, 2016 11:56 PM)
I detest the "Morning Zoo" DJs on rock stations, and they all have them. If I listen to your station, I want to hear music. I understand commercials, this is how the station makes money. But I dislike the chatter on what is supposed to be a music station. If I wanted chatter, I would listen to AM talk radio (and sometimes do) or Howard Stern of I had satellite.
But the listeners love this sh.t or it would not be on. -
justanicknamed — 9 years ago(August 30, 2016 12:20 PM)
It depends upon the chatter. Some of it is fine. I like it when they can talk about sports and music, sometimes have interesting guests, and sometimes tease around with each other. When they are local, they can have a nice, personal touch about them.
Shows like "Bob & Tom" suck dog d!cks. A friend of mine loved their show, but I couldn't stand it. Most of what they spewed wasn't funny, and when they did the bits, at least one of the dip sh!ts would be laughing so loud I couldn't hear what was being said - and it was usually something that wasn't that funny to begin with. -
chinaglenn — 9 years ago(September 04, 2016 06:27 AM)
I forgot one episode, but it was a "fantasy episode" and one segment was Herb Tarlek as an elderly man who ran the station literally all by his lonesome, since the whole operation was computerized and it was so easy, an old fool like Herb could run it.
I have been away from my hometown for about 14 years and came back for a visit and noticed that the Number 1 rock station (Rock 103, Memphis) plays the same, and I mean the SAME MUSIC as they did in the 1980's. The format hasn't changed, basically the same 100 rock songs recycled over and over and over and over again. Other stations have come and gone, and Rock 103 is still the king.
If you look at local commercial radio and local television news stations, it is all hopelessly similar, with the same routine, the same websites, the same everything. Nothing new, interesting or fun, which is what radio should be. But deviating from that formula is seen as a loser. Broadcasting also has so much competition. There is satellite radio, with stations where I can just listen to music with no "personalities" or commercials. Talk radio.
Like every other rock station, they have their ridiculous morning show, their name is "the Wake Up Crew". Actually one of the best famous and beloved guy on there, named John "Bad Dog" McCormack died of luekemia at around 55 years old. They occasionally do some funny bits, but again, it is basically three hours of them rambling on about mostly bullsh.t. Just them talking about tasteless things and bad jokes and then commercials and then back to them talking about tasteless things and bad jokes with sports, weather and some news.
Commercial radio is sad and is a joke now. Formats sometimes change and people move on. Actually WKRP was realistic in many ways, except now it would not be a mom and pop operation, but a mindless, soulless corporation running the show with the same clap trap and bullsh.t. Not worth the effort. -
Catnip86 — 9 years ago(September 04, 2016 08:21 AM)
The format hasn't changed, basically the same 100 rock songs recycled over and over and over and over again.
That sounds like Q104.3 by me. The same songs by the same bands every single day. Once in a while they throw in a little "variety" of one or two other bands. What really annoys me is they have what they call "work force blocks" during the lunch hour. People request certain bands and they play a "block" of their songs. Now, if they are playing (for example) The Rolling Stones ALL DAY anyway, why do they need a "block" of them during the noon hour? Why can't they limit the requests "blocks" to bands you don't hear over and over and over? -
PillowRock — 15 years ago(January 18, 2011 08:25 AM)
First of all, the people on those morning shows are not "DJs". I refuse to concede that title to those people. They don't play enough music to qualify as "Disk Jockeys". They're "talk radio personalities".
There are a
few
stations that still use live DJs, at least for a fair percentage of their time. Granted, those tend to be oddball stations that play some classic rock, some folk, the occasional blues song, etc. (and some local artists every once in a while). Of course, those always were the more interesting stations anyway. (The Ann Arbor and Detroit radio markets are one the things that I kinda miss since moving to DC a year ago for a job.)
On the side subject of any given band only having one or two songs that ever get played on most radio stations: A few years back the Michigan Marching Band did a halftime show at one of UM's season openers that was explicitly titled "One Hit Wonders of the 80s" (or something very similar to that). My jaw dropped when a Pretenders song showed up in that show. Off the top of my head, I don't remember which one .. which is actually part of my point. How did anybody ever get the idea that the Pretenders were a one hit wonder? -
jason_tasch — 14 years ago(August 04, 2011 03:50 PM)
It was Venus. He was recruited to be the new program director (Andy's job) at radio station WREQ. They had all the music programmed onto a machine, "Max". All they wanted Venus for was to be black and fulfill a race quota.
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profh-1 — 13 years ago(September 14, 2012 07:32 PM)
It's a sad reflection of corporate ownership & control of just about everything. It's what happens when accountants are the ones running things. No individuality, no initiative, no personality. We need more individuals who are willing to do something different, do something their own way, to stand out from the drones and prove that things can be done different and better. This goes for every industry you can think of.