It’s been a whirlwind of a media week…lots to talk about so let’s get to it.
Leave a comment on our open forum here, or drop me an e-mail, or tweet.
In essence, embrace the chaos.
Deep Background for January 24-30, 2010
January 24th, 2010 
joel 
January 24th, 2010 joel 
Posted in 
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- Joe LaRocca: As a mainly career print journalist for more than 40 years with limited exposure to broadcast journa... »
- Tom Lavery: I think a lot of the good times music wise went to Internet Radio. I can enjoy Oldies, Classic / Alt... »
- David Berchtold: I just made a wonderful discovery, and it has changed my television viewing habits.... FOREVER! I w... »
- Bob Bohen: Happy Anniversary, Big Guy! Thanks for providing us this great service. Keep on bloggin'!!... »
- David Berchtold: I love the idea of an AM oldies stations originating from Erie. I don't mind the static that comes ... »
- DAN: Old guy me likes the old 1260 "music of your life " format Some 40's 50's and early 60's. I enjoy ... »
- AJ Miceli: Headlines in Broadcasting/Cable that you never thought you'd see: "KTXL Airs What's Said To Be Firs... »
- Bob Bohen: The CHR format is always going to be a big one in any market - they play the current hits that the t... »
- JimGriffey: Star'sd signal is also non directional while Classy has to protect the station in Toronto at 99.9 by... »
- joel: Someone..., Thank you for the clarification and no disrespect intended. Just to let you know, ... »
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I just had a flashback to when I worked at WLKK. I recall hearing the NBC Chimes at the top of each hour right before NBC Radio News. God, how I loved those chimes. Those wonderful marvelous chimes were a producer’s dream. 3 simple notes that marked the exact top of hour, and allowed us producers to get all programming elements for each hour in order.
Computers may be able to regurgitate a list of songs or recorded material in a predetermined order, but the production quality of an automated system cannot compare to the superior quality of a human being. Computer Automation and a heavy reliance on modern technology in the radio industry is what is killing the medium.
Forget what is being said about Video Killing The Radio Star and the impact of the internet and iPods. Simply put… People Care. Computers do not. RADIO NEEDS MORE PEOPLE! And I will tell that to any corporate suit who wishes to pay me a visit.
Did have to “back time” so you hit the top of the hour exactly? Now THERE’S a lost art!!
I believe that WWSW (3WS) in Pittsburgh still has a top of the hour tone. It’s something that is very rare but was also on KDKA AM years ago.
WBEN 930am uses the top & bottom of the hour tone, but it always comes when the host is still talking. They never stop talking and then you hear it.
When I worked at WJET in the early 1980’s the word from Myron was that the Legal ID cart had to be rolled within 10 seconds of the actual top of the hour on either side, “or else”.
That’s one of the reasons why at WERG we had ABC FM news (a newscast with a great vibe for a rock station) where the students had to learn how to backtime to the live cast. Indeed a lost art.
Which brings up one of my biggest pet peeves for our local TV newscasts: when you begin your 6:00 cast at 5:58, and my DVR is set to roll at 6:00, I miss half of the story stacked at the top of the cast. If you think that the story is so important that you lead the cast with it, shouldn’t you at least wait until the sets are on or the DVR is rolling, before you actually air it?!?!?
I remember WFSE 88.9 used to carry AP Network news at the top of every hour years ago.
I was listening to “Bob” this morning and heard a news reporter by Bill Paige. quote: “There is problems with the County’s 911 system…”
I realize that in these days of corporate ownership that just about everything is automated and that one person “is” the entire news division of a five-station chain. But I still believe, with every fiber of my being, that whoever is “reading” the news should be able to stumble upon proper verb tense. It really is a 50-50 thing. You read the sentence out loud to yourself as you write one way… and then the other. Ninety-nine point nine percentof the time, the right tense jumps out and bites you right in the microphone! Try it Bill…please.
Did have to “back time” so you hit the top of the hour exactly? Now THERE’S a lost art!!
For those of us that dont work in the business… what does “back time” mean?
Backtiming is the art of figuring out exactly how much time, to the second, you will need to get to the top of the hour. One would then have to find a song exactly that lenghth to play. I had to do this at my first radio job to get into the top of the hour newscast.
Backtiming was always fun in the days of turntables…cause you also had to factor in that variable of the turntable that didn’t quite run at exactly 45 or 33 1/3 RPM. That’s why so many opted for the easy way out…a fade ending song or an instrumental. The real pros would pick a cold end tune and be able to nail that top of the hour!!
BizBuzz Blogger Jim Martin skipped this story on his blog, and just went straight to the news.
Plastek is sending (likely) 200 Erie jobs to North Carolina. Owner Prishak has always been a straight shooter, and in the article all but claims, “I can feel your pain, Erie”….as he increases that very pain.
The issue is not wages, so Crank/Jim can sit this one out. The issue is Logistics. Plastek’s customers (deodorant folks who put smell stuff, in Plastek containers) want to cut transportation costs.
That is a legitimate expense. A factory opened for sale down there, so it mitigates the cost of moving.
(Prishak worried that if he moved, built a factory, then later lost the deodorant accounts, he would be left hanging in NC). The empty factory down there, mitigates the cost of building new, and makes the move likely, to please clients who want to fill Plastek containers with stick deodorant.
But Blogger Jim Berlin is a Logistics Plus guy and seems to know how to move cargo. Why don’t these two guys get together and do the Logistics and lower transportation costs, by going with Berlin, while maintaining Erie jobs?
Jake Rouch put his 2 cents in as our Economic Development guy:
“If their (reasons) are something you can affect, then you work on that,” he said. “But if they need to be within a 50-mile radius of a couple key customers, there is probably nothing you can do about that.”
Rouch has a simplistic view of Erie’s future. He wraps it up with saying he will speak with Prishak to stay put.
Prishak has already explained his dilemma, Mr. Rouch.
I have little doubt that the demand for deodorant is far greater in the sweat shops,….er, the sweltering South, as opposed to our wonderful climate.
But we stink up here too and perhaps it is time for Mr. Rouch to avoid saying farewell, and take a scoot with Prishak to his North Carolina clients. They could explain the valid and profitable reasons to relocate from NC to Erie for a portion of their deodorant business, and bring 200 jobs THIS way.
We, too, have empty factories available, and if the deodorant was packed into Prishak containers in Erie, Berlin could ship the stuff anywhere and lower costs of transportation…the reason behind the move.
But Rouch doesn’t think that way. He simply sees his job as saying so long as jobs head to Mexico and Carolina.
Historically, much of Erie’s plastic business was automotive parts for Detroit. Scoot the stuff across Lake Erie and bring some taggonite back on the boat, for steel making in Pittsburgh. Win-Win. That is over, although I am a contrarian and see manufacturing growing in Erie’s future. (Reasons too many for this spot).
I have a friend making lotion containers with machinery in Brazil. He is so darn rich he could afford to use the Quinn Law Firm if needed. Never once has he uttered a complaint to me about logistics and transportation costs as a variable for relocation. I suspect it costs more to ship from Brazil to USA than from USA to USA.
Question? (especially for Rouch, but also for Media to investigate).
How can we have a Logistics firm in Erie growing leaps and bounds worldwide, at the same time a local company is using transportation costs, as a variable to move 1/5 of it’s business away from our community?
Mr. Prishak, get Rouch out of the room, call Mr. Berlin, sit down over a beer at BrewErie, and lay your cards on the table, to work the problem out. Then, have Berlin go with YOU, to your clients in NC, and have Mr. Berlin explain to those folks how they can relocate here, and Jim will move their supplies wherever they need to go….and do it more profitably!
If these outfits need to be located close to their container company, move here. Keep the government and incentives out of it. Those guys down south have deodorant users here, so having a plant up here for that part of the business only makes sense….and profit.
Time for decision is short! Pour the beer soon.
Martin’s story is here:
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100127/NEWS02/301279946/-1/ETN
Apologies to Mr. Prischak for spelling his name wrong…repeatedly.
But I hope he meets with Jim Berlin, and the North Carolina deodorant folks together, to make jobs in Erie, and profit for deodorant folks, Logistics Plus, and Plastek,…with a ripple effect as Erie employed people spend their wages here. Go for it guys!
I worked at Plastek for 6 years in customer service and have some insight on this issue. Plastek has two major customers in NC, Revlon & Procter & Gamble. Revlon mfg. site is just north of Raleigh, and the P&G site is in Greensboro. Having P&G as my account, I would presume they are the ones putting pressure on Palstek to relocate to NC. I agree with the above regarding the meteing with Jim Berlin. We have to try everything to save these jobs. There are good people at Plastek and this would be a major blow to the employees.
Big Guy, I absolutely LOVED hitting the ABC Radio News at :38:00 after the hour!! You always knew who the cool kids on WERG were, because they could hit the news “hot” everytime. (No fades. Fades are for wimps!)I also tried to always get the top of the hour ID in within :30 seconds either way. Backtiming is still a skill used in live (and taped tv). Katie Couric starts her show at exactly 6:30:00PM, so you had to time your show to hit network on time.
Question for you, Jor-El – did you backtime to hit the “beep-boop” tone at exactly :38:00, or did you time it to hit the 2 or 3 seconds of dead air between the tones and the start of the news? I always timed it to hit the tones, ‘cuz it was so cool to hear them on the air! (Also, do you remember the name of the main newscaster? I can’t. I can hear his voice, but can’t remember his name. “Bill” something, maybe???)