Taking the 'local' out of radio programming (High-speed phone lines let talk-show hosts work @ home)

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 27 May 2003 | Brad Kava

[CounterCounterCulture]

When the host on your local radio station tells you about the weather or traffic, there's a good chance that not only is he not in the radio studio, he may not even be in the state.

A trend that started with large corporations saving money by having music disc jockeys tape shows for several markets, it now includes ``local'' talk show hosts, people who traditionally gave radio its local flavor.

[CounterCounterCulture]

Hot Talk 560 KSFO, a conservative's best friend in the San Francisco Bay Area

[Drango]

``Last weekend I went to the Long Beach gay pride festival and I talked about how disconnected I feel from the gay community and how your gay pride festival is coming up in two months,'' he said. ``I took what is happening in my community and springboarded it to the host community.''

I think I'm gonna barf...

[Voltage]

The next step: Outsourcing the hosts to India.

[Billy_bob_bob]

I still remember the day that I knocked KSFO 560 off of the air for a few minutes. Here's what happened. It was shortly after Matt Fong bolloxed up his campaign for the Senate, and I felt compelled to submit my candidate for a new "theme song" for the California Republican party.

The song I nominated was a little ditty by a band called "Big Poo Generator", and the song was called "I'm going to kick myself in the balls". I faxed in the lyrics to this song, and Lee proceeded to read my suggestion, and then the lyrics on the air.

Well, by the time Lee got to the last line of the song, "And then I'm gonna kick my dog in the balls" they all totally lost it. Jeff Metcalf was there, and Lee and Jeff and Melanie were all laughing so hard they couldn't even talk. Finally Lee managed to gasp out "go to commercial, go to commercial", which they did.

A few minutes later they came back on the air and acted like nothing had happened. None of them ever mentioned that song again.

[CounterCounterCulture]

You're the one? PLEASE post the lyrics!

[Billy_bob_bob]

Lyrics to "I'm going to kick myself in the balls"
By: Big Poo Generator.

I'm having a party.
I'm going to kick myself in the balls.
I'm a big bad boy, and I'm having a party.

Come to my party, come sing along.
Come see me kick myself in the balls.
A thing to do, a funny sight.
And I won't be faking it, I'm doing it tonight!

Watch me kick myself in the balls,
watch me and you'll laugh.
I'm having a party, so please come along
we'll have a really great time.
Come to my party, just wait and see.
Going to kick myself in the balls tonight at my party.

And then I'm going to kick my dog in the balls.

[dark_lord]

An obvious target for outsourcing to India. Don't be suprised if most radio talk will be done remotely from India -- only local traffic will be local.

[TomB]

What does this:

Not to mention that syndicated hosts Laura Schlessinger and Rush Limbaugh broadcast from home studios.

Have to do with this:

The trend is somewhat distressing to media critics, who fear that mergers are quickly stripping the local character from radio.

The entire article is about people doing LOCAL shows from somewhere else. Yet they have to add a slap at Dr. Laura and Rush, even though they do a NATIONAL program. Where does it matter where their programs originate?

[CounterCounterCulture]

ping-a-ling

[CounterCounterCulture]

Brad Kava never fails to talk a slap at Rush and Laura. Surprised he didn't go for the usual "KKKSFO" insult on my radio station.

[CounterCounterCulture]

ping

[CounterCounterCulture]

They're not doing it to save money. They just prefer to live elsewhere.

This is also laughable. Money (the economy, taxes) is often a factor for moving out of California. I sure wouldn't move to Arizona or Nevada for the climate.

[Billy_bob_bob]

A lot of people are leaving California because living there has become such an intensely alienating experience. How do you get to know your neighbors when none of them speak English? Same for your co-workers. When you go to the store the clerks (all from other countries) ignore you to wait on their co-nationals instead. If you complain they look at you with an expression that says "why are you still here?"

If you wish to remain in California then you will have to learn the languages of the immigrants in order to survive. I suggest learning Spanish, Cantonese, Mandaran, Tagalog, Hindi, Farsi, Urdu, Laotian, Vietnamese, Pashtun, Khosian, Hausa, Swahili and Zulu. That would be a good start.

[NormsRevenge]

I miss Jim Eason. :-(

These guys there today rock, for the most part. I wish they had the full 3 hours of Sean and moved Dr. Laura to an early morning slot like 2am. and Clark Howard 8-?

The Babe in the Bunker deserves more airtime too. ;-)

David Gold and Mark Davis on week-ends are good, as well.

[Voltage]

An obvious target for outsourcing to India. Don't be suprised if most radio talk will be done remotely from India -- only local traffic will be local.

Yes, but I don't think it will go over in Montana..the 'cow jokes' just won't be as funny!

[Genesis defender]

Local traffic isn't even local anymore. In Milwaukee some traffic reports actually come from Racine or Kenosha (south of Milwaukee/north of Chicago).

[Bug]

A lot of people are leaving California because living there has become such an intensely alienating experience. How do you get to know your neighbors when none of them speak English? Same for your co-workers. When you go to the store the clerks (all from other countries) ignore you to wait on their co-nationals instead. If you complain they look at you with an expression that says "why are you still here?" If you wish to remain in California then you will have to learn the languages of the immigrants in order to survive. I suggest learning Spanish, Cantonese, Mandaran, Tagalog, Hindi, Farsi, Urdu, Laotian, Vietnamese, Pashtun, Khosian, Hausa, Swahili and Zulu. That would be a good start.

I live, work, shop, eat, etc in San Diego County. I frequently travel to Orange County, the Central Coast, Riverside, and the Bay Area. Apart from the fact that store clerks are mostly non-native Americans, nothing you said above is in line with my experiences and observations.

Oh, one of my co-workers is a brilliant programmer who speaks perfect English, is a U.S. citizen with a TS clearance, and happened to come to the US from Vietnam via a boat in the South China Sea. She considers herself 100% American and loves this country and is raising her two children to love this country. The guy who comes in to clean our offices doesn't speak English, but he's polite and hard working.

I frequent many stores and restaurants where I'm served by immigrants and have NEVER been treated poorly and have always been served in sequence. They don't speak English very well, which is annoying, but they're courteous and hard working. The last bad experience I had in a place like this was from a pierce-nosed, tattoed white teen with an attitude who obviously didn't want to be there.

CA has lots of problems, but it's still a fantastic place to live. For those of you who don't live here, take Billy_bob_bob's description of life in CA with a grain of salt. If life in CA was as Billy_bob_bob described it, real estate values wouldn't be skyrocketing like they've been over the past 7 years.

[riri]

I sure wouldn't move to Arizona or Nevada for the climate

Ahh, but you might if you were from the, god awful, northeast.

[Billy_bob_bob]

You have had very different experiences that I had, that much is certain. One time I was working on a contract for a large Silicon Valley employer, I finished one project and went to a different department to work on another project. I was surrounded by Chinese engineers who stood around and talked nothing but Chinese all day long. If you asked them a question in English they acted like you were imposing on them. I found it was possible to go for days at a time without saying a single word to anyone, because nobody around me wanted to speak English.

Can you imagine how alienating that would be? Between that experience, and many other experiences I had while living there, I firmly believe my view is quite valid. Perhaps you have had better luck, but my experiences were so miserable that I would rather have a root canal without anesthetic before I would move back to California.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"I sure wouldn't move to Arizona or Nevada for the climate."

There's more to Nevada than Vegas. In the Reno area, there is almost unlimited sunshine, with typical mid-summer highs of 90 degrees, and crisp sunny winters.