The Death of Radio As We Know It

A little over a month ago, the suits at KFKF decided that they could live without a voice that has been waking Kansas Citians up for almost 25 years when they decided they didn't need Mary McKenna anymore. Along with Dan Holiday she was given her walking papers.

Now, granted, I'm a little biased, this is my wife we're talking about after all, but there was no reason other than greed and mismanagement that caused this to happen. Once upon a time, radio was run by radio people, people who understood talent and it's value to the listener. People who understood when the surveys said "play more music" it wasn't "talk less", it was "play fewer commercials". After all, if I want music, there are more than a few outlets like Pandora, satellite radio and mp3 players that give me music without commercials.

The idea of radio is to be entertained. If you don't believe me, why are the all talk stations so popular? In fact, they're so popular that now you can listen to the same station on AM and FM, yes, Rush Windbag is now available in stereo.

I, for one, am just giving up on Kansas City radio. I'm tired of the barrage of car dealership and mortgage company commercials that flood the airways. I want to be entertained, and that's NOT entertainment. I'm not one to long for the "good old days", that's living in the past and that's not me. It's like driving through life looking in the rear view mirror, sooner or later you're going to crash into something.

I blame the people who own and run the stations, people who only know how to compete for the ad dollar by lowering prices and stuffing the airways. They've created the button pushing that we all do in our cars.

They've also fell victim to and incredibly flawed ratings system. Did you know that in the Kansas City metro area, ratings are determined by a device called a Personal People Meter? This device picks up the radio signal in the proximity of the individual wearing it, even if they didn't tune to that station.

And, it's not like everybody has one of these, in fact, it's estimated that there are only 220 meters for the age group 25-54...that's right, 220 for the ENTIRE metro. To call this flawed, is to be kind...to call it a major CF would be accurate.

Local radio is caught in a trap that it built and can't get out.

The interesting thing is that I've begun to listen to a station out of St. Joe, K-JO. Fewer commercials, a nice play list, interesting people and I'm not hitting buttons. Maybe KC could take a lesson from it's little community to the north. This is radio worth listening to.

I won't be sad when Kansas City radio is crushed under its own weight and becomes a shadow of its former self...but it will be disappointing.

Gregg

 

Comments

[Robin Gronau]

i don't listen to the more music in the morning show with dale carter. Its nothing against Dale Carter. It is just not the same without Mary. I have been listening to Mary since the Dan & Mary show back inthe late 80's early 90's. i miss her and her antics with Dale. I miss the battle of the sexes and the other stuff that went on between the two of them.