[BC] More is not less

[WBRadiolists at aol.com]

In a message dated 08/30/2008 7:30:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
FrankGott at aol.com writes:

> At least 5-minutes of commercials with no content to keep me tuned  in!  If 
> I hadn't reached my destination and was instead driving I would  have 
>  been punching the button for another station or hit scan.

You, and probably a significant percentage of that station's audience!

>  Yes, radio is killing itself.

Indeed! How much longer until *someone* "up there" wakes-up and "gets it"??

>  On our air we never go beyond 2-minutes without content.

It seems like such common sense... it really does! Yet where is it happening? 
Mom and Pop or small-group stations! Anywhere else?

I know that this Forum is read by many hundreds, if not thousands of 
professional Broadcasters and Engineers. (Of course, Barry knows the real numbers!) Of 
all the people reading, why are there so few who appear to be willing to take 
the very sage, and frankly common sense, advice being given here? This 
puzzles me and has for some time! We have this amazing Braintrust of great people 
from ALL areas of Broadcasting, not just Engineering- yet it seems that the only 
advice that is ever followed and successfully used is Engineering-related. 
Why is this?

Someone else said that programming needs to be targetted (again) to PEOPLE, 
and not to the flaws in the ratings system. Agreed! After all, we're not 
programming to Arbitron, we're programming to people: our family, friends, 
neighbors, people we cross paths with at the mall, the folks in the cars next to us in 
traffic, etc.

Just once, I'd love to see some programming folks chime in and say that after 
reading a thread here, they tried it, and saw success! Has this happened, and 
I just missed it? Or is it just a pipe dream?

Willie...