Worst Radio Show Affiliate Ever: Round 1

[Deleted]

The following is the email I sent to WQIK Yesterday:

Dear. Mr. Proly,



I do not know if you handle issues concerning WQIK, but I could not find the program directors email address listed on that website. I went to wroo’s website and found this one. If what I am commenting on is not in your area to handle, please forward to the person who does.



My name is Paul Zimmerman, I recently moved back to Jacksonville after being in Orlando for 15 months. Several years ago, I began listening to American Country Countdown on WQIK, it did not take long however for me to begin to find internet stations to listen to because on it seemed like a weekly basis, something was wrong with the show. Segments would be staticy and skip throughout, segments would be outright skipped entirely, dead air heard for hours at a time when the show was supposed to air, replaying last weeks show, or on Sunday nights when the show didn’t start promptly at 8pm the station would fade the show out at midnight regardless of whether the show was over or on #3. These problems didn’t happen just once, they happened multiple times.



Now that brings me to this past weekend, two weeks ago I emailed someone at WQIK to ask whether or not ACC would be continued to air, or if Bob Kingsley’s new show would be aired. I received no response; I tried to call and never got an answer to the telephone. I set my computer to record the show Saturday morning, I woke up around 8 and turned up the volume and was happy to hear it was Bobs new show. Later that weekend however, I went to listen to the entire show which aired at 6am, and to my utter disbelief the FIRST HOUR of Country Countdown USA aired followed by the final 3 hours of Bobs new show. I couldn’t believe this happened AGAIN. Not only is this a completely unbelievable mistake, but of all weeks for this to happen, it was when the show was a.)debuting and b.)airing their year end show. I knew there was a second airing Sunday night at 8pm, I recorded that timeslot as well thinking there is NO WAY this could happen twice. Well, it did. Once again, first hour of CCUSA, followed by the final three hours of Country Top 40.



I may be the only one in town that cares this show was screwed up, but it is in my opinion ridiculous that this happens as regularly as it does. If you do not believe that this happened, I still have both recordings in their entirety and will be glad to send them to you to hear for yourself. It is so frustrating to want to listen to a show in good sound quality on my local affiliate of a show, and never knowing week in and week out whether it will be aired correctly or at all. I am not saying this as a complainer, because I would be more than willing to do the following. If it is a time consuming thing for whomever is in charge of this to complete the task, I will gladly for free take care of loading them properly on whatever system you use to ensure the people who DO care get to listen to the shows without any problems. I would only need someone to show me how to do it.

Thanks for your time in reading this

Paul Zimmerman Jr.


The following is the response I recieved today:

Hey Paul.

Unfortunately, I do not handle anything with QIK...but I'm sure you know that we are in the same building...SO I will make sure that your email (and your concerns) make it to the right people. I will forward this along....and hopefully we can get everything squared away.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Most of the time - these shows are set to run automatically, and their is no one in there physically running them....but we will get to the bottom of it!

Thank You

-Jason


Now, next you will find Angie Roberts, Bob Kingsley's assistant who I assume was on vacation last week finally responding to me from ct40.com:

Hi Paul! Angie Roberts here, Bob Kingsley's assistant. Yes, WQIK will be airing Bob's new show Country Top 40.

Thanks for listening!


Angie Roberts
Assistant to Exec. Producer
Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40

Now the response back to her:

Angie,

Thanks for your response, but you might want to rethink affiliating with them. Every time I see the Careerbuilder.com commercial with the apes working I think of that station. With American Country Countdown, every other week they would mess up something with the show. So much so, that I finally started listening online. Well, last week I listened to see which show would be aired, and they aired 3 hours of yours....and one hour of Country Countdown USA. WQIK does not deserve a world class countdown show like yours, there is another non CC-owned station in town..99.9 Gator Country; you might want to look into them carrying the show instead.

Just my two cents! When I finally heard the show correctly on an internet affiliate, I think you guys are doing a wonderful job. Can't wait until you drive ACC into extinction.

Paul

[Matt Cameron]

Way to go, Paul. I hope your tenacity pays off and heads roll on this one. I don't even care for country music, but the people like you that do and want to hear CT40 mistake-free every week should be able to hear it. It reminds me of when I lived in Augusta and it seemed like once a month or so the previous week's version of AT40 would air by mistake. I can remember trying to call the station at 6-something in the morning (boy, was I naive) to tell them they were airing the wrong friggin' show. Of course, nobody answered. The most telling part of the reply you received was "...there is no one in there physically running them." Heaven forbid they actually have to pay some teenager $6 an hour to do it.
I no longer wonder why I never listen to the radio in the car anymore.

[Deleted]

But I understand in the age of automation they don't want to pay someone, and thats fine with me. Actually there is some one there, its just usually one or two people who go from station to station within the building to make sure everything is running correctly (meaning there is something playing; and it is not a song skipping or dead air). But how hard is it to load a show in correctly twice? Are they written in Greek or something on the websites?

When Casey first left AT40 I started listening to Dees's show on 97.9 Kiss FM here (also CC owned, and also in the same building) was doing the EXACT SAME THING your local affiliate in Georgia was doing. But, when I complained a month into listening, they fixed the problem. I have complained to WQIK for years and nothing ever gets done.

To contrast, WAPE and WXXL run American Top 40 automated also, they have NEVER had a problem with anything that I have heard since it went automated.

[Matt Cameron]

Somebody mark down today's date- Paul actually said something complimentary about the Big APE!! ;D

Hoyle Dempsey would be so proud!

[Deleted]

yeah since automation, those Apes actually get it right

[bandit73]

I wonder if your affiliate also adds goofy noises to the show, or cuts songs out entirely.

I remember listening to AT40 on Q-102 Cincinnati in the late '80s, and they did this. Q-102 cut "I Want Your Sex" by George Michael out of every episode except for the year-end special top 100. Then, when "Going Back To Cali" by L.L. Cool J was on AT40, Q-102 usually added all these belching noises and stuff. (I'm pretty sure it wasn't Casey or someone at AT40 who was adding the sound effects.)

During the Shadoe years, Q-102 would occasionally run this weird squeaking sound over Shadoe while he was talking. It sounded like the noise Speak & Spell made when you pressed MODULE SELECT.

[Deleted]

WAPE did that in two seperate eras; era 1-totally eliminating a song it seemed innapropriate depending on the hour the show was on. Era 2-No Rap/No Hard Rock rule of stupidity that a Top 40 station engaged in. Heres the thread where I went in depth with this:

at40fg.proboards12.com/index.cgi?board=generalmusic&action=display&thread=1097178174

[BrettVW]

I know our local AT20 affiliate at college, WXXO/WOXX has a board-op in studio the entire time AT20 airs during both its morning and evening airing. I know the new evening board-op, and not only is he a fan of the show, but he ensures it airs properly. In fact, he is such a fan of AT20 he posts on this message board In fact, he just typed this post!

[BrettVW]

PS-

Paul....I am glad you wrote that email. I have written several emails to various stations over the years, and many times corrections have been made!

[Deleted]

I finally recieved a response back from ct40.com to my last email to them:

Paul,
I'm sorry your having so much trouble with WQIK. Hopefully things will get better. Till then, thank goodness for the internet!!! : )

Angie Roberts
Assistant to Exec. Producer
Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40



Yes things are so much better....as you can see, no reply, no nothing from them. So from me, you can add another no to that list....NO listening!

As an aside to this, my wife has now chimed in on Cowford radio as a whole with something straight out of my old playbook. She can generally deal with whatever hand she is dealt, but apparently she isn't going to be playing with the latest deck used. In a blanket indictment of the entire cities radio airwaves, MY WIFE demands I get XM installed in the car so she/we don't have to put up with the local crap anymore. to say I was shocked by her demand would be an understatement. ;D

[Matt Cameron]

Hey, Paul, your wife sounds pretty cool.

[BrettVW]

My mom got Sirius for Christmas so she could listen to Howard (and she makes fun of me listening to Casey). It's OK, but I honestly prefer terrestrial radio. I have listened to the 80's station a little bit and heard Nina Blackwood, but all in all I will not miss it when I go back to college on Sunday. Between my CD and record collection, all my old radio shows, terrestrial radio, and now my MP3 player...i'm more than set with music.