I don't know why and I've noticed that all of the other Internet message boards on Gateway are up . . . But for some reason the Kansas City Board on Gateway City Radio seems to have went kaput over the weekend.
For all intents and purposes GWCR is this town's favorite sleazy, bathroom wall and it's a guilty pleasure that is worth checking out once in awhile.
Our own Radioman used to call this place home before he decided to become the biggest fan of TKC on the local Internets.
In honor of Gateway's (probably temporary) absence, I'm inviting those d-bags to post here regarding the reason for the shutdown. All we can know for sure is their answers will almost certainly be wrong and mistakenly accuse some unknown radio producer of something horrible.
Still . . . This kind of room was the Internet precursor to the local blogosphere so of course I hope they get things up and running soon enough so that Kansas City, name-spoofing, chat slander and all kinds of wonderful online stuff that makes grown ups question free speech returns as an online time suck for marginally employed media people.
Worthless anyway.
ReplyDeleteZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ !
ReplyDeleteI didn't call the place "home", I just hung out there a lot until the local radio industry basically automated most of their hours on the air.
ReplyDeleteFew were left who had any position or future... it's been dwindling for several years and the ones left generally were just taking pot shots.
I kinda quit reading very often but last week it just disappeared while the discussion was mostly about a music station or two and the two perennial sports radio competitors.
Like many 'blogs' there are a dozen or so 'regulars' who get on a lot and a wider group of periodic reader/contributors.
Radio in markets this size has pretty much lost its critical mass to corporate broadcasting cost cuts and computer automation of all hours except for morning drive, what's been radio's most listened to time period.
So many choices today. Young people are not listening to radio as we olders did when WE were young. Too many tech toys and ipods and music services that are commercial free.
There was a time where "TV killed the radio star" as the song went, but if he wasn't dead then, Ipods, XM/Sirius satellite radio, internet subscriptions, and privately owned music stashes have finished him off. Now radio stations are fighting over the same, smaller group of local listeners.
This sluggish economy has caused the handful of radio station corporate owners to lay off hundreds, thousands of in-studio deejays. Ad commercial time is deeply discounted. The higher priced creative radio people have been cut, so there's not much left, at least in markets THIS size.
Radio remains healthy in very small markets where salaries and rate cards are low and affordable. And in very large markets like the top TEN where there's enough money to keep paying for the best talent.
What Walmart and Home Depot did to small shops and hardware stores, running so many out of business, well that's what's happened to radio.
My prediction is that we'll see the same thing happen soon to affiliate TV stations, or at least one or two out of markets with four stations.
Just not enough ad business, not enough viewers. And cable TV just offers too many choices. Put another way, since local TV has cut most of its reporters already how many people care about easy-to-gather ghetto murders and weather? Specially now that we have dedicated, interactive weather channels.
Moreover, why wait until 10:15 when the stations compete with their own newscasts by offering interactive web radar weather?
Local stations haven't figured out yet how to make real money on the internet in this age of diminishing TV viewers.
And as to talk radio, well there's KMBZ live and local from 2p to 8p, but the national talk on Fox and MSNBC is so much better. Why listen to radio unless youre in the car?
And if in the car, why not have satellite radio for 12 bucks a month that brings you 200 channels?
Wow Radioman, if you could condense that to 30 words or less you might be able to keep the attention span of EVERYBODY that reads your pointless drivel!!
ReplyDeleteI always worry about ADD people... I sought to write one treatise to let people know what radio's about today. If you don't want to know, than may I suggest you move your interests to Twitter where the maxlen is about 140 chrs?
ReplyDeleteYou should sell your computer. it's underutilized. And get rid of your library card, if you even have one! You clearly have a Twitter capacity! Scary we're leaving our society into the hands of superficial thinkers like YOU! Please dont go into airline piloting school unless all you want to know is how to crash one!
Sounds like a fairly Sleazy site, Tony (I haven't happened across it, previously). But I'm ALL FOR, first and foremost, the free expression of EVERYTHING! So here's hoping, along with you, that the site hasn't been shut down by some dastardly force and will become Up & Available sometime soon!
ReplyDeleteRadio man doth protest too much.
ReplyDeleteradioman pontificated again on the demise of radio. but offered no explanation about the site going down. isn't that what tony wanted to know?
ReplyDeleteWho actually owns/operate the site has historically been a closely guarded secret. I'm sure a few people know but the system operator doesn't ever make public announcements. I saw nothing in the last few days of the site that looked like a trigger but there've been plenty of chickenshit posts in the past.
ReplyDeleteYou should chill out a little, 7:00. It's really not that big a deal; the value of the site has diminished a great deal recently, which was my point. I expect if T wants to press contributors, he's a big boy and won't need your help.
Radio Leech lurked on that page like a perv near a school yard because no one would go to his site and read his worthless drivel.
ReplyDeleteGreg Maddox is a washed-up never was who troll these pages sitting in his urine soaked chair looking for comments about him so he can feel like someone cares.
7:11... i'm chilled, dude or dudette, believe me. i'm not a member of the broadcasting community in town (bought advertising some tho'), not angry about the site going down, just curious as to what goes on behind the scenes sometimes. it's 9:05 you might redirect your comment to.
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that with 9:05. Not going to import the bad parts of the radio room to this one. And Tee won't allow it if he intends to keep his audience. Gateway's a dead end for a reason.
ReplyDeleteI think Tee is wrong. Gateway wasn't the parent... or any message board like that.
The history of blogging came from local bulletin boards back in the dialup days, and Compuserv's rooms.
Gateway was never a major playuh. Just mostly a place for the low income radio people from all the different stations to hang out.
It was never a room for professional discussion like an occupational listserv which still survive today among 'real' niche professions like health care, science and engineering.
Tony -- don't forget Usenet
ReplyDeleteis Usenet still around or did it too die when the browser software and mass mailings took over the world?
ReplyDeleteBe aware that half of these comments are by radioman himself, you can tell by the usage of "cool" words or phrases in the wrong places. and the attempts to be "groovy"
ReplyDelete9:05 is more right than he knows