Editor's Note: Lynn Arave examined the "voice tracking" trend in his Oct. 1 "Radio Dial" column. Today, guest columnist Roxy, of Rock 99, KURR (FM-99.1), examines the same subject from a different angle.How many of you can name your favorite after-10 a.m. disc jockey? How about a weekend DJ?
Since you don't really feel like you know them (often program directors do not allow them to make an impression), it should come as no surprise that half the time when you're listening, there's no live human behind the microphone anyway.
In fact, if you try to request a song by calling one of Clear Channel's seven Salt Lake studios on the weekend and no one answers, don't take it personally. No one's there.
Welcome to the age of voice tracking, a latter-day form of automation that helps economize the day and night shifts at stations where the emphasis is on something other than "personality." DJs record their voices and computers play the tapes at a later time.
For example, Evan Lake is the afternoon voice in Boise. He gets paid a nominal fee, and Clear Channel doesn't have to hire an extra body at its Idaho port.
Voice tracking can earn DJs anywhere from $200 to $500 extra a month.
Marc Waldi, program director for KQMB ("Star102.7") said that after a listener survey, the station now offers a live morning show and live afternoon drive-time programming, plus a few features like "9 on line," with live requests and a live jock. But otherwise, a computer digitally delivers music and voices. "We did that because the listener wanted us to play music and skip the chit-chat," said Waldi.
If the air talent does nothing more than read announcements of what's coming up or where to find the morning show DJs when they're out on a remote, what difference does it make whether the jock lives here or in San Diego? The voice can be recorded and sent down the network for broadcast just as if it was originating from Salt Lake City.
Overnight shifts and weekends do not generate much revenue, so stations do what makes the most sense by asking weekday talent to record those shifts. Everything is pre-recorded and radio stations don't have to pay for part-time weekend talent.
"Voice tracking doesn't purposefully damage the integrity of the program," said Don Anthony, editor of The Morning Mouth, a monthly radio industry publication. "In the middle of the day, everyone's selling the same soap. They're banging out the hits, there's little localization or personality, so no one would notice whether it's voice-tracked or live."
In addition, those jocks who are already established in the market have more security because there are fewer opportunities for new, aspiring talent to get a foot in the door and to become competition later. Established talent will also make extra cash by providing radio voices in Idaho, Texas, Nevada, etc.. (It also means limited job possibilities for everyone currently in radio if they allow their skills as entertainers to wane, ignoring the opportunity to interact with listeners, discussing local and current events.)
Eventually, however, this consolidation of talent and cash could force other stations to break out and practice a different gospel.
Owners understand that you can only reach certain ratings when you play the same format. Then you plateau. Put in a good personality and it could bump you up in the ratings. Already, in larger broadcast markets, station owners are experimenting with FM talk formats, banishing music altogether for personality-driven programs.
"What we're now finding is that radio's getting sterile," said Waldi. "People do like having a 'companion' -- someone they like, someone they're familiar with, who can give them immediate current events and they can get to know personally."
Digitally-delivered audio programming has turned the automation of yesterday into something cheap, convenient and efficient to exploit. It will certainly proliferate this market until listeners decide they've had enough.
We can ill afford to turn radio into something bland. Listeners will go someplace else for their entertainment whether it be "Jerry Springer," their cell phone or the Internet.
Will voice tracking replace us all?
No. It will make those of us in radio biz work harder.
-- NEW WEB SITE -- For news, chat rooms, schedules, etc., there's a new Internet site for the Salt Lake radio market. Simply go to saltlakeradio.com.