[Speed Gibson,
Sunday January 8, 2006 at 2:06pm]
Reviewing: Willie Clark (Part 1 of 2)
Our newest local talent is Willie Clark, heard mornings 5:30 to 9:00 on AM 1500 KSTP. I recorded Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this past week, January 3-5, as the basis of this review. As you may know, Mr. Clark comes to us from Sioux City, Iowa. He lived across the border in North Sioux City, South Dakota. There is also a South Sioux City in Nebraska, which I imagine made it a little complex and confusing to track state politics.
As I like to do, here is the breakdown by segment type:
These are approximate of course. It's often hard to draw the line during the happy talk transitions. There are also the quick weather forecasts within the host segments and "brought to you by" tags here and there.
Very striking is the very low (by Patriot standards!) commercial load. A number of these spots were in fact promos for other AM 1500 programs and Public Service Announcements. But this seems more the rule across the dial this January. Maybe the advertisers are cautious during this big transtion for KSTP and launch of an all new station, KTLK-FM.
Most striking, however, is Mr. Clark's frequent, lengthy pauses, for no apparent reason. Several were over four seconds, dozens over three seconds in my three day sample. When I edited out the excess delays over one second, I eliminated over 26 minutes of dead air, an average of 2.5 minutes per hour. When you add to this a high amount (for a professional broadcaster) of ah's and um's, I think this is a significant problem for this show. Even when reading text, these unexpected dropouts make it harder to follow, and certainly more annoying.
As I said of Bob Davis, this portion of KSTP's day is very constrained by their drive time format. In fact, I think it has become worse with an announced "traffic and weather together every 15 minutes" policy. Actually, I think they have the weather correct. There are two live segments with staff meteorologist Patrick Hammer, around 5:50 and 7:35. The rest are quick "Patrick Hammer's forecast is ..." readings every so often.
But much as I like Kenny "Soul Man" Olson, I call on KSTP to be the first to stop this incessant "traffic report" nonsense. These reports that in effect cry wolf every 15 minutes numb the listener to the occasional exception. Just tell us about the big stuff, like an overturned tanker truck.
All in all, this format is nowhere near as crazy as Dave Les's Short Attention Span Theatre over at WCCO 830. But it still sounds like organized chaos. Willie Clark does manage to get the airwaves to himself half the time, and I'll review what he does with that time in the next post.
Meanwhile, I'll be recording the new KTLK-FM Morning Show with Andrew Colton and Kelly Guest this week.
As I like to do, here is the breakdown by segment type:
Host (Mr. Clark) 57%
Commercials 13%
Sports 9% (Patrick Reusse)
Local News 7% (Bob Berglund)
Traffic 6% (Kenny Olson)
ABC News 3%
Business news 3% (Wall Street Journal)
Weather 2% (Patrick Hammer)
These are approximate of course. It's often hard to draw the line during the happy talk transitions. There are also the quick weather forecasts within the host segments and "brought to you by" tags here and there.
Very striking is the very low (by Patriot standards!) commercial load. A number of these spots were in fact promos for other AM 1500 programs and Public Service Announcements. But this seems more the rule across the dial this January. Maybe the advertisers are cautious during this big transtion for KSTP and launch of an all new station, KTLK-FM.
Most striking, however, is Mr. Clark's frequent, lengthy pauses, for no apparent reason. Several were over four seconds, dozens over three seconds in my three day sample. When I edited out the excess delays over one second, I eliminated over 26 minutes of dead air, an average of 2.5 minutes per hour. When you add to this a high amount (for a professional broadcaster) of ah's and um's, I think this is a significant problem for this show. Even when reading text, these unexpected dropouts make it harder to follow, and certainly more annoying.
As I said of Bob Davis, this portion of KSTP's day is very constrained by their drive time format. In fact, I think it has become worse with an announced "traffic and weather together every 15 minutes" policy. Actually, I think they have the weather correct. There are two live segments with staff meteorologist Patrick Hammer, around 5:50 and 7:35. The rest are quick "Patrick Hammer's forecast is ..." readings every so often.
But much as I like Kenny "Soul Man" Olson, I call on KSTP to be the first to stop this incessant "traffic report" nonsense. These reports that in effect cry wolf every 15 minutes numb the listener to the occasional exception. Just tell us about the big stuff, like an overturned tanker truck.
All in all, this format is nowhere near as crazy as Dave Les's Short Attention Span Theatre over at WCCO 830. But it still sounds like organized chaos. Willie Clark does manage to get the airwaves to himself half the time, and I'll review what he does with that time in the next post.
Meanwhile, I'll be recording the new KTLK-FM Morning Show with Andrew Colton and Kelly Guest this week.