This is what happens....

[tuned]

I listened to F&C this morning for about an hour and it is really kind of sad. Its obvious that Fred isn't feeling well but the supporting cast isn't doing him any favors. The main problem is that the show lacks energy and flow. There are gaps between jingles and songs that you can drive a truck through. Levels are all over the place. Fred seems confused as to what's up next and what the heck he is supposed to do. I'd sack the producer/board op first up. The kid has absolutely no clue on how to run a morning show but it's not really his fault because where would he have learned? Even with Fred not feeling well if the show was run tight it would have some energy. Instead there are pregnant pauses all over the place. The kind that I'd expect from BCIT radio but not a breakfast show in a supposed major market. I could hardly hear one of Waynes weather bits and then Cathys voice came booming in. Don't they have any functioning VU meters? Listening to them for an hour reminded me that the packaging is just as important as the talent. Done right it can pull up the end product, poorly executed it can drag it down. How credible would Tony Parsons be with bad lighting, a messed up teleprompter and fuzzy audio? The lacklustre F&C show is what happens when live radio becomes an anomaly instead of the norm.

[Glen Livingstone]

Clear-FM?

How about trying some clear thinking?

If this station expected to kick some ass in the Vancouver market, a lot more thought should have been put into the format change before yesterday's launch.

Instead of hitting the ground running, Fred & Cathy lurched out of the gate like a couple of late starters in a slug race - this is supposed to bring in listeners?

As Tuned pointed out, the show lacks energy.

What is the reason for its existence? What makes it stand out above the competition?

Nothing.

Once again a program director with no vision has ventured into an area of broadcasting that should be restricted to access by people who are qualified.

You don't iron out the bugs live, every day, on the air, and hope that things work themselves out.

Before KHJ became Boss Radio in 1965, PD Ron Jacobs ran the station off-air for two weeks programming it into his office so he could pinpoint any problems and fix them before the station began broadcasting live.

Yes, that's right: Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan and all the other jocks came in to the station every day for two weeks and did their shows, commercials and all, while Jacobs sat in his office and listened.

Now that's what a goddamn Program Director does.

In hindsight, maybe it was a bad idea for Rogers to set up a home studio for Fred & Cathy.

Maybe the drive in from Tsawwassen to Vancouver every day would have given them a chance to wake up and shake away the cobwebs before starting their show.

As it is now, who knows if they even bother getting out of bed?

Maybe they just roll over and grab the mic when the alarm goes off.

There is too much going wrong here.

Again, as Tuned has already mentioned; Fred's confusion, the overall lack of purpose, the overly-long commercial clusters and the technical glitches will - in a very short period of time - come together in a perfect storm and bring this thing to a screeching halt.

The listeners who've already tuned in to sample it probably won't bother to come back.

Hate to be overly pessimistic but now, just two days into it, I believe that the show is unfixable.

[TheDude]

I'd sack the producer/board op first up.  The kid has absolutely no clue on how to run a morning show but it's not really his fault because where would he have learned? Even with Fred not feeling well if the show was run tight it would have some energy.  Instead there are pregnant pauses all over the place. The kind that I'd expect from BCIT radio but not a breakfast show in a supposed major market.

Uh, nice rant, but Terry Chan is opping the show. Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure he's been around long enough to know what he's doing.

[Glen Livingstone]

Terry Chan is opping the show.? Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure he's been around long enough to know what he's doing.

Well he obviously doesn't know what he's doing.

If he did, there wouldn't be all of these screw-ups.

[TheDude]

Terry Chan is opping the show.  Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure he's been around long enough to know what he's doing.

Well he obviously doesn't know what he's doing.

If he did, there wouldn't be all of these screw-ups.

Actually, there's nothing 'obvious' about the situation at all... it could be any number of technical issues or communications problems. If it is human error, I'd be pointing the finger at the somewhat rusty personalities on the other side of the mic, not the op.

My best guess, though, is that the it's no one's fault except the dumbasses who decided F&C get to work from home. It's gotta be damn hard for both the on-air folks and the behind the scenes folks to coordinate and time things out properly when they're in seperate cities, and can't take any visual cues from each other.

[notpuikin]

I'm not in the building anymore, so I can't say for sure. But, I would bet that F&C are opping their own board. There isn't an op working for the other stations at Broadway and Ash, or at any of the other Rogers stations for that matter. The anchors/jocks do it themselves. What a concept.

[johnsykes]

I don't like pulling other guys apart, but if Terry Chan has anything to do with the F & C show.....sorry Terry...not impressed. You didn't impress me when you got the gig at 107.1...Country in Abbotsford.

Surely Rogers can afford to put a major market show together? Or, good grief to suggest such a thing.....could Fred be too old to come back on air? after all, if I am 67 going on 68 next month.....then damn it....Fred is not far behind me.....and he owes me a badminton racquet if anyone is talking to him......

Sykes is back from the Okanagan......and has some comments about OK radio and TV on another deal....go look for it.

[Jack Bennest]

and you called Top Dog while in the Okanagan?

this could be the end of a beautiful relationship

[pave]

When we signed 66-CFR on, we "dead-sticked" that sucker for six weeks! Six Freakin' Weeks of pretending to be on-the-Radio! One of the worst aspects was listening to the board-feed through the cans rather than that magical crackle of an on-air feed.

Still, we hit the air running.... running like a well-oiled machine.

90 days later, the market had been effectively gutted.

What a rush. What a buzz!

[Cliff Bashly Kinkade]

And what year was that Pave?

[pave]

We signed it on in January of '84 and kept it a Monster for about 6 years.

By that time,the "wizards" at Rawlco had finished with empire-building and decided to start tinkering with The Best-In-The-West. The "tinkering" was in the form of, what is now, S.O.P. for corporate radio.

They killed it, instead.

[RoadRunner65]

I remember that day very well pave. I really enjoyed 66 CFR when they first came on. Those were the good old days of radio. I sure miss those days. I was never in radio, but I did apply to SAIT and Mount Royal never made it in. Radio will never be the same again.

RR65

[pave]

I wouldn't want to leave the impression that I thought those first six years of 66-CFR constituted "Great Radio"... as I don't.

It was good enough, certainly, to dominate the market - on AM yet! - but the seeds of its own demise were sown quite early-on.

Did I, personally, enjoy the experience? Indeed. But only to the point where I recognised the manipulations and intrusions of what would become "corporate Radio" policies and attitudes.

When Rawlco started programming the Talent out of the radio station, the writing - and the blood - started showing up on the walls.

Still, the experience makes for some terrific "back in the day" stories.