Here's Some Folks that REALLY Don't Know What They're Doing!

I was speaking to a former coworker whom I had not spoken to in almost ten years. We were recently reunited through Facebook. I would like to thank that free social network for aiding in an online conversation. We were talking about the amount of money that was thrown at certain things back in the day.

In this situation, the guy I used to work with was hired by the radio station to "wrap" a van. This involves sticking various vinyl and I don't know what to the outside to create the logo that's "bigger than life" on the vehicle.

He was telling me how the name the radio station picked, "kiss", was already used by a prominent station in nearby Los Angeles. The evil empire Clear Channel owned the rights to the name and had some legal stipulation that nobody in a 100 mile radius or something couldn't use the name. Now my friend claims he kinda knew this was the case, but since he was paid by our ignorant radio station to wrap the van, he did it.

A week later they got a "cease and desist" and my friend was told he had to re wrap the van with the name "hits." Yes, hits and kiss sound very similar. Hits was a better name, actually, because that's what the station was really playing and since it was new it works to be very clear as to what you are.

A few months later, evil empire, who had bought many stations in this town, changed a radio station to the name "kiss" and directly competed against "hits."

Here's my WHAT THE HECK...aside from my friend getting paid twice, in today's world, in today's radio, HE WOULD HAVE ONLY BEEN PAID ONCE. I guarantee it! Then he would have been told to take a one week furlough, even though he works independently.

And why didn't the company that owned "hits," I believe it was Cumulus, not do any legal research to see if there was any problem using that name in the first place? I mean, it would be so obvious to any large radio corporation that this was an infringement.

This basically shows what I mentioned in the last blog, that radio today has NO IDEA WHAT IT'S DOING. It says it bases everything on research, but honestly, that research doesn't exist in reality. Most research that I saw done was calling people on their landlines, and who today really still uses that? Everyone under 40 is using cellphones. Why use a land line unless you're a business, and the researchers weren't allowed to contact businesses, only private residences. Everything is dictated to each individual radio station from a huge corporation (and by dictated, I mean in the most condescending way possible--you should have heard some of the conference calls I was on! I was treated like a delinquent child!). These choices are made on faulty research.

Oh, and these radio stations love pushing to the top conservative extremists like you hear all over the AM. Thank goodness they or their employers aren't running the country right now! People complain about the stimulus package and the amount spent. You can bet with a conservative party IT WOULD BE TWICE AS MUCH! The conservatives are taking the other side now because that seems to be the popular view...do nothing and just suffer. Why change, nothings wrong. My head is perfectly fine buried in sand!

It's a different age. We need to behave differently. Radio, however, will continue to keep its head buried.