DJ Stoudt Voted one of Best Programmers in Radio Business

From today's Observer TV notes . . .

Industry trade publication Radio Ink names D.J. Stout, operations manager for WSOC-FM (103.7) and WFNZ-AM (610, 1660), one of the top 15 radio programmers in the nation


Ummmmmmmmmmm, these days don't the playlist for most radio stations come from corporate HQ's ? ? ? They will tell them what to play and how often and almost when to play which songs? As far as the sportstalk side of the business, hell it doesn't seem much work to me. Find out what your budget is, hire some local talent, and plug in the holes with network & live programming (ESPN, FOXSPORTS, etc.)

 

they do a lot more than that, overseeing "management of operations , programming and personnel; marketing and promotion; morning show; sales; production; traffic; hiring; training; budgeting; and compliance."

 

-Programming & Personnel: 3 local shows (MSP, Chris McClain, PRIMETIME). 4 employees (Gary Williams, Celania, McCalin, Packman). Yep, that's an all day job!!!!!!!

-Marketing & Promotion: I haven't seen a WFNZ billboard in ages . . . No ads in local paper. WFNZ DOG POUND probably takes up most of their promotion budget & time, but that's only 5 months out of the year (August-December)

-Morning Show: SEE PROGRAMMING & PERSONNEL

-Sales: Hmmmmmmmmmm, OK. This might be the 'hardest' part of the job. I hear ads every few months promoting Sales positions with the FRANCHISE. Does this department see a lot of turnover?

-Production: OK, he has to oversee ads being made for the station.

-Traffic: I thought they outsource traffic reporting to METRO TRAFFIC? I guess he still has to oversee sponsor spots and they get on the air.

-Hiring: For the sales department, ok.

-Training: Sales department, Ok.

-Budgeting: Ummmm, Packman gets 25% of station revenue . . . Rest goes to remaining station employees !!!!!!!!!!!

-Complaince: Yeah, FCC Paperwork has to be filed & updated.


THE BOTTOM LINE: Ops Manager of a Radio Station does involve work, but due to WFNZ's size (station staff, budget, etc.) its not necessarily a super hard job; He probably spends a little bit more time at WSOC-FM. But again, corporate is going to dictate what he can spend on marketing, what songs they will play, how many DJ's he can hire, etc. right ? ? ? ? ? ? This isn't like the old days when the Kaplan's were running BIG WAYS 610 back in the 60's-80's when they actually did wacky promotions and they paid a good sum of money for some talented DJ's (Jay Thomas, Larry Sprinkle, Bob Murphy, etc.)

 

you HONESTLY think that's all it takes? you missed out on an internship.

Do some research on it, and then let me know how "easy" it is to manage a staff of "just 4".

Damn, sds, I thought you had some brains.

 

So what did I miss in my breakdown ? Again, I'm not saying DJ Stout doesn't have an easy job. I'm just saying how can he be rated a top 15 Ops Manager where due to budget constraints (at least on WFNZ side) you can't do much? Again, Corporate up in NYC dictates what their radio stations can & can't do (whereas radio stations 30-40 years ago were more daring to do wacky promotions to draw listeners). Tell me what he has done that has made me/you/or anybody else who listens to WFNZ/WSOC go 'Damn, DJ Stout has those stations really kicking ass!!!!!'

WSOC is doing good, I will give you that. WFNZ/WFNA barely beats the local Spanish stations in the local numbers . . . Just for that, he should be off the list.

 

lol - weatherman beating down a YT in Sports.

 

OK, sds. You win. i have no idea how my industry runs, as opposed to the guy that worked/works at Lowe's.

 

I don't think MS is arguing that the programmer is a good one, just that there's a lot more work involved.

 

i think you're missing something -- what did the other 14 top ops do?

maybe he did more than those folks.

 

TIMEOUT . . . Lets start this over from the top . .

1) Radio Ink named DJ Stout one of the top 15 radio station programmers in the country
(WFNZ/WSOC/WFNA)

2) I'm simply asking what DJ Stout has done at the above stations that merited this award.

3) DJ Stout is Ops Manager for the above 3 stations: LarryD exponded on what an Ops Manager at a radio station does. I commented on each one and submised that its not a hard job. Again, I didn't say it was the easiest job, but considering the small staff at WFNZ, I simply said its not as hard (certainly there's more involved with WSOC-FM). In this day of corporate owned radio, I was just saying there are many things where DJ Stout is simply excuting orders from CBS Radio in NYC. Would I be wrong in saying this?

4) Solarte rips me on Point #4: OK, I should've included all station employees.(sales/advertising/on-air talent/producers/engineers)


All I'm just saying is if some industry publication rated him a top 15 radio programmer, that's fine. All I'm saying is what has he done, WSOC-FM is the top rated country station in the market, right? Top 3 overall in CLT? If that's true, than I can handle that.

Now over to WFNZ/WFNA side . . . What has he done with the Franchise that would make you say 'Damn, WFNZ/WFNA is kicking ass well!!!'. Arent their ratings down (overall and in the key demographic) over the last 2 ratings period? Or maybe their revenue has gone thru the roof? That's all I'm asking . . .