Carson Daly comin' at ya live!

February 4, 2003 11:34 AM

DJ Borg Carson Daly(nyt link, registration required) hosts a weekly nationwide Clear Channel radio show called "Carson Daly Most Requested". Tastes differ in different markets so the show is tailored to local markets by counting down the top ten most requested songs in each market. How then does Clear Channel then simultaneously broadcast different lists with different between song patter but with the same host? Easy. They've created a Carson Daly voice database and their technicians construct his intros and background by assembling voice snippets. (via ArsTechnica)
posted by TimeFactor (22 comments total)

Or, they push the same ten sucky songs in every market...
posted by stifford at 11:43 AM on February 4, 2003

www.sirius.com - to get away from the Clear Channel Borg and commercials. And their Dance & Electronica channels really hit it.

www.xmradio.com is good too - it costs less per month (by $3) but it has some Clear Channel content and some commercials.

Technology. It can save us from the Clear Channel Borg...

JB
posted by JB71 at 11:49 AM on February 4, 2003

We are the radio robots. We are here to protect you. We are here to protect you from the terrible secret of radio.
posted by ewagoner at 11:50 AM on February 4, 2003

That's pretty intresting, in San Francisco we are lucky enough to not have a top 40 station here. Though, when we did, I heard the Carson show once or twice, and I never noticed anything strange about it. Not that I was paying attention anyway.
posted by glitterbug at 11:51 AM on February 4, 2003

Wait, Carson Daly ISN'T a robot?!?!?
posted by agregoli at 12:07 PM on February 4, 2003

That strikes me as a pretty nifty use of technology. Marginally better, I think, than just doing a single nationally syndicated show.

On the other hand, Clear Channel and Carson Daly are involved, so it does involve fairly high levels of background evil
posted by jacquilynne at 12:16 PM on February 4, 2003

Funny enough, before his MTV career, Carson Daly was a DJ on 98.5 KOME in San Jose, a rock station which broadcast to SF as well (but has since gone under... I think Live 105 bought them out?)... So we did get a fair dose of him before he hit it big.
posted by swank6 at 12:30 PM on February 4, 2003

I find that I've become more of a sports fan because sports radio seems to be the one genre of broadcasting one can listen to in the car that hasn't been completely ruined by clear channel. Hopefully, it will stay that way, as CC will face too much pressure if they attempt to replace local personalities attuned to local sports fanaticism. Cling tight to whatever sense of regionality exists within CC's model of Generica.
posted by machaus at 12:35 PM on February 4, 2003

Modern radio has fallen so far from it's 70's FM heyday. Man, crap like this is exactly why the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx outlawed all music in 2112!!
posted by jonson at 12:54 PM on February 4, 2003

Can I license that database? As a purveyor of high-class porn chat lines, I think it'd be a goldmine.
posted by yerfatma at 1:04 PM on February 4, 2003

"Cause we are living in a cut-n-paste world and I am a cut-n-paste girl..."

The 21st century should be known as the cut-n-paste century. We can cut-n-paste DNA, pixels and sound bytes. What's next? Revisionist history. I know this has shades of Henny Penny yelling "The sky is falling, the sky is falling." but technology today exists such that we should/could seriously questions everything we see and hear. Our history becomes our cut-n-past.
posted by VelvetHellvis at 1:12 PM on February 4, 2003

More on ClearChannel's voice tracking: "For the listener, this process, known as 'voice tracking,' crushes the notion that all radio is local. Jocks may prerecord vocal drops and listener calls to send out to other Clear Channel stations throughout the region. Labor unions argue that Clear Channel utilizes voice tracking to violate labor contracts, according to Peter Fuster, vice president of the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists' New York chapter. Consumer groups say it undercuts radio's public mission to provide news, information, and color for local communities. The practice is so controversial that it has already provoked a National Labor Relations Board charge against KMEL's New York counterpart, Power 105, which imported former KMEL DJ Theo Mizuhara's voice for overnight programming."
posted by ed at 1:22 PM on February 4, 2003

Thankfully Venus was smart enough to return to WKRP after he saw how WREQ was run.
posted by gluechunk at 1:24 PM on February 4, 2003

What the hell is Gluechunk talking about?
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:33 PM on February 4, 2003

So it seems the host is as constructed as the music which it plays.
posted by the fire you left me at 3:00 PM on February 4, 2003

Boss: If you don't get that kid an elephant by tomorrow, the DJ 3000 gets your job.
DJ 3000: Those clowns in congress did it again. What a bunch of clowns.
Bill: [laughs] How does it keep up with the news like that?
[Bart Gets an Elephant]
posted by Gary at 5:08 PM on February 4, 2003

Someone needs to play Misty for me.
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:15 PM on February 4, 2003

Gary, that was exactly what I was thinking of as well...
posted by thewittyname at 6:57 AM on February 5, 2003

My brother recently told me they did this same thing for years with Wolfman Jack (Well, what did you think of that last tune, Wolfman? [click, click, click] "Tony... I thought it was... totally rockin'... arOOOOOO!"), but I'll be darned if I can find any mention of this on the 'net. Apparently they discussed it in one of his classes.
posted by britain at 9:12 AM on February 5, 2003

Ahhh... good ol' pre-fabricated radio.

Here in Atlanta, Clear Channel recently opened an "80's Music" station, called The Max. The dj's, of course, are pre-recorded 1000's of miles away, but they try and pretend like they're local. "Hey! C'mon down to Music Midtown this Saturday! You'll see me there... I'll be going CRAAAZY!"

One of them blew his cover recently with this line... "Hey everybody! I went down to that pizza place the other day... that Fellini's... man, that was some good pizza!"

Everyone in Atlanta knows that Fellini's isn't good pizza.

If I had the money (which I don't), I'd run a station that touted the "Everyone who works here, lives here" line. Maybe it'd work...
posted by BobFrapples at 10:52 AM on February 5, 2003

So you guys listen to the radio for the DJs? Or do you listen to radio at all?

Okay, sorry. I know that it's natural to be irritated, or even mad, at people or companies that engage in a practice that's can be deceptive. But what adult believed, even back in the day, that Kasey Casem was really an employee of their local radio station and just came in every weekend to count 'em down?

I agree with BobFrapples that it's really stupid for DJs to pretend that they live in the community when they don't. That's just lying, and pointless lying. Who cares where you ate pizza--just get to the next song already!

I'm concerned about media consolidation too--that's precisely why Sirius and XM are not the answer. All your music and information coming from one source? Yikes.

It's funny how this post could have been interpreted as, "Oh wow, look what technology can do" but nearly everybody just used it as an excuse to bash radio. If you don't like it, don't listen. If you do listen, tell your favorite radio station what you do and don't like about their programming, including voicetracking. If enough people feel the same way, the market will eventually respond.
posted by teenydreams at 12:03 PM on February 5, 2003

If you do listen, tell your favorite radio station what you do and don't like about their programming

At least in my community, there is no longer a local number one can call to make such statements for the vast majority of the stations present in the town. You may call a toll-free number that ends up in an undisclosed location. Seriously, they won't tell you where they're located. They take all comments 'to heart' and go on playing the same old pap and fake-dj crap that they seem to think is popular. Profitable maybe, but not popular.

...Kasey Casem was really an employee of their local radio station and just came in every weekend to count 'em down

I believe anyone capable of understanding the phrase America's Top Forty ... do I really need to go on?

If you don't like it, don't listen.

I don't. Gave it up in '99. I smell better as a result, and I can go into more public places than ever before!
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:44 PM on February 5, 2003