If music listeners ask, "Is it live or is it Memorex," do radio listeners wonder, "Is it live or is it voice track?"
Today's radio listeners apparently don't care whether they're listening to a live performance or a recorded one, according to a national radio programming consultant and two local stations.
Computer advancements enable stations to record programs anywhere, meaning it's not always local talent filling Pittsburgh's airwaves. The "voice tracking" system allows stations such as WKST (96.1 FM) and WDUQ (90.5 FM) to air quality programming without having to find — and then sign — quality talent.
Sean Valentine voice-tracks the WKST morning show. Pittsburgh listeners hear what he recorded the day before in Los Angeles.
A recent KDKA-TV report about the so-called "big lie" of voice tracking said two other stations suggested WKST was misleading listeners by not saying he wasn't local.
"If voice tracking turns off listeners, our (WKST) listeners never got the memo," says Gene Romano, senior vice president of programming for Clear Channel Communications.
WDUQ, a noncommercial station, also uses it for local programs as well as for Jazz Works — a nationally syndicated service owned by Duquesne University and Boise State University, according to Helen Wigger, WDUQ operations manager.
Pittsburgh announcers such as Bob Studebaker and Scott Hanley, WDUQ's general manager, voice-track their shows on Jazz Works.
When WDUQ's evening host, Tony Mowod, makes a personal appearance, he also uses voice tracking — although he is local, he records his shows ahead of time.
"Tony replaces Tony," Wigger says.
Voice tracking also allows Jeff Fox from Twin Falls, Idaho, to air on WDUQ from 2 to 5 a.m. weekdays and Bonnie Grice from Long Island, N.Y., to be on afternoons from 1 to 3.
But stations seldom want to sound like a musical jukebox.
"Voice tracking is as successful as the local station makes it," says national programming consultant Mike McVay of McVay Media in Cleveland, Ohio. "The station must work diligently to make it sound live and local."
McVay, who grew up in Youngwood and worked at stations in the tri-state area, consults WRRK (96.9 FM) and WTLJ (92.9 FM). Neither Pittsburgh station uses voice tracking, but some of the 150 stations McVay consults do.
To make voice tracking sound local, hosts such as Valentine must do their homework garnering local information. Some stations receive a script of what the host has recorded. Stations in Cleveland and Cincinnati give that script to the woman at each station designated to be Valentine's co-host. Since they know what Valentine is going to say, they have time to think of their adlibs, thereby making the show sound more live and local, says McVay.
A high-profile morning host in a city such as Pittsburgh makes about $100,000 annually, McVay speculates. If the station airs a voice-track show, it might cost a station about $25,000. Less well-known hosts would cost a station between $500 and $1,000 per month for a voice-track show.
Voice tracking eliminates jobs — "culling the heard," as McVay has heard it described. However, the technology also helps air-talent such as Nancy Newcomer in Santa Barbara, Calif., who won't leave the area for a better-paying job in another city. Voice tracking allows Newcomer to be heard in four other cities, McVay says.
Competing stations should stop complaining about it and start doing a better job of attracting listeners.
The answer to "Is it live or is it voice track?" is "Who cares?"
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