The Beginning of the End for the Tom Fitzmorris Show - Part 2

Well is was the longest continuously running food only radio show in the country.

I have been listening for years, I hope he finds a new station but I don't hold hope for it.

Cest la vie

Just hope I can get through on the mocha colored phone

He should consider trying to broaden his horizons and going podcast.

Few folks have HD radio or will go to the tech trouble to find the radio show there.

I'm old but do most of my "radio" via podcast these days. I listen to America's Test Kitchen and Milk Street (Chris Kimball's new gig), among others.

It sounds crazy, but some folks have gone podcast with no sponsor and built into a national following. Hell, Marc Maron turned his podcast into a multi-season TV show and now has the best "interview" show in all media today. He had the president of the US and Keith Richards on in the same year.

Get with it, Tom.

i thought he was just moving to 105.3 FM?

Will the show's format change at all?

Not sure. He said the scaling down to 2 hours is for the Monday-Friday shows. Saturday show will be 12-3, and the new Sunday show tbd.

In the 80s, I had a car that had AM stereo. Yes, AM stereo. There was only one station that broadcast its signal in stereo and it sounded OK, but you still had the crappy AM audio.

Bottom line is it's hard to get people to change out their hardware for an incremental upgrade in quality.

I don't understand why all new FM radios don't come with HD. It can't really add that much to the cost. My internet radio doesn't even have it. However many HD stations are available through the internet.

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Stadium Rat

Metairie

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you call that living?

TD should add his show live and archived as podcast!!!!

I got a snarky reply from Fitzmorris. I expected as much:

Hello Rat,

Although I appreciate your concern, it has degenerated into a desperate crusade to prove you're right about HD. I offer these counterpoints. And then I tell you again not only will the show continuoe to tun, you will someday buy the right kind of radio for best future listening.

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You have tried to be upbeat about the imminent change in the broadcast status of your show, which I understand. But to be brutally honest, I think this is the beginning of the end of your radio presence. Here's the story why I think that:

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The beginning of the end of my radio career began long ago. I have been on the air continuously since 1974. The Food Show has been on for 29 yearsa, and is the longest-running show in New Orleans radio history. It's a miracle that I am still there, having outlived nine format changes that killed everybody else. Some day, I will turn off the microphone, but it won't be because of HD.

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I almost exclusively listen to the show in my car and I have called in every once in awhile. My car is a 2012 model and does not have HD radio. Buying a new car with HD radio is not in the cards for at least a couple of years. You mentioned on air the car adapters were available for cheap that would plug into the cigarette lighter socket. I could not find any available online after a diligent search.

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The inventory of products available now does not limit what will be available in the future. As HD grows, the demand for the radios will, too, and there they will be.The way I listen to audio books in my car is with Bluetooth. Nothing needed to be added to the car. I also get phone calls that way, making the process hands-free. I can also use HD for this. Not in the future, but now.

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Yes, there are car adapter kits available that go for over a hundred dollars, but it has to be installed in the car, adding labor costs.

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This is the same logic given by people who said nobody would shift from radio to television.

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Instead, I bought a Insignia NS-HD01A Portable radio which you can mount on your belt. It is very small, so I thought it would be good for use in my car. My car has an AUX input so I can route the output into my car's speakers. I tried it out for the first time today. It will work, but only if the radio and its headphone/patch cord (which doubles as its antenna) is held high. Otherwise it drops in and out making your show impossible to listen to.

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Sounds like a poor choice of radios.If you're in a car, why would you have a radio on your belt?

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I don't like to listen on my computer as I use it constantly for my business and I find it awkward to mute to answer a business call quickly. So that is an infrequent listen for me.

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You can mute your speakers with one mouse click. So this is another lame excuse.

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I could listen more often if I could use my internet radio at home. My portable wifi radio is a Sangean WFR-28 Internet Radio. It relies on this website and its software built into the radio: Frontier Silicon wifi radio portal If you peruse this site, WWL FM/HD is nowhere to be found.

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Again, the market changes constantly. If the radio doesn't pick up HD, you have made another poor choice. I have four HD desk radios, none of which have these problems.

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I am about to be 59 years old in a couple of weeks, but I am very technology-literate, as are you. But for most of your listeners, they are not going to be able to navigate a way to your broadcast without it being handed to them.

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Ah, but they will! Indeed, they already do. I am told that WWL AM gets most of its phone calls not from telephones,. but from the audio stream. Amazing that with similar limitations to those of HD, FM was able to go from a small percentage of listeners to the majority of them, and dominates the dial.

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I know the AM transmission problems have frustrated you greatly, but this is not the answer. I also realize, this is most likely not your idea. You would be better served to slide down the dial to a lower-powered AM station

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Really! Then what is the answer? You say that as if it were easy. In fact, it's impossible. The international laws about radio are very difficult to change. "Impossible" would not be far from true.

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Please talk to the WWL people about making the HD stations available for internet radio (and I don't mean streaming on my PC). Maybe they could add it to the WWL radio app that I just installed today on my android phone.

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They didn't act without talking with me. I see this as a challenge, but one that eschanges imovable problems and the limited number of radio stations while improving the product.

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Reluctantly Tom, I'm going to bid you farewell because your show won't be accessible to me.

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You won't have to bid me farewell, and you won't. Looking forward to talking with you on the air again soon. Unless your luddite inclinations overcome the essential search for the best of life instead of the worst.

Tastefully yours,
Tom Fitzmorris