OPEN THREAD: Is Ticket Tech Really as Bad As It Seems?

We need to hear from some radio experts and, ideally, Cumulo-Ticket insiders.

I used to think:  The Ticket does a lot of remotes; I'm sure those present some technical challenges as they move from venue to venue.  So, atrocious signal(s) aside, in my early years of listening I tended to give Ticket tech a pass.

Then:

(1)  I heard the hosts grow increasingly testy about the lousy technology they had to deal with in the studio.

(2) It occurred to me that the number of remotes mean that they should have figured out how to do them fairly seamlessly.

(3) There was the absolute disgrace of the move to Victory, during which, apparently, a large chunk of Ticket history disappeared in addition to the overall amateurism of the transfer.  If no one lost his/her job in that disaster, then  .  .  .  well, I guess you see a lot of this in ossified corporate cultures.

(4) The tech meltdowns in the last two Hardline remotes, one of which won the E-Brake today.  Now, I will say that Hardline meltdowns tend to be extremely entertaining, between Danny's exasperation and sarcastic sing-songy efforts to broadcast over the mortification and Corby's and Mike's disgusted commentary.

It occurs to me that I've been listening to sports radio and other talk radio for a long time, and I've never heard anything as technically error-prone as The Ticket. 

Really -- what's the problem?  Bad equipment?  Bad IT/AV administration up the ladder?   Insufficient investment in personnel? Or are we (am I) just wrong about how lousy Ticket technology is?

Please advise.

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This Started Out as a Comment to the Last Article, but It Kinda Grew Into an Unusually STD

(For new readers:  STD = Scorching Ticket Disquisition.) 

A couple of Confessors have chided the hosts for their continued griping about the ongoing technical problems in the move to Victory Park.   I haven't found the griping all that off-putting, but maybe my listening has been a little spotty.  I do find it amazing, and appalling, that Cumulus wasn't prepared for this move. 

Although they portray regular guys on the radio (and mostly are), the hosts and producers and board guys are top professionals.  Extremely talented and skilled.  Their employer has given them faulty tools and is taking a bloody long time to fix them.  Can't blame them for being upset.

I try to put myself in their place, and when I do this is how it dopes out:

The Ticket is a unique institution.  It's "The LITTLE Ticket," as Mike R says,  because of its undesirable dial location and miserable signal and zero promotion to the public beyond people who already listen.  It portrays itself as an underdog but it's a spunky little thing.  It beats the big guys because of of its intelligence and fleet-footedness and style.

But these ongoing (and, it seems, worsening) problems make The Ticket look like something it has never looked like before: 

Dumb.  Foolish and unprepared.  Technically deficient. 

I know this is Corbyesque hyperbole, but:   The incompetence displayed is tarnishing the brand.  The Ticket looks silly, vulnerable.

And the hosts do not want to look like this, especially since they're helpless to do anything about it.  So they're mad and trying to provoke some urgency by embarrassing the responsible persons into getting things fixed.  I'm OK with that.

I know the Victory Park stuff is new.  I know it's complex.  But the magnitude and frequency of the failures this week should be unacceptable to responsible managers.  Did Cumulus not know that it was going to be new and complex well over a year ago when they announced this move?   Some CTO, frankly, has been asleep at the switch.  This is not primarily a cable-hookup-guy problem -- this is a move that has been ill-managed at a higher level probably through failure to devote sufficient resources, or sufficient expertise, in sufficient concentration to the move, or a strategy that neglects to, you know, TEST THE FRACKIN' STUFF OFF-HOURS BEFORE YOU DUMP IT ON THE PUBLIC. 

Maybe they think the rough-and-tumble 25-54 male won't care, long as he gets his bits and drops and Alexis saying "stick it up your tailpipe."

Yeah, it'll get better.  But in the meantime:  Frankly, Confessors, I'm beginning to feel a little bit disrespected.