OK, I'm going to unload about the simple stuff that people on the radio in Boston have either forgotten or never knew.
1. Never refer to the audience as "everyone," "you guys," "everybody," "folks" or any other collective term. It's "you." Radio is a one on one medium, people dont' listen to people talking to the multitudes, they talk one-on-one.
2. Restore top of the hour complete five minute newscasts, somewhere on the dial. Right now they don't exist. Metro news is a disaster, the ever-plodding WBZ requires 15 minutes to get through news sport weather traffic. This is radio, people, nobody's winning a Pulitzer for team coverage of a some nitwit getting himself shot in the South End. I can't find the equivalent of the old style top of the hour newscasts anywhere on the internet, I need to check several sites to do it an nobody anywhere puts together a simple internet rundown of top local stuff happening within the hour. We have abandoned top of the hour news and have not replaced it, even on the internet.
3. Tell the jackasses who do the sports updates on WBZ-FM and WEEI that they really ought to do some work between broadcasts. They clearly are busy surfing the Web for porn between on air appearances since they forget some of the simple basics such as a) you don't lead with last night's scores at noon, b) One is allowed to make phone calls to try to break/advance stories, c) Advancing, or to use radio's phrase, 'previewing' the night's contest ought to include stuff we don't know, and that stuff is usually about the visiting team. Radio is about being current and immediate, not about babbling the same thing over and over and over without even rewriting it. Radio is about forward movement, and don't ever forget it.
4. The world does not revolve around celebrity gossip, Kim Kardashian's backside, American Idol and reality shows. Morning shows have devolved into a level of poop that is staggering in its stupidity. Try being topical about something other than pop culture and being a Stern wannabe. It's merely a new level of the 80s style 'celebrity birthdays' which was done because the AP gave you a list every morning and it was easy. Babble about Kim's bum is equally easy, requiring no thought, and program directors love it because they read in a book once that you have to "relate," and since most music station program directors have an IQ of 73, they think "relate" means living in an Entertainment Tonight or TMZ world. Unfortunately for radio, people are not as stupid as program directors or Nit and Wit with Tookie in the morning.
5. Listen to Siegal. Take notes. He relates to an audience in a way the Stern wannabes and the "Nit and Wit with Tookie in the Morning" shows never can and never will. By the way, the audience he relates to is more 35-54 than the WXKS demo, but listen to his phone bit between 7:30 and 8 and see how its done.
6. Have a life outside radio, with people who don't work in the business. Radio people hanging out with radio people breeds an insulated perspective on the world that does nobody any good.
7. Forward momentum. It's the lifeblood of radio. Back announce songs only on occasion and only when it's something the audience might not recognize. Talk over the end of songs, nobody needs to hear the last note of a fade-out, it just invites them to go looking elsewhere. You pick up your audience and you drag them to the next quarter hour. Even with people meters, the basics are still the same, keep them listening, fight for the next quarter hour, the next song, the next minute.
8. Don't listen to the corporate pablum that comes down in the memos. It's all crap. Don't even read them unless it's in an envelope marked personal and confidential. Then read it and call a lawyer.
9. Never, ever, ever say "we'll be right back" or anything similar. The radio station ain't going anywhere. You can preview stuff, but never give the impression you're going away. Don't say "after this" or refer to stop sets as an interruption
10. Never, in the news, sports, or informational context, say that you'll have more information "when it becomes available." Never give the impression that you're sitting around waiting for stuff to be dropped in your lap. Be simple. Tell them you'll have more, tell them you have Tessa McBazookas talking with people involved, tell them you will have constant updates. But don't be passive. Remember forward momentum. Never say you're waiting for information to "become available."
11. Unionize, unionize, unionize. It's tragic how many people at the local Entercom properties got hosed by the promises of company 401(k) contributions that the company summarily suspended. With AFTRA, they would have had more time in on the pension and the company could not have fooled around with their retirement without collective bargaining. AFTRA is the best thing that ever happened to people in radio, and if you don't believe me, ask a few former stars whose day came and went, as all broadcasters careers come and go, but who got severance, the ability to continue health care based on relatively minimal earnings, and a pension when the company would have thumbed its nose at the employee it kicked to the curb. Its amazing to see producers doing announcer's work and being paid less than the secretarial help, but nobody can grieve it because highly paid right-wing nuts led a drive to decertify.
1. Never refer to the audience as "everyone," "you guys," "everybody," "folks" or any other collective term. It's "you." Radio is a one on one medium, people dont' listen to people talking to the multitudes, they talk one-on-one.
2. Restore top of the hour complete five minute newscasts, somewhere on the dial. Right now they don't exist. Metro news is a disaster, the ever-plodding WBZ requires 15 minutes to get through news sport weather traffic. This is radio, people, nobody's winning a Pulitzer for team coverage of a some nitwit getting himself shot in the South End. I can't find the equivalent of the old style top of the hour newscasts anywhere on the internet, I need to check several sites to do it an nobody anywhere puts together a simple internet rundown of top local stuff happening within the hour. We have abandoned top of the hour news and have not replaced it, even on the internet.
3. Tell the jackasses who do the sports updates on WBZ-FM and WEEI that they really ought to do some work between broadcasts. They clearly are busy surfing the Web for porn between on air appearances since they forget some of the simple basics such as a) you don't lead with last night's scores at noon, b) One is allowed to make phone calls to try to break/advance stories, c) Advancing, or to use radio's phrase, 'previewing' the night's contest ought to include stuff we don't know, and that stuff is usually about the visiting team. Radio is about being current and immediate, not about babbling the same thing over and over and over without even rewriting it. Radio is about forward movement, and don't ever forget it.
4. The world does not revolve around celebrity gossip, Kim Kardashian's backside, American Idol and reality shows. Morning shows have devolved into a level of poop that is staggering in its stupidity. Try being topical about something other than pop culture and being a Stern wannabe. It's merely a new level of the 80s style 'celebrity birthdays' which was done because the AP gave you a list every morning and it was easy. Babble about Kim's bum is equally easy, requiring no thought, and program directors love it because they read in a book once that you have to "relate," and since most music station program directors have an IQ of 73, they think "relate" means living in an Entertainment Tonight or TMZ world. Unfortunately for radio, people are not as stupid as program directors or Nit and Wit with Tookie in the morning.
5. Listen to Siegal. Take notes. He relates to an audience in a way the Stern wannabes and the "Nit and Wit with Tookie in the Morning" shows never can and never will. By the way, the audience he relates to is more 35-54 than the WXKS demo, but listen to his phone bit between 7:30 and 8 and see how its done.
6. Have a life outside radio, with people who don't work in the business. Radio people hanging out with radio people breeds an insulated perspective on the world that does nobody any good.
7. Forward momentum. It's the lifeblood of radio. Back announce songs only on occasion and only when it's something the audience might not recognize. Talk over the end of songs, nobody needs to hear the last note of a fade-out, it just invites them to go looking elsewhere. You pick up your audience and you drag them to the next quarter hour. Even with people meters, the basics are still the same, keep them listening, fight for the next quarter hour, the next song, the next minute.
8. Don't listen to the corporate pablum that comes down in the memos. It's all crap. Don't even read them unless it's in an envelope marked personal and confidential. Then read it and call a lawyer.
9. Never, ever, ever say "we'll be right back" or anything similar. The radio station ain't going anywhere. You can preview stuff, but never give the impression you're going away. Don't say "after this" or refer to stop sets as an interruption
10. Never, in the news, sports, or informational context, say that you'll have more information "when it becomes available." Never give the impression that you're sitting around waiting for stuff to be dropped in your lap. Be simple. Tell them you'll have more, tell them you have Tessa McBazookas talking with people involved, tell them you will have constant updates. But don't be passive. Remember forward momentum. Never say you're waiting for information to "become available."
11. Unionize, unionize, unionize. It's tragic how many people at the local Entercom properties got hosed by the promises of company 401(k) contributions that the company summarily suspended. With AFTRA, they would have had more time in on the pension and the company could not have fooled around with their retirement without collective bargaining. AFTRA is the best thing that ever happened to people in radio, and if you don't believe me, ask a few former stars whose day came and went, as all broadcasters careers come and go, but who got severance, the ability to continue health care based on relatively minimal earnings, and a pension when the company would have thumbed its nose at the employee it kicked to the curb. Its amazing to see producers doing announcer's work and being paid less than the secretarial help, but nobody can grieve it because highly paid right-wing nuts led a drive to decertify.
