Re: The Lake
Mike Sheridan said:
Element9 said:
So, what you're saying is that you want The Lake to sound like a RADIO STATION.
I realize that may be far fetched, but yes. Afterall, these little outposts between 88.1 and 107.9 are called "radio stations," no? It's always amazed me how some programmers try to make radio something it's not. From my experience, listeners expect radio stations to sound like, uh, well, RADIO STATIONS. It's not called an "iPod station," "cassette station," "CD station" or "mp3 station." If you have an official document which authorizes the emission of RF energy on the FM or AM band, then you have a RADIO STATION. Give listeners some semblence of entertainment that they've come to expect when they press the "on" button and scan the band.
-9-
You are not serious.... You don't mean let the jocks talk, entertain, inform! No we can't have that. They might start asking for more money, anarchy would insue....no this won't be allowed ;D
The evolution of this thread has been interesting and compelling.
Imagine if jocks were allowed the lattitude of commenting when and where they pleased during the course of each hour's music offering. Even within the strictures of the pre-selected music and required liners, imagine how much more entertaining and unpredictable each hour might become. I am not advocating anarchy or free-form radio.
Imagine a program director giving his airstaff the following guidelines, laying out ground rules and the target demo (e.g., Men, 18-34): Maintain the forward motion or flow of music in each sweep; backsells are permitted prior to commercial breaks but not within the music sweep; schtick and bits only over intros; want to cold-intro (no talk over) a song, do it; liners must be read as scheduled; phoners (drop-ins and sound bites) are permitted within time constraints, relative to the music, song or artist (e.g., request or artist interview); commercial breaks will be fixed, however, when commercial loads exceed "x" number of minutes per hour, the air personality will have the lattitude to run two six minute breaks or three four minutes breaks, however, the breaks must follow the program director's guidelines for placement (in other words, there is format clock for each application.) A specified number of songs must be played each hour. Although the air personality is important and plays a significant role in the station's success and appeal, it IS a music station.
"Know the rules before you attempt to break them, color within the lines, do not pass on the right."
Each personality has control of his/her destiny and success, as such, his/her performance will be evaluated each rating period and he/she will receive a pre-determined bonus (or terminated, only with cause) according to audience share and placement in a specified demographic.
Laugh if you will, but considering the competition from iPods, mp3 players and other entertainment channels, personality-based LOCAL radio will return within five years, maybe even incorporating some of the aforementioned points.
It'll take seasoned professionals to execute this type of approach. Which means they'll have to be paid accordingly. money. Already, there's a GM asking "who's available in syndication?" Certainly nobody LOCAL could do this job as well.
