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Don't forget the listener.

C

coz

Guest
This was posted in another thread. It occurred to me that it might be universal.

Radio is the personal connection between the listener and the radio station. Without that we are a dying industry. I never forgot the stories of kids who had transistor radios under the covers at 11pm to hear the AM stations from far away. If you could feel a part of something, that was worth more than a ratings book or a playlist. And always will be. It is a connection to the station and to clients that cannot be faked and will always produce results. Sometimes slowly, but patience is a virtue that is missing in much of our world today. Radio needs to be more. It has been more. We can't be hung up on the specifics, or the 300 song playlist. It has worked to touch the listener. It will always work to touch the listener. Look at the WTOS TSA book over the last 5 years. Best ever. Best ever metro numbers too. Best ever. Talk to people. Give them a world to escape to. Budget cut are inevitable. Voice tracking is fine, have someting to say. Always have something to say.

C-O-Z
 
Just say it in 30 seconds or less, and make sure it's about American Idol, Lindsay Lohan or Dancing With the Stars.
 
Remember this one? "Radio Ga Ga" from Queen:

I'd sit alone and watch your light
My only friend through teenage nights
And everything I had to know
I heard it on my radio
(Radio)

You gave them all those old time stars
Through wars of worlds -- invaded by Mars
You made 'em laugh -- you made 'em cry
You made us feel like we could fly

So don't become some background noise
A backdrop for the girls and boys
Who just don't know or just don't care
And just complain when you're not there
You had your time, you had the power
You've yet to have your finest hour
(Radio)

All we hear is Radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Radio ga ga
All we hear is Radio ga ga
Radio blah blah
Radio what's new?
Radio, someone still loves you!
 
There's a jock who spent four years in Atlanta doing CHR nights. To a radio personality, his show was overly annoying - all the schoolgirls calling and his "hot mom check in" where the soccer moms called and he would rap with them. I mean rapping, not just jock prattle. He memorized all the ZIP codes in the market and did a similar bit where the listeners quizzed him for their suburb. On Friday nights, he'd even freestyle rap all the suburb names to the beat from "Welcome to Atlanta".

After getting past the annoyance factor, I got it - he was the most locally accessible jock in Atlanta. Dude is 25, two weeks older than me... came out of Philadelphia, after a stint in Miami. It's just been announced, he landed a deal to take pretty much that same show to syndication - "local" syndicated night show on Dial Global's CHR channel. It's all about giving the audience a personal connection. Have you ever noticed how radio listeners talk about their local jocks like old friends, even if they've met or talked on the phone only rarely? I know so many people who talk about how they know the long-tenured personalities in town so well, from way back, and the personalities themselves have no idea who these people are.

It's still really important to have a connection to the audience. People can't call and talk to their iPods. If the DJ's too lazy to get on the phone and interact, I'll switch to MP3s.
 
"Radio is the personal connection between the listener and the radio station. Without that we are a dying industry. I never forgot the stories of kids who had transistor radios under the covers at 11pm to hear the AM stations from far away. If you could feel a part of something, that was worth more than a ratings book or a playlist."

Wow, that was me! Under the covers late at night with the radio smushed between my head and my pillow, listening, listening....sitting under a tree in the summer, dialing through the daytime stations....Calling WAAF every day to request "Bargain" by The Who. Also, we had a reel to reel tape deck, and I recorded and cut and spliced stuff.

I am now involved in talk radio, which I LOVE, but as a kid, I was just into music. There's a lot of music in talk radio, too, if you listen for it....bits (I love montages of any type), hitting a post exactly (Hearing that thrills me!), live reads (All the gang at WTKK) (but Michelle, who is getting better), great moments of radio theater (Michael Savage! How about a show where he stays away from opinion and does just his storytelling? A weekend show on NPR?)

That I am actually always thinking of things like thisis nuts, but I am proud to be a radio geek.
 
“Kids who had transistor radios under the covers at 11pm to hear the AM stations from far away"

That was me too back then. But today kids have their cell phones under the covers, talking to friends. They’re plugged into their Ipod or cell phone listening to streaming music over a G3 network.

The next generation has unplugged from radio and radio as we know it is dying. Sorry.

A thirty something came to a radio station sponsored music test and put these words in writing. “Listening to radio is like listening to your friend’s ipod with commercials”
 
I can remember waiting all day when I was a teenager for our local "Quiet Storm" to come on, and man did I want to be as cool as that jock! Funny thing is, I later met him and it turned out we went to the same church and he was every bit as cool as he sounded!
 
I to remember waiting to see the local DJ's at the Rutland County Fair after listening to some of them for a couple years.
You guessed it " my imaginary friend" wasn't quite well ,what I invisioned them to be.
After the initial introduction though your right they were cool.
 
S.O.B. said:
Remember this one? "Radio Ga Ga" from Queen:

All we hear is Radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Click to expand...

It's only fair to note that this song is from 1984. Even the good old days aren't what they used to be.
 
pocket-radio said:
The next generation has unplugged from radio and radio as we know it is dying. Sorry.
Click to expand...

The next generation has no incentive for sticking with the medium. In a homogenized market like Portland, you can hear virtually the same tired playlists on several stations. I actually heard AC/DC on Coast 93.1 the other day. Even if one's musical tastes largely coincide with these lowest common denominator formats, why would anyone put up with the commercials, the insipid liners ("Portland's All New Number One With Men, Women & Undecideds!!) & the inane banter that permeates the market? iPods, cd's, lp's, cassettes, even 8-tracks all look pretty good by comparison.

Radio has to be more than just a juke box, cranking out one song after another. It needs life, it needs a soul. I, too, was one of those kids with a transistor radio under the covers back in the day. I chose a station based not on its playlist, because one Top 40 station was playing the same stuff as every other. I dug the personalities. That's how I connected. Juicy Brucie Bradley, Dick Summer, Larry Justice, Ron Robin. That's why I listened. Give the next generation some personalities they can connect with and they may just ditch their iPods, for at least part of the time.
 
<the insipid liners ("Portland's All New Number One With Men, Women & Undecideds!!)>

Back in the mid 80s when 'here's another 55 minute music hour' liners were the rage, WWMJ in Ellsworth kicked around the idea of saying, "Coming up--another 60 minute hour!" Can't recall if it actually went on the air; gotta lotta laughs in the building, though.
 
That's good stuff. I hope it got on the air. Every time I heard 'BLM's "We're in the middle of another 5-in-a-row..." liner I cringed. What, are you stopping half-way through song #3 just to tell us how studly you are? I don't think so.
 
True Grit said:
Back in the mid 80s when 'here's another 55 minute music hour' liners were the rage, WWMJ in Ellsworth kicked around the idea of saying, "Coming up--another 60 minute hour!" Can't recall if it actually went on the air; gotta lotta laughs in the building, though.
Click to expand...

Many, many moons ago I worked at a Top 40 that did commercial-free "power hours". We'd billboard it as "at least 60 minutes of music this hour". Then again, we also pitched our music, so I guess technically we DID play more than 60 minutes worth of music in an hour. :p
 
I couldn't agree more on the "someone else's ipod" line. That is why it is so vitally important, especially in younger formats like CHR, to have something to say every single time you pop that mic. Entertain them, inform them, and give them a reason to stick around. With so much competition, never has the onus been more on jocks to deliver every time.
 
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