So, about hitting the post, I consider myself really good at it. For me, I can just feel the beat, tempo and energy of the music. Although I can’t do it 100% of the time, I can usually hit the post when it’s my first time hearing the song.
Whether to hit the post or not is a good question. Like many of you have already said, I agree with the average listener not caring about this. I also think whether to hit the post or not, depends on several factors. For formats, such as CHR, Hot AC and Country, I’m in favor of the DJ trying to hit the post, unless it’s a super long intro and they have nothing important to say. If you’re just stretching it out, just so you can hit the post, just shut up and play the song. Anytime a station uses music beds for long segments, I think they need to hit the post. For formats such as AC and Classic Hits, I don’t think it’s as important to hit the post. For Classical, Rock, AAA and NPR music formats, I prefer the DJ not hitting the post. I guess it all depends on the flow of the station and what sound they’re trying to achieve.
This also reminds me of a few people I’ve worked with in the past. At those stations, we used AudioVault and some of our on air talent would voice track through AVPRS instead of AV Scheduler. When that was done, the voice tracks would usually play dry and the song would start close to when the DJ was done talking. This was because the “voice tracks” weren’t properly categorized as voice track files in the automation system, The formats were AC and Country and it didn’t sound the best in my opinion. I felt like it was wasting time and it kind of broke up the music flow. I felt and still feel that on certain formats, if a listener can hear a song they like underneath you talking, they’ll continue to listen. If you don’t talk over the song at all, the likelihood of them tuning out would be higher. Additionally, for stations with DJs that almost always hit the post, dropping the rule when you’re relaying emergency information, might help that emergency info stand out a bit.
One more thing that I’ve noticed that’s being done more recently is some stations will cut intros off songs and will quickly fade into the starting vocals of the song. This only seems to be done after jingles or imaging and here in Dallas-Fort Worth, stations such as 106.1 Kiss FM are doing this.
Anyways, great thread!!
Whether to hit the post or not is a good question. Like many of you have already said, I agree with the average listener not caring about this. I also think whether to hit the post or not, depends on several factors. For formats, such as CHR, Hot AC and Country, I’m in favor of the DJ trying to hit the post, unless it’s a super long intro and they have nothing important to say. If you’re just stretching it out, just so you can hit the post, just shut up and play the song. Anytime a station uses music beds for long segments, I think they need to hit the post. For formats such as AC and Classic Hits, I don’t think it’s as important to hit the post. For Classical, Rock, AAA and NPR music formats, I prefer the DJ not hitting the post. I guess it all depends on the flow of the station and what sound they’re trying to achieve.
This also reminds me of a few people I’ve worked with in the past. At those stations, we used AudioVault and some of our on air talent would voice track through AVPRS instead of AV Scheduler. When that was done, the voice tracks would usually play dry and the song would start close to when the DJ was done talking. This was because the “voice tracks” weren’t properly categorized as voice track files in the automation system, The formats were AC and Country and it didn’t sound the best in my opinion. I felt like it was wasting time and it kind of broke up the music flow. I felt and still feel that on certain formats, if a listener can hear a song they like underneath you talking, they’ll continue to listen. If you don’t talk over the song at all, the likelihood of them tuning out would be higher. Additionally, for stations with DJs that almost always hit the post, dropping the rule when you’re relaying emergency information, might help that emergency info stand out a bit.
One more thing that I’ve noticed that’s being done more recently is some stations will cut intros off songs and will quickly fade into the starting vocals of the song. This only seems to be done after jingles or imaging and here in Dallas-Fort Worth, stations such as 106.1 Kiss FM are doing this.
Anyways, great thread!!
