HITTING THE POST

[BogusBoy]

There's been some discussion in another thread about "hitting the post". Though I'll agree that Tom does it well, hitting the post is one of my all time pet peeves. My biggest objection to it is the tendency of jocks to talk up an intro with, for instance, 15 seconds of something to say, and stretching it out to fill up the :22 sec intro. That drives me FREAKING crazy. There are also the ones who will finish what they're saying, realize there's a little more time, then start giving the artist name, and song title....and the worst...over dramatize the call letters at the end...

"Here's Celine Dion on W R V.....ARE!" Puking is implied.

Come on. Say what you got to say, and shut up. There's no crime in talking for 7 sec over a 12 sec intro.

 

[radiosaur]

Agreed, if you are just talking to hit the post after already making your point **

Great jocks use inflection and wordplay with the instruments of the intro. In that case, it can be entertaining. There are also a lot of posts in songs that do not necessarily coincide with the start of the vocal.

Heart's "Crazy on You" comes to mind just now, where it changes from acoustic to electric guitar.

** another one of my pet peeves is not keeping with the "one break, one thought" philosophy.

 

[BookerT]

Hitting The Post and back timing are both (almost) lost arts.

Naling the post is commonplace in CHR radio yet it almost seems they are hitting it because they are supposed to do such a thing. Most CHR jocks don't do it because of compelling content.

There used to be nothing better than back timing to hit the news at the top of the hour. It was more fun to nail it with a cold ending instead of using a song that you could fade out at the start of the news.

 

[radio_head]

Hitting the post and backtiming will never be a lost art...Voicetracking and automation will make sure of that =)

 

[radiosaur]

Hitting the post and backtiming will never be a lost art...Voicetracking and automation will make sure of that =)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure BookerT meant doing it LIVE

 

[BookerT]

Live is the way to go.

How many times have you heard an automated station skip the news or play the wrong news network thanks to a incorrect switch?

 

[tomservo]

I always like it when the voicetracking gets out of order (if that's what you'd call it). Our local Jack-(knock)-off "Bob" has that bad habit.

"At Bob we play whatever we want. Here's Harry Chapin, Cat's In The Cradle, only on Bob."

Meanwhile, Dancing Queen is playing underneath. Ugh. :

 

[bub]

How many times have you heard an automated station skip the news or play the wrong news network thanks to a incorrect switch?

I have. And I used to hit the post jocking Adult Standards.

 

[robgrayson]

There are, perhaps, people you would pay $100 a ticket to see in concert, and there are folks who sing karaoke in bars. Materially both performers are doing the same thing, but artistically there may be discernable differences. The same applies to talking up intros. There are artists who have a feel for the music underneath them, an uncanny knack for context, texture, timing, and symmetry. Like an actor or dancer, they know how to make good use of the stage. And there are folks who yak for 17 seconds then the vocals start.

 

[littlebigradio]

If you were to come up a few seconds short, you could always throw in the time, temp, or call letters.....but if you went over....you were just....well......screwed.

 

[gregwilliamslighthouse]

When Tom Kent had his Hall of Fame Coast to Coast goin', he was the king of useless banter in order to hit the post......but that's why you'd listen to him. It wasn't just blah-blah to fill up time. He was vamping with the song, fusing his style of delivery right into the music. And when the lyrics would start, if his energy was cresting, he would ALLOW it to cascade into the song, like a wave crashing into the beach. It was a freeflowing eargasim of fun radio.

I miss him. Hope he gets back on the air soon.

 

[hwg901]

My take on hitting the post: Feel it...realize there there is more than one post (not just the opening vocal)...practice. That's right--practice. We used to sit around a room at the station or at someone's house. We would put a record on at random. If it was your turn, you didn't know what song was coming...you had to hit the post...you couldn't step on the vocal...you couldn't come up short...you couldn't "fill" a couple of seconds with meaningless stuff or stretching words. Yes...sometimes money did change hands.

On the air, Ron Michaels was really good at hitting the post. I've heard some really good and creative (hip)things from Tim Spencer on 103.

Tom Kent, in my opinion, was at his best in Dallas. He did everything on beat..."K-L-I-F."

On the other side, it used to makle me sick to hear guys talking over the end of a song that had a long instrumental part and ended cold. An example would be "Touch Me" by the doors. That was really taking it too far.
_________________________________________________

 

[robgrayson]

The "practice" is one area which suffers today. I know with some computer systems, all you can get to preview a song in cue is the first :05 and last :05.

 

[tomservo]

I guess this'll show what a radio nerd I am, but I enjoy a jock who can nail the post and do it well. I'm not in radio but seem to have a knack for it. Sometimes I'll do it to a song on XM for fun - got the idea from hearing St. Louis-based morning show "Steve and DC" hold constests with the listeners to see who'd nail the post the best (hint: it was never the listeners!)

Speaking of XM, hitting the post is an art form that's alive and well on the 60's channel. Not all of the hosts do a great job of it, but whoever was "on" early Friday morning around 3am was doing quite well. "Wedding Bell Blues" by Fifth Dimension came up and he started chattering on about a wedding scene, culminating in, "...and wait until they get the..." then the singing started: "Biiiiiiiiillll, I love you so, I always will..." Completely unexpected and it cracked me up. ;D

Last but not least - again, not a Memphis personality but the first one I think of when it comes to posting songs - Don Geronimo from the regionally syndicated DC-based "Don & Mike Show". I don't think anyone does it better. Sometimes he'll come back from a break and post whatever song is playing, or better yet, challange a caller. Again, superjock always wins.

 

[hwg901]

This is more in response to Rob's comment on practice.

I was referring to practice at a time other than during your air shift. We would sit around a music room or office late at night and do it...back in the dark ages.

greg hamilton

 

[romer979fm]

My take on hitting the post: Feel it...realize there there is more than one post (not just the opening vocal)...

exactly! the vocal may be the post...but not necessarily...
ALWAYS better to come up short of the vocal if it means you don't have to fill...or lose the pacing.

and if you use the timer/clock to talk something up...you do NOT have the touch!
use the force...let go...

 

[firepoint525]

As a listener of radio, I think one of the most annoying things an announcer can do is talk all over the intro (and for that matter, the outro) of a song. Yeah, I did it, too, as an announcer, but I found myself doing less and less talking over the intros of songs, and just letting the music speak for itself. Talking all over the music may be just one more reason why many people are leaving radio and going to their ipods and MP3s.

The most annoying were those syndicated programs (usually aired on weekends and holidays) that featured interviews, usually with British rock stars, and apparently recorded over the phone. The producers of these programs would time it so that the quote from the rock star would continue right up until the very millisecond that the vocal started. Add to that a tinny audio, a British accent, and it's impossible to understand what they are saying, since the music is usually over powering it anyway. Why even bother?

I remember a comic on the Tonight show who brilliantly made fun of this practice. He had an acoustic guitar, and was playing the intro to James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" while talking over the intro he was playing, and damn near sounded like an auctioneer as he did so. It was "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahJust yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone..."

As far as outros that were talked over, I never could understand why DJs wouldn't let "Take the Long Way Home" finish. Yeah, it's a little repetitive there at the end ("long way home, long way home, long way home") but that is one of my favorite endings, and deserves to be allowed to finish.

 

[AlbumOldies]

As far as outros that were talked over, I never could understand why DJs wouldn't let "Take the Long Way Home" finish. Yeah, it's a little repetitive there at the end ("long way home, long way home, long way home") but that is one of my favorite endings, and deserves to be allowed to finish.

Yeah, kinda reminds me of people talking over the end of "Layla." Once I heard a DJ let it play thru to the bird chirping at the end, as it should be done, and said, "Rock 103 - the only station in Memphis that gives you the bird." If I remember correctly, and I could be wrong, it was Rob Grayson that said it.

 

[DouglasB]

As far as outros that were talked over, I never could understand why DJs wouldn't let "Take the Long Way Home" finish. Yeah, it's a little repetitive there at the end ("long way home, long way home, long way home") but that is one of my favorite endings, and deserves to be allowed to finish.

Yeah, kinda reminds me of people talking over the end of "Layla." Once I heard a DJ let it play thru to the bird chirping at the end, as it should be done, and said, "Rock 103 - the only station in Memphis that gives you the bird." If I remember correctly, and I could be wrong, it was Rob Grayson that said it.

Yup, that'd be Rob. Merry Christmas all, and you to Rob.....

 

[robgrayson]

It probably occured... The one I do remember is playing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and saying what a shame, after going to all that trouble, in the end they just get gonged!