HITTING THE POST

[hwg901]

I agree with Rob that talking over music can be very annoying.

However...in 1968 it was just about required. It was part of the "more music" stuff that permeated the airwaves at the time. Even us FM guys were expected to do it on occasion...perhaps just to show the guys on AM that we could.

I believe that it has limited relevance today. However, I must say I've eheard some guys do some really creative stuff...live no less. I know this sounds corny but it seems that they are "at one" with the music. Or would "in tune" be better?

greg hamilton

 

[firepoint525]

My former program director at my first station had also worked for WYN-107 (McKenzie/Jackson). He told me that when they talked between songs there, they had to talk over the outro of the ending song, and the intro of the next song. There had to be a music bed under their voice the whole time they were talking. (I suppose that usually limited them to 30 seconds or less of talking. Maybe brevity was the key.) I also heard that at Q108 (Clarksville/Fort Campbell), they were not allowed to "front announce" the next song. Oh, they could talk over the intro if they liked or needed to, but they could not announce the song they were playing. Apparently, they could only do that over the outro at the end of the song.

The most interesting intro I ever heard was, of all places, on American Top 40. Casey Kasem was playing Deniece Williams' (yes, I had to look up the spelling of her name!) then-current hit, "It's Gonna Take a Miracle." After announcing the song, he said, "Deniece will be along in a minute," then let the rest of the intro play uninterrupted. It had a rather long intro, but I still thought that was rather unusual of him to do that. On the other hand, he also talked over the intro of the Stray Cats' "Sexy and 17," even though that intro was at most, only a couple of seconds long. Intros that short should be left alone.

 

[firepoint525]

I'm going to give the following example of why you should never talk over the outro of a song (with the exception of "faders," of course). This is about the best argument I can give against this practice.

I remember the GM of the station in the small northwest Tennessee town where I grew up, playing Billy Swan's "I Can Help." As you know, it has a guitar solo in the middle of the song, which repeats (almost identically) at the very end of the song. Well, this GM heard the guitar solo and started talking over it, apparently thinking it was the second solo, when it was actually the first! Can you say, "oops"? :-[ If he had waited until the "cool" (not quite cold) ending of the song, that wouldn't have happened!

Any of you here work in country radio? Seems like there are many records, especially in country, that end with the drummer getting in the last word, and "hammering the lid shut" on the song. I suppose this is for emphasis, or maybe to simulate a live concert recording. So many of them end with that one last loonnngg note, and I think it's over and move on to the next song, only to hear the drummer get in one last "bang" on the previous song finishing up. Usually, after several airings, I'm used to that, and know to wait for the "big finish" before I move on to the next thing, or start talking.

 

[CatFM]

I always liked hearing jocks at some of the big stations (especially CKLW and some of the other RKO stations) talk up the intros of spots produced over jingle beds. That was some some tight and classy Top 40!

 

[DouglasB]

Like any aspect of modern radio presentation, talking up the intro of songs, commercials and other elements, can be done very well or very poorly. This practice was a mainstay of the Top 40 presentation. If you are relating to the audience, matching the energy of the music you're talking over, and being judicious in your choice of which musical post (there's usually more than one) that you "hit", then you can add to the listener's experience. If, you just say the call letters, fill with the same WX forecast you just read 3 minutes ago, and also try to squeeze in a cute one-liner, and then try and end with the call letters/positioner, then you have failed and become an irritant to the listener.
Many years ago, one of the stations I was working for, under the direction of a new "consultant", banned talking over the music. So, you'd come out of a stop set, read a positioning liner, intro the song, and start the song. Worked OK if you were intoing a song like "Go All The Way" by the Rasberries. But, if you were introing "Tonight's The Night" by Rod Stewart, it just sounded like crap. That book we lost about 40% of our audience, and the focus groups said the station was boreing to listen to. The consultant was fired, we got new TM jingles, and were encouraged to talk up intros. We were able to recover much of our previous losses, but it took a good year and a half and a $10,000 giveaway to bring us back up to our previous ratings levels.

 

[firepoint525]

I remember an announcer on WLS, of all stations, playing "We Will Rock You" by Queen. Over the intro he said, "I forgot to give you the weather forecast!" or something to that effect. Rather than ruin the intro, he just waited until a later time to give the weather.

At most stations I have worked for, we only gave the weather forecast twice an hour, unless it was severe weather or something like that. Of course, we also came out of the news with the weather.

 

[bub]

At most stations I have worked for, we only gave the weather forecast twice an hour, unless it was severe weather or something like that. Of course, we also came out of the news with the weather.

I worked at a station in which the PD insisted in his formatics that we give a complete detailed weather forecast, up to a 5-day outlook, 4 times an hour, severe weather or not, no exceptions. This really slowed down the overall presentation. Less than 3 months after taking over, the PD was canned, we still did the 4 wx's an hour, only we shortened them up considerably, and the overall body of work presentation improved drastically; to the point where we actually scored in the books...and we were a music-intensive AM (imagine that). Later learned the PD was a former News/Talk guy who was PD'ing a music format for the first time. Some habits are hard to break.

Now back to hitting the post over most of this station.