You guys are on to something. I'll just add my take on how i'd run things.
I'd do a format of late 60's thru early 80's. Yes TOP 40. As an example, when you listen to Classic Rock stations...alot of that product was considered TOP 40 back then. It's just the hip way of presenting it now. There is enough product that is out there, where you wouldn't have to repeat songs for at least a week, if not more. My air staff would be real. Not faking being hip or ghetto or stoned. They would be themselves. I was told many times that I didn't have the voice like alot of jocks. Well, thats one of the things that set me apart from the others. I didn't want to sound lke eveyone else. I wanted to have my stamp on everything I did.
As i've seen on other posts today, some people aren't into the WOW factor, but....having been thru the mill, people do listen to the radio, and if they hear something they haven't in a long time, while not out loud and to themselves go "Wow, I haven't heard that in ages". I even find me doing it when I listen to XM. The problem with XM, they do not take advantage of the amount of music out there from the 70's and it's a shame. I purchased XM, not so much as the commercials, but I wanted to hear stuff that is sitting on my shelves at home that I haven't heard in forever. After listening to them for 3 months, i'm ready to scrap em. I can burn mp3's up the yang and out do what i'm paying $12.95 a month plus taxes for. But as a fan of music, especially one I pay for, I shouldn't have to do that. I should be catered to. So, i'll be firing off a letter to their programming department at XM about this to see how they react. We'll just have to wasit and see.
Back to being a PD. One of the biggest disappointments over the last say 8-10 years, is that there is little or no personallity on the air. Everyone has become a robot. As i've stated before, outside of morning shows and maybe an afternoon drive or two, its all liners and no thought process. Jocks really don't prep like we used to. I used to come in(even just doing a weekend shift), 3 hours early, as so I could scower a couple news papers & watch the news, just so I at least sounded like I knew what was going on in the world as well as right here in South Florida.
My air staff would be required to do their homework. They'd have to know things that were going on in the area, and be able to pass it on to the listeners with authority, and by that I mean knowing what you're talking about. Don't just sit there and read it on the air. This same staff would also be involved in community events. When I was at 96X in the beginning, as well as I-95, I was at every charity function & telethon I could be involved in. For being a part-timer, I had my name out there. UCP, Muscular Distrophy, March of Dimes. Walk a thons and Telethons, I did em. Why? Because some of my former co-workers didn't want to be up for an 8am-12n Co-host shift on TV. Plus the fact it wasn't a paid event, to them it was a waste of time. So I took that waste of time and used it to my advantage. I have the plaques on my walls in my media room at home to show it.
People may have never listened to your station before, but by you being there, not only are you doing a public service, but it's your chance to sell your station too!
Requests & phones, they're not only for current tracking. Sure, a small percentile actually call up for songs, but they help as a guide to what people want to hear. Maybe someone calls up with a song you forgot about. That one song makes the listener happy, and that listener tells someone else that the station played his request. Have phone turkeys as well as the jock on air answering the phones. I did it at every station I worked at, regardless of the hour. I'd get on the air and say something in the way of "96X, this is Stuart Elliott....i'm opening the phones right now to personally take your call. 550-9696 from anywhere in South Florida...when someone answers, you tell them you want to talk to me." Ya know what.....people did it. I'd pick up the phone.."96X hello.." not saying it was me, and the person on the other end would say..."Hi, i'd like to talk to the guy on the air" or say my name. I'd say sure, hang on and i'll tell him you're waiting. Put em on hold...wait a few seconds and pick it up. It may sound corny, but it's the little things like that, that makes a listener feel like a million dollars.
As for give-a-ways, I'd use the KISS method....Keep It Simple..Stupid. T-shirts, baseball caps. You'd want to give product away with your stations logo on it. Winners are walking billboards. I'd also give away CD's, Tickets to sporting events & concerts. Unlike most stations today, who make you come to the facility to pick up what ever it was you won, i'd give the listener a choice to come down to see the place, or we'd mail it to them.
Stations are cheap today, and don't care that a majority of their listeners work for a living, so coming during business hours only is pretty much telling your audience "Hey if you want it that bad, you'll come get it." I have two words for that, and it isn't Happy Holidays!
I could go on and on, but what it boils down to is Radio getting back to the basics. For the most part, I feel radio has lost that human connection we grew up with. I've said it before & i'll repeat it now. I always tried my best, everytime I was on the air, to remember what it was like to be a listener, and what I wanted my station to be like.
I'm stepping off my soap box now. ThanX for stoppin by!
