Must-read Study

[davideduardo]

Uh, actually, no (we who?). Morning and afternoon drive are still 4.5 and 4 hours per day, respectively.

Everywhere I have been for the last couple of decades, mornings start at 5 AM and go to 10 AM, and then there is show prep, production, etc. Many shows now do Saturday live, too, particularly PPM markets where Saturday does so well.

the PM person usually does most production by coming in around 1 PM. Most I know now do Saturdays. After all, it's the most important AQH shift in radio now.

Middays and evenings are partially voicetracked so that the jock voicing them can keep those weekly hours below the 29.5 required to stay parttime and not qualify for fulltime benefits.

Middays, being 5 hours x 6 days is a full week too, adding in a little production. Evenings, with another 5 hours times 6 days is also 30 hours and that's without any production.

And stations are tracked overnights, as well---to the tune of two hours for a weeks' worth of shows.

Not all. I work with a very live Midnight to 5 guy who does 6 days a week, and also fills for the mid-day person sometimes and can fill for one of the morning team if they are out.

Oh, and there are no blades and tapes or records to que, the jock just makes sure to press the computer button to stop down at the sales liner breaks.

I'm sure you are familiar with that, but most of us keep the spots int he stopsets.

So, no fatigue there, unless pressing a button is that exhaustive. You have three? Four? on-air people working less than three-quart6ers of any given day of the week. Seriously, do the math. Old-fashioned excuses like that won't cut it, anyomore.

Hmm, the station I am referring to, a lowly Class A, has 4 people on the morning team, and 5 other fulltimers (evening show has two people, as well). There are 6 weekend part-timers, too.

So, there really are stations that range from automated to totally live. It depends a lot on the format and the ability of the market to afford it in this recession...

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

Really, as hard as you try to spin it, David, there's no excuse for jocks who think they're connecting with their communities by going straight to the job and back home. Excuses don't work.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Really, as hard as you try to spin it, David, there's no excuse for jocks who think they're connecting with their communities by going straight to the job and back home. Excuses don't work.

I see both sides of the argument you are trying to make.  If we were making a Business Process Improvement project out of this,  we would probably make the lead sentence:  The PRIMARY task of the on-air-person/personality is to do a superb job ON THE AIR! 

Some self contained people I worked with went into the studio, pulled the drapes shut,  and like a novelest writing a Pulitzer Price tome created great connectional content from somewhere inside their little introverted self.  Fran Mooney in Moberly MO 45 years ago is the face I picture when I define good air work that way.


Other air people have this genetic need to press the flesh, have some face time, share a few brews, go play golf with some key community people. Gary Todd in Indianapolis is the face I put with that kind of community connection.

Let me propose to you that an on-air person has the PRIMARY task of being GOOD on-the-air. If going out and meeting listeners face-to-face helps do that, then for that person it is essential. If you can sit in the closet sucking on your thumb and still create this connectional audio thread with the listener, knock your self out. The primary task of the radio station and it's staff is to stuff meaningful content in people's ears.

Glad handing the select few who gather in public places to get some personal reinforcement for their psyche may be better handled by the Fuller Brush Man or the Avon Lady.

I didn't mean for this to sound harsh, but radio ratings do not include any numbers on hands shook, babies kissed and tee shirts given away.

 

[TheBigA]

Also, whomever it was that blames "older jocks" (and those as "perverts", as if there are no young pervs,) is not funny and is way out of line.

It wasn't meant to be funny. There's nothing funny about it. All I know is that four DJs in my town have been arrested in the last two years, all for child pornography, and all four were over 40 years old. I just calls em as I see em. It's bad enough priests and teachers are getting a bad rap. This doesn't help the image of radio people.

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

I think I've said it more than a few times on these boards that the problem with music radio is the (non-existent) relationship between the air-staff and listener.

That is why many of us in the Phoenix market were so distressed when KOOL-FM shucked most of their personalities and went the "minimum live and VT" route. Now the only thing relating to the listener is their morning show (which was reduced from 4 on-air to 2), a tiny bit of midday and the midnight shift.

Listeners tune in to hear the air staff they like, especially if that person can relate to the listener. Without that you have only an iPod.

DJ's are what made radio phenomenal in the 50's, 60's and 70's but it won't return to that greatness until there are real, talented people behind the mic's once again.

Tuna, not just behind the mic, but out in the communities. Unless you are an avid golfer, eat at Hooters on a regular basis, or go car-shopping every weekend, your chances of running into an on-air DJ in my city are slim to none. It's like the mentality is, "if there's not a check in my hand, I'm going home to watch some TV." I'm at music shows almost every night of the week, and I've run into former co-workers exactly twice in the last five years. On the other hand, at almost every show is one of the jocks from the local non-comm, where they need to press the flesh in order to make their fundraising quotas to stay on the air. By the very virtue of having to make personal connections in order to keep their jobs, these non-comm jocks place their visibility and relationships within the community at the highest priority, and it shows. If a jock's only ever attended concerts or events promoted by their own station, or their idea of "the city" is the circuit between their apartment, their job, and the liquor store, they've probably lost sight of what it takes to reconnect with the audience---if they ever had that sight, to begin with.

A vanload of teenagers in station shirts handing out koozies and keychains does not a meaningful connection make---even at station events. Of course, if your dayparts are all voicetracked or syndicated, that vanload of minimum-wagers is all you've got to establish your station as any kind of leader or local presence. Yay.

Really, you get out of any community what you're willing to put into it.

 

[TheBigA]

Age is relevant. Preparation in any size market or station, live, board opped or voice tracked is still key, and involvement with an audience, not at an audience. And knowing who the heck you're talking with ... not at rules.

I don't know about you, but I don't have any close friends that are either twice or half my age. Most are around my age. Yet there are DJs at CHR stations that are twice the age of their average listeners. That is just plain wrong. You can't expect a married guy with kids and a mortgage to relate to college kids or unmarried people in their 20s who are deep into dating and their first jobs. It's all about relatability. Sure in their deep past, they might be able to remember what it was like when they were in their 20s. But they DON'T watch the same TV shows, they don't take part in the same leasure activities, and they don't run in the same social circles.

I firmly believe that radio is not going to move into its next phase until it brings in the next generation.

 

[TheBigA]

On an average music station - outside of mornings - the number of opportunities for a jock to TALK is limited to about 5 times an hour. Most, if not all of those "opportunities" have required format elements that leave very little time personalization or adding relatable elements to the content.

Maybe you've never been on the air. There is a way, IF you have talent that is unique and creative, to personalize required elements. It's been done for 60 years. Do I have to teach you how to do it?

The jock has to be creative and not leave it up to the boss to tell him how to be creative. I worked with people who could put more personality into a ten second liner than some blowhards put into a three minute talk segment.

 

[gr8oldies]

The great Larry Lujack hated personal appearances, was completely uncomfortable with them, and closed the drapes to the studio when we worked.

 

[TheBigA]

A LOT of on-air personalities are willing to press the flesh IF they're asked, and IF they're compensated for appearances where the STATION is making money. Most guys - especially outside of the morning show - will make free appearances for charity or not-for-profit events. Morning show guys are less willing, because they're usually sleep-deprived, and they in greater demand. If you do one, how do you turn down others? With rules changes, you can't even get "freebies" anymore, because the tax on the face value is deducted from your paycheck. So, you go work the concert booth, but it's going to cost you $50 to see the concert because you got "free" tickets? And you wonder why some folks who are living on the edge of poverty turn that down?

That must be something specific to an employer, because I've never heard of it. In fact, because I itemize deductions, any unreimbursed business expenses are tax deductable. That includes attending concerts for work.

You shouldn't have to be ASKED to press the flesh. That's your job. That's the point. It's show prep. And the morning guys I know (the dedicated ones) take a nap in the middle of the day so they can hang with the folks. That's what they talk about, and that's why they're successful.

 

[adma]

The great Larry Lujack hated personal appearances, was completely uncomfortable with them, and closed the drapes to the studio when we worked.

Interesting to consider. That as long as you're compelling and expressive and even "relatable" on the mike, it's vain to arbitrarily overinsist upon direct off-mike "social networking". Indeed, as the "pervert talk" in this thread indicates, maybe past DJ problems are all too often the result of too much inappropriate "social networking".

Also remember the Wolfman's professionalism in "American Graffiti".

 

[TheBigA]

Also remember the Wolfman's professionalism in "American Graffiti".

That was a very different time, and listeners had only one choice when it came to listening to music. It's a lot easier to be compelling when you have a captive audience.

 

[gr8oldies]

Just remember, that 14 year old groupie is probably a cop.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Maybe you've never been on the air. There is a way, IF you have talent that is unique and creative, to personalize required elements. It's been done for 60 years. Do I have to teach you how to do it?

The jock has to be creative and not leave it up to the boss to tell him how to be creative. I worked with people who could put more personality into a ten second liner than some blowhards put into a three minute talk segment.

Just how does a jock "personalize" the 70% of the breaks that he/she doesn't participate in? The ones that are jingles or imaging? Those breaks are attributed to "jocks", but air personalities have NO control over their presentation or content.

You PLAINLY are not on the air currently, and have admitted previously that you were not a great jock. Your perception of what's possible in many formats just doesn't jibe with the formatics REQUIRED by many companies. And, you break those formatics at your peril. Right now, most jocks are trying to avoid giving management an excuse for whacking them instead of somebody else.

Corporations on the verge of bankruptcy are FIRING GOOD PEOPLE - and rarely the people who created the problem in the first place. It would make better economic sense to fire every single regional VP, and make local managers responsible for local markets, than it does to mandate wholesale firings of 7-midnight and mid-day people.

 

[radioray]

Dan Ingram, Cousin Brucie, all of them related to me as a kid growing up in NY yet they were my parents age or close to it.

I think it can be done.

Plus there are some good under - 25 jocks out there.

 

[davideduardo]

Really, as hard as you try to spin it, David, there's no excuse for jocks who think they're connecting with their communities by going straight to the job and back home. Excuses don't work.

In today's world, being out on the street at a remote or van hit where there are 40 or 60 people is useless. That whole model of kissing babies does not work any more.

To reach listeners, you communicate with them on and off the air. And the methods are texting and Facebook and Tweets. Your website should have a blog by each jock, if they even have minimal writing skills.

The request line us another fairly useless tool. Most people don't use the phone that way any more.

I'm concerned that the talent get rest, family time and enjoy life a bit. There is a reason jocks in the past had the reputation of being drunks or worse, womanizers, etc., etc. The had no home life, and the station absorbed all their time. That has to change.

If today's economy requires even the PD to be on the air, and shifts are longer, then don't expect people to go out on the street... because it is not that important any more.

There is a lot that can be done via each person's show. Our cluster in LA has 5 Marconi nominations, all based on community service and years of successful operation... and the manager's office has a case full of them from prior years. You can serve with the most powerful thing you have... the signal.

 

[TheBigA]

Dan Ingram, Cousin Brucie, all of them related to me as a kid growing up in NY yet they were my parents age or close to it.

I think it can be done.

Bozo the Clown was your parents age too. But it was another time, and there was no competition.

When the counterculture movement came along in the mid 60s, they rejected the older AM radio jocks, and created their own progressive rock radio with people their own age, who lived their lifestyle. That is similar to what's going on now.

There is a very clear generational divide between married people over 30 and those under 30. The under-30s use media differently. They already live in a world where they connect with people their own age, and it's not on the radio. THEY will run it differently when they get the chance. It will become an extension of their social network, and that may revive radio. But as long as the boomers are in charge, running radio their way, the younger folks will get their entertainment elsewhere.

 

[radioray]

"In today's world, being out on the street at a remote or van hit where there are 40 or 60 people is useless. That whole model of kissing babies does not work any more."

I stronly disagree, especially in small markets. Look at WLNG, still out in the streets at every parade. I dunno if they still have the London Double Decker, but they are very visible. While it might not work for huge markets like NY and LA, even up to medium size towns like Madison I think this approach is a winner.

"To reach listeners, you communicate with them on and off the air. And the methods are texting and Facebook and Tweets. Your website should have a blog by each jock, if they even have minimal writing skills."

I agree, and this is an excellent ADDITION to the appearances. In fact, it might be more important. But it shouldn't replace them, at least not IMO. Face-time pressing the flesh still counts and is not the same as twittering emotionally.

"The request line us another fairly useless tool. Most people don't use the phone that way any more."

Again, a valuable tool that has not been replaced by these new things, just reduced in importance. You also have to keep in mind generations. I think people 40 plus still would rather call than text (I cant prove that, just my take).

"I'm concerned that the talent get rest, family time and enjoy life a bit. There is a reason jocks in the past had the reputation of being drunks or worse, womanizers, etc., etc. The had no home life, and the station absorbed all their time. That has to change."

I agree, cant go overboard.

"If today's economy requires even the PD to be on the air, and shifts are longer, then don't expect people to go out on the street... because it is not that important any more."

And maybe it's time we, I dunno, stopped making one person do 5 jobs?

 

[TheBigA]

Just how does a jock "personalize" the 70% of the breaks that he/she doesn't participate in? The ones that are jingles or imaging? Those breaks are attributed to "jocks", but air personalities have NO control over their presentation or content.

You seem to be seeking problems and negatives, rather than looking for ways to be creative. Air personalities have more control than they understand.

Your perception of what's possible in many formats just doesn't jibe with the formatics REQUIRED by many companies. And, you break those formatics at your peril. Right now, most jocks are trying to avoid giving management an excuse for whacking them instead of somebody else.

If you ain't got nothin,' you got nothin' to lose. They aren't in peril of anything, as long as they get positive results. I don't understand this mentality of hating your job, hating your company, and living in terror. No job is worth that. No amount of money would be enough to do something you hate. Either do it well, or leave. That's the ultimate justice.

 

[radioray]

"You seem to be seeking problems and negatives, rather than looking for ways to be creative. Air personalities have more control than they understand."

You have no idea what it is like at Cumulus. I don't work there, friends do. Yowzah!

 

[TheBigA]

"You seem to be seeking problems and negatives, rather than looking for ways to be creative. Air personalities have more control than they understand."

You have no idea what it is like at Cumulus. I don't work there, friends do. Yowzah!

Last time I checked, they owned 347 stations in 68 markets. That leaves 13,503 other stations in hundreds of other markets. Quit. Now. Nothing is better than something you hate. Unless you're completely unqualified to get a job someplace else.

Which is better: Quitting or getting fired? Seems like an easy decision.