Not to throw a monkey wrench in the discussion, there was an interesting similar topic discussed on another board about iPod vs. Radio, and a really good point was brought that actually made me stop and think for several days.
The iPod is great for what it is, giving me the choice of listening to what I want when I want to, but what the iPod doesn't give me is the NOW element. While many station may offer Podcasts or downloading of their morning or afternoon show with funny bits and interviews, it doesn't give it to me now. Think about it sorta like TV. Back when cable TV came out, everyone thought that would be the complete destruction of the big networks, but they didn't die. How did they survive than? "Must see Thursday." Family Fridays, all these gimmicks and creating a buzz. Crafting content that you knew would be watercooler talk the next day. Making it so that if you missed it, you would feel like you were out of the loop the next day when people talked about it. Think about shows like "The Office." A show that hits the 18-35 year old demo and these are people that have grown up with almost always having Cable, Video rental, and portable music players available, yet religiously they watch that show, and then go and download the episode (even paying for it!)
Getting back to the beginning of what I was saying, the vast majority of radio listening is in the car (let's be honest with ourselves.) Now picture yourself in a car, driving. You have your iPod, your cell phone and your radio. What is available to you? I want music, I can use the iPod or the radio. So what is the radio offering me that I can't get while I sit at the wheel from my iPod, pretending you are alone in the car. Companionship? Maybe, but even a good friend in the car with me can be annoying if he drones on and on about his kids or the concert he went to. Traffic? Well this has been a sticky one for me, because most of the time you are already screwed by the time you hear about an accident on the freeway. News? That a bit more in the right direction.
Think of it this way: have you ever had that friend that just always seemed to have the coolest stories about the time him and some buddies after a concert, saw the star of a concert at the bar after the show and they all went out to a golf course drunk and someone ended up with a huge gash on their forehead? Or maybe happened to know this really cool fact about how you can only find a beer made a certain way in your city at this one small bar downtown? It may not always be about what the story is that friend tells but the way they tell it, gets you excited to hear what happened in the end.
Do you get what I am saying?
Be that cool friend. Give the listener something they can not get anywhere else.
Music IS important! But it's not everything. Jocks should think more like entertainers. When your jock is doing an artist interview, are they asking the usually questions about how they got started, who there influences are, the same stuff I can look up on Wikipedia or the artist website, or are they relaying a story about how the last time the artist was in town, how your jock and them ended up wearing each others pants on their heads at a Karaoke bar while singing Cheap Trick?
Part of that comes down to the PD getting involved with the talent. If your talent is a four-an-out-tha-door kind that can't stand the music they play and refuses to go to events or remotes, ditch 'em. Unless they are one of the funniest people in the world or are attending superstar coke parties on the weekends, they will have nothing to offer the listener.
I would even go so far as to put it like a sandbox. The music is the sand. It sits in the box, and pretty well defined from the rest of the landscape, but now you grab your shovel and pail and start building a castle. How and what you build is up to you. The sandbox is your confines, but you can still have a ton of fun in that box, and maybe, just maybe so passerby's will jump in and play along with you!
