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Question about usage of jingles (with listeners in different timezones)

W

Wwzapper

Hi, I've got a question for people living outside of Europe.

At my station, I've got about 65 % listeners from Europe, about 25 % from North America and about 10 % from the rest of the world. The 10 % are a nice bonus (glad they are also listening...), but this posting is mostly about those 25 % from USA and Canada.

Is it o.k. then to broadcast a lot of jingles, fitting the (central) European Timezone? Is it putting off for people in the USA or Canada to hear (by example) a rooster sound at (for them) 1/2am, which is 7am in Europe, when people are awaking?

Or to hear about a Sunday morning lounge (or something like that) when it's - for USA and Canadian people - still 'party night'?

Even if I start every hour with something like 'it's about 8pm Central European time', to make clear where the station comes from.

If a will make a complete European jingle schedule, and schedule also 'shows' on specific parts of the day/week (based on the European biorythm), the station can sound a lot more creative than now. But on the other hand, the station has to be relatable enough for the listeners not living there. I don't have any idea if I will win many European listeners with it (for thém, it CAN be more relatable), ór loose many listeners outside of Europe.

So, help me out. :)

---------------

The current jingle schedule, btw:

Mostly timezone related jingles (scheduled at the right times), like 'Good afternoon USA', 'Good morning, Europe', etcetera. Every three/four hours.

And from time to time a strictly European jingle, 'The heart of Europe awakes', 'In Europe, it's almost weekend', etcetera.

So, in fact is a mix, now. But it can be neather fish nor flesh, when it comes to being relatable for my listeners.
 
I think you clear a lot of that perceived confusion by calling out the timezone. I am mainly US/Canada focused and all my promos and timely imaging all state that things are based on Mountain Time. For example: The 90's @ Noon, weekdays at Noon Mountain on America's Country, etc...

I would assume typical listeners of internet radio are going to have a decent grasp on things like locality and timezones and as long as you call it out, it should be well understood and not off-putting.

Hope that helps.
 
We make occasional time references, and have shows such as "The 7 O'clock 70's", "Hard Rock Nights", etc.. We ALWAYS mention the time zone, including promos, Facebook posts, Tweets, you name it. Also, I think it helps to orient the listener by regularly mentioning your station's general location. Internet radio listeners are a relatively intelligent lot, and understand the worldwide nature of it all.
 
Although I have listeners all around the globe, most are US or UK, so all my promo's etc are given in Eastern Time (as I'm based in DC). My website however shows the schedule in ET as well as your local time (using some Javascript). No other way round it.
 
Now, I've decided to order a jingle package with more times/days/etc. mentioned, now. I've just received it.

One of the lines is, after the start of the friday night show (starting at 7pm), "your weekend starts right here".

The use of the word 'your' is a quite personal way of talking to your listeners. The line fits the European biorhythm perfectly, but how do Americans listen to it? To the line "It's 7pm Central European time, YOUR weekend starts right here", while it's 1/2pm thére?

(There is always the possibility to schedule that line 5/6 hours later; the friday night show is 7 hours long.)
 
As long as you make it clear what the local time is, that is the most important issue. You can have the 'BBC blips' and announce it's Midnight in the UK, zero hours GMT/UTC and 8pm on the East coast of the USA and that works for me just fine.
 
Surely the listener is smart enough to look at their own clock.. Pretty sure by now they have figured out what they are listening to is not local..
 
I go to the internet to find stations out of my time zone, especially Europe and the UK. I expect the time to be a little off. Before I go to bed at midnight I can get morning drive traffic reports from London. I go to bed and dream about not being on the slow-moving M3.
 
@Wwzapper: instead of trying to be everything to everybody why not just focus on your main audience? Pick a target, be it the United States, the UK, etc and let everything else fall into a natural place. Those people who truly enjoy your station will listen regardless if you're not specifically targeting them with liners, sweepers, jingles, etc., as long as your station's content is what they want to listen to.

Years ago I ran a deep-oldies format webstream and I had listeners from the U.S. all the way around the world and I would get great interaction for my live Saturday night request show. Yes, even from Germany and Taiwan I would get real-time requests in spite of the fact the station targeted a North America audience.

As far as the clock goes, you can always say "it's xx before / after the hour" which makes it easier if you're using automated time announcing - you only have to record the minutes!
 
I had already decided to do the thing you said, some days ago. Or at least: decided to give it a try. I've asked the question also on another board (the more opinions, the better), and the result was equally positive/negative/neutral.

The time (from central Europe) is mentioned now, at the start of every hour. And there are more new jingles added, targeted to that area. Sometimes quite subtle, by adding 'night sounds' to some jingles broadcasted between 0am and 4am. Besides that, I've removed the 'good morning USA', 'good afternoon Japan', etcetera jingles.

At least, there's more room to be creative with the imaging, now. As long as it's not annoying for the listeners.
 
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