Question for music jocks out there...

[NewtotheNasti]

Probably a dumb question, but what's up with the lost art of giving the artist name (and year for music a little older) and possibly a little history behind the song or artist after playing a song or run of songs???

Seems like this was done all the time when I was a kid (70's), now I seldom ever here it done. Is it a corporate thing--are DJ's dicouraged from doing this???

Thanks

 

[Nock]

Also a great way to sell music :-[

Nock

 

[RadioWarrior]

Guess it isn't written on the liner cards.

 

[BigTimeEngineer]

The logic, and I use the word in a cautionary sense, is that giving the year of a song could be interpreted, by some listeners, that the song is "old". If the song tests well, then the belief (make that arbitrary belief), is that release date is of little interest to a demo correct female. It's a form of the same assumption of the reasoning behind the fear in using the word, "oldies". It doesn't test well.

 

[Journeyman]

Probably a dumb question, but what's up with the lost art of giving the artist name (and year for music a little older) and possibly a little history behind the song or artist after playing a song or run of songs???

Seems like this was done all the time when I was a kid (70's), now I seldom ever here it done. Is it a corporate thing--are DJ's dicouraged from doing this???

Thanks

Personality Radio. How quaint! Now shut the hell up and play the music, maggot!
//Boss mode off\\

 

[kenhawk1160]

Probably a dumb question, but what's up with the lost art of giving the artist name (and year for music a little older) and possibly a little history behind the song or artist after playing a song or run of songs???

Seems like this was done all the time when I was a kid (70's), now I seldom ever here it done. Is it a corporate thing--are DJ's dicouraged from doing this???

Thanks

You have to go to small market radio stations to find that these days. I think it all depends on the format. On the stations that skew younger, it's 'shut up and play the music', but you can get away with that for formats that skew a little older (like Oldies, AC, soft AC, classic rock and AOR are some examples).

I voice track my night shift on the Hot AC station in our three-station cluster. I do frontsell the artists coming up at the top of the hour and I do two backsells an hour. My breaks fall where the current hits are, and I do introduce those for the sake of making the listener aware of what the latest hit happens to be.

During my shift we run two special shows called "The Top 9 at 9" and the "11 o'clock NEWs". I frontsell each song in both shows.

 

[radioelizabeth]

Probably a dumb question, but what's up with the lost art of giving the artist name (and year for music a little older) and possibly a little history behind the song or artist after playing a song or run of songs???

Seems like this was done all the time when I was a kid (70's), now I seldom ever here it done. Is it a corporate thing--are DJ's dicouraged from doing this???

Thanks

There is a way to do it without sounding like an encyclopedia...that seems to be a better approach when dealing with the wants of the listener.

For example...

You can say "ah, the days of legwarmers....what were we thinking?" and backsell a song from the early 80s quickly and easily without having to give specifics or stories...then you've done a quick line that assists in identifying with the target, dating the song, and still keeping it all current.

my 2 cents.