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ASSUME THE (RADIO STATION) POSITION. ONLY ONE.

Sunday morning, 11:30AM. The DJ is adlibbing his way through a break, being careful to work in two required station positioners. Twice during that break he refers to “Your Official At Work Station” — on a Sunday morning.

How smart is that, having your weekend jock promote the station as the Official At Work Station? Not very.

The Rationale (I assume): That’s how they want to be branded, so they say it all the time. Maybe some weekend listeners will be influenced to listen to them on weekdays, too.

The Fallacies:

1. Most people hearing that message are not, at that moment, At Work Listeners. The station is referencing an experience they are not having.

It’s like a sports station boasting in January about being “The Official World Series Radio Station.” Well, that might be true. But it doesn’t make sense unless it’s October, not January.

2. In fact, for many listeners it’s an experience they’d rather not think about then. Few are thinking, “Gee, I wish there were something to take me out of my weekend mood and make me feel like I’m back in the office!”

But It Gets Worse.

The break — which included two references to “Your Official At Work Station” — ended with the jock declaring this to be a “Work Escape Weekend.” Uh, at, um, y’know, Your Official At Work Station.

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  • Anonymous January 29, 2009, 1:30 am

    Like to stick with Radio and don’t want to create political heat her but along your I’m a Little Teapot” message CNN says they are “the most trust News Network in America”..I could be slightly off but aren’t they? Yet ask a Joe and they may see that something is fishy and Question. Do most millionaires tell you they are millionaires? Action Jackson…
    and if Mr adlib is suddenly talking clearly and contrived with that Phrase that His Boss pays him to say…sounds rinky dink…not kosher. Watch out Green jocks-Adam

  • Anonymous January 29, 2009, 1:43 am

    Dan…Is that Morning Jock who is adlibbing suppose to know what he is saying and would you say his responsibility to the Client,Station, and Listener is not something to guess about? Each topic, each nuance, each question and event must be previewed at least in his mind? You have some hoops to hop thru -Clients who are hurting to pay the radio station right now,The Station who has been laying off folks and you think you could be on the list, and Listeners who are thinking where they are gonna eat, and where are they are gonna get their kid’s meal. Tough…But not impossible- Your job is still to Deliver Mr DJ..and you can do it..Be compassionate..Be Real.. Be available to your Listener..and answer the question…”What are you doing this Morning” and know what you are doing. Have Hope and Believe

  • Dan O’Day January 29, 2009, 1:45 am

    Although the jock was adlibbing, clearly he was following the PD’s instructions in giving those two contradictory positioning statements.

  • Anonymous January 29, 2009, 1:57 am

    The positioning statements may be contradictory, and it does sound like a mess, but if you had the radio on in the background for a period of time over the weekend, what you would take away from your listening experience would be a VERY strong anchor associating ‘work’ with that radio station… So Monday morning when you get into work would you be more likely to turn the station on (and leave it on at work for the week)… Many would ague ‘yes’…

  • DJMarc January 29, 2009, 5:42 am

    Dan… I think its hitting the nail right on the head! While I don’t think it’s a bad thing to mention workday benefits on the weekend, in fact I think it’s pretty important to do so, I have to call question on the comment saying that using the workday positioners (which in the example don’t give anyone any clear position…”official” according to who?) helps make the weekend listener more likely to turn the station on at work on Monday. Its thinking like this that makes our industry ever-weaker. People have brains and I highly doubt most who hear US tell them what to think about US have any reaction other than to reach over and silence the BS alarm. Saying we’re the “official” at-work station is of limited utility to convert weekend listeners to work-day listeners. It would have been better to push the “Work Escape Weeekend” up front and sell the benefits of listening to the station during the week by talking about the tangibles. Happy Thursday y’all!

  • Bill's Waste of Air January 29, 2009, 7:26 am

    Hi Dan, first of all Welcome to Facebook! Thanks for making me a “friend”.
    Positioning statements, though important, are not the end all be all.
    If you have to have 3×5 cards for the weekend guy, time for a better budget.
    If you don’t have the budget, don’t put someone on that can’t figure it out for themselves and if you MUST have the cards, make a weekend set, jeez this ain’t rocket science.

  • Bill's Waste of Air January 29, 2009, 7:26 am

    Hi Dan, first of all Welcome to Facebook! Thanks for making me a “friend”.
    Positioning statements, though important, are not the end all be all.
    If you have to have 3×5 cards for the weekend guy, time for a better budget.
    If you don’t have the budget, don’t put someone on that can’t figure it out for themselves and if you MUST have the cards, make a weekend set, jeez this ain’t rocket science.

  • Bill's Waste of Air January 29, 2009, 7:26 am

    Hi Dan, first of all Welcome to Facebook! Thanks for making me a “friend”.
    Positioning statements, though important, are not the end all be all.
    If you have to have 3×5 cards for the weekend guy, time for a better budget.
    If you don’t have the budget, don’t put someone on that can’t figure it out for themselves and if you MUST have the cards, make a weekend set, jeez this ain’t rocket science.

  • Don Beno January 29, 2009, 7:50 am

    A “live, in-studio” jock? On a Sunday!

  • Moon January 29, 2009, 9:07 am

    A few years back, when I first started programming, I was obsessed with making sure the right liners were in the right place. How I couldn’t have 2 rap songs back to back. I then started dating a girl who was a barista in a coffee shop. We went to Starbucks one day and before she started to drink the coffee she had just purchased. She opened up the lid to show me what a perfect cup of coffee looks like. She went on for a good 5 minutes talking about the foam, how it was whipped..blah blah blah….I said to her point blank. “who cares, I just want to drink it!” She turned to me and said “Yeah, and I just want to hear my favorite song!”. We spend way to much time overthinking instead of looking at what is really important. McDonalds doesn’t say “‘Your Number place for burgers and fun!” They tap into the emotion with “I’m lovin it!” or Nike “Just do it”…not The shoes you wear the most on the weekends!”…just a thought

  • Rob Holding January 29, 2009, 10:55 pm

    “A ‘live, in-studio’ jock? On a Sunday!”- I like it Don, great comment.

    I used to get $10 an hour for weekend shifts then it was $10 a shift for voice tracking them. That’s quite a cut when you’re doing 4 x six-hour shifts per weekend, $240 down to $40.

  • Dan Kelley January 30, 2009, 5:32 am

    This sounds like a PD and/or PD coaching problem. The poor jock either needs some guidance from the PD or the PD needs to listen to his station on the weekend and give some serious thought to his positioning statements…

  • Barry Cole February 2, 2009, 9:01 am

    This is a very good example of how we have screwed up radio.
    We have never, never programmed a station for the listener.
    We program it for our ears. The flow, the way we present the liners, sweepers, etc all for our ears.
    Last year we did a test with 300 women invited, 212 showed up.
    We found we were way off in what we thought the listener wanted.

    For instance hands down. A 10 second spot telling them where the sale is. Quote,” Tell us where the sale is, we know how to find the store, we will get there.”
    “If its a new store chances are we know about it before you do.”

    Another quote,” STOP talking over the first part of the songs, its the best part.”

    If we truly programmed Radio for the listener it would sound completely different.