The current issue of my Radio Programming Letter discusses the practice of stations using third party, “canned” listener drops — trying to convince the audience that people actually listen to and are excited about the radio station.
And I offered advice to someone who wanted to know how to generate his own (not a service’s) humorously bogus “Letters From Listeners.”
This post is for my subscribers to use to add their own comments, thoughts, rejoinders, etc.
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The best place to find humor and material is right in front of you- your daily life. What happens to you or around you offers infinite possibilities- and there is no such thing as lying if you are an entertainer- you are “creating”, right? So go out there and be creative.
Tommy Griffiths
I am all for “canned drops” IF…and that is ONLY IF they are centered around lifestyle elements that our listeners share. I also support the notion of stations using drops of people talking about the service elements a station delivers (News, Weather-Traffic, etc).
Examples:
-When do I need the weather? So I can know how to dress my kids.
-Traffic is important because I need to know how long it will take to get home and make dinner for my kids.
-I listen to the news because I don’t want to sound informed at the water cooler.
It’s all about the listener, rather than the station. It is up to the Creative Director/Program director to write around those “canned people”. Easy close to a promo? ‘Traffic. When you need to know. Newstalk 890….KVIC.”
With so many stations lacking people to hit the streets to extract these “canned bytes”, some services do it right and are worth it. Just be careful what you use. Try to Keep It Real. Listeners now carry a BS button with them at all times.
It’s not that hard to collect listener testimonials, even if you don’t ever leave the station. Anyone doing a live shift should be collecting them as listeners call in. And why can’t you collect them from people who come in to collect prizes that they have won on-air? Train your Director of First Impressions on how to use a simple digital recorder and microphone that he or she keeps at the front desk.
LOTS of stations use these ‘canned’ testimonials….more than you know. They are even provided in the audio imaging service we subscribe to.
They are not ‘lying to your listener’.
They’re just lazy.
It’s the same thing an actual listener would say, just easier to get.
That said…ANY station worth its salt [and can afford a voxpro]
gets its OWN testimonials, with CALL LETTERS/BRAND included by the listener.
When I have a cash winner and I want a testimonial…I TELL them what to say, including my station brand. Is THAT lying? No. Its just ‘shaping’ what goes over my air. That is my job.
Imaging in radio is a different animal. Its not news. It not facts.
Here is the litmus test: IS IT ENTERTAINING?
If yes, air it. If no, dont. End of story.
Radio is theatre of the mind. Is ‘Theatre’ always totally true, accountable and ‘by the book’? Of course not.
Neither is radio.
But it should always be entertaining.
Good call, Catfish. It is “Entertaining”?
After all, perception is reality. Plus, we are here to enteratin and tell the listener where to shop.
If you don’t use a service, find some way of getting a board op to mic the sales staff with questions. Who knows, the board op may say, “Hey, I’d like to try and create a promo with this stuff.”