The current issue of my Radio Programming Letter features the first five of the Top Ten Dumb Things You’ve Been Told About Being A Radio Personality.
This post is for my subscribers to use to add their own additions, comments, thoughts, rejoinders, etc.
Comments on this entry are closed.
My first manager (in 1971) told me
a) Never wear headphones…”It will make you sound un-natural” (??)
b) Never back-announce a song…”Move foward..not back” which would be a problem if you were hearing a song for the first time and wanted know who and what it was!!!
* And just for the record: “Partly cloudy skies” is not,
meteorologically speaking, the same as “partly sunny skies.”
Wow! People in the US are some lucky! They have more than one sky! In Canada it only gets to be partly sunny or partly cloudy.
Never say it will be WARM today because that’s the call letters of another station in the market
I couldn’t disagree more with your views on the word “you” vs. “I”. We call it the “You Factor” at our station and it’s been called that for the 28 years I’ve been here.
It can be over done and done badly but we work with our air staff and teach them effective and natural ways of using “you”. “You” is one of the most powerful words in the English language. You sited an example demonstrating a sentence that worked better with “I” than it did with “you”. Now to illustrate the point I just made go into a crowded mall or other public space and shout out “Hey You!” and see how many people turn around. I doubt you would get the same effect shouting “Here I am!”
Okay, I’ll bite on this one…
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I would say provide this information sparingly at best. Mostly because very rarely do I hear an announcer give out personal information in an ENGAGING way. It’s usually off the cuff and improvised prattle at the last second. As Dan has said in the past, (paraphrasing) radio is one of the easiest jobs to to poorly.
But to me the crucial question is: as content providers, is a glimpse into “the real you” really the most important information we can dole out to our audience? Especially since popular magazines, websites and TV shows are doing it. Why should we be followers and why can’t we be leaders? What can we do to help our audience become raving fans about our format? I submit that talking about “the real you” is not the most effective way to do that.
Maybe I expect too much from radio…but I can’t tell you for example how many “music” stations talk about everything BUT the music. Earth to jock: Maybe “the real you” is interesting…but I’m there for the MUSIC! Make me a raving fan of your station and make me want to come back.
Sorry I was replying to the “don”t talk about your self at all” rule and tried quoting it in my previous post.
@ Michael, I agree with you that talking about yourself during your breaks shouldn’t be the focal point of your show. If it’s a music station, music should take the spotlight. That said, I think a human being hosting a radio show will connect with an audience much better than an impersonal disembodied voice.
I wouldn’t say, “use the information sparingly” … I’d say use it often, but wisely.
We had a couple of consultants (we actually called them “Insultants”) that said to always have a music bed running under us when we talk.
They also had a phrase that they wanted to be the first and last thing we said every time we opened the mic. I can understand call letters and dial position…But they they demanded we say “Radio Hill Country’s Real Country Ninety Two POINT!! Five F.M. K-BEY!” To them the “POINT” was the most important thing. And yes I say they demanded that we do this because they talked the station owner into putting them in as the Program Directors.
@ Scott
I agree with your agreeing! Maybe I’m living in a dreamworld, but I still think a jock can connect with his/her audience while talking about his/herself sparingly.
I wasn’t allowed to say listeners last names because a woman once called and bawled out my PD because her boss heard her name on the air, and she got in trouble. I guess she wasn’t supposed to be playing games at work. First names only after that.
Ron Powers
Elko Nevada
That was like 20 years ago BTW…I can say last names now…
Since our station couldn’t take off from the very last place in our market and because our prime competitor happened to be first, our GM wanted us to say we were “number one” because, according to him, we were #1 in the hearts of our listeners!
Canadian jocks who have been in the business for more than twenty years may recall that in a lot of markets, you were not allowed to play female singers back-to-back. Some genius came up with the theory that listeners couldn’t stand the higher-pitched female voice for more than one song. The same geniuses would probably not have been able to explain how people could listen to Madonna, Carole King or Diana Ross albums from the first to the last track!