Radio morning show on a major market oldies station.
Dionne Warwick’s “Walk On By” fades out.
HOST: Suzie Sidekick, Entertainment Reporter — that song was written by someone who visited us here a few years ago. Can you tell us who?
SUZIE: Uh….No.
HOST: C’mon!
Suzie: Holland-Dozier-Holland?
HOST: No.
SUZIE: (desperation in her voice) Paul Anka?
Clue #1
The station didn’t “cast” the show properly. Suzie Sidekick is too young to know and apparently not smart enough to learn the music that is the ONLY thing that oldies station offers its audience.
(Trust me, no one turns them on to hear her “entertainment reports,” which consist of her reading wire service stories about people in show business.)
Clue #2
If you’re the show host, you never ask a factual question of anyone whose job can be considered “news” or “information” — unless you know in advance the person can answer the question.
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Young fledgling presenter at a regional station covering the Yorkshire Dales: “Coming next, a great song from Zed Zed Top” !!!!!! (cringe in embarrassment)
@James Wilson: Ouch!
Good reminder of “information” player vs. “entertainment” player. Learned many years ago, don’t attempt or succeed in pulling the “news / information” person out of character by drawing them into purely whimsical entertainment content. They will potentially lose their credibility as a serious info. character and hurt the show’s credibility in doing so.
We have a talk format station here in South Africa which broadcasts oldies over weekends. It’s sripted and produced in Australia so all the presenters sound the same! What ever happened to personality? Oh I forgot. Accountants!
Yet there are so many out-of-work radio people for whom the name “Burt Bacharach” would have just fallen nonchalantly from their mouths.
Accountants, indeed…
I had a colleague who decided that Tony’s surname should now rhyme with Eric’s, the pesky little double-n/single-n detail notwithstanding.
About ten years ago I inherited a very funny morning show whose host insisted he should also do the news! He didn’t understand the problem with saying “some knucklehead in [neighboring town] killed himself yesterday when he drove his car into a pole!” Yes, those were his exact words! He believed the audience wanted the news that way and that the “knucklehead’s” family probably laughed when they heard it! When I had another voice deliver the news with a more “serious” tone, he threw a fit and got himself suspended. Not surprisingly, his career turned sharply downhill afterward. A shame because he was extremely funny!
Don’t let your news person work an on-air shift either. They will lose their credibility immediately.
Hi Mike let’s not forget the late Hal David who wrote the lyrics and Burt who wrote the music to this classic song ..I get peeved when Hal doesn’t recieve credit it’s like saying Lamont Dozier wrote loads of hits for The 4 Tops without mentioning Brian and Eddie Holland ..maybe me just being anal lol