A Loyal Reader Asks:
“What’s your opinion on the famous jock saying, coming up right after this”?
— Louisa Borja Muna
Unless it’s a novice radio host who simply doesn’t know any better, it’s sloppy, lazy, and ineffectual.
Each of your listeners tuned into your radio program for reasons for their own:
- To hear the traffic report
- To play the contest
- To see if you’re playing a song they like
- For companionship
- For diversion
When you say “right after this,” you’re telling those listeners:
“Whatever reason you had for tuning to my show no longer is relevant, because we’re not doing it any more. Instead, we’re now doing this — i.e., this bunch of commercials.”
The structure of “coming up right after this” highlights the fact that your radio programming temporarily is coming to a halt.
The solution is remarkably easy.
Focus on what’s “coming up” and don’t even mention the “this”:
“Oh, and yet another woman has come forward with an accusation against Bill Cosby. And this time I think he’ll be forced to give some sort of public response. This is getting messier and messier…Well, I’ll let you be the judge in just a moment here on the Ed Jock Radio Extravaganza…” (begin your commercial break)
Yes, that requires a little more effort, a little more thought than sticking to the format of “Coming up right after this is X.”
But the impact is greater and both your listener interest and your audience retention rate is higher.
That “little more effort” is one of the things that separate successful radio DJs from run-of-the-mill radio announcers.
Download Dan O’Day’s
RADIO PERSONALITY PRINCIPLES
