DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

MY COUSIN WAS THE YOUNGEST SINGER TO HAVE A TOP 10 RECORD

by Dan O'Day on December 26, 2011

Whenever I want to stump someone with a pop music-related trivia question, I ask:

“Who was the youngest person to have a Top 10 record?”

Answer: Barry Gordon.

We’re cousins. My father and his father were “best men” at each other’s weddings.

He was seven years old when “Nuttin’ For Christmas” hit the charts. Somewhere I must still have my copy, with “Santa Claus Looks Just Like Daddy” on the flip side.

I’d listen to this as a kid, and I still remember the subtle “uh-oh” that follows “I spilled some ink on Mommy’s rug.”

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FROM MY HOUSE TO YOURS: A PERSONAL VIDEO

by Dan O'Day on December 23, 2011

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HEARTFELT HOLIDAY GREETINGS WITHOUT THE EFFORT

by Dan O'Day on December 22, 2011

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Unsafe Holiday Gifts, Courtesy of Gilbert Gnarley

by Dan O'Day on December 21, 2011

This is from 2003; hence the no-longer-quite-so-topical references.

Gilbert Gnarley, of course, is one of Gary Burbank’s many alter egos.

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ANOTHER RADIO IDEA YOU CAN STEAL (IF YOU LIKE IT)

by Dan O'Day on December 20, 2011

In my in-station workshops, I teach a foolproof system for developing a virtually limitless supply of new ideas for radio features, promotions, branding, etc.

I call the process “Designing Your Station’s Unique Listening Proposition.”

Here’s an idea that came from such a workshop at FFN (Hanover, Germany).

Battle of the Dialects

In Hanover, it might be Lower Saxony vs. Bavarian.

In the U.S., it might be “southern” vs. New England.

Two possible approaches:

A) Telephone contestant has to identify which dialect a particular expression is from.

In the U.S., it might be the very southern expression, “How’s mom and them?”

In the UK, it might be the Welsh expression, “There’s tasty, isn’t it?”

or

B) You give the contestant a generic translation of an expression from a particular dialect, and the caller has to recite the actual expression.

Example:

JOCK: What’s the Pennsylvania Dutch expression that translates to, “We often learn our lessons too late in life?”

CALLER: “We grow too soon old and too late smart.”

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