Thanks for the contest idea. I tried it…some thought it was kinda odd, but it was a nice change. Rather than treat it like a regular trivia contest (which I already do), i think i’ll add it elsewhere in the show. The trivia hounds did NOT like it, but it gave the non hounds a chance to shine. Was cool.
Here’s the blog page(opens in new window) where I posted the audio.
Thanks again, Dan…Love your blog and newsletters. I’ve been in radio since 1984 and you always give me something to think about.
I replied:
Very cool!
Some unsolicited suggestions:
1. It’s GOOD when they pause for a moment, as though they have to think about the answer. That’s part of the joke.
2. I’d recommend not saying, “It’s a dumb little contest.” It inadvertently says to listeners who enjoyed it, “You’re pretty dumb for having been entertained by this.”
Obviously, you have to stick with your own style and what feels right to you. Maybe my suggestions don’t match your style.
Not so much the cutesy ones, such as “England Swings” — which clearly reflected his first visit to England but had nothing to say.
And not — sorry — some of the smoothed-around-the-edges songs that he wrote after he really hit it big (“Little Toy Trains” — self-consciously saccharine; I know some readers will object, but I’m right).
But especially in the early days, even when he was being silly or witty, he wrote about genuine emotions.
One of his songs (a minor hit) that you probably never heard of led directly to a big hit by, of all people, The Monkees.
First, Roger’s song….
Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart heard that, took the song’s last line, and used it as both the opening line and the title for this song by The Monkees….
I hated that Monkees record.
As a terribly sad P.S., years later Tommy Boyce would put into motion the scenario described in “One Dyin’ And A Buryin’.”
“How can you teach young jocks to ‘be real’ — to break out of the ‘I’m a DJ’ persona and become communicators?”
Have them picture the one person who needs the info most and deliver it just to that one person.
Tell the results of the big game to the die-hard fan who, having just undergone open-heart surgery, missed his favorite team’s performance for the first time in 20 years.
Slowly awakening in post-op he asks the nurse, in a weak, rasping voice:
“Would you turn on the radio? I want to hear who won the game!”
Offer the day’s projected High Temperature to the guy who has secretly been growing tulips to surprise his wife on their anniversary, and he needs to know whether to give them extra water he leaves for work.
Yes, some jocks actually place someone’s photograph atop the console to help them achieve that “one-to-one” feeling.
Although you might suggest this, I do not recommend insisting that your young jocks do so.
When I was on the air, I always had some vague, amorphous image of that “one person” I was talking to. Being required to limit that image to one specific person would have constricted me.
