Hard to believe 1984 was a quarter century ago. It stands as a milestone year due to George Orwell’s thrilling work of futuristic fiction. Oddly enough, here in this digital age known as the early 21st century, Robby Bridges would argue that radio was better suited to serve the needs of today’s listeners, in many circumstances, 25 years ago.
By Robby Bridges
Robby Bridges
Hard to believe 1984 was a quarter century ago. It stands as a milestone year in part, of course, as famed author George Orwell cited it as the title of his thrilling work of futuristic fiction in the ’40s. Oddly enough, here in this digital age known as the early 21st century, I would argue that radio was better suited to serve the needs of today’s listeners, in many circumstances, 25 years ago. What a marvelous year to spin the dial; Gerry D’s KIIS-FM was scoring double digits in Los Angeles, Imus and Howard were both on WNBC, my home station WEBE exploded onto the air in Connecticut and, of course, Scott Shannon was re-inventing the wheel at Z100 in New York from the Morning Zoo to formatics and imaging; and those are but a handful of examples. 1984, largely influenced by Z100 and KIIS and a crop of great music/artists, was the year Top 40 radio stations around the nation created the kind of excitement and energy that is missing from the airwaves so often today. AC, oldies and rock formats followed suit with high energy contemporary presentations. However, while creating “larger than life” brands, radio in the early ‘80s was very tight, formatics were short and impactful and the jocks were able to inject personality and tangible adrenaline into the presentation. These were stations that were so good jocks couldn’t sound bad working them and talent was so good even the dullest songs or campiest of contest were “must listen” events each time they aired. This is not to say there aren’t many great stations today or that there were not less than excellent stations at that time, but all the research I read today cites a large cume in markets all over the country and lower TSL. PPM data has, of course, been consistent with this. Why shouldn’t it? There are more radio stations and more media choices available to the consumer than there ever have been before from devices to the web to on demand TV. Additionally both marketing studies and PPM data show a very low tolerance by the listener to sit through less than highly engaging content (and a threshold for even content they do like); low retention with too much clutter; mistaking promos, jock talk, some contesting, even sweepers as commercial matter. Now, as far as PPM, despite its lack of MRC accreditation, I believe it’s here to stay and grow as the primary form of data collection at least for Arbitron and while I’m sure it will evolve as it ages I highly doubt the industry will revert back to a paper/pen diary system, if it’s not PPM it will be smart phones, GPS technology, etc. Irrespective, the PPM results and concurrent media studies have given us radio programmers tremendous insight into how to program our radio stations. I’ll highlight two points on this below….
1) The Wordy Contest: Drive to any market in America, large or small, and at least one station on the dial is airing a contest promo that is well over a minute long detailing the rules of a game that involves so many variables, stipulations, effects, movie drops and cliché verbiage for a prize that is less than engaging it makes your head spin. Call it clutter, audio wallpaper, promos or sweepers of this variety are not only completely lost on the listener but they’ll often mistake them as the start of a stopset or find them so annoying they’ll punch away. More and more of these types of promos seem to have crept on the air; the audience is right, stopping for a 25 second sweeper between songs or adding a unit to a stopset with a minute plus long promo to start it is not capturing the imagination or creating excitement. Flash back to 1984 when positioning was simple, repetitious and impactful; “Hot Hits,” “More Music (harkening back to the wonderful Drake formatics)” and “Musicradio”. Contesting was always larger than life. I was listening to airchecks today and came across Bruce Vidal, then night jock at KIIS, giving away hundred dollar bills and concert tickets and making “an official boogie line tee shirt” sound just as big on the air. Incidentally there was no long promo detailing how to win cash, it was just a regular part of the format called “WAM-walking around money” to win. This sort of on-air excitement created the kind of constant appointment listening radio that is conducive to creating tuned in occasions in today’s PPM realities.
2) Jock patter: I listened today to Chuck Geiger doing nights at KFRC. Here is a 5K AM station doing top 40 under Gerry Cagle’s stewardship that sounded incredible. Chuck was a great night jock; the energy level was so high it was like attending a rock concert just to listen to the music he plays. While there are breaks Chuck would nail a post or run a phoner, there are numerous others. He doesn’t walk the intro all the way to the vocal, he reads promos and talks about the music and always punches and rolls segues. I am one to literally talk back to my radio or aloud at my media player listening to airchecks today when talent talk off the back of songs, stop down in between and then talk intros all the way to ramps; and not to run station contesting or create excitement about station features/benefits but to run phone bits without announcing artists/titles or remembering calls in/out. Often jocks will remark to me when I talk about this “well you don’t like personality CHR” To the contrary, I love it. Here’s actual verbiage when Chuck Geiger handled nights: “K-F-R-C…San Francisco… with the best music in stereo…7pm with the SOS Band…burnin’ rubber!” Song establishes itself; Chuck injects excitement and gets out of the way without needing to hit the post. Another example, Dale Dorman on Kiss 108 in Boston “Kiss 108…where what the world needs is more Madonna…Kiss!” or perhaps the most brilliant personality rap I’ve ever heard from the great Dan Ingram out of jingle Three Dog Night’s One starts and he says “ahhh…woof woof and woof” and that’s all. Now there are other examples and other styles, point is, brief, exciting, meaningful, relatable, setting an appointment for a station benefit/feature is far more memorable than stopping down the music for a phone bit about what movie a bunch of giggly callers went to see. A jock’s primary function is to create excitement by playing music and telling listeners what it is they are hearing; if they can do this in a clever, engaging way they will simultaneously multiply listening occasions.
Radio seemed to be more fun, less cluttered and memorable than it often is today and with the listener’s attention so splintered in today’s media landscape; while station websites, podcasts, streaming are all vitally important, let’s take a page from our gloried past and make sure the content is the best it can be over the air. This means, all talent are tight and focused and formatics are impactful and clear.
Robby Bridges is host of the Ride Home Show on WEBE-FM Bridgeport, CT. He is also President of BBOR Productions, developing and marketing syndication, music and production pieces nationally. Previously Bridges has worked in various capacities at WCTK/Providence, Z100/New York, Q102/Philadelphia, WODS and Mix 98.5/Boston and elsewhere in New England. Robby can be reached at 203-333-9108 or bridges@bborproductions.com
