by Jay Trachman
You’re probably thinking that your station has the best music mix, the most carefully researched oldies, the most songs-in-a-row, the best contests, and the most distinct sound in your market, and because of that, you can’t help but win in the ratings. What if your listener doesn’t care?
But, you say, the research says people turn on the radio mainly for music, so if yours is the “best,” how can you lose? Easily. If you’re programming primarily to adults, most of them don’t hear the format — only the song that’s playing. Claims of the best this and that are perceived by most adults as the hype they are. And, once again, the research shows that if he or she doesn’t like the song that’s playing right now, there’s one chance in three you’ll lose them, if that’s the only thing they’re there for.
Yes, people tune in mainly for the music — but they don’t necessarily care where they get it from. And in most markets, the fine distinctions we make among formats are lost on the listeners. Hot AC and Oldies-based AC? New Country and Young Country? This Rock and That Rock — they’re Tweedledum and Tweedledee to all but the most music-involved listeners. In my opinion, depending on format distinction in a market with similar formats, to secure listener loyalty, is mostly wishful thinking.
The thing that makes stations sound distinct is, in most situations, what comes between the songs: you and me. And yet DJs are allowed to “perform” as if their presence (or lack of it) simply didn’t matter.
This is what I hear, when DJs don’t have anything to say, or don’t know how to entertain: “The Sacramento Valley’s best listen-at-work radio station, with more of today’s best music… starting another 12 in a row — with more than forty minutes of continuous music — here’s Fergie on the Valley’s Best Mix station, Valley 103.9…”
That’s in one break. In the next, I hear two or three contests and remotes promoted, followed by the names of six of the 12 artists in the next music sweep. Is there something here that couldn’t be done better by a machine?
I recently critiqued a station where there was so much promotional and slogan hype, they actually talked more than anyone would have needed to, to present themselves as real personalities. No wonder people say DJs talk too much — they keep hitting you over the head with how great their product is, without ever bothering to say something anyone might consider entertaining.
The most music-intensive show still has time for relating, for entertaining, for saying things the listener might care about. “That’s the song I played for my wife last week, after we had a little disagreement… Well, it was easier than saying ‘I’m sorry’…” “Does she sound to you like the most up-and-coming artist we’ve had in a long, long time? Me too…” “The forecast says showers tonight, but as far as I can see, no clouds yet. One more day I’m getting away without replacing my broken windshield wiper blade…” “Unusually heavy traffic this afternoon — I haven’t seen it this congested since the Promise Keepers left town…”
The longest of these comments took me eight seconds. Every one of them is shorter than the sample hype fest I gave you, above (which I really heard). And they place me — and the station — in the community, give the forecast, show me as listening to the music, and offer some feeling of “knowing” me.
There’s no deep, dark secret here: you provide a “benefit” to the listener (and the station) by positioning yourself as a real person. When you respond to the music and those other things, you’re entertaining. You’re offering the listener something beyond hype. You’re inviting him/her to respond to you, and in the process, to bond with you as a friend. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll abandon a song you don’t like — but you won’t abandon a friend.
Jay Trachman is publisher of “One to One,” a weekly information and humor service for broadcasters. Jay can be reached at: phone (559) 448 0700, fax (559) 448 0761, e-mail at 121@att.net, or www.121online.net. Reprinted with permission.
