by Jay Trachman
It’s the identity, the “feel” of a radio station — all the things that define what you are and how you’re perceived by listeners. Does your operation have “stationality”? The answer is, for better or worse, yes.
Years ago I noticed an interesting thing about stations in the Fresno market. I could tell you which one I was listening to — if it was one I was following — just by hearing part of a song. Yes, the selection of music was a big part of it, but there was more. Perhaps it had to do with the audio processing, or the signal strength — but before anybody opened his or her mouth, I knew with reasonable certainty what station I had on. Once the jock spoke, that of course would nail it down. Stations have a style and a sound. Even when their personality is “no personality,” they have one.
What is it about your station — if anything — that defines it and sets it apart from all the others on the dial? “More music, fewer interruptions”? Maybe so — if you’re the only one in the market doing it. If, as I’ve seen in some markets, there are eight stations doing it, then that’s hardly going to define your sound to the listener in a positive way.
Stationality comes, in part, from the sound of the jocks — regardless of how much or how little “personality” they’re doing. If your air staff is limited to reading liner cards, back-announces and the occasional weather and promo, that may not be a lot to grab hold of, but it can be enough, depending, again, on the market’s competitive situation. If there’s genuine enthusiasm (as opposed to “be up and bright!”), if the jocks sound “together,” mature, intelligent, credible — or zany in their own unique ways — all of that can contribute to a positive image. If they sound bored, mechanical, unaware of the listener’s presence, dishonest — or silly without being really funny — that, too, becomes part of your stationality.
Every jock should sound different, and every show, every day, should sound different. Yet those differences, as we know, must fall within the broad spectrum we call the station’s “format.” Your jocks may do a whole lot more rapping in morning drive, and the music may be significantly hotter in afternoon drive and at night — but all occurs within parameters. Obviously you don’t shift your daytime album Rock music to Country at night (unless you’re in a very special market), and you don’t have free-wheeling, turned on, hooked-into-life personalities in the morning and then switch to faceless, interchangeable card readers for the rest of the day. Or listeners may get the feeling that your station only exists in the morning.
Ideally, stationality is a consistency, a pulling together, a feeling that each event or show is part of an organic whole — that your station is a “thing,” greater that the sum of its parts. When you can convey that feeling, and it’s something positive to the listeners, then you start building the kind of loyalty that goes beyond the next song.
Getting some minimal consistency throughout the broadcast day is primarily a programming function. Management hires those people they think can deliver the kind of feel they want for the station, just as they select the music that fits your format and reject that which doesn’t. After hearing three DJ’s on a station, I can usually tell you a good deal about what kind of a PD you have, because everyone hires with an “image” in mind. Any consultant can tell whether or not an air staff is being encouraged to sparkle, to be creative, to reach the listeners and make an impact, or whether jocks are considered a “necessary evil” there. It’s my belief that so can the listener, on an intuitive level. And either way, it forms a significant part — in some markets, the most important part — of your stationality.
This has nothing to do with how much talking your jocks are allowed; it’s an attitude, a feeling they convey. Do you sound happy to be there? Involved with the listener’s life? Hooked into what’s going on right here, right now? Are you the only station in your market that sounds the way you do? Every programmer wants to answer yes, of course — but not all of them do the things that are necessary to make it so.
Why is stationality so important to your operation? For the same reasons you repeat the basics eight times an hour or more: it enables the listener to remember you. Especially when rating time rolls around. As I’ve written before, we spend a lot of time “begging” people to remember us, by “pounding home the basics.” Stationality is that which gives the listener something unique to remember us by.
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.
