Guest Blog by Sean Ross @rossonradio
Recently, I was asked by a client to talk to the airstaff. The GM had seen my column “Radio’s Best & Worst,” which has appeared most recently as a series of Tweets about what I like and don’t like on the radio. Talk about what you like and don’t like hearing from announcers, I was asked.
A number of readers have noticed that there’s not a lot of “worst” in “Radio’s Best & Worst.” Mostly, I prefer to praise in public and critique in private. Radio’s detractors and fans can both be cynical—sometimes the latter are even more brutal, comparing what’s available now to their memories. When I find something to like, it’s not just boosterism. It’s beating the odds, and I’m truly delighted that I find so much to like.
That doesn’t mean I don’t hear certain pet peeves with regularity, among them:
Mostly, though, what I hear in bad jock breaks is the execution of a lot of mundane station business at slightly gratuitous length.
Over an intro, this plays itself out as too many items jammed in a break—backsell; call letters; station positioner; “Sean Ross with you . . . on a Thursday morning . . . Friday’s right around the corner”; a teaser for multiple upcoming artists; the frontsell of the current song; maybe the calls and positioner again. And now there’s no time for anything else.
Going into a stopset, you usually hear all of the above, and then whatever other station business may take place. Sometimes that’s a live read promo about the same station event for which we’re just about to hear a produced sales promo.
In such breaks, there is a lot of verbiage—sometimes, as the personality goes through the checklist, there’s a little extra verbiage for each item: one break, but four thoughts, sometimes punctuated by four asides. But there is not a lot of content.
There is no storytelling.
There is no attempt to make you hear “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” or “Livin’ On A Prayer” or “Can’t Stop the Feeling” again for the first time.
There is nothing that tethers the break to the community where it is being heard, unless that positioner is “(Market)’s Number One Music Station” or “(Market)’s Greatest Hits.”
There are no shared laughs. One of the surprises of my recent “virtual road trip”–in which I streamed radio from Florida to New York City in sequence—was the realization of how little humor I had encountered. Hearing WHTZ (Z100) New York’s Brady goofing on his callers made me realize that those sort of phone bits had gone away as a result of PPM measurement in major North American markets to be replaced by, well, nothing.
There is no creative writing that makes the jock seem possessed of some talent to entertain that the listener doesn’t have. There is no one-to-one communication of the sort that establishes the host as “one of us.” There’s something instead that lands in between.
A while ago, I asked if radio is mired in too many bad, “radiospeak” positioners. Can we not bond with listeners over anything better than “more music, better variety”? Because we certainly can’t bond with listeners over “more music, better variety.” A few years ago, one of my PDs forbade his air talent to use the positioning statement—leaving it to the imaging voice—so that they use save the breaks for what they do well. It seemed like the classic advice of another era, but I somehow hadn’t encountered it before, or since.
Voice tracking offers both an explanation for some of what I hear, and a potential remedy, although both talent and programmers are part of its execution. The upside of voice tracking is access to talent who have the ability to do all the things that make radio “radio.” Plus, there’s the ability to edit yourself from a remove, (because few people are their own best editor in real time), and time to synthesize that Wikipedia nugget you’ve researched with your own insights.
But careless voice tracking often leads to a lot of “breaks from nowhere.” There are live promos for ongoing station promotions that don’t necessarily sound any different from the one heard a few months ago. Or it’s the above litany of jock-isms but inserted between songs in a way that stops the momentum unnecessarily and makes the bit sound canned. Voice-tracking was heralded for its ability to bring the precision of old back to radio. When it doesn’t, that’s often the PD’s fault (or the fault of whoever inserts the tracks).
This is a time when every on-air break should count. Broadcasters hope smart speakers will facilitate more radio listening, but they also bring competing media into the living room. Alexa is already regarded by some as a companion; if she doesn’t already do birthday shout-outs, you know they’re coming. Moving perfunctorily through a rapid-fire litany of station business is not the same as advocating for the radio station. Or for radio.
Sometimes what separates a litany of station business and extra verbiage from a good break is just a little flourish. Last Friday night, WMXJ (the Beach)’s Todd Allen was cross-plugging the mix show that would follow him in a half-hour or so. Then he threw in the front-sell and it was “Baaaad! To the bone! It’s Michael.” And Allen’s energy built throughout the break. If he had just said, “Here’s Michael Jackson, ‘Bad,’ it would have been the generic break I don’t like. In this case, the three words weren’t gratuitous.
I went back to look at some of the “Best Jock Lines” I had heralded over the last year or so. I wondered if I was going to find a handful of corny one-liners. Instead I found Nash-FM Des Moines’ Kim Chase backselling Luke Bryan’s “Move” with, “Even the people in the office who don’t like Country are going to tap their feet to that one.” That is advocating for the radio station.
Then I saw CHLG (LG104.3) Vancouver’s Graham Hatch declaring that “the Buggles were wrong. The ‘Radio Star’ is doing just fine. It’s the videos we don’t see much of anymore.” That was advocating for radio.
“I can’t wait to talk to Doug MacDonald and thank him for that album,” said K-Jazz Long Beach, Calif.’s Bubba Jackson. And he had called my attention to the music, in a genre I don’t often listen to, in a way that was more than “that was, this is.”
“It was perfect wasn’t it? It was exactly what we needed,” said Key 103 Manchester’s Debbie Mac, the morning after Ariana Grande returned for the One Love Manchester concert. Mac is heard throughout the U.K. on Bauer “City Network” CHRs. But at that moment, she knew exactly what that particular market needed as well. She advocated for the listener.
Sean Ross is Vice President of Music and Programming for Edison Research. He works with radio and music industry clients in all formats and on multiple continents on format strategy and musical tactics. Subscribe to his Newsletter ROSS ON RADIO.
This article was first published on https://voicetrackerhub.com.
20 Comments On Talking Long And Saying Nothing: Wasted Breaks
On the money as usual Sean. As my old Pal Bill Gardner put it, “he/she must be getting paid by the word!”
Short, heartfelt, (seemingly) off-the-cuff. Less truly is more when it comes to saying something that has a chance of making an instant connection with listeners. The best jocks can make the magic happen in under five seconds (which leaves plenty of time for the live promo that inevitably follows).
This is a GREAT column!
After so many years of reducing “clutter”…. radio has stripped itself down to the bare basics! In some cases…even the basics are missing. I hear too many air talent even eliminate the call letters from their rap!
As a PD, my main message to the air talent was to keep the songs you’re playing sounding “fresh” and “exciting”. I don’t care if you’re playing the same Duran Duran hit song over every 90 minutes….or in the case of classic rock….if you’re spinning “Walk This Way” for the 10,000th time…..let your talents….your voice….your wit….your attitude, make it come alive again.
There is no need to tell your audience how bored you are or how old their favorite song is.
Jock breaks don’t necessarily have to revolve music or the song you are playing…..take a current event….and run with it.
Let’s take the Super Bowl…..maybe you’re having a party….or going to one….if not “pretend” you are. Over the course of an hour or more….each break could talk about what you may be serving for snacks….what you might run out of…..how many you are inviting….how you deal with rowdy guests…..the problems you had last year, etc. Obviously you quickly set up your Super Bowl party bit for those just tuning in….then find another facet of that scenario to share.
My main point here to air talent…..BEFORE you enter the broadcast booth… live or VT, jot down some notes and observations that will guide your personality during that air shift. I call this “show prep.”
Sean, you nailed it! When I was a jock, one of my heroes was WABC’s George Michael…seemed like EVERY song told a story and his talkups reflected that ethos of making every word count. Dan Ingram could say more in 10 seconds than the rest of us could in 30.
Your line about “Staying Alive” reminds me of a well known oldies consultant who shall remain nameless…he once said jocks should play the song and as often as possible, say something like “a shame that we lost him in 1964.” NOT at any station where I worked, thankfully. Can you believe THAT?
Classic Rock and Classic Hits stations have to stop giving release dates and even front or back selling the name of the tune and artist. That saves a a lot of time and allows you to do a break with actual meaning. The songs are ultra familiar. There is no need to say, “The Beatles there with “Hey Jude.” You can talk about a song without ever saying the title. And, stop giving release dates. No one cares.
That’s all so relevant Sean. Best equipment a jock can take in the studio is a pen and paper and a few ideas on saying something that passes the “ Who Cares “ test.
NINE!!!!!
Really, what more need be said?? #Winner
I’m glad this column is resonating for so many people. By the way, I have a pretty good sense of who Peter’s Oldies consultant is. Because I remember hearing about the consultant who came through a friend’s station, critiqued each jock, and gave *each* one a different example along those lines–“I can’t believe it’s been 15 years (which it was then) since we lost Janis Joplin,” etc.
Great article. Will pass it on.
I really like this- I track in 3 markets and constantly struggle to stay local and entertaining and under 30 seconds. I have a PD that says “don’t stop the music, say the call letters every time and say something that matters” but the intro is 3 seconds long- what can be interesting in the last second?
Rick Solar at WATCH told his jocks not to give title or artist on the station’s oldies. “You’ve taken up time telling them what they already know!”
Ba, ba, but I’m old and they are old so I sometimes forget who they were. Especially if they aren’t anymore!
I have a problem with those who will not accept the fact that the listener WANTS to know the title and artist of the songs we play. They EXPECT it. Out of everything we do, the one thing the listener knows a personality does is identify the music on the radio. They’re often too busy to check the website or the phone for the info. And god-forbid a station’s RDS is working – if the driver knows how to access it. It makes no difference how well a song is known, the listener WANTS the information.
Many years ago, a few stations (starting with Philly’s WBEB, I believe) started identifying EVERY SONG they play using pre-recorded tags. They wanted the jocks to get beyond that chore. But, the fact remains that their research showed that their listeners still wanted that information, and they are giving it to them. ANd in a much larger quantity than than usual.
At the classical/jazz station I work at, during classical periods, we both frontsell AND backsell every piece of music. And being classical, it’s not as we’re doing it in such a way that it’ll be missed. So, what’s the number one question we get from our classical listeners? “What’s playing now?” or “What did you play at (such and such time)?”
Bottom line: listeners WANT to know the title/artist info of the music you play. And they want to hear it on-air. Give them the information. If it can be done creatively, great. But don’t ignore it, lest you be ignored for another station in your market.
Couldn’t agree more Joe. The ‘Radio Doctors’ have come and gone for years trumpeting the latest trends but a popular response across all formats from listener polling, always has been (and likely will continue to be), “Give me the name of the Artist and Song”. If the station isn’t doing it, they will find one that does.
Yes it’s painful to do a bad break, the audience may not hear it that way but the for me a bad break is a break that wasn’t executed as I had planned. I chalk it up to growth…I don’t think you can become a better jock without going through those growing pains and as long as you’re growing and honing your craft it will happen. Lots of talent on the air right now especially weekends are inexperienced part timers with no one to really groom them. It’s sad because lots of them are hungry for some guidance.
Great article Sean!!! I have more than a few people that I am forwarding this to!!
Joe Patti is absolutely correct. We did a lot of focus groups in the late 80’s at RCA/Nashville. All around the country the #1 complaint from radio listeners was “they don’t tell us the name and title of the song” When we shared with programmers they dismissed it as needless talk, it slows down the front sell formatics, etc. I suspect they thought we were just concerned with trying to sell our music to their listeners/consumers.
After retiring from record promotion, I did mornings at a small station outside of Nashville. The first thing I did was announce on air that I would identify every song played plus the singer/group, no matter if the song was brand new or a 30 year classic. The response from the “active” audience was overwhelmingly positive. In fact, they appreciated the classic song info more than currents. Yes, George Jones, Marty Robbins, Brenda Lee…confirming it was the voice or song they thought it was. It’s a powerful programming element that the listener EXPECTS to hear.
Great article Sean Thanks
Yet another great article from Sean Ross that is SO ON THE MONEY. Thanks for helping us remember to do it THE RIGHT WAY!