The Devil Is In The Details

It seems to me that, as broadcasting companies get bigger and bigger, and as more and more staffers do double-duty, more and more details fall through the cracks. Some of those details aren't really "details."

Here are a few of what I see as problem areas. I intentionally left out air-talent because the answer there is simple: coach, teach, inspire, and share knowledge.

[disclaimer: I'm mostly talking about top hundred markets here. Star 94.5 is a fictitious station for example purposes only. And finally, I mean no offense to any stations mentioned here, by name or otherwise. If I took the time to look at your website or listen to your station, I did so because I have respect for what you do]

Automation:

Radio is turning into an audio conveyor belt. Once the automation kicks in, there's no life to it. What's worse, it's riddled with human error. How many times have we all heard the computer play two songs at once with nobody in the studio to stop it? Autopilot AM radio can be the worst. High tsl and low attention to detail are a bad combination. I live in a large market and I hear this stuff constantly. It's gotten so bad that I think we're used to it.

These things are inexcusable and they're fixable. Start by finding someone passionate on your staff who just so happens to be a computer geek. Teach that person the ins and outs of your automation system and have that person be the go-to quickfixer when engineering isn't around. Or when you need things checked out for goofups. What? There's nobody on your staff like that? Hire a new part-timer that fits the bill. Respect your geeks! You need 'em more than you know.

As I type this, the wrong voicetracked break just played in front of the wrong record on the station I'm listening to. I digress.

Getting back to the computer: For the love of god, back off those intros. Even on some adult stations, I'm hearing pre-recorded breaks bumped smack against the vocal - not the way a jock who runs a slick board would do it. No. They're ramped up against the first syllable rather than a musical post. Every time. It doesn't sound live. It doesn't sound fun to listen to. It sounds like a computer. It's easy to fix. Do it.

Better yet, shut the automation off and have jocks run the board. Huh? You say it's hard to have a jock from Hackensack run a board in Albuquerque. You're right. That sucks. So, if you must VT a daypart - demand excellence from the VT jock. Tape the breaks that hit the mark and the breaks that don't. Send examples of both on CD to the voicetracker so that person can hear the difference.

Passion:

How excited is your staff to be there? How excited are you? I'm just askin'. OK, that's not really a specific - but it's important, so think about it.

Promotions And Positions:

I'm no fan of "listen for the sounder" promotions. Yeah they're easy to execute, but is it really the best way? I think those usually deny the opportunity to build proof of performance into a contest, not to mention that it should be your jocks, not the sound effects, giving away prizes. You DO want listeners to like Danny the morning guy, right?

I think it's wise to approach contests from the following angle: How can we use the contest to reinforce our position? I gave a station I work with the idea of doing an on-air scavenger hunt. Find the songs to win the money. The real idea was to remind listeners they play the hits and recycle listeners of other dayparts into the morning show. The station made it easier than easy to play. Shockingly easy to the point where they were giving away answers on the air in the form of a cheat-sheet to make it sound as if listeners were getting some sort of inside info in an attempt to get less active listeners involved. Another station I worked with was trying to push their variety, so we created the Variety Vault as a way to highlight gold rather than just mixing it in. That's such common sense it's not even worth mentioning, and maybe you're already doing something similar. Kudos! I work with a station that plays 7 in a row. I write and produce imaging that tells little stories and offers up bizarre facts about the number 7.

"Y'know, they say that nobody remembers the 7th runner up in the Miss Utah Pageant. But we do, and we love her.
We are Star 94.5. We play 7 in a row, 7 every time."
[again, I'm using a fake name here out of respect for a client]

If you've got no promotion on the air, do theme weeks or weekends to reinforce your brand. It's proof of performance in a fun and clever way. The theme could be anything that calls attention to your music or position. Are you a Hot/AC? Do a 1 hit wonders weekend. Do a 90's Divas weekend. Do an artists who's names start with M weekend. An artists with numbers in their names weekend. A hidious wardrobe weekend. anything! The nuttier the better so long as you tie it all in. A PD I work with wanted to do something Tom Cruise Katie Holmes-ish a few weeks ago when everybody was talking about that - so we did a weekend of Love Songs For Tom And Katie.

They're an Adult CHR - plenty of songs in their playlisty already fit the 'love-songs' bill. They just highlighted a few each hour. For father's day, they did a songs by dads weekend. Did you know 3 of the guys from U2 have a total of 11 kids? Lenny Kravitz is a dad. And Sting. It's interesting, and it's another way to call atttention to the records in your library. They were going to play that Dave Matthews record anyway, right? Well, Dave's a dad. It's better than shouting Star Plays Dave Mattwes" for the billionth time. Give listeners a reason to listen. Make it fun.

Slogans:

More and more stations are burying their air talent with senseless mumbojumbo. Do Hot/AC listeners really abandon you if you don't say you play songs from the 90s? "He didn't say 90's! No 90's? Oh my god I am so out of here!" Of course not. A friend's station took a 70's 80's 90's blah blah slogan and shortened it to "True Variety." It's short, sweet, and they can prove it forwards backwards and sideways. I'd love to hear a chr trim that number one channel ramble down to "Hit Music." That's what it's all about, right?

If your name and slogan is over twenty syllables long... what are you thinking? Do you really want them to remember the most variety of the 70's 80's 90's and today? Really? God, I'm sorry to hear that. You should be trying to have them remember Star 94.5, because 80's 90's blah blah could be anybody, but Star is YOU.

You introduce yourself to someone by holding out your hand, and with a firm grip, you say "Hi, I'm [name]." Why? Why isn't your imaging like that? Think about it. Some of the best sweepers I've evver heard: "Kayyyyyyyyy ROCK!" "The New K-- T-- U!!!" Simple. Memorable. Brilliant. I call it Audio Logo. Starbucks would not hang a sign in front of its coffeeshops that had so much content you couldn't see their name. The CBS logo doesn't have "Home of Survivor and David Letterman" written all over it. That sweeper between the records is your audio logo. Don't bury it.

Use some real-world experience. What's your favorite restaurant? What brand of soap do you buy? Where's your favorite place to go for pizza? Why do you like those things? Why should a listener like your radio station? Interesting how easy it is to sum up another brand in a few words [Ford Trucks - Built Ford Tough], but somehow yours is worthy of a diatribe that you really expect listeners to remember. Not bloody likely.

The trick isn't to repeat the slogan until there's no time to say anything else in a break. That's wasted airtime. Instead, let the jock be a real human being. Don't make midday Mary sound like she should be selling used cars. She's better than that and so is your station. Put the slogan - in a realistic short form - in promos and sweepers. And PROVE IT. Proof of performance. Do it.

For example, here's a simple sweeper:
"Star 94.5 plays Variety. Here's proof:"
[followed by a listener making a request]

Instead, a typical station is more likely to say:
"The all new Star 94.5, The metro region's true variety at work network playing the best of the 80's, 90's and today plus your requests."
That's bad radio. And you know it.

Imaging - Promos

We've really got to get away from every station in America thinking it's so incredibly irreverent. They're not irreverent, they're irrelevant - more often than not, saying nothing. I think back to an iPod promo I heard. The station was giving away THE must-have gadget by referring to it as the digital random revolution something or other. If you had a friend who talked like that, after a while you'd pull the guy aside and set him straight ("Dude, that's why you're not getting any...").

Another bad style of promo copy I hear all the time: those meet the artist promos where they rattle off a sales bio. "His latest CD sold over a million copies in its first week. He arrived at the MTV VMA's in a yacth worth over five million dollars..." That's real copy by the way. It aired on a national multi-market promotion as dictated by coprorate. Look, if you've got to tell a listener how cool an artist is, maybe the artist isn't worthy of building a promotion around. But come on, it was USHER. The guy was on his third monster hit single in a row. Do you really have to tell listeners that Eminem is a badass? Don't laugh - I've been sent plenty of copy that rambles on and with that junk. While a nearby large market aired promos about how Britney kissed Madonna and dated Justin, I was putting promos together for a small market talking about how somebody from the basin was going to meet Britney Spears FACE TO FACE. Oh, and by the way - it was for the exact same prize.

These are your listeners you're talking to. What's in it for them? "This week on Star, we're giving away a trip to meet Eminem. It could be YOU - on a plane headed to Detroit to hang with Shady -- and here's how you win." Make it fun, but make it clear. The point of the promo is to make 'em want to get involved - to play along. TSL. Wickety wackety copy that says nothing about anything doesn't accomplish that goal.

Trim it back - say what you came to say. Make it worth their while to listen. Don't be that annoying too cool for school 'hey baby what's your sign' guy who doesn't know when to walk away from the bar. Be the friend she loves to hang with. Be real.

Processing:

Come on now. Come on now. Come. On. Now. Seriously.

I wonder if PDs even listen to their own stations anymore. Corporate types surely don't. Here's proof: I recorded a local FM station while typing this post. My reception was perfect. Listen to that processing. It's painful. Listen to that splatter. I mean no offense to the station in question, but it's bad audio, it's been that way for a long time and it's an easy fix. You want people to want to listen, right? Do everything you can to make it fun to listen. Crank this shit up and it'll give you a headache. Unless you've got a butt-load of stock in Advil, that's bad news.

[NOTE: I encoded that file at a very high bitrate. What you're hearing is what I heard on the radio with crystal clear reception. I did not alter the sound in any way]

Your Website:

Take a look at your website. Do the graphics load properly? Don't just look at it on Internet Explorer for the PC. Try Firefox. Try using a Mac. Here's a pic of a major market station website that doesn't even show the station logo right. Here's another graphics blunder: This is a major market Hot/AC station's home page, scrolled down halfway. The graphics loaded all over the place. Viruses and pop-ups are driving your listeners to use safer browsers. Make sure your site works in them, because IE is a piece of noncompliant virus ridden doggie doo.

Does the link to listen to your webcast work? Check it. I went to an AC station in a large market and clicked the "Listen Live" link. I got a promo telling me to go to their website to hear the station live on the internet. Huh? If I'm listening to the web feed, I obviously did that already. When the promo ended, I got an error and the stream stopped. I tried it again - same result. Another station, this time Hot/AC in a top 20 market, had their webstream out of phase, meaning it's pretty much worthless. Mostly echo. I couldn't even tell if this station has a webcast. Oops. I know, it works in IE. Attention to detail means making it work on others too. You wouldn't want your station to only work on some radios, would you? Oh wait, that's HD :)

I love this webcam shot. Ahh, voicetracking. As if we're not doing enough to prove that nobody's home. And really, why bother putting up a staff bios page that's going to look like this? I guess nobody works there.

This is your brand we're talking about here. Most radio sites look like such an afterthought, and that's a shame because a well done website could be your way to keep in touch with your fans when not on the air. In fact, I think a bad website is an insult to your air talent and staff.

How are you using your website to bring listeners back to your station? How are you using your website to turn casual listeners into fans with a two year old bio of your afternoon guy? Why not set up his page so he can post what time he's giving stuff away? Why not have him write a blurb about his favorite song this week and what times he'll be playing it? It's your site! Use it!!

There's a morning co-host out there posting her diary on their site as a blog. I say hell yes! One station posted a picture of Mariah Carey's fake abs with a caption: Mariah Carey's Fake Abs." Talk about lazy. Another station has the same picture posted with a rant from the morning show host talking about how hard she works to look her best and she thinks Mariah painting on abs is a frigging joke. An insult. Listeners are posting their comments. That's content! That's real!

Here's a tip: Bring in a listener, sit 'em down in front of a computer and ask them to find the details for your big promotion on your website. Ask them to find out what's happening tomorrow on your morning show. Then watch what happens. See if they can find it at all. I had a super slick design for my personal website, but I redesigned it from scratch because the content was too hard to find. Style got in the way of substance. Not smart. I fixed it.

Attention To Detail:

Demand it from everyone on your staff, beginning with yourself.

My personal mottto has always been "My happiness starts witth me" - meaning that if I'm depressed or if something's wrong in my life, it's up to me to make it right. I think that works for everyone who works at a radio station too. "My station's success starts with me." A winning environment is one where everybody takes pride and ownership - where everybody wants it done right. Details matter.