Friday, June 06, 2003
One thing I forgot to mention, last week I heard two songs back to back on two different radio stations that have nothing in common except they are over ten years old and that I never hear them on the radio. I was driving in the car and had a country station on and the song "Coward of the County" by Kenny Rogers. Then, when it was over, I turned to one of the two Top 40 stations in Pittsburgh and almost immediately hear the song "Do Anything" by Natural Selection.
I can kind of explain "Coward of the County" being on the radio as it's theme fits the conservative attitudes about the war. I can't explain why "Do Anything" would even get played. I find it a really good pop song and hearing it brought back memories of singing along with it in the car when I was in high school, but I thought everybody else had forgotten about it.
The funniest part was the radio station followed it with a small promo saying how it played "today's music" or something to that effect.
On that theme, I'm expecting to here 2nu's "This is Ponderous" on a radio station any day now.
And to wrap up the radio talk, I flip radio stations constantly on my ~45 minute drive to work. The two top 40 stations in Pittsburgh in are having a competition to see which can have the most annoying morning show. The long-time top 40 station had a established annoying morning team, and they haven't hesitated in allowing the producer and the interns to get in on the annoyance. The only non-annoying guy, thankfully, has left the show for a morning show on a different station. He has made that show so much better. The just-recently-turned top 40 station has brought what I'm 95% sure is a national syndicated morning show. The main guy has a voice that would be annoying if I could stand to listen to it for any length of time longer than it takes for me to turn the station. Imagine the male equivalent of The Nanny coming through your car speakers. Of course, what really annoys me is that you're lucky if they play two songs per hour. I listen to most types of music and I constantly flip stations because I'm looking for a good song, no matter the genre. I like mixing in the top 40 with my Rock and Country. Also, since two of my programmed stations actually have all-talk morning shows, a full third of my programmed FM stations don't have music on them when I'm driving to work.
My steps to a less annoying morning show:
1) Get someone involved who is experienced writing comedy. That's one great thing about DVE's morning show. Jim Krenn has stand-up comedy experience. The jokes on there sound professional and not like a group of college kids sitting in a living room being goofy.
2) Don't sing along with songs. You probably sound bad in person but you definitely sound bad over the radio.
3) Don't let your producer or intern have a main part in your show. If they were any good, they'd wouldn't be a producer or intern, they'd have their own radio show.
4) You can never play too much music.
5) If you have a live phone interview with a celebrity, you shouldn't talk more than the celebrity. Recently, I heard a phone interview where the first question was long and included an anecdote. A celebrities time is valuable. Don't waste it by having him/her listen to a story about something that happened to you.
I just realize that a couple of these steps I actually stolen from WRCT's broadcast guidelines. I've actually dj'd on that station, was on it's exec staph and am still involved in their sports department. Now if you want to listen to a station that plays every type of music, including blues, jazz, rock, techno, noise, local, jungle, middle eastern, etc..., they're an excellent station and the dj's will almost always play request. You can also listen to it on the net.
I can kind of explain "Coward of the County" being on the radio as it's theme fits the conservative attitudes about the war. I can't explain why "Do Anything" would even get played. I find it a really good pop song and hearing it brought back memories of singing along with it in the car when I was in high school, but I thought everybody else had forgotten about it.
The funniest part was the radio station followed it with a small promo saying how it played "today's music" or something to that effect.
On that theme, I'm expecting to here 2nu's "This is Ponderous" on a radio station any day now.
And to wrap up the radio talk, I flip radio stations constantly on my ~45 minute drive to work. The two top 40 stations in Pittsburgh in are having a competition to see which can have the most annoying morning show. The long-time top 40 station had a established annoying morning team, and they haven't hesitated in allowing the producer and the interns to get in on the annoyance. The only non-annoying guy, thankfully, has left the show for a morning show on a different station. He has made that show so much better. The just-recently-turned top 40 station has brought what I'm 95% sure is a national syndicated morning show. The main guy has a voice that would be annoying if I could stand to listen to it for any length of time longer than it takes for me to turn the station. Imagine the male equivalent of The Nanny coming through your car speakers. Of course, what really annoys me is that you're lucky if they play two songs per hour. I listen to most types of music and I constantly flip stations because I'm looking for a good song, no matter the genre. I like mixing in the top 40 with my Rock and Country. Also, since two of my programmed stations actually have all-talk morning shows, a full third of my programmed FM stations don't have music on them when I'm driving to work.
My steps to a less annoying morning show:
1) Get someone involved who is experienced writing comedy. That's one great thing about DVE's morning show. Jim Krenn has stand-up comedy experience. The jokes on there sound professional and not like a group of college kids sitting in a living room being goofy.
2) Don't sing along with songs. You probably sound bad in person but you definitely sound bad over the radio.
3) Don't let your producer or intern have a main part in your show. If they were any good, they'd wouldn't be a producer or intern, they'd have their own radio show.
4) You can never play too much music.
5) If you have a live phone interview with a celebrity, you shouldn't talk more than the celebrity. Recently, I heard a phone interview where the first question was long and included an anecdote. A celebrities time is valuable. Don't waste it by having him/her listen to a story about something that happened to you.
I just realize that a couple of these steps I actually stolen from WRCT's broadcast guidelines. I've actually dj'd on that station, was on it's exec staph and am still involved in their sports department. Now if you want to listen to a station that plays every type of music, including blues, jazz, rock, techno, noise, local, jungle, middle eastern, etc..., they're an excellent station and the dj's will almost always play request. You can also listen to it on the net.
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