Dat is iets wat niet alleen mij opvalt maar de luisteraar ook! En wanneer een radioprogramma niet als een logisch coherend geheel vormt, komt het nep en niet oprecht over. Jensen die Live - I alone afkondigt met "wat een geweldige plaat is dat toch" op zo'n overdreven toon dat je meteen hoort dat ie er geen reet van meent. Of Ruud de Wild die duidelijk geen fan is van de laatste track van Rihanna kondigt de plaat af op zo'n ongeinteresseerde manier "Rihanna of zoiets op 538, kan ook iets anders zijn geweest", waar hij mee communiceert dat de muziek er niet toe doet.
Natuurlijk, het zijn personalities en vormen daarmee een belangrijke reden om te luisteren maar ze mogen ook wel een beetje hun best doen om de muziek die de luisteraar graag hoort bij dat station, wat positiever te brengen en verkopen.
Door het ontbreken van de binding met de muziek klinkt alsof deze personalities geen binding hebben met de rest van het station en zich op een eiland bevinden. Dat is gevaarlijk voor zowel de personality als voor het radiostation. De meeste luisteraars zoeken tegenwoordig muziek-plus op de radio: muziek met iets extra's. Extra info over of interactie met de muziek zodat het een interessanter product wordt dan diezelfde plaat op hun iPod.
Het creatief aan- en afkondigen van platen begint steeds zeldzamer te worden terwijl de luisteraar steeds meer behoefte heeft aan entertainment in combinatie met muziek.
Jonathan Ross van Radio Info schreef onlangs een interessant stukje over hetzelfde probleem en hij kreeg een enorme lading reacties die je hieronder kunt lezen:
A FEW WEEKS AGO, I WAS LISTENING TO A WELL- respected, long-running, major-market Hot AC morning show. In keeping with post-PPM radio law, the show was now playing 4-5 records an hour. And I noticed that those songs pretty much came and went on the radio as if they had no connection to the rest of the show, sometimes separated from the rest of the content by a produced bumper, sometimes just there but never acknowledged.
This was not a syndicated morning show whose content was adjacent to the songs inserted by a local station. And, as I’ve heard in subsequent weeks, it’s not atypical of the way many morning shows are structured. Yesterday morning, I listened to three major-market Top 40 morning shows, none of them syndicated. Two are heritage morning shows that are probably playing more music than they used to. One is a relatively new show on a newer station that has always played some music in mornings. And the closest I’ve come to hearing any of them engage with the music is when one morning show member teased another about singing along with Bruno Mars’ “Just The Way You Are” (and even then there was no backsell or actual mention of the song).
The failure of morning shows to engage with the music they’re playing parallels the tendency of morning shows to act as if the entire rest of the station exists somewhere far away. The nadir of this came a few years ago when many local morning shows began producing themselves as if they were syndicated—not mentioning local call letters, instead saving them for the produced bumper before commercials.
It’s not as if today’s artists have no presence on a Top 40 station’s morning show. When the entertainment report rolls around, you’ll hear plenty about Katy Perry or Rihanna. But something is still being lost here. Most readers will remember a morning host that influenced them by being funny and engaging about the music they were playing—even if it was comic abuse of the sort that WLS Chicago’s Larry Lujack used to save for “You Light Up My Life” or “Mickey.”
So much of music radio’s future is now hinging on some variant of “music plus content,” whether it’s “hits plus companionship” or “hits plus DJ endorsement/curation.” If a morning show treats a station’s music as if it’s something that just happened to be playing while they were in the break room, it waives all of these opportunities. And it deprives them of one more thing to talk about, just in case “how to tell if your boyfriend is cheating” doesn’t always trump every other potential topic.
We observed that morning shows were playing more music, but rarely acknowledging or engaging with it. At the very least, it seemed, morning shows were giving up an opportunity for a potential bit. Beyond that, it seemed like one more way that some morning shows can treat the rest of the radio station as an inconvenience.
That brought forward a torrent of reader e-mails, including a number that pointed out that these days, any disconnect between music and personality wasn’t limited to mornings. Not everybody bemoaned this. At least a few writers thought that the PPM-era attempt to force music back into mornings was an unnecessary distraction, unworthy of being there, much less acknowledged.
Sometimes, as one programmer pointed out, it’s better that the morning host not engage with the music. “The morning show host we had was not a fan of the music or felt it was ruining his show . . . So rather than listen to the host poorly sing alternative lyrics over the song’s ramp, in went the bumpers.”
Here's just some of our other mail on the subject:
“I think the disconnect goes beyond just the morning show. It’s in all dayparts, and has been for years. Jocks are forgetting what listeners are there for. They want to hear the music and when a jock talks, the listener wants to hear about the music.” – Peter Oleschuk, The Weekly Pop 20 with Ann Duran
“I’m noticing the same trend here in Grand Rapids, Mich., with the evening shows. While they are certainly playing an acceptable amount of tunes during any given hour, the content during the stop-down is usually geared around a wacky news item, a phone conversation, a listener poll, or confession line, etc. Otherwise, between songs, it’s just bumpers and jingles. The only time the jock refers to the music is during the Top 9 At 9 or for a concert ticket giveaway. Jocks talking up song intros creatively is a lost art.” – Don Beno
“Great column. It’s been going on not only on the shows themselves, but the whole stations. How many liners have I heard say ‘Ed & Zip in the morning, the best Classic Disco all day’ as if it was two different stations?” – Brad Lovett
“The disconnection between talent and the music is what has killed the radio star in the hearts and minds of listeners. Where did this come from and who has allowed this to happen? . . . The only thing that separates radio from any other audio medium is the added value that comes from a passionate performer interacting with the product. Oops, that’s another part of the problem: we’ve reduced the music to a commodity.” – Eric Faison, VP/Affiliate Relations, Access 1/Superadio
“You are so dead-on in bringing up this issue. Because of PPM, morning shows have to help themselves by remembering that their listeners come to the station for the music too . . . But I hear that same disconnect you mention on more locally produced morning shows than you would ever think possible. What are they thinking?” – Bob Kaake, VP/Programming and Implementation, Strategic Radio Solutions
“I’ve always preached to talent that they listen exactly the opposite of [listeners who] turn up the music and turn down the talk. I’ve always coached talent to wrap up what they’re doing and listen intently to the last 30 seconds of the song to get into its mood and tempo. If not, the talent can come in from left-field and sound totally unrelated to the music.” – Bob McNeill
Don’t Mess With The Missionaries, Man
“Talent should embrace the music, especially after hearing the results of [research presented at the NAB Radio Show]. Listeners, in particular Generation Y, seem to be looking for talent or hosts to be music missionaries.” – Tom Sleeker, United Stations Radio Network
“A wise PD of mine once told me, ‘If it ain’t better than “Hey Jude,” don’t say it.’ Along those lines, it would be nice if morning shows didn’t treat the songs as fillers between their sometimes-less-than-engaging content. As you insinuated, sometimes ‘Battle of the Sexes’ is less effective than playing a power.” – Jack Taddeo
“One more reason intelligent, authoritative ‘presenters’ could bring radio back from the brink: with the proliferation of Jack-type formats, it is so much more entertaining to have someone make sense of the music mix. When you go from BTO to the Supremes to Pink, there is no cohesiveness and at the very least a subliminal disconnect for the listener.” – Keith James, Soundspark
“Looking for a way for the host to own the music? Steal this idea: Dave Ryan at KDWB Minneapolis’ ‘favorite musical moment.’ Each member of the team selects a small portion of a song that has been stuck in their head or has become their favorite part of a song that week. Voice mails from listeners highlight their own moments. I love listening to this bit each week.” – Keith Kennedy, Director of Programming Operations, Clear Channel/Akron-Canton, Ohio
“Our show is simulcast on two separate stations in two different markets and we utilize produced station IDs that run simultaneously . . . Still, we try to connect with the songs and artists.” – Dave Coombs, Gomez & Dave in the Morning, WTKW Syracuse, N.Y./WOUR Utica, N.Y., who proved it by passing along an aircheck full of “Behind The Music”-type anecdotes about the song just played.
“Two of the best jocks at enhancing the music are Rick Dees and Bill Lee, great talents that loved playing the hits as much as doing the bits. Every jock should be an authority on the music they are playing regardless of the format. With the Web, it’s easier than ever to be informed.” – Mark Summer, PD/MD, WDDJ/WQQR/WKYQ Paducah, Ky.
Why Glorify A “Placeholder”?
“Don't agree at all. Music on morning shows is a placeholder between bits, information and stop sets, and listeners treat it that way. There is no need to ‘engage’ [with] the music, nor would that enhance anyone's listening experience or their loyalty to the show.” – Terry Moore
“I submit most attempts at ‘platter chatter’ represent a prioritization of traditional form over attractive content. A music audience wants music. Howard Stern’s audience wants Howard . . . Play music or talk. A combination of both rarely seems to make sense in 2010.” – Peter Cavanaugh
“I noticed [the separation of morning teams and the rest of their stations] a long time ago. I used to think that morning show personalities were like kickers on a football team: necessary to win but not really part of the team. No one else on the team talks to the kicker because he operates under a different set of rules. Same with morning shows.” – Jerry Stevens
“Whether syndicated or non-syndicated, radio programs need to understand that a large slice of the relevant content is the music and the artists. That is why you hear someone like Chris Brown or T.I. on Rickey Smiley’s show on back-to-back days. The program’s listeners care about these people and what they have to say.” – Gary Bernstein, Syndication 1, whose offerings include the Smiley show, wades into another area of recent controversy, artist interviews in the PPM era.
