When I started out, wet behind the ears, to young to drink... and frightningly lucky to have some how scored a job at Y95 (KHYI Dallas in the early 90s)... I was lucky enough to work with several legendary talents in the business... First there was Buzz Bennett. I remember some of the great diatribes he would dive into, one of my favorites is...
Why do people listen to radio?
..."The Music" most would say
...some would reply "Their favorite DJ"
...sometimes you would hear "water cooler talk", "funny Morning show", even "traffic"... "weather"... as desprate paniced answers when they were told "WRONG" by Buzz
He would simply answer: "To Be ENTERTAINED!!!!"
Wow... simple... elegant... and so TRUE... Remember people listen to radio, turn on TV, surf the web, and indulge in social media for one reason... TO BE Entertained!!!!
Yea entertainment takes several forms, simple escapism, finding/learning/informing themselves of news/trivia/sprots scores/etc, even a horror flick is entertainment. The single linking key of all entertainment that engages and keeps people coming back is an emotional connection.
- Does your Brand's Voice have a personality?
- Is there a sound that is at all unique to you?
In the modern age and our new digital reality, having the same traded Sound Effects package, a generic voice, a station voice without passion, and/or the bare bones minimalist script maybe featuring the same same quick sarcasm that is used all round the country. Often, that isn't good enough to really cut though... Does not start, grow, or improve a emotional relationship with your brand... and don't kid yourself, everything is a brand... do you want to be like a favorite sports team, with pationate fans who stay with you through thick and thin (in this case "thin" would be listening though the damn commercial break with a PPM attached to their side, LOL)... or are you going to be their Tooth Paste, where they kind of like you, and are comfortable with what you give them... but if Walmart has a sale, your replaced for at least a short time.
Sound Crazy? Well after all the listener can pull radio and tv stations from around the globe and listen live. And there's Pandora, Last FM, Play.IT, Zune Pass, iTunes, Amazon MP3, heck remember Hulu and Netflix is more and more a threat because folks can stream them almost anywhere... Netflix by it self is the number ONE source of data streaming on the internet, more than every other stream COMBINED... Soooooo, Beware of the status quo... It's that sameness that is broadcast media's biggest weekeness.
The cure is being local, the cure is being creative, the cure is being more than a research slugline.
What ever your choice for voice and imaging effects package. The goal of everyone is to be beyond what we are today. In Radio, it's better cume, longer TSL, and an emotional connection that no iPhone/Pod/Pad or generic internet streaming service can ever provide.... Personality, Local content, and a connection to the listeners at the ground floor, grassroots if you will. And your station voice and sound are the one constant to the image of your brand. Your station voice is always on. Your imaging is always present. and sameness in the station voice and imaging can be the week link in an other wise amazing presentation...
So here's an idea... lets be more than the same, lets be creative... In the comming weeks I'll post some creative examples of what I have done, with my CBS stations WOMC and WYCD in Detroit, commercial work, and freelance too.
I would love to hear what you have done too!
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