of the pack in your market, then you should be hammering that 24/7.
If, instead, your USP revolves around two minute spot breaks, and that’s what the bulk of your promos are about, well then… you're dead. Its over, Johnny. I speak from experience and reading years of research from people much smarter than me. YOU WILL NOT ACCUMULATE AN AUDIENCE THIS WAY. You will only hurt your credibility even more. The same with contesting. Oh, concert tix and other swag from the station is cool. But when you start doing $5K Thursdays and other big prizes, again, fuggitabout. It’s like huffing glue. You get high for a while, and then what? If you don’t keep doing it, you're fucked. And if you keep doing it, you’re fucked.
Yep, ALT 40. Breaking after every song, only paying attention to whatever Spotify and TikTok are playing, yuk yuk morning shows (if a station can even get that far), and mostly gold and recurrents. And the absolute minimum amount of talking. I’ve told you before, this is a very tricky format to do right. You can’t just acquire an ALT library and run the logs. Do you even HAVE an MD anymore?
Credibility. You need to start hiring jocks again. You can’t find good experienced talent anymore? Grow your own. You’ve got a thousand kids with opinions running around your market. Round up the rambunctious little urchins who intern for you and start putting them in overnights.
This all falls under the umbrella of rebuilding, I suppose. I don’t know why I’m talking to you guys; you have no power. I should be sending this to your bosses, but they won’t listen either. They don’t get it. Even after YEARS of cool-headed broadcasters giving them advice. They are corporate money men/women who barely give the format a nod.
Remember, this was not a mess of our making. We got into radio cuz we thought it was cool and we liked music. The suits (who mostly sold newspaper ads before getting into radio) did not.
(continued next page)
"Grow your own. It's the only hope for you if you ever want to sleep again."
"If your station does well overall, your day parts will be similarly similar. Including mornings."
"If you're a PD and you don't know how to stand your ground when it counts, you're in the wrong gig."
"If, instead, your USP revolves around two minute spot breaks, and that’s what the bulk of your promos are about, well then…you're dead."
"If, instead, your USP revolves around two minute spot breaks, and that’s what the bulk of your promos are about, well then…you're dead."