There’s nothing worse than a “cold” radio station. You know the kind I’m talking about.<\/p>\n
Sure, the imaging is super-clean. The music may be good. The jocks are probably tight and do a great job promoting the upcoming contest. The promos are well produced and slick. But the station has no soul. It’s just an appliance… mechanically sound, but doesn’t make you feel anything.<\/p>\n
More and more stations have become this way – dare I say that a vast majority in big markets – mostly as an overreaction to the PPM ratings system. Programmers are spending way too much time gaming the system to try to prevent “tune-out,” that we’ve forgotten about creating the magic that causes “tune-in”.<\/p>\n
Most of today’s iconic radio brands were created when ratings were diary based and the goal was to get people to remember your station to write it down. Your goal as a programmer should still be the same today – just for different reasons. Hot radio stations have a personality, or as I like to call it “stationality”. They are interactive. You never know what’s going to happen next. The jocks are personalities with a genuine opinion on everyday life. Hot stations are living, breathing things… that make you feel something when you listen. They entertain, make people laugh, capture your emotions, tell a story, or maybe even make you cry. Even the promos are entertaining. They activate the listener’s imagination. \u00a0There’s an experience beyond just the music. “Commercial Free” isn’t the ONLY benefit they offer.<\/p>\n
Music is a commodity. If I want to hear a Taylor Swift song, oh let me count the ways! I can think of many more immediate ways than radio. But great radio stations offer so much more. There’s a reason to tune in beyond just the music. Even the music offers some depth and discovery on a great radio station.<\/p>\n
Radio stations that are just appliances dispensing music are as dead as a coffin. Emotionless, cold and dead. Hot brands are interesting and colorful… with unique content that you can’t get from the other stations.<\/p>\n
Turn up the heat!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s nothing worse than a “cold” radio station. You know the kind I’m talking about. Sure, the imaging is super-clean. The music may be good. The jocks are probably tight and do a great job promoting the upcoming contest. The promos are well produced and slick. But the station has no soul. It’s just an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,5,7,3],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-disrupt","tag-personalities","tag-promos","tag-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i4nE-I","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=25","url_meta":{"origin":44,"position":0},"title":"Announcers versus Personalities","author":"admin","date":"November 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In all the years I've programmed radio, I'm not sure that I ever hired an on-air \"announcer\" - I'm not even sure what that title means or why ANYBODY would have the need for one. I've always searched for personalities. Even when I've hired a station imaging voice, I never\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"disrupt\"","block_context":{"text":"disrupt","link":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?tag=disrupt"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=86","url_meta":{"origin":44,"position":1},"title":"Killing Radio – In Their Own Words","author":"admin","date":"August 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend of mine was being \"courted\" by one of the big companies, and as is typically the case, he was told that in addition to hosting a show on one station, he would also be voice-tracking several other stations. They proceeded to give him a memo of instructions entitled\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=86#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":123,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=123","url_meta":{"origin":44,"position":2},"title":"Real Solutions for Radio","author":"admin","date":"October 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the most talked about sessions at this year's NAB Radio Show was a presentation on listener's reactions to long stopsets. The presentation included video of the listener's real time reactions to an 11-minute commercial break. Now, I'm sincerely not trying to be sarcastic... but is the state of\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=123#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=80","url_meta":{"origin":44,"position":3},"title":"Beautiful Lobby… Empty Studios","author":"admin","date":"July 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll never forget the day that I first walked into 4002 Gandy in Tampa. This was the home of Jacor Broadcasting at the time, and my first thought was how dated and cheap the lobby appeared to be. You could tell that there had been almost no investment into the\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 10 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 10 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=80#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=137","url_meta":{"origin":44,"position":4},"title":"Radio’s Greatest Era, or the Last Chapter?","author":"admin","date":"August 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Not a day goes by lately without more bad news for the radio industry. From major layoffs, more voice-tracking, eliminated positions, major heritage brands disappearing, to wild ratings swings, and bad quarterly revenue reports, it feels like the end of our industry is inevitable. Many of those who still have\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=137#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.domtheodore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/DomTheodore-e1725206995694.jpg?fit=619%2C625&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.domtheodore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/DomTheodore-e1725206995694.jpg?fit=619%2C625&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.domtheodore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/DomTheodore-e1725206995694.jpg?fit=619%2C625&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":104,"url":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=104","url_meta":{"origin":44,"position":5},"title":"A Living, Breathing Thing…","author":"admin","date":"December 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Early into my time in New York, I met someone who would become one of my closest friends. Mike Erickson was the Chief Engineer of WCBS-FM, and quickly impressed me because he's one of the most passionate people I've ever met in radio. We both share a passion for great\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 5 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 5 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/?p=104#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45,"href":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domtheodore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}