A lot of music radio sounds like a bunch of boilerplates and templates that are filled in, day in and day out. Templates and structure don’t really allow for what captivates people. MAGIC.
Magic moments are not time scheduled, bench marked, featured, daily occurrences or scheduled in Selector. They are created by off center, imaginative, inspired artistic individuals. But they only happen when the talent is given a venue to work in freely. That venue is closed if the station is highly dependent on music scheduling software and clock structures that only allow (for instance) 4 specific talk sets per hour. Structure is not a good station. Good stations use structure as a base to build upon.
Structure and programming constraints are killing our medium, especially those offerings that could benefit from entertainers who are actually able to entertain. It’s impossible to offer something of viral value if your talent is unable to create those moments. Features and benchmarks pale in comparison to a magic moment created by a wide-eyed inventive air talent. What it really comes down to is a question of talent and management.
A good manager finds good people who can entertain and then gives them the venue to express themselves. A good manager then manages those experiences and the talent so the station and talent can thrive. Creating templates and scheduled talk breaks subdues the talent. Management of this style of radio is fashioned to keep the station in check. “Hey, what can go wrong if my talent doesn’t have the opportunity to make a mistake?” What usually happens is nothing… day after day, week after week, etc etc.
If you want listeners to remember what you do, who you are and what you stand for you’ll have to permit talent the opportunity to put something out there. Yes, this does increase the chances for failure. It also increases the chances of success. You can’t hit a home run if you only bunt!
Success is good. Let’s go with that!
