Brian Wright “Who Did That Song?”

We have often talked about the importance of identifying the music we play and how it helps listeners connect better with your station(s). It occurred to me this past weekend, while listening to several different radio stations, that we often think of song identification as being important with only the current music we play. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard listeners express their displeasure with radio stations that don’t identify the Recurrents or Gold material as well. This very listener-frustration comes up in focus group after focus group.

We have to come to terms with the fact that the average listener has very little in common with the average radio personality’s knowledge and title recollection of music played on the radio. So, while it may seem silly for a radio person to announce the artist and title of what he/she perceives as a familiar song, it may actually be the exact information the average listener is waiting for.

I have talked with many radio personalities about this and one of the common fears they have is that they may be perceived as “Captain Obvious” or even ignorant if they give artist and tile to a song they think everyone knows. The truth is…many may know the song but many may not be able to recall who did it and what the actual title was. This happens all of the time. So, when it is all said and done, they may actually be perceived as providing a lack of service by not telling the listener who did the song and what the title was. It seems odd that many personalities have no problem telling people what day of the week it is over and over again, and then have a problem telling listeners who did a song 10-15 years ago? This application can be applied to most all formats.

Think of how odd it would be if other media adopted this kind “No Need To Tell” logic. It would be like having NFL Films running a feature called “The Top 10 Quarterbacks Of All Time” and never mention any of them by name. It would be just weird and you would wonder what in the world they were thinking? That’s exactly what your listener thinks when you do not tell them the name of a song that you are featuring on your station. When you play it say it.

Brian is a 30 year radio veteran who has successfully served many companies over the years as Program Director, Operations Manger and VP of programming. After many years of success working for individual radio stations and clusters, Brian Joined one of the most trusted consulting firms in the country, Audience Development Group. For the last 15 years Wright has enjoyed building alliances with scores of stations in the US & Canada helping them grow in ratings and revenue.  Contact Brian at brian@audiencedevelopmentgroup.com