Talking to a PD the other day about “the clock” on his station, I heard this vague explanation of how he didn’t want his jocks to talk over song intros because that’s not Content.  Instead, he wanted Imaging pieces – some of them “dry” voice – to always play between songs because “you can’t do Content over these short intros today” and he wanted his air talent to stop down for Content.

But here’s the problem with that: to a large degree, Content is CONTACT.

In the heyday of Top 40 and Hot A/C, we knew that most of the time we could do SOMETHING besides just intro a song (like promote a contest opportunity coming up, or a station feature, promote another person on the air, give some sort of information, or do a quick quip), or that even if we WERE “just” introing a song, we could at least give the listener some sort of vibe about being engaged with the music.

A human being, right here in this moment, actually making contact with the listener, even if was just to comment on the weather or what kind of day it was.  As opposed to a nameless, faceless voice quacking about how wonderful the station is, or “marketing your aspirations” (a Ries and Trout term), ala “The perfect mix of songs for your workday” or some other tired, beaten to death claim that NO ONE BELIEVES.

Shortly after deregulation, when it was decided that companies could own a gazillion stations, Personality began to die, except for someone – often stopping in the middle of songs in what should have been a music sweep – deciding to talk for a while about something.

Used to be, you only stopped the music to do “Content breaks” going into stopsets.

And it worked.  Boy, did it work.  And it still does, on stations that actually want to have Momentum.  I could write a million words on this, but it’s often like describing a rainbow to a blind person.

Look, you can’t win the “x songs in a row” or “x minutes of music” battle.  Spotify and Apple Music OWN that.  (Unless you can play 48 million songs in a row like Apple music.  I’m betting you can’t.)

People WANT personality.  People want Contact and Companionship.  If all you are is a jukebox/hype machine, well, good luck with that.

Maybe the next owners will decide to do something different.  Something “retro” but ultra-modern at the same time.