Colorado Media Newsroom
October 30th, 2023, 02:10 PM
From Radio Insight:
https://radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/2023/10/papawas-198x200.jpg
My radio hero and former boss Walt ?Baby? Love wasn?t just a master of ?hitting the post??talking exactly to the last second of a song?s intro on the radio before the lyric started. He also told me how to do the ?whooo!? That was the moment when, having hit the post, the DJ somehow found a place to emit that little whoop that somehow slipped seamlessly between the first and second line of the song. It was the equivalent of the end-zone dance for air personalities.
For the last six decades, ?hitting the post,? or even talking over song intros at all, has been an ongoing debate, disdained even by a lot of radio people. The listener who doesn?t like it has been represented in focus groups for as long as radio has done them. By the late ?60s/early ?70s, one of ?70s Album Rock?s calling cards was not talking over the music. That led to a lot of now-mostly-forgotten ?70s/early ?80s Top 40 stations that tried to ?respect the music? as well.*
But in 1981, Jim Ryan, now of Audacy New York launched WJXQ (Q106) Lansing, Mich., as an AOR with a very CHR presentation. Q106 was the coolest station for 70 miles in each direction, and hitting the post didn?t seem to be a problem. Later that year, WCAU-FM Philadelphia debuted. Mike Joseph?s ?Hot Hits? format only talked the intros occasionally. Most breaks were over a song?s fade, followed by extensive jingles. But after five years of Top 40 trying to be Album Rock or Adult Contemporary, it was a decided victory for a presentation that even I thought was hokey at first.
In 2023, hitting the post is a talisman of ?old radio? again. At the recent Windsor, Ontario, tribute to CKLW MD Rosalie Trombley, one again heard the story of how former PD Bill Gable once talked the entire 1:55 intro to ?Papa Was a Rolling Stone.? But Amazon?s soon-to-shutter AMP doesn?t allow users to talk over music, even the pros who want to. Around the same time as AMP launched last year, Sirius XM?s 70s on 7 channel made a move to jock breaks that might still be over-the-music, but without any trace of old-school ?forward momentum? of the sort that characterized ?70s radio.
Recently a reader, Clarke Davis, tagged me on Facebook on behalf of his Top Shelf Oldies Saturday Night Oldies Show, (https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/clarkedavis/episodes/2023-10-15T10_05_06-07_00)*Back to the Hop. ?Hitting the post is not part of this deal. The music rules, not an ego-tripping DJ.? Davis? show is all about deeper oldies. Davis’ show is chock full of oldies discovery. Even for many of my readers, I?m guessing that’s more of a draw than pure DJ athletics.*
Even if you wanted to hit the post, it?s harder now in a time of songs with cold intros, although Super Hi-Fi?s MagicStitch tool will create an intro for you on the fly, eliminating the need to send somebody into the ?prod room? to create one. Top 40 also has a lot of stately ballads right now. ?Daylight? by David Kushner has a :20 intro. But it doesn?t exactly lend itself to screaming about ?doing the dirty boogie? the way that Walt Love would.*
Against all of this, even I wonder what case I can make for hitting the post that you?ll accept. ?When it?s done right, it?s kind of a rush? is only a radio geek argument. Even 30 years ago, it didn?t stand up to ?please don?t talk over this song, I?m taping? for pre-Napster listeners. I can also say that I?m against padding a break to fill the post. Please don’t throw in ?here?s Fleetwood Mac, ?Dreams,? on Classic Hits 100.9,? just to use up a few more seconds.
But here?s why it?s OK to talk over the intros:
I don?t like sterile radio. Making Top 40 radio deliberately unexciting didn?t save AM Top 40 in 1978. It?s not doing much to help FM CHR today. Top 40?s excitement is missing in a lot of places, including the contesting (or lack thereof) and the music itself. WCAU-FM debuted at the peak of yacht rock and made even ?Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)? by Air Supply sound better, until the music improved. I don?t agree that radio can?t compete with streaming for music discovery. I do agree that we will never be as ?pure music? as streaming. Except that Spotify is trying to have DJs.
I don?t like sloppy radio. Radio?s pacing has been made worse by voice-tracking and its tendency toward meandering blocks of content that might fit over an intro or might, just as often, stop the music for no particular reason. That change wasn?t always a choice, just a function of an air-talent who had seven stations to do without the luxury of fitting some old notion of ?forward momentum.? Some indie movies are meant to look unartful. What we have now is the equivalent of a boom mic sneaking into the frame in an action blockbuster?the one that goes straight to streaming.
Radio needs to engage with the music. Connecting to the music doesn?t have to happen over the intro. On Triple-A radio, still doing an excellent job of music advocacy, it usually isn?t. But in this world of random content blocks, selling or even being funny about the song you?re playing now is a listener connection that we?re mostly missing. Even after the eight-month journey of ?What It Is (Block Boy)? from R&B to the CHR top five, I don?t know anything about Doechii that I didn?t learn from Wikipedia. Perhaps this is why pop radio seems to be a format without stars now?*
Radio needs to reconnect to the moment. Nobody wants the DJ at a club or a party to stop the music to converse for 20 seconds about yesterday?s celebrity trivia. We?re fine with them blowing an airhorn over it, too. We accept it as being in the moment and connecting the audience to the music. Random breaks at random intervals aren?t getting it done for radio now. We need a sense of real time and relating to the song that?s playing now is part of that. At this point, even time checks?once the most gratuitous of jock crutches?are proof that host and listener are sharing a moment.*
The real discussion is about personality and show-biz. I couldn?t tell you without listening whether the hosts on Canada?s ?join the conversation? stations ever actually talk over an intro. (They don?t talk over fades, but let imaging ID the station.) It doesn?t matter because those are forefront radio stations. If radio was excitingly produced and marketed with brief personality, it wouldn?t matter how precisely the breaks were timed to the vocal. But where else are we trying to create excitement and energy now?
The essence of good air personality has always been delivering the most content in the most efficient way. There have only been a few Howard Stern-like exceptions, and even among our morning hosts, there is nobody whose meanderings are always as good as they think they are. Having a post to hit always gave music radio people a chance to come up with the right content and challenged them to write it effectively. That 20-second celebrity news bit sounds pretty turgid over dead air between songs, but it doesn?t sound much better jammed in over a nine second intro either.*
Being “in the music” is only one part of the debate about making radio more compelling again. But sometimes talking about the song you’re playing now is a spotlight, not a distraction. Even without the “whooo” for punctuation (okay, particularly without it), sometimes it’s actually the best way to respect the music.
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/260284/talking-about-talking-over-music/)
https://radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/2023/10/papawas-198x200.jpg
My radio hero and former boss Walt ?Baby? Love wasn?t just a master of ?hitting the post??talking exactly to the last second of a song?s intro on the radio before the lyric started. He also told me how to do the ?whooo!? That was the moment when, having hit the post, the DJ somehow found a place to emit that little whoop that somehow slipped seamlessly between the first and second line of the song. It was the equivalent of the end-zone dance for air personalities.
For the last six decades, ?hitting the post,? or even talking over song intros at all, has been an ongoing debate, disdained even by a lot of radio people. The listener who doesn?t like it has been represented in focus groups for as long as radio has done them. By the late ?60s/early ?70s, one of ?70s Album Rock?s calling cards was not talking over the music. That led to a lot of now-mostly-forgotten ?70s/early ?80s Top 40 stations that tried to ?respect the music? as well.*
But in 1981, Jim Ryan, now of Audacy New York launched WJXQ (Q106) Lansing, Mich., as an AOR with a very CHR presentation. Q106 was the coolest station for 70 miles in each direction, and hitting the post didn?t seem to be a problem. Later that year, WCAU-FM Philadelphia debuted. Mike Joseph?s ?Hot Hits? format only talked the intros occasionally. Most breaks were over a song?s fade, followed by extensive jingles. But after five years of Top 40 trying to be Album Rock or Adult Contemporary, it was a decided victory for a presentation that even I thought was hokey at first.
In 2023, hitting the post is a talisman of ?old radio? again. At the recent Windsor, Ontario, tribute to CKLW MD Rosalie Trombley, one again heard the story of how former PD Bill Gable once talked the entire 1:55 intro to ?Papa Was a Rolling Stone.? But Amazon?s soon-to-shutter AMP doesn?t allow users to talk over music, even the pros who want to. Around the same time as AMP launched last year, Sirius XM?s 70s on 7 channel made a move to jock breaks that might still be over-the-music, but without any trace of old-school ?forward momentum? of the sort that characterized ?70s radio.
Recently a reader, Clarke Davis, tagged me on Facebook on behalf of his Top Shelf Oldies Saturday Night Oldies Show, (https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/clarkedavis/episodes/2023-10-15T10_05_06-07_00)*Back to the Hop. ?Hitting the post is not part of this deal. The music rules, not an ego-tripping DJ.? Davis? show is all about deeper oldies. Davis’ show is chock full of oldies discovery. Even for many of my readers, I?m guessing that’s more of a draw than pure DJ athletics.*
Even if you wanted to hit the post, it?s harder now in a time of songs with cold intros, although Super Hi-Fi?s MagicStitch tool will create an intro for you on the fly, eliminating the need to send somebody into the ?prod room? to create one. Top 40 also has a lot of stately ballads right now. ?Daylight? by David Kushner has a :20 intro. But it doesn?t exactly lend itself to screaming about ?doing the dirty boogie? the way that Walt Love would.*
Against all of this, even I wonder what case I can make for hitting the post that you?ll accept. ?When it?s done right, it?s kind of a rush? is only a radio geek argument. Even 30 years ago, it didn?t stand up to ?please don?t talk over this song, I?m taping? for pre-Napster listeners. I can also say that I?m against padding a break to fill the post. Please don’t throw in ?here?s Fleetwood Mac, ?Dreams,? on Classic Hits 100.9,? just to use up a few more seconds.
But here?s why it?s OK to talk over the intros:
I don?t like sterile radio. Making Top 40 radio deliberately unexciting didn?t save AM Top 40 in 1978. It?s not doing much to help FM CHR today. Top 40?s excitement is missing in a lot of places, including the contesting (or lack thereof) and the music itself. WCAU-FM debuted at the peak of yacht rock and made even ?Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)? by Air Supply sound better, until the music improved. I don?t agree that radio can?t compete with streaming for music discovery. I do agree that we will never be as ?pure music? as streaming. Except that Spotify is trying to have DJs.
I don?t like sloppy radio. Radio?s pacing has been made worse by voice-tracking and its tendency toward meandering blocks of content that might fit over an intro or might, just as often, stop the music for no particular reason. That change wasn?t always a choice, just a function of an air-talent who had seven stations to do without the luxury of fitting some old notion of ?forward momentum.? Some indie movies are meant to look unartful. What we have now is the equivalent of a boom mic sneaking into the frame in an action blockbuster?the one that goes straight to streaming.
Radio needs to engage with the music. Connecting to the music doesn?t have to happen over the intro. On Triple-A radio, still doing an excellent job of music advocacy, it usually isn?t. But in this world of random content blocks, selling or even being funny about the song you?re playing now is a listener connection that we?re mostly missing. Even after the eight-month journey of ?What It Is (Block Boy)? from R&B to the CHR top five, I don?t know anything about Doechii that I didn?t learn from Wikipedia. Perhaps this is why pop radio seems to be a format without stars now?*
Radio needs to reconnect to the moment. Nobody wants the DJ at a club or a party to stop the music to converse for 20 seconds about yesterday?s celebrity trivia. We?re fine with them blowing an airhorn over it, too. We accept it as being in the moment and connecting the audience to the music. Random breaks at random intervals aren?t getting it done for radio now. We need a sense of real time and relating to the song that?s playing now is part of that. At this point, even time checks?once the most gratuitous of jock crutches?are proof that host and listener are sharing a moment.*
The real discussion is about personality and show-biz. I couldn?t tell you without listening whether the hosts on Canada?s ?join the conversation? stations ever actually talk over an intro. (They don?t talk over fades, but let imaging ID the station.) It doesn?t matter because those are forefront radio stations. If radio was excitingly produced and marketed with brief personality, it wouldn?t matter how precisely the breaks were timed to the vocal. But where else are we trying to create excitement and energy now?
The essence of good air personality has always been delivering the most content in the most efficient way. There have only been a few Howard Stern-like exceptions, and even among our morning hosts, there is nobody whose meanderings are always as good as they think they are. Having a post to hit always gave music radio people a chance to come up with the right content and challenged them to write it effectively. That 20-second celebrity news bit sounds pretty turgid over dead air between songs, but it doesn?t sound much better jammed in over a nine second intro either.*
Being “in the music” is only one part of the debate about making radio more compelling again. But sometimes talking about the song you’re playing now is a spotlight, not a distraction. Even without the “whooo” for punctuation (okay, particularly without it), sometimes it’s actually the best way to respect the music.
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/260284/talking-about-talking-over-music/)