RUT RADIO
I soon tire of the same old fare being thrown my way by radio.
I wonder,at times,how people in the programing end of the radio business, as it exists today, think that upon playing a record of,let’s say, Irish Dance music, they are obligated for some strange reason, to follow with more of the same.
One reason it is being done,is because it is he easy way out.
With two turntables at your disposal you can get by with just two CD's or two larger discs to fill out the half-hour or longer time period if you like. The theory might be that if some listeners liked the first one -and no one called to say they didn’t like it – they ought to be good for few more of the same.
The same question of mine applies to “blues” tunes, Latin-American, Hawaiian, Uzbekistan’s latest rock favorites, or cool songs from Antarctica. Too much of any one thing is, as a rule, deadly. It can drive our radio listeners back o TV if you are not careful. We should try to offer listeners more variety. That gives them more reasons than ever
to like or dislike what we do.
Far too man radio people fall into this common rut.
People like variety in their entertainment. What’s the most common comment you hear about TV today? Right – that’s it’s all so much he same! Radio can offer variety faster and easier than television.
There was notable program in quirk in network radio yeas ago which had a world of bad repercussions. Maybe you remember when one of major radio networks of the era shook things up more than just a little but by letting it be know that they intended to program the week – each night featuring nothing but one type of show.
Tuesday evening was “Comedy”,I remember and I think Friday night was “Mystery” or that may have been Thursday, I don’t remember. Monday and Wednesday also had special overloads of their own!
The results are usually dismal.
The first comedian on Tuesday nights did very well, but he was a headliner and would have done well anyway.
The second funny man did not come across as sharp as he usually was, and the Third one, usually an also-ran anyway,had a real problem on his hands with people who had laughed for several hours and simply did not have much fun-loving urge left inside of their quake-shaken bodies.
Far too many radio stations are currently overloading entire hour to three-hour segments with the same type of music. They often seem to exude an aura as having been divinely designated to minister unto the supposed need of a narrow segment of hearers who have a special interest in promoting that phase of music.
Rut radio of today has need of persons who dare to be different.
A.L.M. September 29, 2002 [c486wds]
