HOW TO LOSE YOUR LISTENERS ONE AT A TIME Chris Byrnes We are all creatures of habit, and my six-year old son is no exception. Part of his morning ritual is to listen to one of the many radio stations that can be heard at our house (Buffalo, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, and St. Catharine's to name a few). Every morning at 7:45 he tunes in to catch "The Joke of the Day".
Henry does not realize this yet, but this station has him hooked. Ah the wonders of fix timing a good benchmark bit. But that's another article in itself.
While waiting to hear the Joke the other morning, we listened to the hosts do a bit about the Juno awards that had been on the night before. Towards the end of the bit they fell into the old jock habit of slamming some of the artists who performed at the awards, the very same artists that this station plays, by the way.
This morning show could have no idea that in those few seconds they lost one of their biggest fans. One of the artists they made disparaging comments about was Nelly Furtado, who also happens to be my son's favourite artist, and at six years of age, he can sing in tune at least three of her songs. (He gets that skill from his mother, in case you're wondering.) It turns out that his grade-one class uses "I'm Like A Bird" as their daily "cool down song" for QDF (Quality Daily Fitness).
A look of despair and disappointment came across his face, as we sat at the breakfast table and he said "Why are they saying such nasty things about Nelly? I don't want to listen to them anymore. Dad can we please change the station?"
As the spots finished over the intro of a Shania Twain song they did a quick mention of how Shania did not get an award, and perhaps that was why she didn't even bother to turn up to the Junos.
As I monitor radio stations, and conduct air-check sessions with talent both in Canada and the USA, I find that this is not an uncommon phenomenon. So why do radio personalities continue to take cheap shots at the very artists that form the backbone of the musical essence of the radio station? If the station has researched their music, they will be playing the artists that have the greatest appeal to the target audience. What is the possible benefit?
Perhaps, they know something about this craft that I've missed. I'd love to know the answer. But what ever it is, it will be a tough sell to convince my son to listen to that radio station at the breakfast table and hear "The Joke of the Day".
One possible explanation is that air talent see other high profile people using this tactic effectively. After all it seems to be a national past time in the House of Parliament. Late night TV talk shows are also guilty of this. Take for example The Mike Bullard Show. Part of his stick seems to include acidic comments about high profile people, and he is not above creating humour at the expense of individuals in the live studio audience.
You may recall that David Letterman used to get rather caustic with his remarks. But these days he delivers a more friendly show with humour that tends to be more self-deprecating, victimless or aimed at his employer CBS. You could argue that he still makes the odd comment about Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton or Michael Bloomberg, but they tend to be light hearted and seldom are they nasty or biting comments. I'm guessing that about two years ago someone took Dave aside and pointed out the relationship between his falling ratings and his "dark side", and Dave modified his style and watched his ratings and salary climb to record levels. He just signed a new contract with CBS for $31.5 million a year in salary, plus an additional $40 million a year in license rights from his production company Worldwide Pants Inc.
When I'm asked "Is there any advantage for talent to make negative comments about core artists?” my response is always NO. There are so many other emotions and tools that talent can employ when creating a voice break. We often run air talent seminars on this very subject, and show talent some of the other ways to plan, create, and execute a bit. Once you expose talent to some new thinking and different approaches they discover more creative and powerful ways to build a break. Some even come to understand that you don't need a great deal of talent to poke fun at others. Frankly anyone can be smutty or caustic. Using some of the other tools takes talent, planning and proper execution. |