Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Requests?

I am not a fan of playing requests.

Sure, today's listener expects control over all of their media, but radio is not a jukebox and it seems to me that training the small number of listeners who will endure the difficulty of calling a radio station request line when it's so easy and convenient to txt, connect via multiple social media or email is destined to hurt both your cume and TSL.

Curate everything, and think of every song as well as every item that goes between the tunes as CONTENT.

If someone asks for a request, challenge them to give you a great story about why that song or artist means so much to them right now, what will happen if you do play it and air that without the boring "can you play a song for me, sure, what would you like to hear, where are you calling from, who is this, I'll try to get that one on for you, thanks for calling, what's your favorite radio station" crutches.

Now, having said that, I am going to "play a request."

When Steve Holstein asks for something, he gets my attention.  He does mornings for Saga in Champaign, he produces one of the best prep services money can buy

From: Steve Holstein
To: Jaye Albright
Subject: Do you recycle your blog posts?

I just found a link to this old blog post of yours and wondered if you recycle. Some, like this one, are good enough to repost every so often, in my opinion.


Yeah, I know.  I should have demanded to hear "the story" behind his request, because you know it has to be verrrrrry interesting, but something tells me that when you re-read the post he's asking me to recycle, you'll probably have your own stories about why it's important to bring back every once in awhile.

So, here it is (click to read it again and again): 

Your Station's Promo Inventory Is Finite


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