Things you dont want to hear on the radio again

[KJ]

Following on from another great Pat Courtaney column this week I was wondering what - as a listener and a presenter - you're sick of hearing on air?

For me, the more I think about back selling well known tunes the more I think there's less need for it. If its a new tune - yeah, grand - no bother - people want to know what it is ....... but whats the point of back selling, say, 4 tunes when everyone knows what they just heard?!

It uses up your 10 seconds and its another link done but did the listener really want to be reminded that they just heard Kylie, Enrique, Brittney and Justin?

We'll all continue to do it (cos somewhere along the line someone probably showed research that goes against all of what I just said) but isnt there better things to be doing with those seconds on air?

Just a thought



What do you never wanna hear on air again? Be they cliches or whatever



KJ

;)


If you missed Pat's column this week ("TEN THINGS I NEVER WANT TO HEAR ON THE RADIO AGAIN") ............ click
HERE (http://www.radiowaves.fm/PC/3.shtml)

[Radio Presenter]

* Never take for granted that people know the music you're playing. Radio is passive and one of the biggest frustrations for many listeners has always been the presenter not telling them who sang...and what the song was.

* Some formats require it to be done to highlight the music variety for first time users of your product (as you pre sell some music too). Of course your BIG personality 'bit' sits in between!

* If, for example, your station format insists on playing a 'music sweep' (another overused cliche which means swiddly to the average 'Joe Soap'!) of 4 songs out of the news...and the second was by U2...and you have the latest and biggest piece of info on them...this is where backselling comes in handy. You leave their name last and it links you nicely into the info piece.

>>> My biggest hate on radio? The inability of a lot of people to grasp the words: 'EURO' and 'CENT'. It's not ' 50 Euros'...it's 50 EURO! It's not '20 cents'...it's 20 CENT'! <<< Bloody hell we're nearly a year using the new money!

Actually this reminds me of something else: 'with an overnight low of minus 1 DEGREE(S)'..............arrrrrrrrggggggg hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The list far exceeds 10 things.................................. ........

:D

[Elaine]

Ok so i know i have many faults but was listening back to a tape of one of my shows....If i had "a cent" for the amount of times i said eh and em, id be feckin rich lol

[Radio Presenter]

What's wrong with saying 'eh' and 'em'?!
We say these in everyday life and they sound natural on the radio.
Don't be too hypercritical on yourself Elaine. As I said before, when I heard you a few weeks ago, you sounded great. I wasn't conscious of any ehs and ems.
If that's all you think you're doing wrong, then I'll be watching my gig!!!!!!!!!

:D

[KJ]

Re:

"Eh"s and "Em"'s - Im always critical of myself with these if I hear a show playback too ........... but I suppose if you're not saying them constantly then - as ye said RP - its natural inflections that we'd use in everyday conversations anyway

Within reason "eh"s and "em"s are ok now and I think - otherwise a jock would sound too robotic


Re: Backselling - yup, those were probably the well researched points I was talking about, lol


KJ

;)

[Turiel]

Re - Euros and Cents

Surely its quite natural for people to pluralise things, why try and fight so hard to get people to change? Especially on radio, you don't want to sound like Mr. Perfect Queens English, you want to sound like your average listener who's in the pub with you. I say euros and cents. Why? Everyone else does. I couldn't care less if euro and cent are the correct pluralisations of the words.

[Radio Presenter]

Originally posted by Turiel
Re - Euros and Cents

Surely its quite natural for people to pluralise things, why try and fight so hard to get people to change? Especially on radio, you don't want to sound like Mr. Perfect Queens English, you want to sound like your average listener who's in the pub with you. I say euros and cents. Why? Everyone else does. I couldn't care less if euro and cent are the correct pluralisations of the words.

And who's fighting so hard?!
It sounds more blatant in commercials.
But you're right - people do naturally put 's' on the end of Euro and Cent. And YES, we do want to be natural on the radio. But you can say Euro and Cent without running the risk of sounding like you've a plum in your mouth. Not everyone else says it with the 's' as you suggest.
It was actually the subject of a conversation in my local PUB last week!!!!!!!!! I observed and turned it into a link. (That last bit was a lie for dramatic effect).
I dunno Turiel, maybe you're right and I'm just being pedantic. Perhaps it's the same as what I said about saying 'eh' and 'em'?!
>We say these in everyday life and they sound natural on the radio.<

You've given me some food for thought. Thanks.

:)

[Mike]

Why do classic hits stations play the same songs over and over when there were many other songs out at the same time which never get airplay nowadays

Cool FM in Belfast are doing a thing called the top 10 at 10 at the moment where everymorning the play all the top ten songs from the chart from some year from 1981-2001.

Many songs which did quite well in the charts havent been heard on radio on years while others get played almost everyday

[KJ]

On the same topic Mike I heard a Dublin jock playing Nick Kamen's "Sweeter Then Ever" recently and it brought a smile to my face. We need more forgotton pop classics like that on the radio.


>We say these in everyday life and they sound natural on the radio.<


This goes back to the suggestion that when you're doing a show you should imagine a one on one conversation with someone.


Any more thoughts on things you dont like hearing on air?


KJ

;)

[Turiel]

"The latest offering"

Whenever a new track comes out, its always referred to as "the latest offering from so and so".

I hate cliches :)

(which doesn't mean im not guilty of them myself)

[Tabasco]

Re Euro(s) and Cent(s) ; In this country most people speak English. In English, most words are plural words end in the letter S.
So linguistically speaking, 'Euros' an 'Cents' is correct here. The reason we've been brainwashed to not use the S is that, once again, the French and Germans are using their might to impose their will on the rest of us.
The Americans, Canadians and Australians all use cents, and have done for a long time; And they use the S.
Next we'll be forced to drive on the wrong side of the road, and even have speed limit signs in km/h when our cars' speedos show mph!

[Tabasco]

Sorry, the thread was things we don't want to hear.

Well I never want to hear a horoscope ever again.

I never want to hear a patronising DJ say ' Don't go outside/drive you car unless you absolutely have to'.

I never want to hear a time check using units of half-minutes ('It's twenty-seven and a half minutes past...' And I never want to hear 'If you're watching the clock, the time is...' - if you're watching the clock you don't need some idiot telling you the time!

I never want to hear a DJ announce the frequency the station is on. If you're listening, you don't need to know!

I'm sure I could come up with more if I listened to some of the insipid stations around the country for a while!

[Turiel]

Re announcing frequencies... maybe the frequency is part of the station imaging (eg Spin 1038), or it can also be useful if you're broadcasting on more than 1 frequency. As I recall, some pirate in the past couple of years (was it esg?) had 3 frequencies.

[Tabasco]

1038 is part of their name. I mean, "This is XX Comunity Local Radio on 109.3FM" - we don't have to do legal IDs here so what's the point?
If they are on more than 1 freq then - still, what's the point?

[KJ]

Any more thoughts on this?

What did you all think of Pat's piece?


KJ

;)

[021]

Tabasco, Re announcing frequencies, I disagree. Someone may find say a new community station (lets say 105.4) on an analog tuned radio. But then they try and find it on a digital tuned radio. They remember it was around 105 but the station may be just below the signal threshold to stop on a scan (often the case). They try and tune it in manually but without having heard the exact frequency previously they do not know exactly where to tune?
Manual tuning without knowing the exact freq is very tedious on most digital tuned radios because the audio mutes on most of them when you step the tuning and if they find the station they might not have it spot on, 105.3 or .35 instead of .4

[Mike]

Announcing the frequency is a form of self advertising and a way of keeping it in listeners minds so that theyll keep tuning in.

Lets face it most products you see/hear being advertised you already exist but the advertisers keep reminding you.

Why should radio stations themselves be any different.

The only thing is why does 2FM announce as 90-92 or TodayFM as 100-102 surely it should be 90-97 and 100-105

[Darker]

Re: EURO AND CENT

Sorry for bringing it up again – but yes we do usually pluralizes things when we speek about having more than one thing. But what we have to remember people is that the Euro Currency is used in 11other counties as well as our own. Just because we add an S to pluralize doesn’t mean the Germans or the Italians do the same. For all we know when they pluralize a word it might be completely unrecognisable to us. So in order to keep continuity and things all the same it was decided and rightly so not to pluralise EURO and CENT.

[Radio Mad]

Paul Reynolds who is RTÉ's crime correspondent has a terrible problem with the 'eh' word, which has a tendency to ruin his otherwise very high quality live reports. Why the guy can't be trained not to do it is beyond me.

[DeargDoom]

me being announced as the next presenter on air when I am in fact half asleep lying in bed on a nice saturday afternoon.

[KJ]

"Shout out to Macker, Frogger, Shooter, Stabber, Dealer, Moggy, Jacinta, 'Tasha, Bally and Smiley in Ballyier chilling out in da shed listening to da cheeeewns"


Links like that give pirate radio a bad rep

;)


KJ

[chump]

"just comin' up te a quarter past ten across dublin city"

Drives me insane!

[Radio Presenter]

Originally posted by Kelly Jones
the more I think about back selling well known tunes the more I think there's less need for it. If its a new tune - yeah, grand - no bother - people want to know what it is ....... but whats the point of back selling, say, 4 tunes when everyone knows what they just heard?!

It uses up your 10 seconds and its another link done but did the listener really want to be reminded that they just heard Kylie, Enrique, Brittney and Justin?

We'll all continue to do it (cos somewhere along the line someone probably showed research that goes against all of what I just said) but isnt there better things to be doing with those seconds on air?



Have a look at this website and click on the NEW report 'Back To Back Selling'.

This will give a greater depth of understanding.........

You can look at the PDF summary file or opt for the full slide show report.

http://www.paragonmediastrategies.com/

[Flash 105 FM]

"Looking out the studio window I see that the weather is..."

Do you not think we bloody know what the weather is like! We are in the same poxy city! It's fine for you tucked up in your cozy little studio, but I'm stuck in a two mile tail back and the rain is hopping off the roof!! I don't need you to tell me it is raining, pratt!

Sorry, that one just really annoys me so much. I always here on FM104 and 98FM!

[DeargDoom]

I don't get this one - you have an objection to them saying that they are looking out the window, or you object to them giving the weather details?

Either way, don't they call 'em weather FORECASTS? That means they'll leave you with a prediction of how the weather will be later. Thats quite useful, so you know not to leave the house just to get stuck in one of those tailbacks you were talking about!

[Original Tyrone Gobshite!]

Things YOU dont want to hear on the radio again...

<flame>Charlie Wolfe!</flame>:D

[viewaskew]

A list of radio "don'ts" from allaccess.com


10-Saying "coming up right after this/after the break" right in front of the commercials. (Promote the music or the news and talk, not the spots).

9-Telling listeners you're having a bad day. (Frankly, they don't give a damn, and your job is to provide escape for their bad days).

8-Talking to listeners in the plural, as in "everybody out there." Communication should be one-on-one. "You" is the operative word.

7-Failing to mention the call letters going to or coming back from break. Arbitron is an unaided system, which means, if you want diary credit, you need to tell the listener what call letters to write down.

6-Saying up, down, over when referring to locations. Always say "in," because if we can be heard in a certain location, we ARE there. Don't put unnecessary distance between us and the listener.

5-Saying a song you're playing is bad. Then why are we playing it?

4-Making comments, positive or negative, about spots. It's a lose-lose situation. If you say positive things about one client, why not all of them? If you say negative things about a client, why should they pay for the time?

3-Talking to the crowd at a remote and forgetting about the more important audience-the radio listener.

2-Pointing out mistakes made on your show, which listeners may or may not have noticed. The real mistake is not the initial occurrence, but the time taken to correct it.

And the #1 thing that sounds bad on the radio…

Saying something that no one listening cares about.

[Alan Partridge]

'viewaskew'... very apropraite!
I'd have to take issue with a lot of what you've said.
You point out how important the listener is, but you don't seem to give the listener much credit for posessing a bit of savvy.
In my opinion, for that is all it is, pointing out a mistake that you've made makes you real. More often than not the listener will have picked up on it. If not, it should give them a bit of a smile to think that there is a human being behind their speakers, and not a non-mistake making robot.
If you think a song is shit than why not say it. I am fed up of jocks banging on about the virtues of Britney, One True (out-of-tune) Voice, Blue and all the rest of them. While I recognise the need to suit your listenership, there's nothing wrong with having an opinion now and then.
All in all, personally, give me the presenter who is real than the robot any day, frailties and all!
A prime example is Dave Fanning. Hasn't got a clue what he's up to technically, but you have to hand it to him for being honest about whats going on around him. Music out of the equation, I'd tune into Dave 10 out of 10 times before the likes of Larry Gogan (arghhhh)!

Glad to have gotten that off my chest. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

It just doesn't suit him any day...

[T-man]

"Things" being the appropriate terminology hear let me add my 10 cents - he he my two cents are free.......

10 - Jocks who should know better talking over lyrics ins a song.
9 - "doin it to ya and for ya dublin" - who feckin asked you to?
8 - Any sort of advertising for a certain club on L. street - usually found on one/all three stations at exactly the same time.....
7 - "Jonner" nuf said here me thinks
6 - Professional DJ's who arent professional enough to take critisim complaining about it in air, get over your self.
5 - Any body complianing about the weather in this country, for gods sake get used to it, more than likely your a resident of this country and its never been any different. Last summer we had a decent sunshine was back in 1995 for the sake of peat.
4 - People complaing about the price of drink - Dont feckin drink then, nobody's forcing ya
3 - Heres where I die, "aw jaysus the price of fags are being put up again" its your choice pal - (exclusion here of dependents cos im all heart)
2 - Suprise here as if you werent expecting it "Scooter"


1 - Another supprise for ya F(bloody)K.

[Defected]

I get the feeling that T-man dosent like either scooter or frank, I like scooter.

[Korn_pop]

COME ON ... no-body likes Scooter!
How many people actually bought tickets for his gig.
I know that any stations that had tickets in Dublin , didnt even bother giving them away

[Liamo]

Some observations (and my own votes for the ten most hated things)

1. "It's ten degrees in Bruff and Bruree" - patronising syndicated crap, unless you categorically have a temperature gauge in both towns and you're doing a documentary on non-global warming

2. "Ireland's number one hit music station"/"Limerick's number one".....and in at number two is (oh, sorry, there IS no number two - explains why you're number one then, I guess)

3. Some accents (sorry guys, I know there's nothing you can do, and it's slightly snobbish, but Joe Duffy, Mark Whelan, Moikel MakMullen, half of RLO and a host of others should not be on radio)

4. "xxxxx's best music MIX" comprising of 4 songs from last week's top ten - check the meaning of MIX in a dictionary!

5. The eircom ad which states that a computer without the internet is like a toy without batteries - methinks she has the analogy backwards

6. diss, dat, dese and dose - still prevalent, unfortunately, and growing even more in both radio and print since the Ali-G "I can't spell or pwonounce but I don't care" syndrome seemed to take over. The internet screwed this up, too, with crap abbreviated company names like "phones4u" - how can someone advertise this on the radio in such a way that you can actually know what they're reading out ?

7. "That was xxxx and this is yyyy" - still to be heard on some of the pirates

8. Stations playing ads that reference "O'Connell St", or don't reference an area code in phone numbers or whatever. Although the ex-Dublin national stations are the worst at this, ALL stations should be aware that everyone in their target area is entitled to equal respect as a listener, addresses and access codes should be relevant to all of them. If they're listening outside the franchise area, OK, it's less of an issue, but a city-only station would never advertise "Now at the shopping centre", because everyone would say "which one?" - the same should apply - say "O'Connell St, Limerick; O'Connell St, Ennis; O'Connell St, Dublin", as appropriate to your listeners.

9. Country and Irish music on 3 or 4 of the pirates in Limerick - yes, there's an audience for it but PLEASE not on all of them. Add UCB/Cross Rhythms to this too - GET OFF OUR FREQUENCIES so that someone worthwhile can use them!

10. Mobile phone and ringtone ads - aside from the annoyance and distraction factor when you hear the "phone" ring, the thoughts of someone practically saying "oh, wOOOwwww" just because they can change their ringtone is pathetic!

[Anorak]

Ben Murrey.

Frank Kennedy.

Eamonn Cooke.

Unfortunately only 1 of them will come true any time soon.

[Love_To_Talk]

Thought Frank was in gran canaria playing to the huge enterauge
of mini people who reside there! Dosent anybody ask him why he plays the continent in the off peak season, is it cos hes camera/people shy?

[Anthony]

I wish that jocks would stop saying that they shouldn't like the Tatoo song. On merit, its a great pop song. Leave the moral considerations to others to decide.

I also would like to tune in and not hear the ABUism from jocks and sports presenters. Its sad bitter and not funny. they should remember that a large percentage of their audience are Man U

[Liamo]

Hmmm.....interesting.....

I also would like to tune in and not hear the ABUism from jocks and sports presenters

The Man U supporters club is alive and well on some stations, and is the main reason for my slight leaning towards aBU-ism....

Almost every station broadcasts the Champions League or whatever as if ManU were a home/Irish team; others have an out-and-out bias (think Tom Tyrell or Trevor Walsh) - they should remember that a large percent of the audience aren't ManU.

While taking your point Anthony, I think the ones you refer to only balance out the others.

[Wheatus]

Tony Fenton


RIP

[DeargDoom]

Or indeed the Anorak Hour playing snippets of Tony Fenton this sunday!

DD

[Anthony]

Liamo,

Surely its your ABUism that makes you lean towards ABUism? If everything is balanced out as you say, then you would presumably be as likely to be influenced towards Man United by the ABU crap that haunts our airwaves.

If you wonder wh yUnited fans love the club with such a passion, the ABUism we face daily would go some small way to explaining that.

[Billy Dane]

Another Elaine Kane top 10 - only joking Elaine!

[Liamo]

Good observation Anthony, but the 50/50 position is influenced by something in common with the ABUs - i.e. I'm not a Man United fan.

Ideally commentary and news should always be neutral stating the facts, but we all forgive a subtle bias if the station's primary audience is supports one team (e.g. RTE showing an Irish soccer or rugby match) and the commentator is reflecting that.

If we don't, or are neutral, the biased commentary gets irritating. A neutral doesn't mind whether Real Madrid or Manchester United win a match, as long as it's an entertaining match; in that scenario, the commentator saying "we've got to keep this lead for 10 minutes" is irritating.....what's "WE" ??

So, that's why I'm on the ABU side of 50/50, away from the team referred to as "United" despite the existence of Leeds United, Newcastle United, Drogheda United etc....

Anyway, this was discussed at length with John elsewhere.... check it out if you want.....