Adele wonders who the old guy is
Apparently last weekend during the Grammy Awards, while I was enjoying the “Golden Slumbers Medley” which turned into a great guitar jam, one of the trending topics on Twitter was how many young people had no idea who Paul McCartney is.
Blasphemous. Unbelievable.
You damn kids!
Get off my lawn!
However, this is not simply a generation gap.
I remember being on the air at a classic rock station way back and it seemed like every time I played “Stairway to Heaven” someone would call and ask what song I was playing or who sang it. These were people who chose to listen to classic rock calling in.
OK, sure, not knowing who Paul McCartney is or what band recorded Stairway are pretty extreme examples but they are also a good reminder that your audience isn’t as aware of what’s going on as you are.
You get paid to know all about the artists you play or to study and understand every nuance and detail of the stories you discuss. Your audience doesn’t.
Take the time to clearly set the premise of what you are talking about and fill-in the basic details of the story before you start into any sort of opinion or commentary. Let’s face it, your show will be a lot more compelling for listeners if they know what you are talking about.
Oh, any by the way, do it every time. Just because you clearly set the premise yesterday doesn’t mean you don’t have to do it again today. Just because you clearly set the premise 20 minutes ago before the last stopset doesn’t mean you don’t have to do it again.
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kgoformerlistener
March 3, 2012
sigh…
Last month someone asked me if I’d ever heard of someone called Gordon Lightfoot. I don’t work in radio but I couldn’t believe someone on this earth had never heard of him before. There is a wonderful, haunting video of him on YouTube performing for Canada Day. It’s an older Lightfoot but, man, that song ages well with him. The best performance I’ve seen of that song.
I’m sure you’ve seen it already but I left the link anyway.
Mike Stern
March 3, 2012
Thanks for the link and for the thought about Gordon Lightfoot. Same concept and a good lesson for airtalent; just because you’ve played someone’s song a zillion times it doesn’t mean everyone in your audience knows it that well.