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What makes bad radio?
Most people will keep listening to a radio station until it does something that actively makes them want to switch off. So why does that happen?
There are many styles, all acceptable. The only one that isn't is bad technique. The list below highlights some of the pit-falls people can fall into when they start presenting.
I'm not saying that any of these are automatically wrong be default; but you've got to understand the rules before you break them. It's not about stifling creativity, but it's about understanding what can make listeners turn off.
This can be technical errors:
- Not checking levels,
- dropping music when you talk over it,
- not killing faders when the song ends
- not cueing stuff up right
- not turning off your mic.
- not having a record cued up just in case
- not checking the logging tape.
This can be "integration" errors:
- dropping in V/Os at the wrong point
- playing four or five jingles back to back
- leaving the mini-disc running
- talking over vocals
- leaving gaps between records
- badly segueing
- badly mixing.
This can be timing errors:
- not playing the ads at the right time
- not backtiming your records to the hour
- not spacing things out across an hour.
This can be music errors:
- not playing enough of the different styles of music
- relying on the same records week in week out
- coming out of breaks on slow records
- playing two songs by the same artist.
This can be presentation/content errors:
- mumbling into the mic
- sounding dull and unenthusiastic
- constantly saying "erm" in the middle of speaking
- not saying the station name frequency and your name enough
- falling into the "that was, this is" pit
- not having enough to talk about
- talking about things listeners won't be interested in (no they don't want to know that the CD players are shagged etc etc)
- assuming the listeners knows what you are referring to
- not giving the track titles out.