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Content is king
Some ideas of what to put in between the records and how often you should say them.
There are two types of new-presenter and they fall into two very distinct camps. The first is the very-timid one, who will do a voice-link once in a blue moon, perhaps between every three or four songs. The second is the over-eager, who will voice-link without fail between every single song. Neither is correct, and the balance is to get between the two extremes.
The number and length of voice-links will depend on your stations sound, but as a general rule of thumb you should probably voice link at least every two songs, and I'd suggest four voice-links for every six songs (this works out at link, two songs, link, song, link, two songs, link, song, link, two songs etc.). Your aim is to be on air as much as possible without getting in the way of the music, or becoming annoying. So short regular links are much better than lots of music, then three minutes of speech.
The content of your links is also important. Too many presenters end up doing the same link every time, and this can become incredibly dull and boring. I subscribe to the view "if you have nothing to say, say nothing", but with the proviso that good prep should have given you something to say.
So on your typical station, this is the kind of frequency I'd expect to hear various link items. Obviously more than one can appear in a single link, indeed every link you do you should give the frequency and station name.
Those marked with an asterisk don't necessarily have to be voiced by the presenter each time, they could be jingles/idents.
The Radio Toolbox
*Station Name (Every five minutes)
- Establish and maintain the brand.
*Station Frequency (Every five minutes)
- Ensure the listener can recall the frequency
*Station Positioning Statement (Every five-ten minutes)
- Establish and maintain the brand.
Back announcing songs (Every five-ten minutes)
- Letting listener know what song heard is called.
*Presenter Name (Every ten minutes)
- Humanise the show.
*Telephone/Text/Email (Every fifteen minutes, depending on type of show and relevance)
- Only give this information out with a reason/incentive.
About something, eg story in local paper, football, film you saw etc (Every ten to fifteen minutes)
- Give listener something to think about and discuss with friends.
Time-check (Every fifteen minutes during breakfast and drive)
- At peak times it helps the listener keep track of the time, at other times it is not necessary.
Forward announcing songs (Every twenty minutes)
- Keep listeners interested for another twenty minutes
*Feature/competition trailing (Every twenty minutes)
- Keep listeners interested for another twenty minutes
Trail the News (Never!)
- If the only thing worth listening out for is the news then you should be taken off air!
I'll qualify that by saying that if you are plugging a specific story ("the latest on that shooting in town") then that makes sense. However, I'm fed up hearing presenters who at twenty-five minutes to the hour say "hmm... and coming up is the news". There are reasons why music-radio stations have news bulletins, which will be discussed later, but trailing them with twenty-five minutes to go is not the answer.
Equally, trailing the next presenter continuously for the last twenty minutes of your show is a big no-no. For a start, no-one apart from the presenters few friends will give a monkees who is the presenting the show - they are not a big enough name to justify people tuning in. Far better, trail the music of the first twenty minutes of the next persons show and round it off with "and that's all coming up with Kelly Smith in just a couple of records time, here on Acme FM".
The frequency and name of the station are by far the most important elements of any link, and like I said above, whenever you say or do something make sure it includes the station frequency and name. If you listen to most station promos, they'll include the name and frequency four or five times within that thirty seconds. The frequency is important because we still have manually tuning radios, and it's all very well your listener currently listening to the station, but they need to know how to get it if they go elsewhere. That's elsewhere both in terms of tuning away, and using another radio. If you listen to an hour of music-radio, even something very established like Radio 1, you'll find they give the frequency and name out probably thirty or forty times within that sixty minutes.
A station positioning statement (or slogan) is the type of "Best New Music" / "Better Music, and More of It" that helps establish exactly why people should be listening to that station. It should be a singular phrase that sits either before or straight after the station name. Most commercial stations will include a location in their positioning statement to reinforce their locality. Whilst positioning statements should be simple, try to think of something original. A Leeds student station I heard had "everyone's a dj" which completely reinforced it's music-led community spirited ethos.
Back announcing songs is important because it tells the listener what they heard. This is obviously useful if they want to go out and buy it (which is the reason the record company will let you play it) but also so they can tell you which songs they like and dislike - which you'll find out more of in the music section.
Giving out your name is a very simple way of making the personal link between you and the listener. I've tried to avoid a lot of the theory about the listener-presenter relationship but knowing that "Gary Andrews" is playing that song is a lot more satisfying than not knowing. Equally, when you talk about things that happened to you, you need to be a human who is talking about it, and every human has a name.
The "feedback" methods, telephone, email and text need to be given out but only when there is a reason or incentive. Too many presenters will do the "requests and dedications on 07000 xxxxxx" without really given the listener a reason to do it. Even saying "hmm, maybe you need to apologise to your flatmate, or you just want to thank your girlfriend for last night - why not give me a call and request a song for them." What that does is gets the listener thinking and gives them a reason for making that call.
Try and have one easy number for each method of contact, and part of your station sound there should be one way for everyone to say it. Is it oh-seven-triple-oh or oh-seven-thousand?
Numbers tend to work best if done in couplets, but there are exceptions such as when the first and fourth numbers are the same. For example, two-three-three, two-six-nine which is better than twenty-three, thirty-two, sixty-nine. You don't have to give the STD code out every time, in fact its normally better to give the STD area out rather than the code; eg "Bradford two-three-three, two-six-nine"
And just a word of warning; "oh-eight-four-five-seven-six-three-six-two-thousand and one", Is that 08457 636 2001 or 08457 636 20001? Unless it is the final numbers, or it is blatantly obvious, avoid using hundreds and thousands to describe numbers.