Lou Robbins — Admin/Editor | Airchecks
KTOY | KVAC (WA-1974) | KDFL (WA-1975) | KTTX (TX- 1976) | KWHI (TX-1976) | KONP (WA-1977) | KBAM (WA-1978) | KJUN (WA-1983) | KRPM (WA-1984) | KAMT (WA-1986) | KASY (WA-1988) | KBRD (WA-1989) | KTAC (WA-1990) | KMTT (WA-1991) | KOOL (AZ-1994)
Ah yes, one of my favorite “top of the hour” hits was “Let Me In” by the Sensations. I can hear it now, right after news alive at 55 and the worldwide time check was a super tight slip cue of “Let me in, whee-ooh.”
The Sensations. My sister bought the 45 rpm and played it often. It became a favorite of mine.
I still play it. In fact, I’m playing it now. I luv it!!
1962
OK. ’62 … My sister fell in love with a singer named Jimmy Clanton. She would play his records and cry. She wrote him letters. He never answered. She stopped eating for awhile, vowing not to eat until Jimmy Clanton wrote her back. Surely, he was in love with her also or would come to his senses and fly to Tacoma to be with her, she thought.
I think my father had a good chuckle over all of that.
No Googling this one Mike, what artist/group sang “Let Me IN’ (1963)
Too bad they are no longer on. I personally liked KVI better because they had personality jocks and northwest oldies. I also miss Kool Gold AM 1590. I remember when Jerry Kay worked weekends at KBSG, he made a guest appearance on then rival KJR and cracked a joke that Bobby Vinton sounds good in stereo. My two favorite oldies stations were KXA when Pat owned it and XPRS, L.A. 1090 (california gold express) played a lot of rare 50,s music and East L.A. rhythm and blues. It sounded great to me as well as dj,s like Rick Ward and Huggy Boy. I could only hear them after 1 a. m. Monday mornings when KING signed off. I forgot to put in real oldies 1690 AM in Chicago. I also miss Dick Biondi and others on WLS-FM
I get nostagic for KBSG for some reason. A fine station still to be missed.
Notice how fun radio is gone and replaced with vulgar, ugly, dark rock, bad news, and 20 AC stations? It sure as hell isn’t fun anymore.
I’ll say it again. Remember when deejays were so funny we laughed out loud?
We kept tuning in, sometimes not so much for the music, but for the DJs.
Good radio might include some of these tips from a Forbes article.
—Live, breathe and embrace local local local
Real radio has an enormous advantage as the most local of all media. In the great sea of media offerings, local radio stands out. It celebrates our towns and reminds us of our shared identity. Radio from its earliest days understood that vital connection. But that has been lost in this age of consolidation, where stations are managed from afar. But it makes even more sense these days. Everything about your stations should scream local.
—Hire real copywriters. Most radio advertising sucks.
If your ears hurt and you get a headache listening to radio, it could be the ads. There was once a time, long ago, when radio supported good copywriting. No more. Today most of what we hear is written on the fly by people who aren’t writers. Good copywriting sells products, endearing you with your advertisers, always a plus, and it make your station sound smart.
—Train your sales team in the art of selling, and in the value of radio
Radio these days, like much of local media, is flooded with people who aren’t skilled in selling, and it hurts the industry. But you can change that. Take the time, spend the money, to train your sales team. There are natural sales people, but the best sales people learned from masters. The payback for stations is enormous: Higher sales, happy clients, more clients, less turnover, less whining, fewer headaches.
—Put digital to work for your stations. Generate revenues.
Digital is not the enemy, and smart radio companies have learned how to use it to add a new revenue stream and boost radio sales as well, says respected local media researcher Gordon Borrell. Consider that so much local advertising begins with a digital component. The advertiser then decides what additional media to include in the buy. Win the digital business and you get a two-fer—radio ad dollars as well. One caution: Never disparage digital to an advertiser. They believe in it. It’s sure to be taken as an insult.
—Go big on social media, radio’s very good friend
As Borrell and others are quick to point out, radio is the original social medium It’s a great way to connect into the passions listeners have for their favorite genres while building the station’s brand. Engage with listeners, encourage them to post their thoughts and air their complaints. Answer their questions. Run contests.
—Cut back ad loads. Give listeners a break.
Radio listeners accept ads. What they don’t like is too many of them back to back. If you run too many, you’ll chase away listeners and send them to digital offerings like Spotify, where loads are far lower. You also diminish the value of the ads you run, risking driving away clients to competitors, advises McWhorter. It’s a no-brainer. Yet so many stations seem not to grasp this.
—Get to know your listener. Spend the money for research.
Who’s listening to your station? Good question. Spend the money to find out. Research is invaluable in telling you what works and doesn’t work about your programming. Are you running too many ads? Is your news team missing stories? Your listeners will tell you. Good listener research is also an invaluable sales tool.
—Loosen the grip. Eschew micromanaging. Let your people go at it.
Dare we say this? Great stations run themselves. If you’ve got the right people, they get the job done without being told what to do every minute. It’s called talent. Large organizations like to manage down, and down and down and down. Executives collect endless amounts of data and put it in spreadsheets to impress boards and stockholders. These people think of themselves as radio people. They are not radio people. They are bean-counters pretending to be radio people.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/geneely/2018/03/26/theres-a-right-way-to-run-radio-stations-here-are-10-smart-tips/#5bc2cee74c16