“The best radio station”, "Bluegrass to 50's & 60's Rock n' Roll to 70's Golden Country and even some all time favorites through today." These are actual positioning statements that I’ve heard. Really, I’m not kidding. Do you really need a position statement anymore? Have they become too radioish, too cliché, too crutch? I think so.
Don’t confuse the station name and the positioning statement. The name is great. Calling yourself “The Wolf”, “Today’s Country 95.7”, “Power 106”, “New Country 93” are fine. It’s when you get into telling the listener your station is “more fun and the best country from yesterday and today” that it gets to be clutter and cliché.
When jocks say the positioning statement every time they crack the mic, it slows down the momentum and it’s just that much more time before the jock gets to the content. Plus, most jocks say the position statement so much, they don’t “sell it”, they are just “saying it.” How can the listener be excited for the station, when the jock doesn’t sound like he/she are?
AC stations are the worst. It never made sense to me on a format that is all about “less talk and more music” to have the jocks open up each break with “Today’s Soft Rock Favorites with more music and less talk” (another real position statement I’ve heard on the air). You say less talk, yet you just said a complete sentence of nothing but “blah, blah, blah.” At least that’s what the listener heard. Don’t believe me? Ask any listener to repeat verbatim your positioning statement. I bet they can’t do it…and would probably be embarrassed to do it in front of their friends because it’s just not a natural thing to say.
Talent Coach Tommy Kramer taught me something that instantly changed the sound of my station for the better. Have your jocks stop saying positioning statements and only have the voice guy read them in the station imaging. Your jocks can focus more on content, opening each break with something brilliant, not a positioning statement that becomes an instant tune out. Better yet, drop the positioning statement all together…yeah, I said it. Especially if you are a heritage country station. Simply saying “Country 95.5 WXYZ” is enough. Listeners know who you are and what you’re about by the music you play and the talent you have. Give them more credit than constantly thinking you need to remind them that you play “John and Jane in the morning with the best country from yesterday and today without a lot of talk all day on a no repeat workday.”
No comments:
Post a Comment