R&R recently published a piece I wrote after driving cross country and listening to radio in each city. I didn't limit myself to one format and I made several observations that I think apply to all radio regardless of the demo they are looking to attract. Here is the transcript of that R&R piece plus a little more detail that I was unable to include in my limited column space:
To Hear a Dog Bark Press 5
It’s a prompt heard on the KROQ info line. The first time I heard it, I remember being caught of guard and laughing at the complete random opportunity KROQ found to entertain and appreciating KROQ going out of
their way to surprise me. As I’ve been traveling recently and listening to radio from city to city, I found myself reminded of that prompt because it represents a forgotten opportunity to endear listeners to our stations. The most indelible listening moments I experienced came when station's took the opportunity to entertain just for the sake of entertainment or to tell a joke just for the laugh. If you are already writing creatively to promote your station, events or your morning show, kudos you are ahead of 90% of radio being created today! Going above and beyond, the moments that really made me a fan occurred when a station put the listeners entertainment as priority one above another repetition of “today’s best hits and all the rock variety, blah, blah, blah”. Because of the amazing pressure on our inventory these moments are the exception not the rule, but their power shouldn’t be underestimated. These opportunities showcase your station’s personality and communicates that listener entertainment takes priority. These implied messages are also absorbed quicker because the listener’s aren’t being “sold” and don’t have their advertising guard up. Looking to create fans and station evangelists? Plan a few brief moments of entertainment, with no other motive that to entertain.
In the 90's when Keith Eubanks was imaging 99X I frequently heard examples of a station prioritizing entertainment over selling a positioning statement or tickets to the latest NTR event. Keith had a stable of voices and characters that he wove into serial bits, sometime interacting with the jocks and sometimes standing alone in promos that were more like SNL skits. While driving through Vegas this month, I 
heard promos on Xtreme that had no ulterior motive than to make a listener laugh. They stood out against the other stations I heard on my drive. Will Morgan and John Frost today still produce 15-30 second drop-ins for their respective imaging services. They are made so a local imaging director can insert them into a book promotion promo or a new music promo or as just a stand alone to get a laugh. Too quickly we forget the latter choice because of our inventory crush and because we feel compelled to find a context to use everything.
Jocks fall prey to the same thought process. Outside of mornings, it is rare to hear a jock use a break to just entertain or tell a story without looking for some way to awkwardly segue back to the music or relate the conversation to the next liner card. Jocks get lost in the exercise of doing radio the same as programmers, everything is a "clever" frontsell/backsell or the "hot topic of the night, call-in" or any number of forced exercises that would require the use of more quotation marks. When you hear Sluggo and Jed the Fish on KROQ, Halloran in San Diego, or Whip on 99X, you hear jocks with the confidence and wit to know how to entertain between the records without felling tied to the exercise.
One final, non-rock, example. Country did the best job of entertaining just to entertain of all the formats I sampled driving from coast to coast. Their entertainment was presented more as information or a set of values. Just as Xtreme in Vegas would spend a 30 second promo to get a laugh, country will dedicate 30 seconds just to stoke their audiences patriotism. A promo that doesn't try to reinforce "Texas Country" or sell tickets to the next Jamboree but just a statement "We are proud of our troops and here are a few guys in Iraq who call our town home, etc..." It reinforces the stations personality and the personality of the listeners without trying to find a way to put it in the context of "the best country variety".
We don't have to apologize or find a relevant reason to be funny or entertain or give information. Let it stand alone sometimes separated from the exercise of doing radio. Your station will have a better defined personality and listeners will thank you for giving them a break from the wall of promotion and for making the laugh. Most importantly they will thank you for putting their entertainment first.
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