Radio is first and foremost, a business.

Nothing more - nothing less.

I am (unfortunately) old enough to remember as a rookie being instructed - "play one track, talk a little, play another track, talk a bit more" and so on.

Some years later, I also remember being told - "play two in a row, pre-announce and back-announce the titles".

Then it became - "play four in a row. Pre-announce nothing" (it might put the listeners off if you tell them you are about to play something they don't like) - "just back-anounce everything".

And around the time I retired - it was "pre-announce nothing, back-announce nothing. Make it sound more like a pre-programmed MP3 player - with ads mixed in".

It is a business. It is no longer so much about attracting new listeners, as not scaring off old listeners.

Make it sound like a continuous juke-box. Play the biggest oldies - at least they are guaranteed to not scare listeners away.

And above all - don't do anything too clever. Just play it cool.

It is not really sensible to blame managements, or even the PDs. They do what they have to in order to make enough money to stay open.

It may not be perfect, but remember -no oldies get played when the station get closed!

• RE: DJs - John 01/11/2016 07:24:05 EST (1)