The play’s the thing for modern DJS, says exec
CBS RADIO president/ceo Dan Mason said something in an interview with Radio Ink last week that touched a sore place for a whole lot of radio hosts.
“Over the last 20 years, the disk jockey’s role has been watered down so much,” Mason said, “by the dictate ‘Don’t talk, don’t give the title and artist of songs, play hit after hit, don’t give anybody any chance to tune out.’ ”
Mason said this in a tone that suggested radio had lost something.
Disk jockeys have been saying the same thing for all of those 20 years, maybe longer. So it’s nice to hear one of the bosses say it. The debate itself isn’t complex. As Mason says, those who want deejays to shut up think listeners want music, not chatter.
Critics of deejay talk argue that for every clever jock, there are a dozen who talk just to hear themselves, and don’t really have much to say.
As for the “information” argument, critics of deejay talk say the average top-40 listener, for instance, already knows Katy Perry, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Adele. Since their hits might be played six to eight times a day, listeners would just get annoyed if the artists and titles were recited each time.
Critics also say there’s no point in “back-announcing,” naming the record that just ended, because why talk about something that’s over?
On the other side is the argument that a lot of listeners would like to know artists and titles. Someone who doesn’t listen to top 40 obsessively, but tunes in sometimes to hear what’s new, is lost without nuts-and-bolts information.
More important to some deejays and fans is the argument that a deejay isn’t just someone who plays random records. That’s what an ipod is for. (In the old days, that’s what a jukebox was for.)
A good deejay is someone who’s sharing this music with you, letting you know someone else likes it the same way you do. He or she talks about things you’re likely to find interesting, about the music or something in the news or the culture.
It’s a connection, the same way it’s a connection if a friend sends you a link to a download or video you might like.
Pop culture isn’t 300 million isolated vacuums. It’s connections, and on the radio the deejay has always been the living, real-time human link in that connection.
PUBLIC RADIO MUSIC MONTH: WFUV (90.7 FM) is joining National Public Radio Music Month in April, spotlighting the role of public radio in supporting and promoting new music.
The band Everest will become WFUV’S “house band” for the month. On April 4, the band will join afternoon host
Dennis Elsas in the studio and begin writing a song it will complete and perform by the end of the month.
Other artists who will join the celebration include Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, Amy Ray and Rodrigo Y Gabriela.