As a regional CD I hear a lot of radio these days and there’s one thing that drive me bonkers!

Announcers get lazy! They set themselves up early in their career and dress to impress, but time ticks away and they get complacent.

I was driving through regional Victoria the other day and I was doing a little channel flicking!

If you’re a radio nerd like me when you listen to the radio – you don’t listen to the songs… well you do… but they don’t excite you! You listen to the announcers and imaging that make up the fabric of the radio station… You hear the effort an announcer goes to to extend the end of a song to play over a cold sweeper or you take notice when the host brings a caller into the conversation so seemlessly you actually forgot how the conversation began.

On this particular day the announcer in question opened the break with the station’s call sign… good start right! It’s just what happened next that caused the break to fall apart before my very ears 👂

He said his name, (which I won’t do here because that would just be un-fair) told me I was just listening to Billy Joel’s we didn’t start the fire… then rode off into the musical sunset by informing me he was about to play shaun Mullen’s shimmer! That’s it! That’s all the break had…

Had I missed something? No thought or purpose for opening the microphone, no hook or reason to stay listening for the next 15 mins… this bloke was a real life, walking talking sweeper! You have to be better than that!

Remember it’s your job to get your listeners attention and keep it over 15 minute blocks. If your are delivering “that was, this is” style radio Spotify may actually service the needs of your listener a little better than you can.

Here are some questions worth asking going into a music shift.

• Are you reflecting the sense of the day locally for your town today?
• Are you reflecting the sense of the day nationally
• Are you reflecting what’s happening in your Breakfast Show?
• Are you reflecting what’s coming up on the drive show this afternoon?
• Are you giving the right amount of love to the stations number 1 tactic right now?
• Are you passionately selling the music in your show today?
• Are you including your audience in your show today?

By asking the above questions you should be able to compile some pretty compelling content to keep your listeners engaged with your station.