Indiana RadioWatch

Oh the things I can't write about - 9 July 2008 edition

2008-07-09T20:25:00.002-04:00

1. A friend e-mailed me a radio message board posting about something "illegal" going on, which never named the station. I'm not touching that.

2. A reader (?) e-mailed me about a DJ's personal life. I wrote back with a one-line response:

"Why would I care about this information?"

No response to my e-mail. Not that it matters, but I already knew the information divulged by the reader (?).

3. While meeting a reader, I overheard "gossip" that a certain DJ was moved to a different airshift [during the day], so management could keep an eye on the DJ. Apparently, the DJ worked when management wasn't around, and things went "missing." I thought were were all grown up professionals. This is a complete shame.

What's on the on-air studio bookshelf?

2008-03-15T10:26:00.004-04:00

Now I admit, I'm picky when I listen to the radio. However, I imagine most folks in radio (some would say "especially PD's!") are just as picky as me.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many experts writing columns that impart such wisdom as "Don't hotline the jock while on the air over a mistake they made, unless that mistake would jeopardize the station license with the FCC."

My original topic this morning was Joel Whitburn. I was about to write specifically for those who program or are on air at a music format station which plays music later than 1970. For those people, I was going to suggest they purchase a copy of Joel Whitburn's "Top Pop Singles 1955-2006"

However, I don't think this resource would have solved the simple error I heard this morning. This error smacked of "I read nothing before I talked about this song."

While driving into work, I heard a DJ introduce Sade's 1984 hit "Smooth Operator" by pronouncing the British band's name "Sade" (rhymes with "Made") - instead of the proper "Sha-Day" (although even I thought it was "Sah-Day").

Now, I know mistakes happen, humans are well...human. I am unsure if Selector has a "pronunciation" feature to print the proper pronunciation of a music group, individual, or song title, for confusing artists or song titles. I also have no idea if the radio station I was listening to uses Selector, or not. I'll also admit that I have rarely used Selector myself...I just know that radio stations use this software.

Coming Soon, after these messages

2008-03-14T10:38:00.000-04:00

This spot will be our chance to blog about recent stories concerning Hoosier state radio stations, and perhaps the occasional mention of a radio story from elsewhere.