Another example was when Dr. Jerry White had the Saturday morning investment counsel program on (of all places) 1050 CHUM.     His theme was Pink Floyd's Money and to the best of what's left of my memory, it went longer then 10 seconds.

RadioActive wrote:

Tom McConnell's board op/producer at CKTB in St. Catharines is very good at matching subject to song. If you listen every now and then, you'll more than likely hear them do it.   

Not to take away from the Bored Op's incredible innate talent, but ALL station automation software have VERY robust search capabilities within its music libraries database. Further, the Op can select the "hook" segment with the musical element. The whole process takes literally less than a split second.

This would be far, far more impressive in the days of carts or actual records.
 

geo wrote:

My point wasn't about how it's done but rather why isn't it done more frequently, as (IMHO) it appears to be an effective  attention-getter?

That is a question for the individual station's PD or Brand Manager.  THEY decide as to to flow and/or clock of elements.

Of note, when 640 refreshed to GNR640, they eliminated random bumpers in favour of brand stings -- that's up to the Brand Manager.  Frankly, it sounds better.

The days of "theme-related" bumpers are now passe.  Change has happened and it WILL spread across more properties.  Much like farting into a crosswind flanked by constipated sheep are gone.  Welcome to the future -- today.
 

geo wrote:

My point wasn't about how it's done but rather why isn't it done more frequently, as (IMHO) it appears to be an effective  attention-getter?
 

In a word : complacency
In three words: can't be arsed (as the Brits say)

I used to get heartily sick of playing some bands on my show but if I worked in talk radio these days, having to hear snippets of Fitz and the Tantrums, and the Black Keys, and that bloody Foster the People song.. I would have the monitor down coming out of the break with my headphones off.

We could probably put together a list of the most overused bumpers on Toronto's airwaves, we hear them every. single. damn. day.
 

Last edited by betaylored (June 11, 2018 6:54 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

And too often, it just doesn't work. Just this past weekend, I was listening to Roy Green's show on the Corus network (AM 640 here.) His guest for one segment was an airline pilot who'd written a book about what really goes on in the cockpit. 

The segment started with the very recognizable riffs of "Jet Airliner" by The Steve Miller Band. The thing seemed to play on forever, before Green came on and started asking on air, "where's the vocal?" Turns out they'd edited together the instrumental bridges and there was no vocal. He eventually realized it and told his board op, "O.K. already. Just fade that thing down!" He noted in a rather exasperated voice that it was supposed to be a clever intro for his next guest, but they never got to the words.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Without communication between the people involved, it didn't.

That's the host's fault for thinking he was on a music station all of a sudden.  Many good producers expect the host to know where the vocals WOULD start, and they expect the host to start talking at that point.  We edit the vocals out so it sounds cleaner.  So starting talking already, you just had a three minute break.  Bob McCown is one of the worst in this market for that.  You can wait 90 seconds for him to start talking sometimes.  The guy makes $300 000 a year and he wants to sit and listen to music at the start of the show?  Get on with it!