I have been listening to a lot of radio these days: different formats, and different disciplines. Radio has been invaded by an epidemic of personal pronoun abuse. Pronouns are a common part of the English language but can lead to confusion to the radio audience. I will give you a few examples of things that have been broadcast in major cities by superior talents. I will keep the names of the pronoun addicts private. I won’t be calling out anyone by name… This Time!
I was listening to a top 10 market NFL play-by-play team. This group was terrific. I was listening to a descriptive presentation of the game, and it was easy to follow along. (I cannot believe how bad some play-by-play teams can be. I swear that I listened to one broadcast where nothing was described or explained…I have another article on that coming up).
The sad thing is that the broadcast team referred to the team that they cover as…’Us, We, Them, They’…The broadcast team often did this in the same sentence. Pronoun dependance can make any broadcast difficult to follow along. I turned on the other team’s play-by-play and it was markedly worse. Pronoun city, plus, zero description of the action. It was horrific that the second crew referenced was one of 32 radio broadcast teams on the radio.
Ok, people listening to any game on the radio or app cannot see the action. The play-by-play voice has a simple job (not simple to do, but to define). That job is to explain everything that is going on in the game with efficient storytelling. Less is more. Stop the clichés. I decided to listen to another team’s broadcast, and it was excellent. I will name this group. The Atlanta Falcons broadcast team is one of the best that I have heard in a while. I knew everything on each play. No clichés. It was strong.
I love jumping into talk shows as I monitor them in the middle of a segment. Why? PPM has clearly demonstrated that at any moment, listeners are turning the show on. Are you keeping people in the loop?
So, I started listening to a major market talent. Again, I won’t say who it is or give the slightest hint of this very capable broadcaster’s identity. The host was telling me about a huge local story. This again was a pronoun-palooza session. The host did toss in the last name of the local official a couple of times. I hate to say this, but most people in that community probably have not heard of this individual except for perhaps local politics junkies.
Being the insider show is a recipe for your broadcast to become a flaccid mess. The host must repeat the name of the person and the subject of the discussion constantly. Resetting is counter intuitive for human beings. If we are at a diner or The Waffle House, the conversation’s original context has already been established. When you are on the air, it is not. The audience is constantly changing.
The job of the host is to lock in every person to keep them listening to the show. If you are a diary market, the data says that the average person may be listening for 40 minutes or more per listening occasion. I can assure you that these numbers are not accurate. While there are major challenges with PPM, the methodology is much more accurate than recall. The average listening time for PPM on a News Talk or Sports Talk station is about 13 minutes per listening occasion. PPM Data also shows us that people are equally likely to start listening at any moment of the hour. Obviously, allowing your new listeners to understand the conversation quickly is a must.
So, here is what you can do. Unless you are using words like me or I, avoid pronouns. The best way to change is with aircheck sessions. You can listen to your show or request that your Program Director help you eliminate pronouns. If you are the Program Director seeking to maximize the footprint of your station’s locally originated programming, start listening for pronoun abuse. It is a thing.
The elimination of pronouns will seem counterintuitive. It just will. You must do that task. Instead of listening to your station or show, the listeners have a myriad of options. It is not just the other radio stations. The listener can easily choose an audio book, a personal playlist, satellite radio, YouTube and more.
If you are the host, I get it. There are mental gymnastics that most hosts put themselves through for a legitimate and wide variety of reasons. But as I have stated often in this column, the worst lie that you can ever tell is the one you tell yourself. I can spend ten minutes with any host and figure out those self-told affirmations that are just not true. I have been in front of wonderful hosts. I have been asked to provide airchecks for many hosts, and yes, some names that you know. I always do this privately.
I actually love breaking down shows. How long has it been since you airchecked yourself? You don’t need to listen to every show. You don’t even need to listen to one show. Pick an hour, any hour. Start it at 11 minutes after and listen to the rest of that hour. Ok, if a listener was joining you at 11 minutes after the hour, how long would it take for that listener to understand what the heck you are talking about?
It is always about a Listener-Focused Experience.
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Peter Thiele is a weekly news/talk radio columnist for Barrett Media, and an experienced news/talk radio programmer. He recently served as program director for WHO/KXNO in Des Moines, IA. Prior to that role he held programming positions in New York City, San Francisco, Little Rock, Greenville, Hunstville, and Joplin. Peter has also worked as a host, account executive and producer in Minneapolis, and San Antonio. He can be found on Twitter at @PeterThiele.
