Background

A school teacher asked the members of her fifth grade class to write a short essay on what they'd like to do when they grew up. One little girl handed in:

"When I grow up, I'd like to be a disc jockey on the radio.

The pay is good, and you don't have to know anything about music."

Charleston (W. Va) Gazette

They say you can't fool children. Kids seem to know the real score more often than not. Art Linkletter found that out years ago, right?

While this little girl's notion about disc jockey pay being good is a bit off-base (she'll likely be disappointed when she negotiates the salary of her first on-air gig), she has made an accurate observation about what it takes to hold down a radio job when it comes to music knowledge.

Obviously, she's listened to radio in her town and has learned that not only do most of the disc jockeys not seem to know anything about the music, they don't even seem to be interested enough in it to tell her as little as the names of the songs that are played.

It seems logical for her to assume that knowledge of the music is not a job requirement. The fact that no information about the music is heard on most stations may or may not indicate that the jocks don't know or care about the songs.

More likely, in fact, is that the jocks are following the instructions of their program director or consultant who is reciting that "tight is right" and that "no one wants to hear you blab about the music any way" and that it "slows the forward motion of the format."

In some formats, these streamlining measures are appropriate. However, Album Oriented Rock and certainly Classic Rock radio stations are, in my view, in a different category.

The ROCK HISTORY REFERENCE GUIDES make a case for these formats to reevaluate the role that music information can play in giving their stations a competitive edge.

AOR and Classic Rock stations are the direct descendants of the progressive rock formats of the late Sixties through the better part of the Seventies. These were the stations that the 25-to-54 year-olds, who are listening to AOR and Classic Rock today, grew up on (although the younger demo just caught the tail-end of that era).

In my younger days, while I was certainly digging on the music, I can also recall being drawn and held to these totally hip frequencies in large part because I felt that the folks playing the music were as intrigued as I was with the skills, emotions and thoughts of the musicians making those tremendous records.

You could tell by the way the personalities talked about the music. The jocks would share their enthusiasm as well as some of their inside knowledge of what was "going down" on the music scene.

As a radio personality and programmer for over 20 years, I've watched and listened from both inside and outside the double-pane studio windows to AOR and (since the mid-Eighties) to Classic Rock.

I've seen the play lists tighten and the creative space for the personalities shrink to near non-existence. I understand the trend and have, to some extent, bought the "tight is right" philosophy myself.

However, my perception is that in striving for extreme tightness in our formatting, we have done away with one valuable tool that can truly enhance the listening experience of our audience. The tool is allowing our jocks to talk about the music in a way that strengthens the connection our audience feels with the music and, subsequently, with the station.

There is support for this point of view in audience research.

While serving as program director for Classic Rock station WNCX in Cleveland, Ohio from 1988 to 1990, I helped conduct perceptual research and posed the question to our sample:

"How important is ___________ to you when choosing a radio station?"

The respondents were asked to rate 21 elements that could complete that statement.

The results?

The most important element was "few repeats" and a very close second was "DJs who know the music."

Not to be overlooked was #3 on the survey, "keeping talk to a minimum."

To me, the survey suggests that a good rock station should both communicate to its listeners that its jocks know and care about the music and do it in as few words as possible.

This is the challenge that the ROCK HISTORY REFERENCE GUIDE series tackles.

The books bring rock history to the fingertips of the jocks to share with their audience both on and off the air. The books, while holding extensive information, represent still only the tip of the iceberg that is rock history.

They are meant to point both the jock and the listener to the best sources for more detailed and, in many cases, expertly written accounts about the artists who are responsible for the music that holds such an important space in so many lives.

The ROCK HISTORY REFERENCE GUIDES are a part of what it means to give one's best as an announcer in the rock radio chair. The format of the books addresses many of the roadblocks to bringing rock history to the air. It also makes for a handy reference for someone who is just enthusiastic about rock history - the collector or researcher.