The story came in early March ’19. So many people have been asking Alexa what song they just heard and who sang it that Amazon has added a new feature, Song ID, that says the title and artist of each song before it plays. That’s fine and well, but it’s the same mistake broadcast radio announcers have always made. People rarely ‘hear’ a song title when spoken at the beginning of the song. The title only registers in our brains when we are ready to receive it, and that is at the END of the song, after it has gotten their attention.
That’s something I learned early on in my DJ career. We introduced dang near every song we played, yet we constantly fielded calls from listeners asking the title of the last song we played. Introducing songs was one of the great pleasures of the job, of the performance. We’re all in it because we love music and sharing it with listeners. Still, we gotta keep in mind that we and the radio are primarily background. People sit and watch TV, focusing attention on it. Radio listening is almost always a secondary activity. People seldom just sit and listen, they are always doing something else as they do. They know and are glad we are there but they almost never listen intently.
I always told my announcers that their intro’s of titles and artists are just drivel unless you do something “special”, something more than only saying the name and title. That ‘special’-ness can be literally anything more than Title/Artist. Put one line more into it, I coached. Also say the song is #15 and climbing the charts. Or say the singer is on TV tomorrow night singing this one. Or “this is my Mama’s favorite new song”. Make it yours, make it unique or don’t do the intro. Instead, tell the listener what the title is when they want and are ready to hear it. And that is at the end of the song.
