FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK...

The results are in. It should be no surprise that the question I posed in the previous post produced exactly the results I expected.

Question: Do you still like humor in the presentation of your favorite songs on the radio? No scientific methods at work, here. No perceptuals, no pollster like Pat Caddell, no equations or word manipulations from a Frank Luntz--just a very informal question with some varied, but like-minded answers. All of them, predictably, in the affirmative. It might well have been informative to find someone who is so addled they don't enjoy humor on the radio, but then I'd have to reach out more to people so distraught they can't conceive of (or handle) anything thing but a morose, funereal presentation of the music. Unless, of course, we are being deceived. That would account for the ratings that keep stations with a "no humor policy" in big business. I suspect, as is the case with questions prepared for a political poll, it's how the query is posed. I'll return to that point after a look at what you have to say.

Radio veterans replied most to my question. George in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley was very brief with his answer: "Funny jocks aren't getting jobs." It's true.

Mark in San Diego left his view in the comments section, here. "As long as it's not drop your pants type humor." In presenting music, I agree. The edgy stuff is more apropos to morning shows, and not necessarily while riffing over a song intro aimed at women ages 25-54.

Kevin in Long Beach has more to say on this, in his comment. Click comments to read it in its entirety. In short, he says the business is in a spiral toward "never ending suicide."

From Brooklyn, New York, Bill writes, "Sure, the wit enhances the presentation. I've known non-radio people who will remember for YEARS a silly crack made by some guy on the air, and the guy who made it. A well-placed zinger in the middle of the formatics goes right to the bulls eye with the guy on the street. Slick programmers [though] have trouble with non-funny [jocks] trying to be funny, and typically overreact to creative content. Of course, the genuinely talented guys on the staff are then unfairly restricted. That problem has to do with the programmer's taste and intelligence...a whole different issue.

"Sure. great radio humor is as important today as ever. Pity, however, the funny performer who's career is controlled by an administrator who is intimidated by the guy's talent. The manner in which that administrator can short-circuit a man's future is decidedly UNfunny."

I've personally found out how true that can be!

Darryl in North County, San Diego, says its a problem throughout the entertainment business: "I'm of the mind that well thought out and clever/intellectual humor MUST be part of any decent broadcast. Station programmer/management types and so called "consultants" have ruined the radio markets with forced and monotonous playlists.

How could they have any idea about what radio audiences want with the inaccurate means of ratings measurement currently in use? Consider, it is they who have conditioned the minds of listeners to the degree of having no taste or actual opinions. The result?
The music industry, in keeping with similar schools of thought, has taken part in stifling true creativity and talent in favor of manufactured, gimmick-laden music, with no lasting or redeeming qualities whatsoever."

Ouch! True...and the subject of another blog at a future date that should inspire some realllly lively conversation!

John in the state of Washington touches on what Bill observed--that an unfunny jock, unlike the proverbial bad apple, can rot the barrel for us all.

"...I'm pretty sure the reason, in regard to radio, that people would say that they don't want to hear humor [in the presentation of music] is because so much of the humor tossed out on the air is bad...'hey, there's a traffic jam on the 405...well, they must be listening to ME...hahhahahahah...' and worse. It's often so bad, that's it's truly embarrassing, and as a listener, you can't help but want to turn the station or put in a CD.
Radio takes ordinary people and makes them think they are instant experts. A guy who used to sell cars gets a radio sales job and becomes an overnight expert on advertising and the song selection of a given format. A former fast-food worker gets an internship which leads to a board op position [one responsible for what's on the air, executes the elements, but doesn't ordinarily open the microphone], then gets to do the weather on air and suddenly they're a comedian. From there they go to work at a talk station, become instant experts on politics, or become part of the morning show on a music station and 'presto,' they're an expert on love relationships...oh...and they are also a comedian...."

Strong opinions, here.

A former programmer tells us radio is slowly squeezing itself into non-relevance by leaving its strengths, as MTV did. His post is here in the comments section, and speaks to the point: It's pretty much up to the programmer to insure that the station (the jocks) compels return visits by listeners...and well-placed humor is a part of the "personality" that makes them come back.

Finally, Dave in Woodland Hills pointed out that because of consolidation, companies have figured out a strategy that makes virtually everything said between (or over) song intros relate to the station, a current contest, or tease of what's coming in the next few minutes. And this should be constant. We've seen this on TV news, when the teases for a particular story about, say, side-effects of mixing Viagra and Flintstone vitamins, will add up to more air time than the actual story itself. To certain programmers, this squeezes humor off the agenda, even though talented jocks could toss off the tease in a very funny way.

All of this input is dead-on. No one wants ill-prepared jocks filling the air with attempts at humor that drives us to hit the seek button on the car radio. Yet declaring humor a felony inappropriately, regardless of what skewed statistics say, goes agin the human grain. Yes humor is subjective, but man has been laughing out loud since the earliest Neanderthal slipped on a banana peel. How hilarious it must have been to see that hairy bastard flying feet first and landing on his arse! I love a story told by author Robert Metz in his 1979 book, The Tonight Show, which chronicled the rise of the NBC show and offered a brief history of comedy's place in our world. In examining the path to be trod by Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, Metz wrote of the fourteenth century German comic master, Til Eulenspiegel:

"Til was cruel in exercising his wit. In the village of Budenstetten, he was engaged by a parish priest with whom he was constantly in and out of trouble as he practiced his merry pranks--including a gross maneuver which caused the priest to relieve himself during mass. As stage manager of the Easter play, he situated an old foe, the priest's venerable chambermaid, at the tomb of Jesus to play the angel of the Lord. Til and two peasants took the parts of the three Marys. When the chambermaid-angel asked "Whom do you seek?" one of the peasants, on instructions from Eulenspiegel replied, "We are looking for an old, one-eyed concubine belonging to the priest." In the uproar that followed, Til was once more forced to flee."

I wonder how Til Eulenspiegel would have fared presenting music on the radio in 2011? Methinks he'd, once more, be forced to flee.

We love to laugh and make each other laugh. No one, from Captain Bligh to his current day, media counterparts, should forsake us that right--especially over the radio.

ANSWER ME THIS...

I've had a thousand thoughts and opinions rumble through my head since I last updated this blog. It is true, I probably won't drone on about politics very much, anymore. As much a s I would contribute to the national discussion, I'd rather make you laugh, or inquire your opinions. Most of the comments to my blogs have been spam from overseas websites of...dubious nature.

This month I'd really like some answers from everyone who reads my blathering and blithering. Because I need an answer.

"The Radio" has been my career for three decades, now. For those of you who share this profession, a long recounting of what has changed in broadcasting (and changed for the worst) is not necessary. And those who are in the business also know that, to keep working and keep winning, we sometimes adjust our ideas to "go-along and get-along." But I must ask all of you, fellow broadcasters, personalities, friends or just the person who still flips on the radio for a little music or talk:

Do you still like a little humor with the presentation of your favorite songs?

Among the many ways the radio biz has gone south in the last decade has been the purge of humor from the delivery of music. Some of this approach comes from "perceptuals," or "polling" by consultants. The lighter the fare, the less humor. The younger the music...the less humor.

Write a comment to this post if you enjoy a laugh with music as its presented. It's not a real Focus Group, not a scientific poll, but it goes a long way to proving what I believe: That well placed zingers augment the music and enhance the station.

What say you?