Posted by Allan Sniffen on July 25, 2007 at 12:27:28:
As someone who has spent time researching the Top 40 era in New York, I'd like to point something out that about the personality approach at CBS-FM.
Ruth Meyer, the program director of WMCA during its "Good Guy" era has frequently commented that one of her goals with that station was to create a cohesive feel among its airstaff. It was something she perfected at WMCA with the personalities cross promoting everything on the station from contests to each other.
That seems to be something that's going on at CBS-FM. I don't know if it's by design or it's just that the station has such a talented airstaff that they intuitively are doing this. For example, yesterday, Pat talked about Bob's show (the "Mrs. Pauls" bit), Bob talked about Pat's "mashups" today, Dan Taylor kidded about his show being a warmup to Bob's and Bob and Bill Lee seem to be doing a Lundy/Ingram type thing when the shifts change.
These are good things. Each show doesn't sound like an island. Instead it sounds like a team. It reminds me of WMCA's glory days as a music station.
Again... I don't know if this is an outlined strategy or it's just that the staff is doing it on their own. Regardless it's good to hear. Personality music radio has been slowly de-evolving over the last twenty years. To see it being done *anywhere* is a great sign for radio. If it works here, it will be done elsewhere. Maybe the era of the "big time DJ" is coming back. For those of us who really got into it, that's great news.