When I was in college radio, one of the programmers who I used to talk to passed along a booklet called “The Secrets of Programming Power” by Pat “Martin” Lopeman, now the owner of WMOM Ludington, Mich. That booklet was the first time I’d seen so much radio programming theory in one place—I’d been piecing it together from trade publication articles until then. And it ended with a list of on-air rules that became my first jock manual. Finally, I knew to refer to “songs” not “records” on the air and not to say, “I’m Sean Ross.” (Chevy Chase had pretty well driven that one home by then anyway.) It didn’t stop me from being terrible in my first on-air job, but I was at least lousy in more innovative ways.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the jock manual in light of the now well-publicized contretemps between Tribune CEO Randy Michaels and veteran Chicago radio/TV writer Robert Feder, who took Michaels to task 10 days ago for a list of 119 clichés (“perfect storm,” “time for a break”) and malapropisms (“senseless murder”) that he wanted off of News/Talk WGN. “You’d think the [CEO] of a company struggling to emerge from bankruptcy … would have better things to do than pester his underlings with crazy proclamations,” wrote Feder.

Print journalists have always had a stylebook. On-air talent have historically had a jock manual—although I’ve heard less evidence of it on the air at a lot of stations in recent years. No matter who writes the jock manual, there is always about 80% that most of us would agree on, and another 20% that seems incredibly picky, and inevitably gives some on-air talent somewhere the excuse to do on-air shtick about the boss.

Feder is correct that getting the expression “campaign trail” off WGN is hardly the biggest issue right now for Michaels—or any other CEO, radio station group head, or program director. And, yet, throwing out the jock manual and freeing every air talent to do Howard Stern-like anti-radio hasn’t worked so well either. The PPM era is sending PDs back to the control room (or voice-tracking bays) to try and re-regulate some of the issues that the jock manual once dealt with.

The minutiae of radio programming are a lot like the composition of motion pictures. Beyond spotload, do listeners actively care about the construction of your perfect quarter-hour? They’re not supposed to, any more than they’re supposed to notice that long tracking shot. The redundancy of using “close proximity” in a newscast would go right by most listeners, and a boom mike jutting ever so slightly into the top of the frame would be unseen by many viewers, too. But that doesn’t mean you want it there. And at a time when broadcasters are forced to make so many compromises with their on-air product, it’s easy to turn to the on-air details that they can control.

So here’s one for your feedback: at a time when radio has so many global issues, what is the appropriate amount of time to spend managing the on-air details of your product? Are usage and execution key things that separate us from the hobbyist broadcasters who are about to get their spot in the dashboard as well? Or could listeners not care less? How do we address a sea change and maintain the consistency of our on-air product?

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“If you don’t have a quality product, you don’t have an audience. No audience, nothing to sell. It’s the abdication of quality on-air and in sales thinking and presentation that has landed radio in much of its trouble. You can’t blame it all on technology. There’s always a new technology, a new tool. Serve the listeners and the advertisers and everyone in radio will do better.” – Pam Shane, Shane Media,

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“Hell yes it matters! I could write a thesis on this issue, but I won’t. I’ll use an analogy. There’s a show on HGTV called ‘Holmes On Homes.’ Mike Holmes, the host, fixes what previous builders/contractors have screwed up. Almost always, they used low quality materials or not the right ones at all. The workmanship is half assed. The sad part is these crap jobs are usually up to minimum code. The job done is barely acceptable and most homeowners don’t know how awful until some time has passed. Mike Holmes makes it right by paying attention to every single detail. He uses the best materials and uses them properly. He and his crew take pride in doing the best job possible to make the homeowner happy. Why wouldn’t radio programmers have the attitude of Mike Holmes?” – Mark Summer, Bristol Broadcasting, Paducah, Ky.

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“I recently met with all of our PDs and jocks and delivered my 12 COMMANDMENTS FOR GREAT AIR TALENT. Unlike many companies, we’re committed to personality radio. It’s radio’s only hope. Jukeboxes are fine for diners, but not winning radio stations.” – Beau Phillips, Executive VP of Programming, Dial Global

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“I agree with the premise, however, it would take a while to ‘unlearn’ these phrases and words. They remind me of ‘The General Instructions,’ a handbook Paul Drew issued to his PD’s when he was consulting. Not sure if we RKO PD’s got them. I carried them with me to every station I programmed and reworked them for each station. Even today I get emails from individuals who read about them in my eBook. (www.oidar.com ) Thirty-plus years later, former jocks, with whom I had the pleasure of working, tell me they can still remember the General Instructions almost verbatim. I told them (back then) if they learned and used them they would never have to worry about sounding bad. Today, all you have to do is re-record the voice track.” – John Long

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“I thought Michaels deserved criticism, just not the criticism he got. One problem with “The List” is it is all about negatives. Don’t say this. Don’t say that. Second, his memo undermined the authority of [WGN PD] Kevin Metheny. What he should have done was met with Metheny and directed him to create a WGN style book. Michaels could then have either approved it or directed Metheny to make changes. Once he was satisfied, he could have left it to Metheny to implement it as he saw fit.” – Jerry Stevens

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“To be certain, print journalists have often defaulted to a stylebook for the fundamentals. But as is the case with our on the air colleagues, the best stylebook upon which one can rely is the stylebook of experience. Your notion of being terrible in your first on air job (a suggestion that I would readily dispute, having been there at that historic moment) carries with it a hint of universal identification. Or as the great Earl-Jean wisely observed, ‘We Live And Learn.’ – Michael McDowell, Editor/Publisher, Blitz Magazine

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“I love Randy Michael’s list. I don’t know what explanation or justification accompanied the list, but I understand it was originally directed at anchors and reporters. I believe it is essentially one of the things that the last couple generations of most all on-air talent have missed out on. No, most listeners wouldn’t notice these things and, apparently, most radio people don’t know why they are important, but the list points to the essence of one-on-one communication which is the (lost) magic of radio—the illusion that Randy doesn’t want shattered. To see the man behind the curtain is bittersweet revelation—but the spell is broken and the Wizard is no more. The misguided effort to be real on the radio has translated to the guy next door; someone you'd like to have a beer with. The question to be asked is “Why are you on the radio and not the guy next door?”. The answer: the little things. Call it micro-managing or whatever you want, but the nurturing of talent and the art of communication that was at one time one of the most important responsibilities of a program director have been the casualties of the efficiencies implemented by clusters to maximize profit. The poor kids getting into radio have no idea what the method behind the madness is all about or hardly anyone to teach them. Yeah, those ‘more important global issues’ radio has to deal with like the advancement of technology and the ‘Attack of the Clones’ can’t be ignored, but neither can the the ‘little things’ that make radio unique and that can’t be duplicated by a Slacker, Pandora or any other 21st century jukebox. Radio is all about the little things.” – Keith James, Edmonton, Alberta

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“Thanks for the insightful column. Our flagship station is a Rock station, and we’ll be entering the world of PPM come October. While there are many schools of thought regarding PPM and its methodology, sample size, and other differences from aided recall, it seems to come down to whether you want to program a radio station for a listeners' enjoyment with live and local personalities and fun, relevant content between songs, or if you want to try to ‘game the meter’ and offer as little as possible other than modal music to, “just be on”, as audio background. If you want to ‘game the meter’, you can ditch the manual since you've probably already ditched the live talent. It’s expensive, but we choose to offer listeners live personalities 24/7 (can I say ‘24/7,’ Randy?) that can create as much interaction as someone could want. Instant requests, constant Facebook updates, listeners' voices on the air constantly. It’s the bond that we create with our listeners, not just the music that they can get from a variety of sources, that should prevail. We have 50+ years of rock programming and music experience between our PD and APD. I'm confident that they know how to do rock radio as well as it can be done.” – Alan Tolz, EVP/COO, Marlin Broadcasting

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“Nice profile of Charleston’s The Box. I think your question in the previous section about ‘managing the on-air details of your product’ can be asked about The Box. Take a look at the sample hour you provided. They have three Jay-Z songs within a half hour. Does the listener not notice/care that three songs by the same artist have been played within 30 minutes, or will this truly have a negative affect on the flow and sound of the station (as Programming 101 would tell you it does)? I think the answer is both. We have to be wary of throwing all rules out and thinking that listeners can’t tell the difference. At the same time, overanalyzing every aspect of your station will drive you crazy. In a world with PPM, MScore, call-out, perceptuals, music tests, etc, it’s easy to beat yourself up over the little things. One thing we’ve all learned in PPM is there’s no perfect formula. Station A in Atlanta might be able to get away with zero artist separation, jocks doing whatever they want, etc, while Station B in Philadelphia might need to follow the ‘rules’ in order to succeed. Once again, there’s no perfect formula for programming success. Thanks for the thought provoking question.” – Nick “Cooper” Beyer, on-air, KQMV (Movin’ 92.5) Seattle

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“I can’t think of anything more important than the on-air product. It is still the product that creates the ratings and allows the sales to happen. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t understand what we do and should be avoided at all costs. In the PPM world, person to person communication with creative brevity is what we must do to separate the pros from the amateurs. The audience can hear the difference.” – Hal Widsten, GM, KWED/The Seguin Daily News, Seguin, Texas

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“Hell yes it still matters, and with PPM it matters even more! Throw out the high personality morning shows and talk stations and let’s just consider the everyday disc-jockey. His audience may not be able to pinpoint what he’s doing that irritates them, but they know something’s not quite right. Enough of those irritants and BOOM! I’m gone. You lose. The manual described may indeed have some nit-picky stuff, but most of it is just good ol' common sense programming. I was talking with a PD I used to work with the other day who is preparing for PPM later this year. His take, the PPM just enforces those things we always believed were bad radio but the diary hid from us. While the PPM certainly has its problems, it also will force us to be more disciplined at our craft. The manual tells us what the disciplines are. And the smart programmers and air talent will look at the PPM data and improve the manual over time.” – Larry Downes

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“I've been on-air at a couple of stations over the past 6 years and have struggled with what I say when I open the mic. There are certain words I seem to fall back on a lot! ‘Crutch words or phrases’ drive me nuts and I'm trying to find new ways to say things from time to time. I currently work at a music intensive format (AC) where the majority of our listeners are tuning in to us during the workday to hear music and not me. That doesn’t mean I take lightly my abilities when I open the mic, but it does ease my mind to know what my listener expects from us here at KBPK. I can hear my mentors in my head constantly telling me, ‘it’s not about me when I open the mic, it’s about the listener and the music.’ I agree in some aspects to that comment. I've never gotten an e-mail from a listener wanting to know my name. At 90.1 FM KBPK the majority of emails we get are wanting to know the name of a song/artist or to tell us we are playing “the Best Music, the Best Variety.“ – Tracy Thackrah, APD/MD, KBPK Orange County, Calif.

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“How much time to spend you ask? Well, ‘it’s ONLY the product,’ as we used to say! My hope is you would spend less time than I do and I spent a lot. – Don “Cristi” Wagner

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“The devil is always in the details — be it movie production or radio station composition. But in the end it is all about entertainment. It is about engagement, emotional involvement. The beautiful tracking shot is useless if the story sucks. The ‘perfect’ Selector log is meaningless if the station does not have a soul. You do bring up the ‘perfect quarter hour’ rule — a rule that has always puzzled me. Now that we know in PPM that every quarter hour in the clock is equal, how does one construct a perfect quarter hour? More important: what is a quarter hour? Is it :00-:15? What if I'm in my car from :07-:22? Will I hear the same quarter hour? I don’t think you can throw out the rule book but in today’s competitive media environment radio needs to get back to where it once belonged — the entertainment business. PPM shows us how radio is, and how it is used. It does not show us how it can be.” – Steve Allan

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“The air product is the ONLY product. Has been, is and will be in the future … ooops, except for the fact, of course, that radio is changing and now the company website and the additional HD channels bring some additional players into the game. But, for our purposes, what is on the air is the same as what rolls off the Ford/Chrysler/GM assembly lines… with some variables, it’s what is rolling along on four wheels and/or what you’re hearing out of the speakers that counts most. Therefore, your air talent had better be doing it right, cause if they’re not and with all the competition today, potential listeners simply will not tolerate anything but first rate entertainment. But, it’s not just that. Sure, they must entertain but at the same time to satisfy any PD worth his or her salt then the talent must also be concerned about increasing quarter-hours and cume. And, promo'ing wherever possible to extend listening and bring back listeners to other dayparts and doing it in a relevant and clever way … So, who is creative enough to do it in a new and different way that management will absolutely love and pay big bucks for? Time and temp and traffic reports plus intro'ing whatever and directing traffic on the air is just plain dull! Now, answer that one to this once, old time ’60s R&R DJ who saw the light and transitioned to the new and better AM format in the ’70s when it was in its infancy. And yes, we've been living News/Talk radio large as life for lots of years and we’ll send along ten bright, shiny new silver dollars to the person who answers that question and backs it up with a recording of it being done! Music or News/Talk Radio formats… either way, prove to us there really is something new, different, and entertaining out there.” – Don Watson, NewsTalkMedia, Pensacola, Fla.

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“Thanks for the mention. I wonder if Feder would tell Bill Gates not to worry about details?” – Randy Michaels