Keep It Classy

Maybe you remember growing up listening to stations with "shock jocks" and morning shows with plenty of content you would deem offensive or crude in nature. One place radio listeners might expect this type of "blue humor" is on any given Rock station.

As a young teenager, growing up in a market with Howard Stern, there were a few different Rock stations in town that could have leaned that way, playing to off-color humor, jokes, suggestive imaging and innuendo.

But they didn't.

Instead, they focused on the brand, station promotions, and most of all, the music.

In my opinion, they kept it classy. Yes, they kept Rock radio profanity-free, polished and uplifting. An unlikely, but extremely winning combination. One of the station's jocks even intro'd a Fleetwood Mac song as "uplifting." When does that ever happen? I worked part-time at one such station in New York. They didn't have to stoop to low levels. In my opinion, they kept it classy.

I shared this story years ago at KTIS when I first arrived, and the concept has taken hold in ways I had hoped, and it continues to spread to all areas of the business. Even our receptionists, marketing folks, and promotions team are aware of the concept. They often ask as we prepare a presentation, or event, "is this classy?"

As a result, all that we do seems to goes through the "classy" filter. On a weekly basis, people use the word "classy" around the station. We even had "classy" as a theme for a day during a fundraiser. From Christmas concerts, to marketing materials, to interactions with listeners. It was a simple concept I learned and shared years ago with the staff, just by listening and working part time at a classic rock station.

So, if Rock radio can eliminate unessential content, sophomoric and silly breaks, then how much more can we do the same in the CCM format? What do our listeners expect from us? In an effort to become "popular" sometimes we can lose a filter and put stories on the air that we might think would get a reaction, but not worth the expense of the brand.

I want our brand, air personalities, music, and imaging to all be known as a "class act." I learned this from my time in Classic Rock & Rock radio.

What's something you've learned from other formats that you've worked, or stations you've listened to that you could bring to your station this week?