Every program director in the country ought to outlaw talent from plugging that the station is going to a commercial break. What possible purpose does it serve when a talent says, "Now when we come back after commercials..."??? What listener is going to stick around for the commercials? If the talent's plug is convincing, the listener may check back in a few minutes, but by that time the listener has dodged the commercials.
In this day and age when it's tougher than ever for radio stations to secure
on-going business, stations should never tip their hands that they're going to commercials. Hopefully the first commercial will be potent enough to hook the listener to hear the sell; or ideally the commercial will even start with the sell or the unique selling position.
What may be a better way to go into the stop set is "we're taking calls NOW at
1 888 XXX XXXX." Then, simply play the first ad. Yes, please play the ad without warning! At least the advertiser who leads the stop set won't have half his potential listenership tuning out just as the ad comes on.
The "we'll back" cliche' is even worse in this day and age where true radio pros are a dying breed. I realize that not everyone on the radio will ever be a Rush Limbaugh or a Glenn Beck (the heck with their opinions many of which I disagree, they're fantastic radio performers), but at least radio programmers easily can train some of their hosts on basic techniques. Programmers espcially should train many of the weekend Ask the Expert hosts, many of whom buy their own time, or simply should provide the Experts with a radio professional-announcer to serve as the "book cover" for their program content. Too often weekend broadcasts sound more like podcasts, though frankly I've heard a lot of podcasts now that smoke broadcasts. www.mostlytrivial.com has some podcasts that sound more like innovative network broadcasts...
www.brucehorlick.com and www.radiostorybooks.com
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