Sweat the Details

You read that right. Do sweat the details. No offense to the person who coined the phrase with "don't" at the front.

Think about the most remarkable things you've ever seen or been part of. People often say "the attention to detail is amazing!"

Remember Bob Ross of PBS fame? The realistic detail of his paintings, and the care he gave even the smallest corners of his canvas, are part of why he's still part of pop culture.

It's why jaws drop when people experience the Las Vegas strip for the first time. When you step up to the Bellagio, City Center, Caesar's Palace, etc. you're immersed in architecture where even the smallest detail was sweated.

It was Steve Jobs' famous obsession with detail that helped the iPhone dominate the smart phone world for so long. One example: on a Sunday morning before the launch, Steve called a designer to tell him "I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

"Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson. Maybe at the mere mention of it, the beat is already playing. Steady like a clock, in the back of your mind. After you're done reading this, do yourself a favor and pull up the song. Lean in, listen closely. Notice how often changes take place. Sometimes, as often as every five seconds. New elements come and go. Even at the song's busiest moments, where Michael's singing peaks and the instruments are all firing together, "Billie Jean" is never a wall of noise. The blend is one of the most perfect in music history. That's no accident.

Every bar of "Billie Jean" was treated as if it was the most important bar. Michael and co-producer Quincy Jones debated the length of the intro, the type of bass guitar that was to be used; Jones even had Jackson sing his vocal overdubs through a cardboard tube to get the perfect effect. (There's probably a Pro Tools plugin for that these days). If all that weren't enough, the final version of "Billie Jean" was mixed 91 TIMES! Think about that. The first 90 times, it just wasn't quite right. Was that overkill? Or is that the level of love it takes to have your work instantly recognizable by billions for generations to come?

Technology and wearing too many hats are conspiring to kill radio's attention to detail. Kid you not, or perhaps you remember this all too well, there was a time when air talent and board ops would lose their jobs for anything less than perfection when it came to how they segued their songs, jingles, and commercials. In 2018, on mainstream and Christian stations, even the best ones, you don't have to listen long to hear transitions that would have gotten people axed as recently as the late 1990's.

Here are some of the details I want to sweat more. I'm calling myself out here, so don't go listening to my stations and start judging me. I'm admitting right up front, I can do better. All of us can do better.

1. The volume level of every element in a transition. Between two songs, or from a song to a DJ....whatever. The best transitions feel natural. The thing that comes next isn't so quiet you don't even hear it start. Nor is it so loud that it rudely jars the listener out of the emotion/thought the previous element left them with. Every decibel matters here. Develop a standard that your whole team knows and make sure every piece of audio loaded into your automation meets that standard. Don't pawn the important work off to your audio processor; it has other things to deal with. Reload the whole library if you need to. Tedious? Yeah. That's part of embracing attention to detail.
2. The mood of the transition. You've heard this...hopefully not out of your own mouth. I can't count the number of times a slow, powerful ballad will end (let's go with all-time great-tester "I Can Only Imagine") and the air talent comes out of the song full of energy and volume. Put yourself in your listener's car: every song we play takes them on a journey. What we do at the end of that song keeps them on the journey, or forces them out before they're ready. I'm not telling you to be sappy every time you play a sappy song, but ease your listener into the next part of the journey. Start with a tone that matches the mood of the song, and gradually shift your delivery to your next destination. Conversely: don't sound bored over fun, up-tempo songs. Don't let imaging that doesn't match the mood of the music around it play. Yada yada.
3. The timing of the transition. It's about NOT coming on too soon, thus once again, killing the emotion the song gave to your listener. And not waiting too long. When you're loading songs and imaging into your automation, it's about cueing the songs/elements into a place where they will be instantly heard when they fire. And placing the end sec tones at that sweet spot where it feels natural to move on. We're talking right down to the tenth of a second. It's one tiny thing that can make your station so much more polished than everyone else. Not polish for its own sake, but because it's one way you love your listener well.

Let's wrap this up at Chili's to drive the point home. Or pick some other restaurant if you want. I'm choosing Chili's because at the one by my house, kids eat free on Tuesday nights. And I have three boys. Plus my wife signed us up for some rewards thing where we get free chips and salsa. Next time you're in St. Louis, join us!

Anyways, you know what it feels like when your restaurant server's game is on-point. The drinks arrive shortly after you sit. Then the free chips and salsa. Right about the time you're debating if you want more chips, or if you're actually going to save room for your entrée', it arrives. Everything felt like it flowed naturally and conveniently. You didn't have to ask for refills, or wonder what the hold up was.

But you've also had those visits where the drinks took forever to come out, and they delivered the chips and salsa 90 seconds before your entrée. Were the drinks still refreshing? Probably? The chips and salsa still zesty? Sure! (Are they supposed to be zesty? Insert your own better fitting word there.) The entrée itself hot and accurate? I hope so. But even when all the ingredients were done right, the overall experience was subpar because of how your service flowed.

Same deal with our radio brands. You might already have only the right songs playing. Air Talent that always connects. Imaging that endears your brand to your audience. Do they weave together seamlessly at a pace and levels that keep your listener leaning in? Or is your listener constantly having to lurch for the volume knob or, even worse, another preset every time her favorite song is done?

Sweat the details, my friend. Not only with transitions. Also at your events, with how you treat your team, in how you edit, what you do on social media, etc.

And don't forget to listen to Billie Jean. Who, by the way, is not my lover.