If you’re involved in radio then you know there are certain things you have to do. You have to make your radio playlist, talk on air, answer the phone if it rings, and one of the most important parts being station IDs. You know about them but you never really thought about them too much. Why should you care really, you get them done with the computer-generated ones what’s the big deal? I’m going to tell you why you should do your own station IDs when you’re on air instead of sticking to the computer IDs.
Station IDs are one of the most important parts a DJ does when on the air other than play music. A station ID is what tells the listener what station they are listening to so they know. For me, there were two monitors in the radio booth at college. The first one is where I could access the 24-hour playlist, which is what someone would play if no one was able to be in the booth, or, the monitor with all the possible station IDs to play. During my semester at IUP, I never used the computer IDs and stuck to doing my own.
You might be thinking, “okay, but what’s the point of that? they’re there for a reason.”. Well, it’s simple really, I just didn’t understand how to use them. Kidding. The real reason I never used one is so I could stand out.
The way I saw it, there were so many students that took part in being on the radio station, and as far as I know, I’m pretty sure everyone stuck to the generated IDs on their shows. I figured, if there was anyone listening to my show and heard my own ID, they might be intrigued just because it’s something they don’t typically hear on the station by students.
Every time I did my station ID, I would start by announcing my name, and my show, and then delivering the ID. The listener would hear my name and show before I did the ID and I liked to believe that made my show a little more memorable than a typical segment on the air. Who knows, maybe after a few months of doing this, my name could become recognizable and people would know. For this exact reason, I think you should also do your own station ID. Give the listener something different, something unexpected, you never know what connections or opportunities may come if your name gets known.
Maybe I’m throwing a tip at you that you’ve been doing all along as well. Are you doing something completely different to stand out in the crowd? let me know in the comments, and as always if you liked this post, let me know and feel free to follow me to stay up to date on another day in the life of music and media.