Mister Midday

While reading Dan Kelley's excellent Blog at classicrockfm.blogspot.com today, I was reminded by Dan of something I discovered one day early in my tenure as P.D. of 93QFM in Milwaukee back in the early '80s. Dan wrote:

Last Night I read Lee Abrams' latest blog entry - and where he shares a memo from the early days of XM on the topic of creating memorable names for features and programming. Lee makes the point that "Historically, crazed inventive names GET REMEMBERED, and enhance your image." Its a great read.

With this thinking in mind: I've always liked the idea of creating memorable names for on-air staff. They can project an image and go a long way to burn your brand into the brains of your listeners.

One station doing this well is Clear Channel's WNRQ/Nashville. Listen to this line-up of air talent: "John Boy & Billy" (syndicated) in the morning; "Proud Mary" in middays; "Joe Elvis" does afternoons; "Squeegie" at night. The weekend line-up includes "Jimmy The K". (more at his blog)

When I first came to WQFM, I had each DJ come meet me in my office, individually, so that we could have some face time and get to know each other. At the end of the day, I realized that the only jock's name that I REMEMBERED, was TIM THE ROCK AND ROLL ANIMAL. No ones else's name stuck with me. As I have learned over the years, great concepts come from real life experiances. We immediately started re-naming the airstaff. Jeff Peterson became MISTER MIDDAY, Terry Gibson became Terry "12 String" Gibson, etc. 25 years later, folks in Milwaukee still call Jeff, Mr. Mid Day.
Dan and Lee Abrams are right on the money on this. If your staff have "normal" names, it's good programming to make those names memorable.