Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, TwitFace, SpaceBook, and other social networking sites are all the rage with kids these days. All The Excess! contacted several influential radio stations asking how they are maximizing the buzz-concept of social networking.Ellis DeTainted, KMWL/Phoenix VP/Programming: "We're a top 40 station, but social networking allows us to emphasize what's between the songs. If our jocks are doing cute phone bits like 'What if your husband came home and found you sleeping with his sister?' they post it on TwitFace and SpaceBook. Pretty soon it looks like we aren't playing music at all, which gives the station so much more depth. Specializing in music is such 2008 thinking anyway."
Jesse Oxnard, PD of Top 40 WMZR (Misery 101)/Toledo: "If you're not tweeting every single song you're playing, your listeners may not be able to recite your twelve-song playlist by heart. And in a PPM world, that's important. We're not a PPM market but I always wanted to use that 'in a PPM world' phrase, so thanks for asking."
Evan Essence, OM of Rock KIYT/Seattle: "Social networking sites allow our staff to express themselves using profanity! What we can't say on the air, we put in our tweets and twits. It's a great way to show the world that we're not prudes or overly politically correct."
GM Tony Dawn of Orlando's WMPI (Wimpy 95) says "We've been able to lay off our marketing department and use social networking to spread the word about Soft And Easy Lite Country Wimpy 95. It's a huge savings, and I feel good about putting a couple of unpaid interns in charge of managing our public image and brand visibility via their spontaneous and original quips, tweets, blurbs, and twits."
