I once worried that radio stations were trying to become “famous for boring things.” It was the late ’10s. The sterilizing effects of PPM-era brevity hadn’t completely worn off station imaging. Pandora at the time had an advertising slug line “the next song matters.” AC stations were built around “today’s hits, yesterday’s favorites.”
Some of those neutrally imaged AC stations were and remain very successful. But I’m looking back at the notes from my October radio listening and I’m noticing that I did write down a lot of radio station sweepers — mostly attitude liners rather than straightforward positioners.
The one that I liked enough to decide I should write a column came from CISO Orilla, Ont., which already has the intriguing positioner “Alternative North.” But the sweeper that got my attention was “Max FM. Meant for adults … made by children.” (There was actually a good quotient of Canadian sweepers this month, in part because of listening in advance of or prompted during the recent Ontario Assn. of Broadcasters convention.)
The mid-’00s rise of the often-jockless Adult Hits formats did a lot to make imaging both more central to a station and more attitudinal. I went back to the syndicated version of Bob-FM. Some of that format’s October sweepers include:
- “Putting more thought into his Halloween costume than his career. This is Bob.”
- “Great in an emergency — once he stops panicking. Bob-FM.”
- “Bob is a huge fan of Halloween … because he can stop cleaning his house and just claim it’s spooky decorations.”
- For creator Howard Kroeger’s similarly intended Classic Country format: “Playing a scary amount of the legends of Country … and only using real, naturally sourced skeletons this Halloween, not the plastic kind. Happy Halloween from Hank FM.”
I also listened to Adult Hits WCJK Nashville. Jack FM’s Nashville outlet still has the station liners about ignoring requests in favor of “playing what we want” and “a whole bunch of songs in a row” that the format made famous. A few others I heard this week include:
- “Jack’s much ‘smarterer’ than we look.”
- “Jack can communicate with vegetables. Oh yeah! Jack and the beans talk.”
- With COVID-era somber music: “Jack-FM, there for you on the three or so difficult days when there’s no football on TV.”
Tommy Chuck notes that CHR WFLZ Tampa, Fla., is now posting some of its sweepers as social media content. With Halloween coming, one sweep-starter by Drew Hall and Raven Brinson announces that “This month of music is brought to you by … Blood, Bath, and Beyond. Everything you need to clean up.”
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Here are some others that were noteworthy enough to write down during October:
- “Turn down the noise of the world and turn up the positive vibes of WEBE 108.” — AC WEBE Bridgeport, Conn., which did happen to be going between Crowded House, “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” and Christina Aguilera, “Beautiful,” at that moment.
- “What makes you feel good? Finding out your favorite station is still here in Milwaukee.” — A male/female sweeper from newly launched WRNW (B97.3), establishing itself as the successor to recently sold (but not yet departed) B93.3.
- “Our music breaks cycles. Not people.” – Christian Hip-Hop network Boost Radio, celebrating recent record ratings in St. Louis as well as a recent expansion to Austin, Texas.
- “Hey, ladies. We’re like the men you love. We look good, sound good, and we’ve got money, too. This is Cleveland’s best mix of R&B. 93.1 WZAK.” Another male/female combo, the two voices punctuated with a listener-voiced “turn it up!”
- “If you’ve never heard of Vladdy, you have now. The Toronto Blue Jays. The World Series. Canada is united! 99.9 The Bay celebrates the Blue Jays!” — Adult Hits CJUK Thunder Bay, Ont., although Blue Jays sweepers aren’t hard to find anywhere this week.
- “Number 1: Never Give Up. Number 2: Listen to Live 95.5.” — CHR KBFF (Live 95.5) Portland, Ore., with one of a series of “social sweeps” meant to recall existing trends on social media.
- “Giving you a difference at work.” – AC KBZN (Now 97.9) Salt Lake City.
- “The buzz is real. The hits are on fire.” – Recently relaunched ROR readers fave Classic Hits WGTZ (Z93) Dayton, Ohio
- “Rock 95 is turning 37 years old. But we like to think of it as being 21 with 16-years’ experience.” — CFJB Barrie, Ont., promoting an upcoming Birthday Bash contest with Kim Mitchell, the Trews, and Bleecker.
- “From St. Pius X to your speaker. It’s Marissa, rockin’ your midday on Q104.” — Country KBEQ Kansas City. A sweeper shouts out the host’s high school.
- “Thanks for living the Coast life.” – Country WKRO (93.1 Coast FM) Daytona Beach, Fla.
Here are a few others contributed by readers. You can see the entire thread here, and there have already been great additions since this article was published.
- Brian Woodward points that WXLK (K92) Roanoke, under PD Chris Ryan, “has a million fall-related sweepers on, like this one. ‘Nothing says fall and boot season like falling on wet leaves.’ They’ve got a million of ’em. Good stuff. Brian Lee is the best VO guy in the biz.”
- “TraxxxRadio.com. Curated by guys who don’t know what ‘curated’ means.” — Jay Cresswell.
- “No road rage allowed on US41.” — Matt Mangas, Southwest Florida’s eclectic US41 Radio
- “We didn’t invent radio, but we’re doing a great job of ruining it!”; “Heard in over 100 countries, understood in seven.” — Two different liners for Great Big Radio, submitted by Tom Lacko and Mark Roman respectively.
- Just heard one on Frank FM Cape Cod: “It’s like your 2007 iPod threw up on the radio.” — Tom Lawler
- “WXPN Philadelphia has a bunch that are great, including ‘Community, not Commodity’ and ‘Rhythms, not Algorithms.’” — Nick Straka. Similarly, Chris Duffy cites Triple-A WXRT Chicago’s “Hand-crafted radio.” Scott Lowe promises “music curated by humans, keeping it real” on Lafayette College’s WJRH. Dan Kelley cites “music for people who think, played by people who feel” on KSQY Rapid City, S.D.
- “Mix 97.1. Because we can never agree on anything, we just let the cleaning lady decide.” — Scott Miller on behalf of Classic Hits WREO Ashtabula, Ohio.
- “’Tired of your playlist? Us, too! Ha! Just kidding. Okay, ignore him, but seriously, give ours a try … a fresh playlist, 365 days a year on 93.7 JR Country.” — From Pattison, Vancouver, B.C.’s Russell James.
- “See that guy in the car next to you not listening to Rock 105 and 95.5? He probably puts ketchup on his hot dogs.”—Guy Paul on behalf of WGFM/WGFE Traverse City, Mich.
- “‘Wake up. Rock hard.’ I came up with this for our rock station morning show 15 years ago, but our owner said no. I’m pretty sure I heard it recently on Rock 95.5 Chicago.” — Mike Nelson.
