Shall We Talk About the Weather?

I had a revelation in listening to WKST (96.1 Kiss) Pittsburgh last week, as part of my Fresh Listen to that station and WHTZ (Z100) New York. It was because of p.m. driver Tall Cathy. 

Tall Cathy’s five breaks that hour included some celebrity topicals (Ariana Grande finally speaking out on Nickelodeon, Joey Chestnut splitting from Nathan’s), but there was also a first break of the hour about that day being a Wednesday that felt like Thursday and another about Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes getting a standing ovation on the road the night before, then teasing that evening’s game. (I need to emphasize that the Wednesday bit had no mention at all of “hump day”; there was clearly an attempt to be creative with it.)

A few months ago, I had a similar revelation listening to middayer Helen Little on WLTW (Lite FM) New York. Little did a “handshake break” — the first one of the show – that was “happy Friday,” “got any weekend plans?” and “it’s going to be a nice day.” Later that hour, she encouraged listeners to make time to enjoy the beautiful weather, even if it was just going to the window.

Little is a great jock, was a talented programmer, and has been one of my favorite people in the business for 30 years. She is one of Lite FM’s strengths. WKST has been one of CHR’s biggest surprise comebacks. I share stories like the above very cautiously because so much of the campaign against local personality for the last 25 years has been hinged on “couldn’t a voice-tracker do that?” Or now, “couldn’t AI just talk about the weather and the ballgame?”

So if you think I am being in any way reductive about either host, you are missing my point. Part of what stood out about Kiss 96.1 under PD David Edgar was how much it felt like a classic full-service radio experience. Some of what I heard (sweepers about the Paris Olympics) were different. Some breaks and sweepers just made you feel more like somebody was on duty in a way that you don’t always get now. Teams of radio scientists are clearly trying to get AI to talk about the ballgame now and sound natural, but you already have somebody on your staff who knows how to do that.

As a radio fan, the breaks I’ve always quoted to other radio people are the bravura pieces of writing — the punchlines that I remember decades later. When I wrote an article about what I would have personalities talk about “If I Had Six Breaks an Hour,” I admit that the basics weren’t specifically among them. But I did ask for more localism, and talking about the Pirates certainly counts. 

Some of this, frankly, might have been about my own ability to volley back in some conversations. I envy people who can talk to anybody about anything. As basic as it seems, I am sometimes not ready for “nice day, isn’t it?” I always want to start the conversation further in. But I should stop and enjoy my beautiful day more often, too. 

As it happens, I’m also increasingly aware of how many radio people are better at small talk on the radio than at the supermarket checkout. But as more checkout lines become self-service, I miss that interaction, too. Part of radio’s value in a post-COVID world is to provide the small interpersonal dealings that on-site co-workers no longer offer every day. The essence of personality on a WLTW-style AC has always been the brush strokes that embellish station business, even if it just reading those liners with vocal nuance. 

There is a talent in being able to talk to listeners in a way that their friends and co-workers can. There is a talent in being able to entertain in a way that those friends and co-workers cannot. Radio found its place with both “aircheck moments” — those bits or breaks remembered years later — and small moments. I am increasingly happy to encounter either.