Texts Are Terrible - Musings Of A Milkman

Musings Of A Milkman - A passionate on air performer's thoughts on re-imaging radio

In a connected world, the tech we’re using in radio has disconnected us from our audience.

Text contests seem to have taken over. And I understand the reasons why radio has gravitated to them - they’re easy to maintain, very convenient when a show (or shows) is/are tracked and there’s no-one in the studio to take a call, and, of course, it provides some sense of who is tuned in.

But… For the listener, I can't help but believe that the experience leaves them feeling rather uninspired.

"Old schoolers" will remember the excitement of trying to get through on a contest line and getting a busy signal, hanging up, frantically dialing again in the hopes that it will ring this time! (Even more fun and challenging on a rotary phone!) It was a BIG DEAL if you got the station's line to ring! Even if you were caller 8 when they were looking for caller 9, you were bragging to your friends about how close you came to winning on the radio last night.

Where is the excitement in submitting a text? Everyone gets through.


Or do they?

Are their texts even acknowledged?

I know some systems allow stations to send an auto-reply, but receiving a generic “your text has been received” has to feel to our audience about as exciting as being told by our insurance company that our call is very important to them and please continue to hold.

I mean... 
I know I can buy my 6/49 and LottoMax tickets online, and I get an email confirming my purchase, but there’s just something about going to the corner store, and walking out with a ticket in my hand that is infinitely more exciting to me.

As someone who voice tracks for a number of stations, the lack of ability to interact with my audience (YOUR audience) is something that has been the topic of much conversation at home. I know that, right now, I’m doing some of the most compelling, and engaging radio of my life. And yet, unless someone, somewhere at an individual station, chooses to forward a text or a voice mail to me (and HUGE thanks to those who take the time to do this), I really have no way of knowing if anyone’s paying attention. On those rare occasions that I DO receive those from the station, it creates excitement in me that I can’t even begin to describe!

That HAS to be a two way street.

Surely, by now, the listener must be so desensitized to not receiving an acknowledgement, or a generic “thanks” that they’re just not willing to invest the time to be part of what we’re doing.

There’s another challenge with text contests that had occurred to me lately as well… And that is that stations often look to engage by asking listeners to submit long and involved stories for a chance to win a prize. Those stories make for incredible audio - but - is the average person going to take time out of their day to TEXT us several paragraphs only to hit SEND and never know if their work was even received?



I don’t know about you, but to me, text is supposed to be a quick, convenient way to let someone know something using as few words possible. In fact, most are likely to use abbreviations or even emojis instead of words. Because, let's face it, typing on a phone sucks.

If we, in radio, are going to opt to do a text to win contest, then shouldn’t we come up with a premise that requires a very simple response?

 For example, with father’s day coming up, we could be asking listeners to share their dad’s worst joke. That would work well as a text! Or “what’s a great expression your Dad is famous for using?”



Remember, these are just the musings of The Milkman… Just me, sharing with you, some of the things I think about in the world of radio today.

That said, it seems to me that there is a much better option than having our audience text us. VOICE NOTES! Does your station’s app allow your listener to simply CLICK a microphone icon, record their voice, and send the audio to you?

I cannot find a voice notes option on RadioPlayer. Apologies if it does exist on that platform, but I’m not seeing it.

Sadly I also don’t see it as an option with Nobex Partners, whom I have used for my online station’s app in the past and do love!



However I HAVE found it on the iHeart app! And it is absolutely an option to add to your app if you’ve launched your own via Air (PlayoutOne)! I have it set up on the app for my online station and our listeners LOVE it! Our on air hosts do, as well!

One of the podcasts I host even has a voice note option built into the website - and we get dozens of comments every week from listeners that we then play on the show. They can record their voice direct from their computer or buy visiting our website on their phone’s browser!

 Imagine how much more exciting it would be for the listener to submit a dad joke and then hear themselves, along with 2 or three other “callers” in an audio montage instead of “thanks for text us…” and days of silence. And let's not forget the excitement they'll feel when they hear themselves again in an on air promo! One would think they'd tell everyone to listen! Having our listeners on air can has to be more compelling to listen to than when we read the grocery list of responses we got from Facebook to our question of the day or our text us a story contests. Who cares to hear what Matilda wrote? Let's actually hear Matilda!

I was on the air in the 90s and 2000s. Phones were not just a huge part of my show, they were the BIGGEST part of my show as far as the on air performance is concerned. My listener was the star. (And yes, I and the station got the credit.) I’m sure any of us who were on the air then still talk to people who remember calling in and being on the air, or who remember other callers they heard on air. During the time that I went from being at a station full time, to being a freelance voice track talent, phone calls, for the most part, vanished. When I addressed it on the Milkman Facebook page, the overwhelming response was that stations today simply text the listener back if they had send a text that sounded interesting to see if they'd come on the air. Wait, what? 

I get it (I think), but, admittedly, I prefer (as a performer) that element of the unexpected that happens when they call us. There's a lot of fun to be had in the unplanned and unscripted.

This is why, for each market I’m in, I offer to generate my own, local phone number. (I use an app to do that.) Each number costs almost nothing per month for me to maintain. I also have a toll free number.

 Granted, most stations insist on sticking with ONE number (theirs) because that's how it's always been - but I’ve had HUGE success by using my own number. Text and calls comes right to the app on my phone. I can take a live call or play a voice mail through my Rodecaster or my Zoom P8 or P4 mixers. I sometimes fill in on the Saturday night show in Sarasota and listeners love to call in requests with the regular host. He has his number that he uses, but the audience have never missed a beat when I’ve filled in and simply said “hey, I’m in tonight and here’s MY number for you to use!” It’s a voice tracked show, but, working it as if it’s live, gives me the opportunity to put their calls on the air within minutes!

 I simply drag and drop the audio into the on air software! The other advantage for me, as a freelance voice tracker, is that I can now pool all the calls I get from multiple stations, and use them on any of my shows! And when I do that, NOW I’m creating a buzz and an excitement on the air that wasn’t there for far too long.

In my opinion, for whatever that’s worth, voice notes are, hands down, the best option for audience engagement today - for contests, for surveys, for requests, for anytime we hope to have our audience engage with us. There’s a payoff for them, and for us!

 I look forward to your thoughts below.

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