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Posted by ZeJayMan on Feb-12-2008 16:49:

Presenting a radio show.

Does anyone have any experience of presenting and djing on their local radio stations?

I'm going to be starting presenting a 3 hour long slot at my university for "Dance music".

I've had a few ideas, like hosting an introduction to EDM or have an hour dedicated to stuff that's just been released but I was wondering if I could have a few pointers from anyone who's been involved in this type of thing.

cheers.

J

Posted by Stu Cox on Feb-12-2008 17:09:

I've been doing a show on my uni station for a few years now, which also goes out online through the station's website.

I've found that, particularly with a long show (2 hours or more) it helps to have features etc rather than just having 3 hours of back-to-back music - even if it's just things like a tune of the week or a run down of good events going in the area.

Getting some guest mixes by reasonably well-known names can also help to pull in the listener figures if you promote the show - either local heroes or B-list/C-list names - for example I've had Richard Durrand and 4 Strings on in the past. A lot of DJs will be willing to put together a short mix to help promote themselves, just drop them or their agent an email.

Also, if you can have a competition from time to time, that can be good - a while ago I managed to get a load of Discover CDs, t-shirts and club tickets to give away, which we plugged on loads of messageboards.

For the shows that I've had bigger guests or competitions, the listener ratings shot up and then stayed up - presumably cos people who listened in for the guest or the competition found they liked the show so tuned in again the following week.

An introduction to EDM could work, but you might be in danger of sounding patronising to those who are already into it. An hour dedicated to new releases is a good idea

It depends how seriously you're taking it and how far you want it to go, but it might be worth thinking about trying to promote it really hard, almost like you would with a club night - get posters up around uni, set up a MySpace page and a Facebook group/event and so on, plus if it goes out online as well, plug it on messageboards like this one (there's a special thread for radio shows). Uni radio in particular is an excellent chance to get yourself out there and also to have a go at promoting something without costing you anything apart from your time, which is decent experience if you might want to get into running parties at any point.

Posted by ZeJayMan on Feb-20-2008 12:38:

nice. great advice.

well i start this week and i reckon i'm going to try and do a run down of a particular record label. the slot is 2 and a half hours with advert breaks and all the rest of it. First record label I am going to cover is Kitsune, the french electro/house label.

Posted by ZeJayMan on Feb-25-2008 17:20:

Your mum's favourite DJ is going on the radio!

I'll be playing whatever is closest to hand in an attempt to educate the young minds of Stirling University in the way of electronic music.

You can listen online and on the air every Saturday night between 8 and 10pm while I pretend to know what the hell i'm on about.

I will be trying to interview up and coming electronic artists as well as a few of the established names in techno, electroclash tech-house and minimal.

More details will be forthcoming!