You may not be sweeping as often as you think
Sometimes I wonder whether the current crop of programmers even knows where the term “sweeper” comes from. Some of the so-called “sweepers” I hear on the radio (and am occasionally asked to voice) are so long, they’re not really suitable for sweep sets at all. Unless hearing multiple songs in a row without commercial interruption isn’t considered a benefit of listening to your station.
In the early years of Drake radio (for those who don’t know the name Drake, I’ll get back to you later, but suffice it to say most of the formatics you take for granted today were invented by Bill Drake), it was considered revolutionary to play TWO songs back-to-back, without commercials in between. I remember working the Drake format at KAKC/Tulsa in the early ’70s. We’d stop for commercials twelve times per hour! (Assuming we were sold out.) Stop sets fell at :03, :07, :11, :18, :22, :26, :33, :37, :41, :48, :52 and :56. We’d play two songs in a row four times per hour — out of the :56 set and across the :00 ID break, out of the :11 set and across the :15 set, and again across the bottom of the hour and the :45 set. These instances when we’d play two songs back to back without commercial interruptions were called sweeps. Or sweep sets. As opposed to stop sets, where we stopped down for commercials.
Hence, the term “sweeper.”
The first spoken word sweepers were Bill Drake voiced over the famous Drake tympani: “Nine years ago today…” Or the one you’d play out of this week’s #1 song on the Boss 30 and into a #1 from the past, where Drake would say (dry voice), “Number One then (typmani hits)…and Number One now…”
Quick hitting. In and out. Didn’t even mention the call letters. Of course there were other sweepers, as well. The famous Johnny Mann Singers acapella jingles (the correct nomenclature for jingles at Drake stations was logos) were used between songs. “KAKC, Double Golden…” or “More music, KAKC.”
The point I’m driving at is this: These devices — today we’ve come to call them sweepers — were short and to the point. They didn’t interrupt the flow of music. In fact, music played beneath them the whole time. They were usually only about 2-3 seconds long.
After all, we were sweeping, not stopping.
Today on many radio stations, I hear stations playing :10 or :15 second promos for their radio station slipped in between songs in what is supposed to be a “sweep set.” These “mini commercials” for the radio station are considered “sweepers” because they’re played in positions within the format clock where no commercials are scheduled. Yet these so-called “sweepers” are long enough that they stop the music entirely. To a listener, you’ve just robbed them of a sweep set, replacing it with another stop set. The station may promise “ten songs in a row,” but after about every third song, if you’re asking the listener to sit through what amounts to a short commercial for the station, your “ten in a row” promise is a lie. The way you can tell if your sweepers are too long is if they are long enough to stop the music. These aren’t sweepers. To the listener, they’re commercials — whether they advertise a local car dealer or your radio station.
When your sweepers are so long they stop the music, you’re not sweeping at all. Instead, you’ve unwittingly added another stop set to your format clock. And believe me, it pisses off your listeners. They don’t perceive it as a “sweep” when the music stops. They perceive it as a commercial. Button pushers don’t wait 10 or 15 seconds to decide whether the music has stopped. When the music stops, they’re reaching for the button.
If your sweepers are longer than 5 seconds (and frankly, I would argue they shouldn’t be longer than 2 or 3 seconds, tops), then you’re not sweeping, you’re stopping an extra time.
To the listener, it’s like going through a toll booth every few songs. It’s annoying, it violates the promise of hearing multiple songs in a row “commercial-free” (the listener doesn’t make the distinction between paid commercials and station promo content — it’s all commercials to them), and frankly, it sends a signal to your audience that you don’t really respect the music all that much yourself. (A favorite theme of mine that I’ll no doubt write about again in future articles.)
If you’re gonna sweep, then sweep.
Get in, get out, get on with it.