Radio D.J. question

I have wondered about this since I was a kid in the back seat of my Mom's Vega listening to DJs talk on the radio.

A song usually starts out with some music for a few seconds before the singer begins the first line. HOW do DJs do this: They talk about stuff, the news, the song being played, whatever... RIGHT UP to the point where the singer begins.
They do this perfectly. If it's 18 seconds before the first line of a song, the DJ says all he planned to say PERFECTLY up until the the singer begins. The DJ doesn't speak over the vocals, but times it so he/she finishes immediately before the singer starts.

I've never understood how they do this. I can understand knowing exactly when the singer will begin in a song, but timing all you have to say so perfectly is a little hard to believe.

Perhaps Topshot could explain how this is done ? 

Years and years of radio dj experience would be my guess.
I used to hate it when they did it over a song I was trying to record off the radio to cassette!

  I used to yell at the DJ = "SHUT UP !! You're messing up MY song !!!!"

But I still wonder how they always timed it so perfectly without talking over the singer's first line. I don't care how good a DJ you are, that's kind of impressive. I've heard entire updates on the weather, news, etc all within seconds before the first line is sung and they always end their jabbering perfectly timed... I always wondered if it's pre-recorded, do they put the song and the DJ jabber together ahead of time ? Today I could understand cuz it's all computer.. and they can SEE where the artist is going to begin singing.

meh, it's not that important... I've just always been curious

I think it is a worthy question.  Maybe Mikeinfla can give us some insight, I believe he used to work in the radio industry.

3 things:
1) good DJs know the radio edited versions of songs they are playing and about how long of a lead-in they have before the vocals start.
2) In the older days many of the singles used to give the lead in time as well as total time.
3) You can always listen to the start of the song off-air prior (what is known as cueing) and practice what you might say. The old cart systems (think 8-track) weren't good for that, but any other media could be moved back to the start quickly.

I was always of the mind to not talk over songs much so wasn't much concern for me. I didn't even try to match the pitch or beat of songs as some do but my transitions (in the old days) almost always sounded good (to me at least). The last several years Rocksalt were all automated so I had far less control but was pretty pleased with how well Foobar2000 would crossfade.

Do you ever miss doing the show?

Very cool Topshot ! I knew there were some sort of skillsets used in that.

Good question Alldat... I've listened to all the Rocksalt shows at least 5 X thru and it seems to me he really enjoyed what he was doing. AND did it well !

alldatndensum wrote:

Do you ever miss doing the show?

Nope. God hasn't called me back to it so no reason to miss it.

There's nothing to call me to anymore as far as I know. My college recently sold the FM portion and supposedly the station is online only now but I don't think they are even doing that.

I did enjoy the show and took pride in it but it took an enormous amount of time, which I don't care to do anymore.

Well I for one am glad you did do it when you did... and that you recorded it. I've enjoyed listening to the shows and love the song choices. I've bought at least a dozen CDs of bands I discovered for the 1st time listening to Rocksalt.

One reason it took so much time - trying to find smaller or indie bands to play!

I discovered SO many artists I never heard of thru Rocksalt.
In fact, a couple weeks ago I finally bought Wonrowe Vision cuz of the song "White Rock" you played on the show. Love that song with the whole Motorhead/Lemmy sound to it.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

I discovered SO many artists I never heard of thru Rocksalt.
In fact, a couple weeks ago I finally bought Wonrowe Vision cuz of the song "White Rock" you played on the show. Love that song with the whole Motorhead/Lemmy sound to it.

I'm thinking you heard that on another show. They didn't sound familiar and a quick search at NoLifeTilMetal shows it came out in 2010.

oh... wow... I would've bet my life I heard that song on RockSalt... guess I'd be dead now, having bet my life

Not sure what radio show I heard it on. Bummer part is, I liked the song so much, I finally bought their album with that song on it.. and it's not the studio version I grew to love, it's a live version which does NOT sound half as good. Now I gotta shop around and see if I can find their album with the studio version of that song.