I would call myself a casual Twitter user. I peruse my feed now and then, but it’s an unusual circumstance when something genuinely grabs my attention and won’t let go.
That was until Tuesday, July 3rd when an acquaintance on my feed retweeted a thread, providing me with this tease: “Read this whole thread. Trust me. It’s so worth it! #milehighromance”
I bit.
On the one hand, I immediately felt like the creator of the thread may have gone too far. Perhaps her methods were too intrusive. But on the other hand, I visualized a natural, relatable entertainer with the ability to captivate an audience and possessing a heavy dose of social media savvy. Exactly the kind of skills many radio stations desire from their on-air talent and can translate into positive perceptual research.
The thread was authored by a young woman named Rosey Blair, with this introduction:
“Last night on a flight home, my boyfriend and I asked a woman to switch seats with me so we could sit together. We made a joke that maybe her new seat partner would be the love of her life and well, now I present you with this thread.”
Pretty good setup. I can hear that setup on a radio station’s morning show in my head. Hold that thought.
The woman who switched seats moved to the row in front of Rosey and her boyfriend. The thread, which has since gone viral and is sometimes referred to as “Plane Bae,” is a rapid-fire series of tweets viewing the fast-moving relationship between this woman and her new seatmate from the backseat perspective of Rosey + boyfriend.
Throughout the saga, Rosey provides amusing commentary (“No one ordered drinks but they are sharing a CHEESE (PROTEIN) BOARD!”). She offers up video of their own facial expressions. She lets you know she’s just bought another half-hour of Wi-Fi so she’s not leaving you hanging. She notes when they follow each other on Instagram, and shows you the moment their arms touch for the first time. Whenever she tweets an update, followers are on the edge of their seats, begging for more.
Rosey Blair is now over 65,000 followers on Twitter and is wisely attempting to leverage her 15 minutes of fame. The Today Show first reported the story on July 5th, the day she posted some personal anecdotes about herself on Instagram. We learn about her love of schmaltzy movies (her fave is “You’ve Got Mail”), she reveals her struggles to find love and happiness as a plus-sized woman, and she drops some pearls of wisdom regarding a good attitude and a positive outlook on life.
So, we know Rosey Blair is a funny, vulnerable social media ace storyteller.
You may find these to be attractive qualities in a radio personality. But is Rosey even looking for a job?
On July 4th at 8:30pm, she tweeted “Hello to my @buzzfeed friends. You got any job openings? Would luv to create for you.”
Once a radio station has established its base music or talk position, we recommend adding layers to what we call the Image Pyramid. Great personalities can add strong brand depth to a station’s Pyramid, and occupy a very important role. We oftentimes see in perceptual research that the strongest personalities, unsurprisingly, are the memorable ones. They are the ones with clearly defined characters. The ones who emotionally connect with the audience and aren’t afraid to show vulnerability. The ones who often have developed social media followings.
These things alone do not indicate Rosey Blair would be a great or even good radio personality. It’s impossible to know from one viral thread if she has the intangible qualities required to carry a radio show.
She would have to be coachable and understand that even the greatest bits have limits.
Perhaps she could be a contributor to a show (or shows). Maybe her feature becomes appointment listening.
One thing’s for sure. We’d love to see funny, vulnerable, social media savvy storytellers tweet that they want to be on the radio.
