Don’t over-do the iPod metaphors

Putting the station on “shuffle” and being a station so broad “you don’t need an iPod” are two of the tactics currently in vogue at many stations around the country.

But beware: The iPod metaphor gets stale fast.

A radio station, no matter how diverse, is not an iPod because it’s not playing MY music. But beyond that it strikes me as strategically weak to leverage iPod lingo when we should be coming up with lingo that makes people think of US, not iPods.

Listeners will buy their iPods without you going out of your way to sell them with your marketing-speak.

It’s not “cool” to say “shuffle.” It’s only derivative.

All credit to Apple for coming up with a more compelling synonym for “mix,” but the list of synonyms doesn’t begin and end with “shuffle.”