Reference
Radio content & broadcasting glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up in radio programming, show prep, ratings, and AI-assisted content — 49 in all, no jargon left unexplained.
On-Air & Programming
Back-Announce
Identifying a song or segment after it airs, often with the artist, title, and station name.
Board Operator
The person running the audio console and automation during a broadcast.
Cold Open
Starting a show or segment with content before any introduction or branding.
Daypart
A defined block of the broadcast day (such as morning drive or middays) programmed and measured as a unit.
Dead Air
An unintended silence on the broadcast when nothing is airing.
Drive Time
The morning and afternoon commuting hours when radio listenership is highest, typically 6–10 a.m. and 3–7 p.m.
Format
The overall style and content type that defines a station, such as Country, Top 40, News/Talk, or Classic Rock.
Front-Sell
Teasing what is coming up next to give the listener a reason to stay tuned through a break.
Hot Clock (Format Clock)
A circular map of one broadcast hour showing exactly when music, talk breaks, spots, and features air.
Imaging
The produced audio elements — sweepers, liners, and IDs — that define a station’s on-air identity.
Liner
A short scripted line stating the station’s name, positioning, or slogan, read live or pre-produced.
Music Director (MD)
The person who selects and schedules the music a station plays.
Program Director (PD)
The person responsible for a station’s overall sound, content, and on-air staff.
Rundown
An ordered, timed list of everything planned for a show or segment.
Segue
A smooth transition from one element to the next with no gap or interruption.
Stop Set
A cluster of commercials aired together as a single break in programming.
Sweeper
A produced audio element that transitions between songs while reinforcing the station brand.
Talk Break
A segment of an on-air show where the host talks between songs, spots, or features — as opposed to music or commercials.
Tease (Teaser)
A short on-air promo that previews an upcoming segment to hold the audience across a break.
Voice Tracking
Pre-recording a host’s breaks so a show can air without the talent being live in the studio.
Show Prep
Benchmark
A recurring segment that airs at a set time or point in a show, giving the audience a reason to tune in.
Bit
A prepared comedic or entertaining segment, often recurring, built around a premise.
Break Content
The prepared material a host uses to fill talk breaks — topics, copy, and bits.
Evergreen Content
Content that stays relevant over time and can be used whenever it is needed.
Prep Sheet
A document collecting the talking points, stories, and copy a host will use during a shift.
Show Prep
The research and content a host gathers and writes before going on air.
Topical Content
Content tied to current events, trends, or the news of the day, with a short shelf life.
Trending Topic
A subject gaining rapid attention across news or social media at a given moment.
Ratings & Audience
Appointment Listening
When listeners tune in at a specific time because they do not want to miss a recurring feature.
Average Quarter-Hour (AQH)
The average number of people listening during any 15-minute block of a measured period.
Cume (Cumulative Audience)
The total number of different people who tune in to a station at least once during a period.
Diary (Ratings Diary)
A paper or digital log in which ratings participants record what they listen to over a week.
Portable People Meter (PPM)
A device-based ratings method that passively detects which stations a panelist is exposed to.
Ratings
Estimates of how many people listen to a station, used to set advertising rates and judge performance.
Share
The percentage of the listening audience tuned to a station out of everyone listening to radio at that time.
Time Spent Listening (TSL)
The average amount of time a listener stays tuned to a station over a given period.
Digital & Content
Content Kit
A packaged set of related content pieces prepared for a show, day, or theme.
Metadata
Descriptive information about a piece of content — such as titles, descriptions, and tags — that helps systems and search engines understand it.
On-Demand
Content the audience can access whenever they want, rather than only at broadcast time.
Podcast
On-demand audio distributed as episodes that listeners can stream or download when they choose.
Repurposing
Adapting one piece of content into multiple formats for different channels.
RSS Feed
A standardized, machine-readable list of a site’s latest content that other services can subscribe to.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The practice of structuring content so it ranks well in search-engine results.
AI & Content Tech
AI Discovery
Being found and cited by AI assistants and answer engines when people ask them questions.
Curation
Selecting, organizing, and framing content from many sources into a focused, useful set.
Generative AI
AI systems that produce new content — text, audio, or images — based on patterns learned from data.
Large Language Model (LLM)
An AI model trained on large amounts of text to understand and generate human-like language.
Prompt
The instruction or input given to an AI model to guide what it produces.
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
A technique that grounds AI output in specific source documents retrieved at generation time.