Once you get to a certain level, you face two issues – (1) How to be consistent in your performance, and (2) How to measure your Content.
Here’s the litmus test: is what you’re doing something that I can hear somewhere else? If so, there’s work to do.
It’s a funny thing. With these weekly Frost Advisories, I try to share insights about programming basics (how the sausage is made stuff, don’tcha know), while also challenging the more seasoned to strive for The Big Idea to transform a station and a listener’s mood, perspective, and life. Some get this while many have never thought about it. In my career, I’ve been at either place in different seasons.
Just this week I was evaluating a station that sounded like it was nothing more than a sequencing of elements. Like the automation system was programming the station. One element played, then another. Then something else came on and another element played. No design. No emotional spectrum. No meaningful content.
It was like an audio version of Whack-a-mole. Hit it and move on.
Continue readingShockingly, many, many times over the years, I’ve found that an alarming number of air talents never, or hardly ever, listen to their own shows.
Here’s why it’s important: You need to hear yourself as others hear you. That’s how we improve.
If you simply listen while you’re checking your email, or updating your social media, you’ll subconsciously hear when you sound rushed, or like you don’t really care about something, or if you make grammatical errors that undermine the points you’re trying to make.
Listening to your own show just once a week can and will make a dramatic difference in how sharp you stay, or how quickly you change a weak area.
Radio isn’t dying, but in many cases, it isn’t thinking, either.
It’s so simple, but why do we not hear this all the time?
My reflection (as a listener) is the mental picture that could change the course of your career.
Here’s the deal: As a listener, I want to be able to picture myself in the scene you’re creating or describing. If I do, you and I have connected – the magic word in radio.
If I don’t, well, there are lots of other listening options.
Quick! Name a TV dad that is portrayed as a positive role model! How ’bout in movies?
They say that 85% of men in prison grew up in fatherless homes. Role models can change the trajectory of a life. My dad certainly did for me. “Remember who you are and what you represent” from his beautiful baritone voice still echoes in my soul.
Continue readingIt’s easy to think of radio as a one-way conversation. Hopefully, you get interest, even feedback from listeners, but that’s not how the process begins.
We should start by putting ourselves in the shoes of the listener – and what the likely reaction would be on the other end of the radio; the listene’s end.
Thinking people automatically care about what you’re saying is what makes for lame radio. Sometimes, they don’t. It’s YOUR job to “quality control” what you’re going to do when that mic opens, and to deliver something worth hearing each break you do.
Purpose. A goal. Having one in mind shapes everything that follows.
And now a little story…
In my other life I do some baseball announcing during Spring Training for the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins. I’m the guy that comes on loudly on the loud speakers and tells you not to smoke, run, or have any fun, by golly! And I do it in both English and Spanish because they’ll pay me twice as much. No fumar, por favor!
At some point in Spring Training the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Philadelphia Phillies come to town. These games are sold out months and months in advance.
So why am I sharing this little story?
Continue readingSometimes I hear a station that seems to go overboard on trying to be “personality-driven.”
OF COURSE we want to entertain, but the first thought should be about being of service to the listener.
This could simply be in the form of a weather warning, or a traffic update. Keeping people up to date on what matters to them, or what could affect their lives, is our primary responsibility.
Entertain? Sure. Please! But, as much as you can, be of SERVICE to the Listener. If you start there, and keep this simple concept in mind, you’ll be on the right track.
When you MATTER to the Listener, adding other elements to that becomes almost effortless-sounding.
It’s interesting what you can see when you change perspectives. In a recent coaching session with a very talented team show I decided to move away from nuts and bolts, planning and execution and go to a 35,000 foot perspective and discuss the show’s strengths and weaknesses. Clever, don’tcha think? Mrs. Mahan in high school drama would be proud of me.
While this exercise of identifying strengths and weaknesses can be a common one for program directors and big time consultants, this time I heard an answer I’d never heard before.
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