Here’s a quick start for any radio newcomer, as well as a reminder to broadcast veterans:

Use what’s unique to you.

For example, I’m a musician, having played guitar since I was eleven years old. And it was about that age that my mom taught me to sing harmony.

That led to doing literally hundreds of parody songs in my on-air career. And that was way before we had the technology to just take out the vocal and insert a new one. Or, God forbid, using A. I. to “write” and produce a song for you. I had to recreate the song one step at a time.

And thanks to reading MAD magazine since I was about seven years old, I had a decent sense of what would make a parody song funny. (Those people were geniuses.)

Use what you have that most other people don’t have, and you’ll stand out.

If you make grammatical errors, like mangling the object of a preposition (“Between her and I,” instead of “between her and me,” for instance), that shows a level of education that isn’t high enough.

We’re supposed to set the standard. We’re supposed to be the one person in the group who’s the best conversationalist, that uses the fewest words to make a point, that uses the right words to express your emotions, and can generate enough friendship and excitement just to hear what you have to say – the person who’s welcome in any conversation. THAT’S the goal. Continue reading →

Here’s something that was sort of revolutionary at the time, I guess, but sadly just disappeared as voice-tracking came in.

Group airchecks.

Back in the day in Dallas, the entire air staff were actually friends, and hung out together a lot.
Once in a while, we’d sit and listen to airchecks of each other, and exchange our thoughts about what we heard.

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This tip is about creating a “phone culture,” because it’s sad to me that many shows have to struggle mightily to get feedback from their audience.

It’s simple: ONCE an HOUR, say something like, “You’re always welcome to join the show…” and then add the phone number.

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One more trip down memory lane that I hope will help you…

In my radio infancy at giant CHR station KEEL in Shreveport, Lousiana, I was blessed with influences that would not only flesh out my own career, but lead to many things I’ve coached over the last 30 years.
Such is the case with a guy named Dan Voigtlander. (Pronounced Voit – lander.)

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In coaching somewhere around 1700 people over the last 30 years, I’ve found that a handy tool – particularly with young Talent – is to ask who they want to be like.

Think of how many kids growing up wanted to “Be Like Mike” (Michael Jordan). Kobe Bryant, for one. While he couldn’t be exactly like M. J., he definitely was the closest thing to him.

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One of the things I always challenge morning shows to do as a new year begins is to come up with one new “feature” for the show.

This means dropping one old one.

One of the definitions of a feature is “Something offered as a special attraction.”
SPECIAL attraction. Not just something you start doing, but something you draw attention to. Continue reading →

If you accept the old saying that “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” then it’s my firm belief that the way to a woman’s heart (on the air) is through her kids.

So if you target women, trust that even if she doesn’t have kids, someone else in her family does, or at least one of her closest friends does. And, everyone has a story to tell; it’s “common ground subject” #1.

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