Since there are so many places to get the music now, you have to be more than just a playlist.
COMPANIONSHIP (especially in the car) is still really important.
PERSONALITY should be mandatory in EVERY daypart.
There should be “something going on” ALL the time, in every hour of the show – both “station things” and your own Content.
What you have in common with the Listener is what binds you together. If you’re generic, you’re invisible.
The more words are used, the less the Personality stands out. The more complicated a Promotion or Contest is, the less effective it is.
Keeping things simple from a formatic perspective should be married to keeping things as simple as possible in coaching talent, so they can perform in a way that truly resonates with the listener.
My methods, and the formatics I recommend are all about keeping it simple so there’s more “meat” in the Content – and even in the STYLE of the Content. Our job in the coaching arena is to make it EASY to sound consistently top-notch every day.
Poisonous things can slip in – too many words in a forecast, the name of the station redundantly said again by rote at the end of a break (taking away any possibility of the First Exit that surprises the listener), goofy names for promotions that don’t tell us what the Promotion or Contest IS, reading crappy liners (that the station Imaging voice should read, if you simply must do them), etc. Guard against these.
It’s not just “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” It’s “Keep it simple or I listen to something else.”
One of the offshoots of trying to read something on the air is that since ‘print words’ are not the way we actually talk, it erodes your authenticity.
Where I live, Louisiana, there are tons of local commercials on radio and TV, and way too many of them have the owner of the business – usually a balding guy with a golf shirt on, wearing a 32-inch belt over which hangs his 40-inch waist – telling you that he’ll give you the best deal on “America’s most popular midsize SUV luxury brand” and that his dealership is “Rated number one in customer service in a survey of repeat customers.”
Blah, blah, blah. Words that he would never say – maybe no human would ever say – in a real conversation. And we’re then obliged to see his wife, small children, and their dog SHOUT his name. (Except the dog. He barks. He’s the best part of the spot.)
…or we hear some radio station disc jockey try to read something, and treat it like he (or she) just thought it up.
Listen: Authenticity is self-revealing. So is the lack of it. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, don’t fake it.
The last two tips have questioned why music stations choose to do formal newscasts or formal weather forecasts (ski resorts and cities near volcanoes exempted). Now let’s deal with doing Traffic updates on the air…
Start by remembering that we’re living in the twenty-FIRST century. “Here’s how we’ve always done it…” is a waste of time to even discuss. Here’s why you don’t need to do what now passes for traffic updates:
Here’s a different thought: Have a traffic update on the air be one listener reporting on one specific problem. (“I’m Greg Blunderbuss, and here at the Fairfield ramp to I-20, there must be 30 cars backed up.”) Maybe two people per update, different areas each time. Whatever. Just not a droning sea of information about someplace else.
And yes, these can still be sponsored. $
So let’s talk about the weather…
The typical scenario nowadays is to have some local TV weather person come on to “play” with the morning show and do the weather, or – even worse – to have someone from a weather service read the forecast in a boring monotone, with way too much information. “Clear to partly cloudy today with a thirty percent chance of showers or thundershowers, and a high in the mid-fifties. Southerly winds 8-10 miles per hour. Then it’ll become mostly cloudy and windy overnight with a sixty percent chance of more precipitation, and a low around 32,” etc. Ugh.
We should do the weather, but ultra-short-form. “Some clouds today with a chance of rain. High of 54. Tonight, no rain, low near 32.” Continue reading
We can probably all agree that ideally, everything you do on the air should play to a strength. If not, it’s probably best to eliminate it.
I feel sorry for air talent with no training in News writing or delivery being forced to do headlines.
Really, except for All-News or NewsTalk stations, News – I’m talking about actually doing a newscast – seems kind of outdated, to me. Not that many people come to a music station for News these days, because there are so many other sources to get it from.
Please understand that this shouldn’t mean that you ignore the News. But what I’m recommending is that if there’s a significant story, you just do a break about it when you stop down, without the formality of a News structure. It’s my opinion that we turn what’s likely to be a liability into a true strength this way.
Obviously, this is something that Programming has to okay.
We’ll address another so-called ‘service element’ – the Weather – in the next tip.
One of the benefits of doing this talent coaching thing for a long time is that you learn how to appraise talent quickly. After just a couple of coaching sessions, one thing always stands out: the person with the learner’s heart is going to get better. The person whose ego gets in the way of learning isn’t going to progress much unless that changes.
So which one are you? Are you open to suggestion, to change, to experimenting? You can still have your opinions, of course, but to have that be a closed circuit just means standing still. If nothing else, getting thoughts from a different perspective from someone you trust will make your decision-making quicker and more certain.
Lebron James has a coach. So does Tom Brady. So has every Olympic champion.
Overwhelmingly, especially in Music radio, News sounds like News – the facts. (Boring.) And Information from a print source SOUNDS like it’s being read.
Here’s how to eliminate that: Don’t marry the Information; marry the STORY.
Any idiot can read the facts. But it rarely sounds natural. It rarely sounds conversational. And “print words” poison any exchange.
What happened, or is likely to happen? How would it (or does it, or did it) make people FEEL? Only when you plug into the core Emotion of the story will it really connect with people.
I start there. Then I strip away anything that sounds too “official” when it’s said out loud.
People don’t connect with facts. They connect with Emotions. That’s why some “stories” aren’t interesting or compelling. They fill the air with words, but don’t say much.
Seems like I hear more people trying to put callers on the air these days, but fewer callers’ comments are very interesting… if they get any calls at all. I believe the fundamental reason for this is that the way they solicit caller input (or social media input) is flawed.
The easiest way to get response is first of all to make the solicitation sound off-the-cuff, instead of (1) seeming “needy,” or (2) sounding like the only reason you brought the Subject up was to get calls about it. That’s disingenuous.
As a listener, I’m not here to do the show FOR you. And your neediness is certainly not a reason for me to respond.
So try these…
More casual invitation = more down-to-earth response.
Some coaching sessions are what I call “workshop” sessions, where instead of concentrating on one thing, we talk more about the bigger picture, and how to reach a higher level.
It’s not all pie in the sky, though. Even the best air talents need foundational reminders now and then. Returning to our overall vision clarifies things and takes us out of the “critique” space. Here’s an example, an excerpt from a recap of a recent session with Dave & Tristi, the fine morning team on 89.5 KTSY in Boise:
Sessions like today’s, with two premium talents who are always receptive… well, that’s why I enjoy the “workshop” environment so much. (As opposed to the actual Shop classes in school, where the instructor always seemed to be missing a finger.)