Maybe you haven’t thought about this in a while, but in moving back from five and a half years in Hawaii to my home town of Shreveport, Louisiana, I’m resetting the stations on my car radio.  As a result, I’ve been listening to a lot of different stations recently.  And I’m hearing a lot of things on music stations that I thought had been killed off a long time ago…

The “first in, last out” (FILO) thing where every break mandatorily starts with the name of the station, then also ends with the name of the station.  (This was always ridiculous.  Why do you want to sound like you somehow forgot that you said your name a few seconds ago?  And why would you EVER put the name of your station right next to a commercial break?  Think about it:  You = commercials is not a good impression to lock into the listener’s brain.)

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A lot of shows struggle with getting any really viable phone call feedback from listeners.  They tap into a subject, maybe offer an opinion, do a solicitation for feedback, give the phone number, then… nothing.

Waves of silence.  No phone lines lighting up.  Or if there is a call, it’s pretty much the same type of call they got last time (often from the same tiny pool of callers) with pretty much the same type of comment they always get.

The safe, predictable, no-new-ground-broken feedback loop.

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Whatever you do well, congratulations on that. I mean that sincerely. The good things that you do each day make a great impression.

Similarly, when you say things more than once (as radio continues to do, trying to beat a thought into the listener’s head), or you do “the moral of the story” obligatory recap at the end of something, or say radio clichés (like “on your Monday morning,” “Hump day”), or do something silly and outdated (like “The Mindbender Question of the Day” or “This Day in History”), those make an impression, too. As my friend and partner Alan Mason says, “Everything counts.”

So, weed the garden regularly.  Listen to your own show at least once a week.  Add new ideas all the time. Consistency = Good. Predictability = Bad.

Think of your show as a demo tape. Because to the listener, it actually IS.

Way too often, radio stations settle for hiring B or even C-level air talent, because they think they can’t afford better, or that an A-level talent will be “difficult” or just too expensive.

The reality, of course, is that when you hire a STAR, it changes the whole culture of a station.

Whenever you hire a racehorse, the other horses think “Why am I hitched to this plow?”  Hiring a major league talent serves as a beacon for the other members of the staff, and makes them start trying things that lead to more and more “memorable moments” – and that’s what stations need to reach a new level of performance and establish a “learning and performance” vibe that runs through the hallways, spreads to every other department (particularly Imaging and Production), and infuses the Sales staff and management with a brighter outlook every single day.

Hire stars, or people who can BECOME stars with coaching and direction.  When you settle for less, you’re putting a cap on what you can become.  Plus, when you already have stars on-board, other stars want to come work for you.

Something happens when the mic goes on.  Most people assume a delivery that’s either “giving information” or “making an announcement” or “presenting” something to the listener.

…as if the listener is some distant stranger who has this break arrive like an unwanted, slick, glossy ad for life insurance – for your pet goldfish.

But the great talents all know that no matter how important or significant a thought is, you still want to say it like you’d say it to your best friend, over a cup of coffee, like he or she is just 2 or 3 feet away (not 15).

By trying to sound more “important,” you become less important.  By simply sharing a thought in a normal tone of voice (and normal volume level), you imply that “Hey, we’re buddies. Let me tell you something.”

Chemistry is everything.

In a team show, one person not dedicated to making his or her partner better will ruin the show.  In a solo show, a weak news person, traffic person, or weather person will be a giant flat tire in the mix.  Don’t settle for that.  One bad apple spoils the whole barrel.

Pursue EXCELLENCE.  I’d rather train someone how to do it well than settle for an experienced, but mediocre person who isn’t giving it his or her best effort.

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Being a truly great talent also means being (or at least, having) a truly great board op. Many (maybe I should say “most”) people on the air today don’t even realize it.

It’s somewhat of a lost art now, but my generation of air talents were groomed to run the board PERFECTLY.  We prided ourselves on precise segues, excellent and consistent levels, and hitting the next song or sound bite within a Content break at exactly the right time, after a brief, concisely focused intro.  At stations where I worked, it was mandatory.  If you couldn’t run a tight, flawless board, you couldn’t work there.

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I talk a lot about “crayons” – meaning, that just like in elementary school, learning how to use each crayon results in a different picture.  In radio, “more crayons” is about finding more variations on a theme.

The two most typical endings are to say something funny, or to weigh in with a somber “summary” or “conclusion” to something.  These are fine — essential, actually — but if they’re the only two crayons you color with, they’ll get pretty predictable.

My process is to strip everything away, until a talent begins again with the little “eight crayon” box that we got in first grade, then learns how each can be used.  Eventually, you move to the 16-crayon box, then the 32, then the beautiful 64-crayon box with the sharpener in the side.

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Recently, I had a session with a very good talent who struggles occasionally at the very beginning of a break.  I played her a couple of breaks where the hemming and hawing was noticeable; she just couldn’t get any real traction in getting started.

Here’s a possible cause — the tendency to think that every second has to be filled with words.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  JFK, Martin Luther King, and dozens of actors known for their timing realized that sometimes a pause to “gather” your next thought is THE most powerful moment.

Example:  “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” is not the same as “Ask not… what your country can do for you.  (Another pause) Ask what you can do for your country.”

When the anxiety is taken away, and you come to trust that conversations need pauses, the tendency to just add more words, or over-explain, will dissipate.

Of all the things I get asked about, the search for Content comes up far more often than anything else.  First of all, you have to look for it, but it’s really all around you.  Prep sheets are great for lining bird cages, but real Content can easily be distilled into two lanes:

1. What’s already on the listener’s mind – TOP of mind, not just something he/she “has a passing interest in” – filtered THROUGH your observations, experiences, and opinions.
2. Things the listener may NEED to know, but might not have heard about yet.

Anything that you have to “reach” for, you should automatically reject.  Let everyone ELSE do trivial, typical, or obscure stuff, while you make great contact every at-bat.  (Obligatory baseball reference is for my partner John Frost.  Go Yankees.)

With the natural flow of stuff that you have to promote (station stuff, events, web features, etc.) and Contests, that’s really all you need.  The creative “difference” factors don’t lie in finding “off the beaten path” things to talk about; they’re in HOW you weigh in on and share the things the listener cares most about.

This makes your prep process SO easy.