“The Dean of Science Fiction writers” is the title given to Robert Heinlein, author of “Stranger in a Strange Land,” “Starship Troopers,” and the wonderful book “Time Enough for Love” – among many others, was both an author and aeronautical engineer. That led to amazingly predicting many things that we now take for granted in the real world.

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A very talented woman I’ve coached on and off for years faced a challenge recently with a station’s Program Director wanting the air talent to do “teases” of what they’d be talking about a few minutes later.

So, she reached out, asking how to handle it. Here’s part of what I sent her, with a couple of added thoughts… Continue reading →

Many Music Radio Program Directors who were too late for the Top 40 wars really don’t understand how proper formatics work – or even what they ARE.

Example: If you wait for that last LOGICAL moment to start the next song, then talk (or where the next element, like a “sweeper” or Imaging piece should hit), you… Continue reading →

One of the most crippling thoughts in radio is “That’s good enough.”

The reply from the Listener’s end of the radio will often be, “No, it isn’t.”

I spent practically my whole on-air career being part of stations that knocked off the competition if they thought “good enough” would win. Continue reading →

My dear friend and associate John Frost and I talk to stations all the time about what their Strategy is. (Hint: “What you want to happen” is not a Strategy.)

I talk to air talent all the time about what their specific strategy is each day. And I push them to think about these questions… Continue reading →

Radio is not about what you say you do, or what you say you are.  It’s about how you show it, and how you live up to it.

Your “Mission Statement” should really be a simple one:

Welcome in the person who’s never heard you before, and then either inform or entertain them (or both) every day.

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One thing stands out immediately when I listen to someone – that person’s timing. (And the station’s timing, too.) Waiting for that ‘last logical moment’ to start talking, or to hit the next element when a song ends, for example.

Yes, we’ve all grown used to cue tones – but who’s creating them? Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever hear the ending of a song again without some Imaging piece crashing in or the air talent talking over it.

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In the last tip, I mentioned Bob Dylan. To cut to the chase, think about his song “Like a Rolling Stone.” Even if you take away the imagery and the storyline, one lyric rises to the surface over and over as Dylan starts each chorus asking, “How does it feel?”

And THAT is what you should be thinking of as you shape your Content each day. How did this thing that happened FEEL?

Without a discernible feeling, an identifiable emotion, it’s just a bunch of factoids. Incidents, maybe opinions. But what did it FEEL like?

If you can’t answer that, the idea is an incomplete thought.

There was a time when it was in vogue to be overly audacious, tricking people with prank phone calls, embarrassing people, making fun of them, etc.

I thought it really sucked, because to me, it seemed kind of cruel. I didn’t – and still don’t – get why it would be okay to demean the listener, or use that person as a “prop” for something that you wouldn’t do to a friend or coworker. Continue reading →

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.

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