“Opinions are like noses”, the saying goes. “Everyone has one.”
I like her voice! She sounds nasal! He’s funny. He thinks he’s funny.
Subjective opinions are inevitable in an industry tethered to music and art. The question is… how do we keep subjectivity from driving our most important decisions, since subjectivity almost always results in the crankiest or highest ranking having their way.
Continue readingThe great movie Director Alfred Hitchcock was once asked by a reporter, “Is it true that you said all actors are cattle?”
Hitchcock replied, “No, I did not say that all actors are cattle. I said that all actors should be treated as cattle.”
Whenever you have a guest – or a guest host – keep that in mind. If the guest or guest host is from TV, chances are that they know NOTHING about radio. They know about hair product and how to read a teleprompter, but if they knew anything about keeping a viewer around, they wouldn’t keep saying things like “after this break” or “when we return.” (I’ll dive further into this in a future tip.) A guest, like someone who’s on “The Biggest Loser” or whatever, knows even less. They’re pretty much like ducklings, just trying to smile and not sound like amateurs.
YOU have to organize things for them.
A station group I visited recently shared with me remarkable stories of changed lives, impact in their community, and their vision to reach people far beyond the boundaries of their current signals.
However, in listening to their stations I heard none of these things. I literally heard the trivial (in the form of ‘trivia’) more than I heard stories that demonstrated what the stations stand for.
Successful stations understand and embrace what makes them meaningful and preferable. They then efficiently demonstrate those values in ways that resonate emotionally with their listeners.
Efficiency and meaningfulness are two sides of the same coin. One does not exclude the other. Successful stations develop disciplines for each.
The National Football League is a “copycat” league. If a team succeeds by throwing 50 passes a game, the next year, every team looks for its Peyton Manning or Tom Brady.
If a mobile quarterback wins a bunch of games, everyone starts drafting a quarterback who can run in addition to pass. (I’m not talking about Tim Tebow. Note the “and PASS” part. The only target Tebow can hit consistently is the ground.)
Radio’s like that, too. Continue reading
I was intrigued by the old cowboy. He stood underneath the shade of a large oak tree on a sidewalk in the Fort Worth Stockyards willingly receiving five dollar bills from moms and dads, grandmas and granddads so that their kiddos could sit for a moment on the back of a long-retired longhorn steer. What followed was two minutes of smiles, laughter, waving and cameras clicking capturing the joy on the faces of these young ‘uns. A splendid time was had by all.
I did the math.
$5 every two minutes. That’s $150 an hour.
A remarkable moment in my favorite movie “Field of Dreams” is the soliloquy from the brilliant actor James Earl Jones:
John Frost, Alan Mason, and David Sams (executive producer of Keep The Faith) pictured with broadcasting legend Bud Paxson (founder of Home Shopping Network, Paxson Communications, and PAX-TV), a man whose influence was life-changing in our careers.
Thanks to my friend Randy Brown for this thought:
Often, when you select a YouTube clip, it starts with a commercial. In many instances, a message pops up in the lower right portion of the screen that says “You can skip to video in…” and then it counts down 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1, then you click it to get to what you actually wanted to see in the first place.
That’s the way people think when they listen to you. You start talking, and in the listener’s head, the 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 countdown begins.
Get on into it, or the listener “clicks” mentally – or sometimes even physically – and isn’t hearing you anymore. It’s just “blah-blah-blah” noise in the background. So you want to connect the Subject to the Listener as concisely as you can.
We have to EARN EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF LISTENING that we get. You do not deserve being listened to just because your transmitter is on.
“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual starts in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” – Babe Ruth
It was kindergarten, my first year of school, at a small school in the Mohave desert. I thought I was doing ok, but then the report card came out with that dreaded admonition.
Doesn’t play well with others.
That appears on my report cards many times in my early years. You might think that’s because I was always trying to take control and tell others what to do. But you’d be surprised, because it was the opposite. I always removed myself from the others, where I could be in my own.
I was painfully shy up until my senior year in high school. Some people who know me now can’t believe it, but it’s true. I wasn’t at all social.
But I knew and saw plenty of the other type of “doesn’t play well with others.” Always had to have their way, would take toys from the other kids, and generally tried to boss around a bunch of other five year olds.
Sometimes I think they all grew up and got into radio.
If only the words we use were compassionate words… and not distant newscaster words.
In our format, what if we only used the words of a friend, not those of a scolding teacher, or a detached observer.
I literally heard these words on a radio station this week:
“Extricated the lone occupant…”
…which, I guess, means that someone’s daughter or son, or brother or sister, or husband or wife was trapped in their car when heroes (someone’s daughter or son, or brother or sister, or husband or wife) came to their rescue, something those heroes do almost every day for someone’s daughter or son, or brother or sister, or husband or wife.
Instead of instructing and scolding, I wonder how many more people would listen if if our stations were known for the caring and loving people on the air.
What if the key to your station’s impact was contained in these simple words:
“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Romans 12:15
After you’ve become a successful talent, one of the most significant challenges with your show’s Content is knowing when to stop doing something.
People listen for 10 minutes – 20 if you’re lucky. Huge fans of the show will listen longer, unless they feel that it’s just rehash. Then, even they will go find something else.
So try this on for size:
[A] Whatever you do, treat it as a “one-off” break, meaning that it could stand alone. Plan to move on to something else the next break.
[B] But IF you get a decent reaction—a phone caller, for instance, or if you have a teammate on the show that might have a different “take” on it, okay, air that.
[C] Everything else on that subject now has to EARN being on. This means it has to cover NEW ground, not just repeat a point that’s already been made or give a second example of something we already heard.
Think of it like movies with sequels. Almost every time, the sequels get worse. The 4th Indiana Jones movie, the 4th Lethal Weapon movie, the additional 3 Star Wars movies, or any Jennifer Aniston movie.
