This weekend I saw a display at a sporting goods store in Texas designed to move inventory RIGHT HERE/RIGHT NOW. If not, the merchandise would be out of date.
Or to be blunt, the merchandise would be worthless if it sat on the shelf.
Continue readingThe great movie director Arthur Penn (Bonnie & Clyde, Little Big Man, The Missouri Breaks, etc.) often spoke of what he called ‘happy accidents’ occurring during the filming. Little movements or reactions or lines that weren’t in the script, but were magical.
I see the same thing in radio – breaks that just “appear” out of nowhere and crack people up.
This Frost Advisory is intended for programmers and air talent that are far beyond the basics. It is for those who understand why their radio station exists, who they are talking to, and how to develop content that is meaningful and enhances the station’s appeal.
Once you get that stuff, how do you, as an air talent or program director who coaches talent, take it to the next level?
There is a predictable process the growing stations go through. I said GROWING stations.
Continue readingNew York Yankees Hall of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter recently played in his first “Oldtimers Game.” At one point he was asked about the current Yankees team bringing up some young players, and how to handle the pressure of playing in New York.
I think it resonates to anyone in radio who’s looking to move up to a larger market.
He said, “It’s the same game, there are just more people in the stands. I think sometimes when you get up to this level you try to do things a little bit differently, but you have to be yourself. Don’t try to do something that you’re not accustomed to. You have to enjoy yourself, and try to improve each and every day. The bottom line here is you gotta win.”
Amen.
It’s actually rather freeing. We don’t have to be right all the time.
I knew a general manager that insisted that there had to be a specific numbers of songs in the active library. Not one more, not one less. The program director and I found this was a peculiar topic for drawing a line in the sand, particularly since they did regular music testing and the listeners’ preferences determined that.
We did a little detective work and discovered that he had read an article in Billboard in the 1980s where some consultant had unpacked his snake oil in 5 easy steps to success, or some such foolishness.
Continue readingA PD in a large market contacted me recently, asking if I’d like to work with their morning team. Since I hadn’t heard it, he was nice enough to send me some audio of the show. He also told me that the lead guy had enjoyed a great deal of success before he came to this station.
But it was pretty typical. Several things all tossed into the air at once. Phone calls about an innocuous subject that didn’t really surprise me. A spate of multiple punch lines to a bit given by two people at breakneck speed (so it couldn’t possibly sound spontaneous). It wasn’t bad, but there just wasn’t anything special about it.
Look, I’ve worked with hundreds of stations in every English-speaking format, coaching many hundreds of air talents, and not being predictable has been a key for all of them. (Consistent = good. Predictable = bad.)
Here’s a first step: Listen to your show yourself, and be honest about whether it would make you come back and listen to it again tomorrow.
Then, weed out anything that sounds typical. Hold your feet to the fire about WHY each thing is done. “This’ll be funny” isn’t nearly as powerful as “This will be something the listener can identify with.” I can hear “topics and phone calls” anywhere nowadays. Get out of the Control Room and meet me in my car. What matters to me (as a listener) supersedes what matters to you.
Oh, and about that team show, I doubt if the PD liked much of what I had to say about it. But I can fix them – if they’ll listen.
Our minds crave simplicity.
The doctor says to take a pill. We eagerly agree because it’s simple. Until he tells us that the pill will cause us to lose our hair. Ouch! Now it becomes more complicated and not such a great idea.
Continue reading“People are drawn to black and white opinions because they are simple, not because they are true. Truth demands serious effort and thought.”
Donald Miller
One of the things I’m always getting asked about is phone calls – how to get listeners to call, how to get better calls, and how to build a dependable core of really good callers. Over the years, I’ve coached hundreds of people on this, so if you want the phones to ring, here you go…
Making decisions based strictly on data rarely works out.
Let’s take ratings, as an example. Making programming decisions based solely upon ratings is like driving with a GPS that shows only where you’ve been. It’s like driving your car while looking in the rear view mirror.
(Ratings can’t illuminate the three most important factors to making good programming decisions. See Frost Advisory #664)
Continue readingThis is primarily a team show tip, based on an aircheck a friend sent me of him and his new female partner.
He’s very conversational. She’s LOUD. And this is something I hear a lot. People (regardless of gender) on the radio seem to get LOUD when they’re talking to each other.
I don’t understand that. You’re supposed to be friends. Why are you shouting at each other? And why are both of you shouting at me?
You want to talk loud enough to be heard at the dinner table, not to be heard at the end of the continent.
