Let’s make this easy, and get to the real core of how to be a terrific air talent.
Your job is to share what you see about, and what you feel about the things you have in common with the listener.
Everything else is just nuts and bolts. If you don’t have the ability to zero in on what matters most to the listener, then you need to run, not walk, to your PD and find out who your target listener is.
I was in a conversation recently with a new PD about a radio station we’ve all heard of. “What do you think of them?” he asked me. Perhaps assuming I would respond with a critique of their music mix, deejays, liners, and contests, instead I responded with…
“They don’t have a brand.”
A brand is WHAT people think of WHEN they think of you. It’s the position you occupy in their minds that allows them to recognize and recall with “That’s the station that…”
Continue readingRadio has changed quite a bit over the last 20 years. Social media, instant access to information through your cell phone, nine thousand channels and video streaming sources have changed subject matter and how it’s delivered.
But radio is still capable of being the most personal medium there is. However, if I had to choose one thing to tell you, it would be “Jokes aren’t funny anymore.” Continue reading
On last week’s show I shared how staring at the The Weather Channel for several days as a hurricane approaches your state can be a great teaching lesson for your radio station if you pay attention.
In this week’s Frost Advisory, I’ll dig a little deeper while it’s freshly on your mind.
The power of winning moments. While it’s important to minimize things that result in listeners tuning away, playing defense isn’t the same as winning. The Weather Channel uses graphics, camera angles (literally), on-the-scene reporters, and live action video to keep viewers coming back for what Mr. and Mrs. Nielsen would call ‘listening occasions.’ We all want to know WHAT’S THE LATEST?
Continue readingTo a degree, acting is part of what we do. I talk a lot about this in coaching sessions, and give an example of a bad actor versus a good actor:
The bad actor “shades” toward the desk as he talks, knowing that the phone is going to ring.
The good actor just says what he has to say, and the stupid phone interrupts him.
When you’re on the radio, the “visual” is created by the listener. But what you say and the way you sound paints the picture, too. Be more than just “a voice saying words” or reading something off a computer screen. Give me something genuine.
Having lived in Florida for almost thirty years I’ve learned that there four seasons: summer, summer, summer, and hurricane season.
It’s been said that the only colors that change in Florida are the colors of the license plates. As Ian develops into a hurricane up Florida’s west coast and into the Gulf, I figured if I’m going to stare all afternoon at the Weather Channel’s Cone of Uncertainty maybe there was something to be learned from them about programming.
Continue readingThere are things everywhere that apply to what we do. For me, one of those was a line from an old “Peanuts” comic strip when the cantankerous Lucy turned to Charlie Brown after something had happened and said, “It’s getting hard to tell the phonies from the realies.”
That’s a quirky line, but honestly, in radio, it’s not that hard. So, with apologies in advance for using the old-fashioned “he” pronoun, here’s a checklist: Continue reading
A brown-eyed five-year-old looked in my eyes and said, “I don’t want to be alone.” This wasn’t in response to being left in aisle 7 at Costco for less than ten seconds. This wasn’t a response to some other recent event in his life. This was a reaction to the human condition: we don’t want to be alone.
The people in the white coats have a name for it. It’s called “monophobia.”
“Monophobia is the fear of being alone. This catch-all term includes several discrete fears which may or may not share a common cause, like the fear of:Continue readingverywellmind.com
- Being apart from a particular person
- Being home alone
- Feeling isolated or ignored
- Living alone
- Loneliness
- Solitude
The best air talents I’ve ever heard, regardless of age, format, etc. all have one thing in common. And I think it’s the “biggest” skill a person can develop.
They’re concise. They always seem to get a point across in fewer words than someone else would use.
Yes, this does apply to Talk radio, too. This isn’t about the length of a break (or a segment).
It’s simply been my observation that the person that ‘cuts to the chase’ is the one that gets quoted. And remembered.
You’ve likely been a part of this kind of conversation in your station’s hallways.
“The client wants us to give away vacuum cleaners or we won’t get the buy.”
“The morning show will give clues for 30 days. Listeners go to the website and submit their guesses, and anyone that gets all 30 correct will be a finalist…”
Continue reading
