Great radio stations are different from just “radio stations where people work.”  Great stations know who they are, who the listener is, and have air talent that competes with each other on who will have the best “moment” that day.

They also root for each other to have their own memorable moments, too.  Being the best player on a team with only one or two good players – well, there’s no real joy in that.  We should want to lift each other up and challenge each other to do really good radio.  Every day.

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The saying is that “Everyone has a story.”

That may be true, but the problem is that most people aren’t very good at TELLING it.

That’s why you have to EDIT them.

It’s Beginning > Middle > End.

What it should NOT be (but we hear way too often) is “Meandering” – Beginning > Middle that’s too long > Ending that’s predictable, or something being repeated that was said earlier in the story.

TAKE OUT what’s nonessential.  When you eliminate unnecessary details and nebulous “side roads,” and you don’t try too hard to either make it “meaningful” or to somehow get to some punch line that just comes across as silly or insincere, you’ve left more room for Emotions.  And that – the Emotional Core at the center of a story – is what impacts the listener.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it also made for great musicians, explorers, writers, painters, and radio staffs.

When you have a bunch of people who are all continuously curious about how to get better, you have lightning in a bottle.  And you can feel it in the hallways.  It shows on the air.  And people listen to you simply because they WANT to.

You don’t have to dangle a lot of incentives in front of them, although contests are fun.  You don’t have to pander to them and compliment them all the time – especially not for their good taste in listening to you.  And you don’t have to worry about what your competition is doing, because if you’re talented and still working to get better, the other guys are already dead men walking.

Give me the people who come up with ideas for better systems, who want to try something on the air they haven’t done before, and want to have FUN doing their jobs.

But here’s the deal: every person you have who doesn’t think like this holds you back.  Hire wisely.  Interview the person, not the job posting.  Find the ones who want to help you do GREAT radio.  Then coach them up.

“And I was like…”
“Then she was like…”
“So I was like…”

Like what?  Like someone who never passed seventh grade English?

“She was TOTALLY not going there…”  (Could she partially go there?)  “I’m SO doing that…”  (Well, all I can say is “You SO sound like a dolt.”)

Look, I’m all about “street language” and I definitely don’t think we should speak “The King’s English” – but we need to sound like we’re not 14-year California airheads.

Here’s why: Someday, a plane might fly into another building.  Or another “quiet guy” is going to walk into a mall and start shooting people.  And when that happens, you want people to take you seriously if you’re going to comment on it.  Radio is about having fun, and being topical; but at times, it’s also about being CREDIBLE.

Note to anyone in California: feel free to do all the Texas and Louisiana jokes you want.  (Louisiana is my home state.  Texas is where I spent the majority of my adult life.)

Here’s a question for you: Have you listened to your station’s online streaming lately?

Chances are, it pretty much blows.

Most of the time, I record station audio to use for coaching sessions.  And it’s amazing how many stations promote how you can “take us to work with you” or “keep up with us with the app” when in reality, the signal crashes without any warning whatsoever.  Or the app makes us jump through hoops, pushing multiple buttons or wading through “join our music team” come-ons, before we finally just get to what we want – the audio.
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