What really works in any field isn’t much about finding something completely new as it is about finding a way to build on something old, but making it better.  We’ve had phones forever, for instance.  But the Blackberry, then the iPhone, changed what we can do with them – and what we now EXPECT from them.

The point is, there’s a tendency to categorically reject “old” ideas, and that’s often the biggest mistake.  Radio is making one now.  With all the technology we have available, and all the “sabermetric” data we now use, we’ve largely lost one thing that used to be the core of every great station – the connection to the music we play.  Simply put, I rarely hear a station anymore that respects the music at ALL. Continue reading →

“Chopped” – the TV show on The Food Network – wasn’t in my sphere of awareness until just a couple of years ago.  My wife is addicted to watching people compete in this cooking competition where contestants are asked to take “basket ingredients” like yak thighs, pine cones, elderberry stems, and the bumper from a 1964 Buick, and make a meal out of them.

It’s fun, and the competition is serious, presented in a “steel cage gladiator death match” format.  But since I’m always looking for ways to help people sound better, what resonates with me is the “Chopped” criteria: Presentation, Taste, and Creativity.

In radio terms, you can always work on Presentation – even when the goal is to avoid sounding “presentational.”

Taste is any easy one.  It’s mirroring the taste of your listener.  You’re “cooking” for her or him.

And Creativity is simply the biggest dividing line in radio.  If you haven’t found your creative “muscle” yet, listen to great stations, read great books, watch great movies.  Soak it up.  Just like you would that redeye gravy that girl from Louisiana just made on Chopped.  Yum.

The other day, I heard a morning team launch into a subject that should have taken about ten seconds to set up, but they took 4 times that.  The classic “dog chasing its own tail” scenario.  Lots of activity; no real progress.

Without quoting them, let’s compare it to a movie.  Where the scene description would be “Doorbell rings.  Then cut to the door being opened,” we instead got the meaningless (and uninteresting) details.  The wife heard the doorbell ring, then told her husband, who was chilling out on the couch, to answer it, and even though he didn’t want to, he made himself get up and do it anyway… blah, blah, blah.

Cut to the chase, for crying out loud.  Remember this:

Too many words “getting started” always leads to a letdown at the end – if the listener even makes it TO the end.  The impact will always be reduced, no matter what.

Doorbell rings.  You answer it.  WHAT HAPPENED? THAT’S the important part.

We all want to be entertaining on the air.  But “funny” isn’t the only thing that entertains.  And for that matter, “punch line” humor is dead, anyway.
It’s the UNEXPECTED remark that cracks people up.  But great vocabulary, the ability to paint a picture, and vulnerability are all ingredients of “entertaining,” too.  Think “A Christmas Story” about the kid and the B.B. gun.  (God bless you, Jean Shepherd, for writing that.)

In coaching hundreds of Personality morning shows, I think these may be two of the main things I’ve learned:

1. Step One is never just to try and be funny.  Step One is to be Relevant.  THAT’S ALWAYS THE GOAL.  Then – and only then – should you turn your sense of humor and your personality traits into something to do on the air.  But if the listener can’t see himself/herself in it, then it’s just another deejay telling a joke.  Ho hum.  (You know, I can just click Amazon Prime on my phone or iPad and see Jim Gaffigan.  He’s funnier than you.)
2. You can’t MAKE someone funny.  (Partner, caller, etc.)  But that can actually work, and become humorous if you put it in the right context.  Use your imagination.  Instead of going for a joke, go for a funny REACTION.