A lot of air talents are not even aware of talent coaching.  They have aircheck sessions with the PD – maybe – and that’s about it.  I don’t know every talent coach working these days, but most of the ones I do know concentrate on Content – the search for it, the storytelling skill set, how to dig inside yourself and reveal things that (hopefully) the listener can identify with.

And that’s fine.  That’s the “big picture stuff,” and it matters.  If you’re fortunate enough to work with a Valerie Geller or Randy Lane, for instance, there’s no doubt that you will get better, and understand a lot of things you probably never “got” before.

But there’s something else that plays a huge factor in being the Full Package, and that’s simply being a good disc jockey.

Sad to say, with the advent of voice tracking, the computer running everything, long stopsets that lull you into not staying as sharp as when we had to run everything manually, sloppy cue tones… well, let’s just say that compared to the heyday of the Top 40 Wars, things are sometimes just not very sharp right now.

It matters that your delivery matches the pace of the song you’re talking over or coming out of.  Or the emotional vibe of the song.  Or both.

It matters that you learn to trust saying things once, really well, then moving forward – without spelling everything out to the listener and repeating everything you say, treating the listener like a 3-year old.

It matters that you put things in real, conversational wording, rather than just reading “print language” off a computer screen.

And there are literally dozens of other things that I coach – but the point is that it REALLY matters that you develop your voice acting skills to sound sincere and like you’re here in my car with me, right this second, listening to the song with me.

Of COURSE you want to come across as a good companion in the car; a good neighbor; hopefully a person the listener considers to be a good friend.  But you have to START with being a good, skilled disc jockey.