In the last tip, I wrote about getting away from Information and concentrating on Storytelling.  That tip and this one grew out of an email conversation my associate John Frost and I had with the PD of a station we both work with.  Let me share it with you…

It’s kind of like John Lennon wrote in “With a Little Help From My Friends” – “What do you see when you turn out the light?” was his question.  For our purposes, it’s simply, “What do you see?”

When we’re in the grocery store, watching someone pick out a tomato with one hand while she holds her child’s stroller with the other.  Or just staring out the window, and we see a leaf fall that signals the season changing.  Or getting an email or text from an old friend you haven’t heard from in a long time.  What catches our attention is the starting place.  That’s where a story is born.  Baseball great Yogi Berra said it best: “You can observe a lot by watching.”

I believe, and I’m sure Frost agrees, that telling stories is the most important ingredient in radio. 
The next tip will be about how to put a story together.