Pretty much every air talent tries to establish “benchmark” material. But what, exactly, makes something a “must hear” feature?

Well, first of all, it’s about the idea itself. Back when the huge box office sci-fi movies were just becoming all the rage, my morning show partner in Houston, Fred Kennedy and I came up with a thing we called “Star Fake.”

It was the cast of Star Trek, but the plot of Star Wars. (With one exception: We did keep the Princess. Kind of essential.) Each episode was highly produced and campy, with a discernible ‘soundtrack’ and at times dozens of character voices, all done by Fred and me.

We tried it out for a few weeks, one episode per week. By the third episode, we had a LOT of people commenting on it and requesting more episodes. We ended up doing 49 episodes in all. We actually had to re-run them several few months later, that time running two episodes per week.

One of the keys was that even with those familiar “cast members,” there was always something LOCAL. We purposely fit local celebrities and political figures into the plotlines.

If you can keep it fresh, add a local flavor, and people like it, it’s a benchmark. Otherwise, it’s just something that’s ‘regularly scheduled.’