The celebration of our nation’s 250th birthday is a powerful lesson of focus, shared values, and emotional connection.
Over the last three plus decades, I’ve served as a semi-professional public address announcer for major league spring training and minor league baseball. That’s lots and lots and lots of dizzy bat races, dirtiest cars in the parking lot, and “Take Me out to the Ballgames”!
Do you know what I enjoy most?
Continue readingA song I wrote a few years ago contains the line, “To refuse to see is the same as being blind.”
This definitely applies to radio, and raises questions:
The point is, you want to eliminate the subpar things, discover what you do really well, then only do those things.
I believe that anyone who wants to become an elite Talent needs that focus.
What can we learn from Father’s Day?
While Father’s Day may not be as dominant a topic on your radio station as Global Belly Button Day, which falls later this week (“I’m not making this up,” as Dave Barry would say), when we share stories of those whose actions and attitudes we aspire to be, we communicate a core value of our brand.
Continue reading“People like us do things like this.”
Seth Godin
Here’s how careers are made…
When something happens – something that seemingly everyone is buzzing about – and you make a comment, what will you say that no one else would say?
If you can get past that, and own that, and get to where that’s the way your brain works, you will be a major star.
Read. Watch great movies. Listen to great songs. They all have that in common.
It’s the essence of programming. Every element needs to add value.
For a music station it begins with the music. That means that every song you play has to ADD value. The songs that add the greatest value are the songs that have the most value; the ones that are most loved.
For everything else it is about the value of that which interrupts the music. On one hand we can argue that if people come to us for music we should never interrupt it.
But here is the 800-pound programming paradox:
Continue readingThe great baseball pitcher and now broadcaster David Cone really caught my ear the other night as I was watching a New York Yankees game.
The day before, the Yankees had led by three runs with two outs in the 9th inning, but ended up losing the game 7-6 in extra innings.
This may be the simplest Frost Advisory you’ve ever read. But simplest doesn’t mean easiest.
I’ve learned that every bad radio station has three things in common:
I reckon’ you see this played out in your radio station every day.
Continue readingIt seems like everybody’s “stretching” out conversations to an alarming level these days.
And yet, it’s the shortest statements that have the most meaning. Examples:
“And in the end…the love you take is equal to the love you make.” The Beatles. Add anything else to it, and it becomes watered down.
“Walk softly and carry a big stick.” Theodore Roosevelt. He certainly didn’t need any additions to that statement.
“Jesus wept.” The Bible. The saddest passage, to me. No more words necessary.
The lesson: Try to resist that “one more thought” impulse. You’ll find that talking less equals meaning more.
“Off air,” the TV schedule indicated. “No programming scheduled at this time,” the box on the lower left read. It was 7:30pm. Prime time, I think they call it.
I recently attended a major league baseball game where the concession stands on the third base side were all closed. If you wanted to give them your money there was no one there to take it, presumably the very reason they were there in the first place.
Continue readingThe one Constant that any great air talent or station needs to have:
Every day, every single day, your primary goal is to deliver something that’s worth listening to.
“Memorable Moments” (a Mark Ramsey term) are what put you on the map, and the more of them you consistently have puts the station on the map more prominently.
I hear so much “social media post that I thought up a punch line for” stuff lately that it makes me want to scream.
WORK at it. Try to get better and more consistent each day. All I’m looking for is something worth listening to. If I hear it, I’ll stick with you.
