Starting out a career in radio can be daunting. So let me help you with two foundational thoughts:

1. Learn the Basics. If you’re not sure what they are, ask the best talent on the station or the Program Director what they are (and why).

2. Be yourself as much as you possibly can. Trying to adopt other air talents’ strengths probably won’t work for you. And why be a clone anyway?

Here’s what I think is a good example: Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant studied every move Michael Jordan had. But, he didn’t have “the claw” – Jordan’s giant right hand that could control the basketball like it was a baseball.

However, Bryant took Jordan’s mindset, and added to that a skill all his own: He was a much better outside shooter than Michael.

Jordan’s still the greatest, but if he’s #1, then Kobe’s #1A. You can be that good, too.

A station’s Program Director once proudly told me, “We only play 280 songs. With today’s Time Spent Listening stats, that’s all we need. A hit every song.”

Wrong. While “variety” has lost its meaning in the Imaging palette, it’s very real in the mind of the music-radio listener. That’s why Sirius/XM, Apple music, etc. thrive. There’s something new available all the time.

While mainly working with radio stations over the last 30 years, I also worked with some television air talent. Spending the bulk of my career in Texas (Dallas and Houston), where they often outshone the major TV networks, I was able to help a few people in those markets. But coaching them helped me even more in dealing with smaller market TV folks.

Example: in Spokane, while I was coaching two radio stations, they also asked me to do some sessions with their TV stations’ news anchors.

In 30 years of Talent Coaching all sized markets, I’ve found that the smaller market radio stations often have something that the medium and large markets don’t have – Authenticity.

While their formatics may sometimes be weak by major market standards, they often MEAN more to listeners. The reason is simple: they can be local. So, they can reflect more easily what the majority of their listeners really care about and identify with – and that’s the whole Content ballgame.

One of the things that makes it hard to coach people is when their whole on-air position is just a catch phrase. A TV station in my hometown uses “On Your Side” as its ‘positioning’ statement. It’s in all their stupid promos. But it’s meaningless.

“On my side” for what? A lawsuit? A basketball game at the gym? A street fight? My political affiliation? My battle with every restaurant to not put onions or garlic in my food?

Their “position” is actually prone (as in “lying face downward” or “lying flat,” according to the dictionary).