Back to school time is everywhere. In the stores with sales. On the streets with school buses. There are even tax free days for Back to School. It’s not an official holiday like Christmas, Ground Hog Day, or Millard Fillmore’s birthday, but it is just as evident.
Back to school affects everyone’s schedule, even those that don’t go to school. (Can’t say that about ole’ Millard’s birthday.)
Continue readingOne 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).
Continue readingWhen the great artist and sculptor Michelangelo was asked how he created his famous 17-foot-tall statue of David he responded, “It was easy. I just took away everything that didn’t look like David.”
That profound simplicity could be a nifty way to approach fine tuning your radio station.
If people come to your station to be encouraged just take away the stuff that doesn’t do that.
Continue readingWhen I listen to the radio, the first thing is – I want to feel a human being there. Not just some quacky-voiced announcer who’s sitting there playing Wordle on their iPhone during the songs. And certainly not someone in the Talk arena who sounds like their every remark is prepared. (BE prepared, but don’t sound too prepared.)
It’s bad enough these days with robotic-sounding voice-trackers and AI voiceovers all over the place. I miss presence.
Relate. Be unique. As I always say, “Crack your chest open and show us what’s in there.”
It all started with a spam call. At least I thought it was.
“I’m reaching out because as a part of our brand promise we mentioned that we would contact you anytime we saw an opportunity to further improve on your overall finances…”
That one line helped change my perspective. It wasn’t a spam call at all. I realized that I had an existing relationship with this company, and they were attempting to fulfill a “brand promise” they had made to me.
Key points:
Continue readingA foundational tip of mine is: Never assume that people want to hear what you have to say.
You have to earn the listener’s attention every time you open the mic – even if you’re just doing something simple like intro’ing a song (in a music format), or adding “colorful” details to a story (in any format). Your “interesting sidebar” may indeed add something – but not always.
Continue readingWhen we radio people talk about programming do you know what tends to come up? It’s the stuff. Clocks. New music. Rotations. Liners. Commercial breaks. Traffic reports. Stuff that fits ever so nicely on a spread sheet.
Well, I have news for you. Good news, in fact. Your station has a secret weapon. And it’s not any of that stuff.
It’s people.
Continue readingNew York Yankees’ Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra said a lot of funny things, sometimes malapropisms like “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
But he also said, “You can observe a lot by just watching.”
As it applies to radio, you can observe a lot by just listening.
Continue readingIt’s simple, really.*
In a short burst of clarity and creativity, I’ve come up with The World’s Simplest Checklist for a really swell radio station. (Believe me they only come to me in short bursts).
Grab your #2 pencil and count up your points!
Continue readingThere’s an old saying, “Give the people what they want.” That was the gospel.
But Volkswagon didn’t agree. People were driving huge cars when the original Beetle came out – but then millions and millions of VW Beetles were sold.
George Lucas didn’t. The sci-fi genre was pretty sparse when “Star Wars” came out. Hollywood moguls said people didn’t want that. They were, uh…wrong.
Continue reading
