1. The amount of time the listener is willing to offer you is severely limited.
2. Edit, edit, edit. There’s a famous quote, just on the outskirts of my memory, about how “I can write a ten-minute speech in an hour. A five-minute speech takes two hours.”
3. There’s a very finite limit on how much you can teach on the air. That’s why commercial messages are always so simple. Broadcast is not a good medium for imparting knowledge, beyond brief bursts.
4. Unlike print, radio can only do one thing at a time. You can’t get to “the good stuff” (music) until everything I want you to hear (the commercials) is done. The reader turns the page, but he’s still got the book or magazine or newspaper. The listener either tunes you out mentally or changes the station, in which case she no longer has you.
Ultimately, it’s not I or your PD or GM who’s pleading with you not to squander the listener’s time – it’s the listeners themselves. They won’t stand still for it – and they have choices.
The first 'coach' to impart this knowledge to me was Jay Trachman, more than three decades ago. Pass it on. It will still be true in 30 more years.
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