I Completely Fell Apart

Another true-life lesson, shared in hopes it teaches you something that you don't need to learn the hard way, like I did.

I played trombone in my high school band and orchestra.

It never felt like I was all that talented as a musician, but since I moved up to first chair and eventually my band director encouraged me to enter a regional solo competition, I suppose I was good enough.

However, that Saturday morning in Canton, Ohio, in a school room when my piano accompanist got to the place where I was to come in, I cracked.

Suddenly, my memory was gone.  I had practiced.  I had rehearsed.  I had memorized, but when it was my turn to perform, I lost everything.  My embouchure collapsed.

I didn't play very much, and what I did play was terrible.  I had sounded better in my very first lesson many years before.

I wanted to run and hide as the pianist played her part perfectly.

What I learned:  it's not enough to "prepare." 

From then on, I vowed to always OVER-prepare.

Prepare beyond being ready, beyond knowing your part, past perfect execution.

How did it work out?  A few years later, auditioning for my university band and orchestra, I made the cut.  I've won more than my share of broadcast awards in the intervening years as well.

My hope:  you never have to go through the complete humiliation I had to experience as an adolescent in order to learn how crucial over-prep on everything is.

 I've always wondered what and who (click to read his parents' story if you're not aware of it) it took for the likes of Richard Sherman or Russell Wilson (another powerful tale) to learn that lesson at such a young age.

You're Not Ready

... until you ask:

Does Nielsen/Numeris have all current facilities information?  Have we reviewed the market slogan file?  Are any stations in the market reporting a slogan that they are not using on-air as per frequency standards?  How might this impact us negatively or positively?

Has there been any shift in audience composition by demographic or gender?  Has there been movement in sharing patterns with key competitors?  If so, is there a real trend?  Should research parameters be adjusted accordingly?

Does the most recent book analysis uncover opportunities to recycle available cume?  Do current TSL trends indicate library rotations may require adjustment?

In the U.S., have we tracked zip codes for diary placement, return in target demos, highest AQH versus cume counted, etc.?  In Canada, where privacy laws restrict this info, have you used your own database to understand where your listeners live and work?  Does the marketing dept. and their outside vendors know how to exploit this data to maximize ratings and strengthen cash flow?  Do they have access to audience mapping technologies?

Was there anything abnormal in the previous survey?  When was the last time the station ordered a diary review, PD Advantage or other in depth study of PPM usage?  Do we know if we get more credit for slogan, call letters or frequency?  Are we using digital frequency in our primary identifier?  Is this being picked up by the survey?

Does an hour-by-hour (and in PPM, quarter hour by quarter hour or minute by minute) analysis show significant tune-in or tune-out for a target cell?  Might it be attributed to a regular feature or contest?  Should it be repeated later in the day/week or deleted?

Are there any daypart specific programs, especially on weekends that are “performers?”  Are they placed for optimal exposure to available targeted cume?  Might the station benefit from a repeat performance in the same broadcast week?

Does the station have a data cruncher expert on staff, at your consultant or other vendors?  Have they generated and distributed pertinent reports and tools from the last market measurement?

Does the station have a Qualitative expert on staff?  Have they conducted a meeting for air personalities to hone content targeting?  (Note:  CMA organizational members can receive free reports from the Country Music Association.)

Do we have a graduate of "Ratings University" in our employment roster?  Have they shared their insight to “the game”?  If not, when is that Numeris/Nielsen road-show coming to the area?

Another Day, Another Form

If you've been reading my blog for very long, you no doubt know that I love forms.  They organize and create systems, making for consistency.

Here's a good one 97 Country/Lakeland PD Mike James created back when he programmed WQIK/Jacksonville:

I am sure Mike, always competitive, has come up with much better ones than this many times over, which is why I feel free share it now with you. 

We all get in ruts after doing the same things for too long.

Is it time to suggest a new prep form for your team?  Sometimes that's all it takes to reinvent and refresh for presentation and content.

5 Ways To Build Loyalty To Any Radio Show

From old pal Cliff Dumas who doesn't call himself a "talent coach," but prefers "talent mentor:"

1.    Every break in PPM stands alone, so each break must be a positive, fun and entertaining experience for the listener .
2.    Create memorable benchmarks for horizontal, day-to-day listening.
3.    Build ideas around personal and pop culture topics that create talk. Innovation fuels greater occasions of listening.
4     Develop short term "story arcs" around relevant content that carry people to the next day. (Can’t be missed moments) In PPM, listening longer is really about occasions of listening verses lengthening time exposed on a certain day.
5.    Seize moments and discover opportunities to reflect and showcase our characters through relevant news and pop culture events relatable to all.

I'll have a good form to use as you evaluate these things tomorrow.

Make Prep A Priority

There are few things that can make a greater difference to a radio station’s sound than show prep.   

The difference between personalities (and especially morning teams) that prep material in advance and those that don’t is audible and awesome.

Some characteristics of the morning team show that doesn’t prep:  

• They tend to have one “bit” through the show.   
• The only thing they do to create listener interaction is contests and prizes.
• Their content is purely “off the news” with little or nothing local.  
• They ramble because they haven’t worked out where the bit’s going to end.

A multi-person team simply must do at least some group prep.  Certainly, the classic "generator" vs "reactor" character balance can be a crutch if the reactor never knows in advance what the point of the content is.  How do you know when the bit is over if you don't have any idea where it's going?

 

If your people are sloughing (show prep) off, work with them, encourage them, provide them the time and atmosphere, if possible, in which they can prepare material for tomorrow’s show.

Does Anyone "Binge" On Your Blog?

In the news:

• People Are Totally Binge-Watching Arrested Development
• Binge Viewing: TV's Lost Weekends
• Is Binge Viewing Good or Bad for Netflix?
• Eight Great Shows You Haven't Binge-Watched
• Binge Watching Is Our Future

I will leave it to smarter minds than mine whether waiting until the weekend to gorge on one whole TV series by viewers is good or bad for the future of Netflix and all of traditional media, but this much is clear:  creating something so delicious that the audience can't wait to fully savor it all in one lengthy session is greatness defined.

Are you podcasting and blogging every day?  Is it so terrific that your listeners make a point of coming to your website or through social media to savor everything you created this week?

If not, as good as your traditional ratings and audience shares, your content isn't good enough to compete in what is certainly to become tomorrow's media.

Heck, if you're not reading this material every single day, MY content isn't good enough either.

I'm working on it.  How about you?

Connect Personally And Keep It Real

For the last few days I've been sharing info-graphics from "State of Listening in America" which haven't gotten press coverage and yet I believe impact you very directly much more than than "good news" headlines picked up by media the day after the New York data presentation.

1.  CONNECT PERSONALLY WITH LISTENERS

Listeners have deep affinities with DJs and value the time spent with them.

2.  DJs ARE CONSIDERED CELEBRITIES WHO KEEP IT REAL”

Listeners expect a lot from us.

How have you delivered on those hopes in the last few minutes on your air?

A How-To Course In Using Twitter To Prep Your Show In Under Two Minutes

Twitter's 140 character discipline is honing the pace of everything.

Author and Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead told MSNBC's Alex Witt recently how she uses Tweets to improve and write her show.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I will let you decide whether to stop her lesson at 1:40 in (and avoid the political edge that comes after it), which is pretty much the sort of jokes you'd expect to hear from Lizz on stage, in her books and coming out of the mouth of John Stewart.

Another Post On Change

The farewell post on the American Comedy Network Facebook page from Joel Graham, who calls himself not just GM/Creative Director but also "Former Head Writer/Staff Writer/Producer/Current Voice Talent for American Comedy Network - I’ve done it all here and loved every minute of it..." is a classy exit, ending with "Thank you for making my dream job possible."

It will be interesting to see if the ACM website and brand find a way to live on as a source of comedy for new media, but then the brand was really only known to radio personalities and probably means nothing to anyone outside our business.



Dial Global President/Programming Kirk Stirkand told ALL ACCESS, "While always a fun, topical and creative service, it wasn't viable any longer in terms of national coverage. We think affiliates will be well-served by the great services from our partners, Wise Brother Media."

I could not agree more.

If your show continues to rely on the kind of lengthy, contrived song parodies and pre-produced bits that ACN innovated in 1983, it's time to take this quick test and find out what decade you're living in.

Prep Tip From A Pro (Forwarded By Another One)

More about the importance of show prep thanks to a fellow member of The Colbert Nation:  

I'm a huge fan of the real-time improv style of The Colbert Report and ran across this quote from Stephen Colbert about the show:

Colbert said that to him, “the show” isn’t the performance in front of his audience. The “show” is really what he does all day with his staff. “There’s the joy in doing this hard thing,” he explained. “That hard work together IS the show…. I then have the responsibility and pleasure of SHARING what that joy was [with the audience].”

Colbert makes it look easy during the show, but if you're properly prepared, the payoff is in the performance.

- Buzz Jackson, PD, KIIM/ Cumulus, Tucson

More On Radio's Strengths Vs Pandora's Weaknesses

Jeff Vidler's Vision Critical research on Pandora users' use of and opinions about broadcast radio should serve as a wake up call for broadcast audio (the service formerly known as "radio").

Michael O'Malley highlighted with a red circle yesterday what we need to do in order to keep things that way.

 And, they expect us to do those same things on every digital platform.

Business cycles teach lessons, and what we're going through right now isn't new.

The courageous invest to gain market share when others are cutting back.

Working On The Relationship

It's almost like I went to lunch with a mutual friend of my soul mate and it slipped out that behind my back "everyone" is talking about how boring and predictable day to day life with me has become!

Michael O'Malley's take (the red circle is where we need to be vs where we are now) on Jeff Vidler's Vision Critical research on Pandora users' use of and opinions about broadcast radio, highlighting the need to move farther away from "getting tired of it after awhile" and "boring" toward "for people like me," "puts me in a good mood," and "interesting" reminded me of all the articles over the years in Redbook Magazine with lists (and lists and lists and lists!) of things couples can do to make their relationship stronger.

The shortest of them - five tips - is a good start for any radio broadcast personality to practice.

Daily Habit #1: Talk to Each Other

The word "broadcast" and the fact that we're a "mass" medium makes it easy to feel like you're doing the job when you're talking.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Are you listening too?  Can other listeners tell that you are?  This starts, of course, with social media, but it has to also include txting and even tightly-edited phoners.

Daily Habit #2: Flirt

No, don't try to pick up the opposite sex in your interactions.  Just ask anyone who's done that.  Sometimes it does work out, but more often than not it can turn ugly. 

Audio "flirting" can be fun, however, as long as it's done in front of the entire audience and they know that they are welcome to flirt back too.  Smile, tease, share relatable stories, Act interested in the target listener.  Constantly, let them know you care.

Daily Habit #3: Get Stupid Together

Be silly.  Laugh. 

Poke fun at yourself and invite listeners to poke fun at themselves as well.

Daily Habit #4: Declare Your Independence

Don't be like everyone else. 

Don't use the same words that every other voice on the radio also does.

Be yourself by sharing - not opinions that might polarize listeners against you or each other - but your point of view, perspective in a way that lets the listener know you want to learn what theirs is too.

Daily Habit #5: Share a Spiritual Moment

Religion and politics, yes, should be off limits for most of us.  If you want to go there, you need to have earned incredible levels of trust and that starts by deeply understanding all of the beliefs and priorities of the folks who listen to you.

Instead, look for common threads that overlap with yours and start there.  Raise money and awareness for the Red Cross, St. Jude, Children's Miracle Network, World Vision.   Even better, find something you personally feel committed to and work to get your listener involved.

Make a difference by making listeners FEEL what you stand for.

Finally, once you've done those five and incorporated them into your daily content, it's time to go back to all of those Redbook articles in their archive and work through another list.

Sustaining a relationship requires a daily commitment to keeping things fresh and new, every break, every day.

Pardon

Interruptions are such an intrinsic part of normal male communication that ESPN has even turned the name of its now-legendary "PTI" into an acronym.

For females, not so much.

And, that gender difference in normal conversation is one of the primary reasons for prep on any radio station, team or personality wanting to appeal to women.

Deborah Tannen has been researching, writing about and speaking to help couples "understand" how the things each person says, the way they say it, is perceived by the opposite sex for at least thirty years.

Her reactions to the last two weeks' campaign debates (click to read her New York Times Op Ed on it), with the two candidates' in-your-face approach to one another is a great reminder of why it's important to always know who is going to set up and start delivering content, where it's going and who's going to end the bit.

"Speakers can exploit the sense that they have a right to finish their turn, but demanding that right can backfire. Members of the audience gasped when Mr. Romney told Mr. Obama, “You’ll get your chance in a moment. I’m still speaking.” A courteous “Please let me finish” might have been looked on more favorably.  How much can a listener talk and still be a listener rather than a wannabe speaker? For some the limit is a word or a phrase like “Exactly,” “Yeah, right,” or maybe even “I know what you mean.” But for others it can be much more — “I know, the same thing happened to me” — or even a short story that expands a topic another speaker raised." 

The Georgetown Prof notes that it's not just a case of needing to know your partner.  You also need to understand your listener as well.

You might think it’s obvious that an interruption is when a second person starts talking before another has stopped. But how long a pause means “I’m done” rather than “I’m catching my breath”? This, too, varies by region and culture — and the difference can lead to unintended interruptions. In 1978, I tape-recorded a Thanksgiving dinner conversation involving two Christians raised in California, three Jews of Eastern European ancestry from New York and a British woman. At times the Californians felt interrupted when their Jewish friends mistook a pause for breath as a turn-relinquishing one. At other times, exclamations like “Wow!” or “That’s impossible!” which were intended to encourage the conversation, stopped it instead.

If you're pert of a male-female team and you want both genders to like you, including prep on "your back and forth/taking turns" of normal conversation requires advance thinking before the mic opens.

"It’s well documented that women tend to be interrupted more than men, and that women who interrupt others are seen more negatively than men who do. (Some years ago John McLaughlin showed me a tape to illustrate what he’d noticed — that Eleanor Clift was cut off far more often than the men on his show.) But it’s also been found that there are more interruptions in all-women conversations, though the talking-over may be more a talking-along in a lively free-for-all." 

What do listeners expect each character to do?  How do you want your listener to respond?

Your team's conversational style may determine whether they seethe quietly, call in to voice their opinion, yell at the radio or turn you off.

Everyone Knows What To Do. Doing It Is Hard.

The best content, executed as perfectly as possible as consistently as you can create it, drives daily cume.  Everyone has weekly cume.  Double what you thought you had in diaries.  Most of it is very short duration - as little as two and a half minutes for about half of every radio station's cuming occasions. 

To convert weekly cume to daily cume you must be unique, special and simply amazing every two and a half minutes, 24/7!

Unless you are alone in your format, music quantity statements and commercial free periods won't do this for you.  Seek, scan and world-wide streaming media offer more music, better music, anytime I want, not just want you want.

Inventory your non-duplicatable branded assets, be sure that they are loved by your target and then leverage the heck out of them.

Emergencies Separate Wheat From Chaff

When you search Google using the term "Colorado Springs radio" one station rises to the top.

It's a sad commentary that below that comes the nationally-syndicated religious broadcaster WAY-FM, followed by NPR stations from Minnesota and Boston.

Fortunately, Cumulus-owned 740 KVOR is rising to the top not just in SEO but also in its fire coverage as the city is under a mandatory evacuation.

The people inside the building at 6805 Corporate Drive today should make us all proud of what radio can be at its very best.

Good Intentions (From A&O's 'Trachman Files)

I suspect a lazy streak runs through most creative people. We tell the world we're looking for a *better* way to do things, but what we're really after, deep down, is an *easier* way. Why else would we choose a profession which, at least from the outside, looks like the easiest of all? To get paid for simply talking; to sit and listen to music for several hours a day -- tell me that isn't a large part of what drew you to this Biz... No matter that you soon found out it's more complicated than that -- by then we were stuck, committed, and yet, beneath it all, still questing for that ideal on-air job, where they pay you more than you can spend, just for being yourself
behind a mike...

More evidence of our laziness: we pay lip service to many wonderful ideas that never get put into practice. I teach DJs how to prepare material for their shows; they almost always agree that this is a good idea. Yet, if, months later, I ask to see their prep sheets, not one in ten will be doing
any...

I invite talents on client stations to send me tapes so we can critique them together. On the phone, they respond like I have just offered them part of my soul. Four out of five never send the tape and of those who do, it can be months before we find an hour to spend together listening to it.

I urge PDs to critique their jocks regularly, and there isn't one who's ever said to me, "That's a low priority; maybe I'll get around to it some day when I have time." And yet -- well, you know...

I present workshops at radio stations, and when they're over, often I'm walking on air, delighted at how well my ideas were received. As if to underscore my perception, they invite me back months later to do it again.

They can't have been just "shining me on" -- they're spending money to have me return! But when I arrive, I often wonder if I've ever been there. None of those bright ideas have actually been embraced. Nobody's doing any real show prep, the PD has never gotten around to critiquing on a regular basis and the station sounds pretty much as it did before...

What gives?

I think it's that lazy streak I referred to earlier. I don't mean this in a judgmental way and I most certainly include myself in the group. I could tell you a hundred things I should have done over the past ten years, that I just never got around to. Is there an answer? Or are we doomed to continue sliding by with a minimum of effort, following the path of least resistance on down to oblivion? When they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, this must be what they mean...

The antidote is already well known to your sales and management colleagues, although they may have different names for it: rational selfishness; identifying your own, long-term best interests, and acting on them.

It is in your own selfish interest to prep material for your show. That's how you become the sort of personality that draws people back to hear more.

That's how you advance your on-air career, survive "house-cleanings," get better jobs, earn more money. If that doesn't motivate you, then you're not just lazy, you're plumb self-destructive!

It is in your best interest to get critiquing, and if you can't get it from the PD or from me, get it from someone else; a colleague, a spouse, even your child. Maybe you know more about radio than they do -- so what? "Wise men learn more from fools than fools ever learn from wise men."

The truth is, performing requires a different set of talents than coaching or critiquing. All great performers have coaches or directors.

If you're a PD, coaching/critiquing your air staff -- helping a major component of your product to improve -- should be one of your highest priorities, not your lowest. It's one of the key ways you get ratings, and that can only benefit your station and thus, you, personally, in the long
run.

Our native laziness may help us to be creative, to be clever, but it's self-defeating when it gets in the way of delivering the efforts required to achieve success. Are there things you know you should be doing to benefit yourself in the long run?

When do you plan to start?

-- Written and distributed by my hero Jay Trachman on August 26, 2002. Ten years ago and really only the references to 'tape' make it sound anything but completely relevant today.

Updating Your Personal Prep And Content "Algorithms"

If you did a great bit one time yesterday morning, would all of your listeners have heard it?

Of course not. Social networking on Facebook works the same way. Just because you post something, doesn't mean that your fans or friends will see it.

Apply these variables as you choose what to talk about on the radio, what to post online:

• How's your relationship with your listener? Does he/she trust, respect and like you enough to pay attention when you open your mouth?
• How important to your listener is what you have to say right now? Is it clear right from the start why it's relevant?
  
• Is it fresh or new? Or, warmed over re-purposed prep content that every other talent on the radio is also using today? (or even worse, last night or yesterday)
• Are you a true, authentic, genuine "friend?" Or, are you heard/read as just "an interesting stranger?" Is what you say engaging enough to enhance the former, move toward it, away from the latter?
  

On Facebook now, subscribers can actually do their own filtering.

Your listener has been doing that all along. It's called "seek" and "scan," the reason push buttons are the most popular feature on their radio.

Work on your personal affinity, content weight, decay and "Edge Rank" as you prep and deliver everything across all platforms available to you.

Wiki-Promotion

Anybody's emails that end with a quote like this gets 100% of my attention:

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid." Frank Zappa

Jay Bedford, PD/MD at 1035 The Eagle, Sydney is that guy and he reports:

I've checked with announcers in other markets and they are also doing it. What's "it"?

When searching for tidbits of info on an artist, when backselling a song or pre promoting an
upcoming selection, many jocks (presenters to use the British term) are going to wikipedia.

You spend a small fortune on web site creation, then we go to wikipedia? Don't get upset. We
go to both. But don't forget wikipedia, it's free and compliments the web site info and the
emails and the faxes and the phone calls!

Just a hint and/or a reminder!

Localize Everything

Successful personalities MUST always strive to be local and topical. Take advantage of every opportunity to be "one on one" with a listener (one person by name as opposed to 'an audience,' which is impersonal and generic).

From "the old ideas are often the best ideas" department:

* Every time mention is made of "a listener" calling the persons name, city, and even audio should be used.

* Keep a list of people who call your morning show and relate back to them in the future. i.e.: "..Joe from Everytown called last week and pointed out...." This really puts you in touch with the Everytown audience and imagine how "Joe" will feel when he hears his name back on the radio.

* Every place has an employer in the area where "everyone either works or lives next to someone who does." Intro all contest players on the air by name, city, and occupation, which is always followed by "and a part time security guard at (company)". This tongue in cheek bit is not only fun but adds some great local spice and your own way of doing so.

* Do the same thing with Song Parodies/produced bits provided by the national comedy services. Tell listeners that the song or idea was sent in to you by a well-known local musician, or comes from a secret recording studio in a small nearby town with a funny name, if you can't re-lyric the parody with some sort of local reference or angle.

* KMPS/Seattle's Ichabod Caine announced on the air each day for many years where he would be going at lunch to "prepare tomorrow's show." He literally did his writing and brainstorming in a different local park, restaurant, museum, or other public place each day. The discipline of "going somewhere specific" each day and sitting down for two hours with the public before going home after leaving the radio station forces Ichabod to prep AND gives him lots of fresh grist for localisms every day. He drops names of people who come out to see him and solicits content from everyone who does.

* Take 30 listener winners of your station's at-work salutes to lunch each Friday. Present Grand Prizes at the weekly event. Take a digital video recorder to the lunch and collect listener testimonials about the station, reactions from the winners, as well as fun human stories that these folks share with them. Use the audio on the air next week and the video on your website.

* When using phone calls on the air you do not have to air the entire phone call, and in most cases you would not ever want to. Edit "on the fly:" Introduce the caller, where they are calling from and a lead sentence setup for their story as if you know the person instead of wasting any time asking them their name, etc. on the air and cue the audio up to "the point" of the call. Clip the playback immediately after the main point of the call has been made. Make it SOUND like every one of your callers never wastes time, does small talk, or says anything that it's right to the point and worth using.

And, of course, you know their all of their names, where they work and live, what they want to tell you (because you asked in advance off the air), making you the "local authority!"

Be Prepared

The Boy Scouts are right. And, to prove it, Scott Shannon has built his legendary success as a programmer and personality around three simple words: "Preparation, Concentration and Moderation." He famously even has posted them next to the control room clock in studios from Tampa, to Los Angeles, to New York.

"Prep" is not only a great motto, coined by British Army Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell, it's also a crucial tip to anyone who talks on the radio, especially morning people.

Sometimes a great bit will come to mind in the middle of the morning show. Ask yourself if you are really prepared to deliver it now, or better off to think it through after you are off the air.

It is important to have your game plan in hand each day when you walk into the studio and stick to it as closely as possible.

Have you ever thought of a great bit while you were on the air, rushed it on right away and thought of better ways you could have used it later on?

Few topics are so timely you cannot allow yourself the time to prepare them for the next day, week, or next opportune moment. As a matter of fact, one great source of content for tomorrow's show is simply making a note of the "clever asides" that occur to members of the team in the midst of THIS morning's show.

Rather than just DOING the fun stuff as it comes to mind in mid-set and being guilty of doing several different streams of consciousness, SAVE those thoughts, refine them and USE them once they are fully developed!