Local Relevance

Great radio stations are peopled with performers who can take the day-to-day aspects of their home market and incorporate them into everything they do.

You can’t achieve this with lip-service. 

There’s only one way to create this image and that is by being actively involved in the civic spirit that unites the market.

Reflect the vibes and values that make the city special and do so genuinely. 

The listener can sense an impostor. 

Weave yourself into the fiber of your town’s culture, sports and information tastes.  Achieve that and you’ll produce big results.

It's Not The Content That's "Sticky"

JRfm/Vancouver PD Mark Patric nominated this "Waking Crew Best Call Of The Morning" in a recent coaching session:  "So good! (click to hear the mp3)


The fact it's a guy. 
The fact he knows so much about the Waking Crew and what they talk about and their personalities.
The fact he knows this relatively new song from a local act so well!
The fact he took the time to write this parody.
The fact he was brave enough to do it.
The fact he pretty much nailed it 'live' on the spot."


The glue in sticky content isn't your character either.

It's those power-packed times when the listener feels like your character is HIS or HER character!

When that happens, you have super-glued them to both your best content and authentic character.

Why Breakfast? Why AOPrep?

Have you wondered why this is called "The Breakfast Blog" and why the domain name is "aoprep"?

Custom Channels' John Bradley asked that question yesterday and when I told him, he recommended I blog the answer I gave him.

Many years ago, now Cox/San Antonio Y-100 morning guy Jeff Roper when he was PD/morning host at CBS' WSOC/Charlotte suggested that if I set up a blog for morning show sharing, he'd moderate it.  Of course, we had no aspirations of competing with the venerable big dogs of morning show sharing sites, Bitboard, Radio-Online and RadioStar.  This was before Don Anthony took Morning Mouth from paper to online resource.

Sadly, at the start, Jeff and I were very active (as you can read if you go back into the archives to the very beginning) but we ultimately found that morning people were delighted to read and use the things WE posted, but seldom contributed very much.

So, I started making use of this space as a place to write things that fit that original purpose but as people commented and I watched the web metrics, I noticed that the most popular posts were opinion pieces about ratings, research, tactics, strategy and country music.

I just happened to love thinking aloud about those things, so that's what I started to do.  That was eight years ago.

The moral of this tale:  you often start in life in one direction and then things change on you and slowly you find yourself going in a completely different one.

As long as your passion and honest perspective shine through as you react to real life, success will follow you as you go.

At least, that's my story. 

What's yours?

Monday, October 18, 2010: The Day I Agree With Glenn Beck

.. and that doesn't happen very often, as anyone who knows my politics is aware.

However, I have watched Glenn in action over the last quarter of a century from my perch on Bainbridge Island not far from his hometown and I greatly admire his courage and communication skills. Beck has a lot to teach anyone who wants to be successful in radio.

He ignored advice from colleagues and discussed private medical matters on his radio show Friday, telling listeners that his vocal chords were going into paralysis. Doctors haven't diagnosed his ailment.

"Think out loud, which is exactly what I did Friday," he told talk radio conference attendees over the weekend. "I took them on the journey."

He challenged broadcasters to do better than simply recycling “mundane” ideas, just because something worked well in the past: "Don't think, 'How can I be relatable today?' If you're afraid, tell 'em you're afraid. If you don't know, tell 'em you don't know." And don't be afraid to admit when you're wrong, he said. "That's not a flip-flop, that's being human."

Beck urged Talk radio personalities to “just be yourself” and told programmers, managers and talents in attendance to understand that “the world is looking for someone who is authentic.” Speaking to a full house at the Marina del Rey Marriott Hotel, Beck added, “A split is coming in America — that which is bogus and that which is real. When you are honest with yourself and your audience, the whole world changes."