You Could Buy Facebook Ads

You know the drill:  "if you like Luke Bryan, like (station brand)."  And, it certainly works as long as your competition hasn't figured that out yet, but the goal is to drive listening to your radio station and hits to your website, isn't it?

Check this blog out on Seattle's 100.7 THE WOLF and learn how to move well beyond social media 101.

My Personal and Private Struggle with Weight, Body Image, & Self-Confidence by Ellen

When's the last time that listeners responded to anything on your website by writing things like this?

You are the real you, and people do see that, and soon, you will too!  
I feel your pain.
You aren't alone.
You just wrote everything I too am experiencing.
I'm here for you! Maybe we can start a FB page to help each other keep motivated? Like a support group.
Changing your attitude is the first step.
Thanks for writing this blog, it is good to not be alone. 
You are sooo my hero! You're not the only one! I feel the exact same!
Raining Hope!  What a great way to face this struggle.
Thank you for sharing.  I feel like I was reading something I wrote myself.
I love listening to you every day and enjoy you bring so candid but the bravery you exhibit here makes me love you even more.
I think you are brave and I have so much respect for you sharing your most personal thoughts.
Your transparency truly says the most about what is on the inside and your character - thank you for sharing your heart with all of us.
You Can Do It!  We all struggle with something in our lives.
You so beautifully expressed . . . Exactly the way that so many of us feel every single day. You are an amazing woman to share this with your fans, and I am hopeful that you stay on this path with your guardian angel. 

Being yourself, opening yourself to others is a magical thing.  

So is opening yourself to listening to the responses genuine authenticity elicits.

Shhhh... I'm Not Prepping My Show, I'm Writing My Blog

I spent time with a dominant major market morning show team last week who told me that something major has changed in the last five years for them.

It used to be that they all conversed when they first hit the station early in the pre-dawn hours, sharing "what are your 'five talkabouts?', here are mine" and refining the big event content together.

Now, they say, you can hear a pin drop for the first half hour as they all create their blog posts.

Then, instead of talking together, they all read one another's blog and then think about ways to engage with listeners and each other about them.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  

Once upon a time, I'd recommend that every air talent carry a notebook with them throughout their day and then refine that content into "bits" for use during the four hours they were on air.

Now, that notebook is Twitter and your listeners don't want to wait 20 hours to hear what's happening in your life.

You personal brand has a unique "voice." 

Technology is opening up new ways to express it. 

It's as important as ever, in spite of the many new channels now open in addition to the microphone in the control room.

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?