Tuesday, December 13, 2011

They Are Both Right And We Must Do It All

Bob Pittman's view of today's media audience: "TV is their hobby. The Internet is their research tool. Radio is their companion."

Walter Sabo's advice: "Stop calling them shifts. Call it your show. Constantly hit refresh. Entertain."

For years, I advised talent not to think of their "performance" as "a show," but instead to talk to one person, being real, human, vulnerable, engaging, interactive.

It's time to rethink that a bit.
  1. Be friend and companion, of course. Talking to one person, I believe, is the most effective way to do so.
  2. Keep it fresh and current too.
  3. Tell me something I don't know.
  4. Entertain as you do it.
It's not easy to be in personal intimacy mode while putting on an entertaining show simultaneously, but being the very best never is.

The listener has too many other choices than to do anything but all of it each time you open your mouth and mic.

1 comment:

Mary Beth Garber said...

Valentine, morning personality on CC's MyFM (KBIG 104.3)is a pretty good example of doing both simultaneously. Everything he talks about relates back to a story about him or someone in his family or on the station air staff. Sometimes you laugh, sometimes he take you to tears, but you feel as if he's a close friend and you can't wait to hear what he says next. That's a companion. That's a program. That's great radio.