I recently saw a post on Facebook from a radio personality that was upset he wasn't going to get his show prep service over the holiday. I certainly hope nobody is using a prep service for 100% of their show. If you are, then you probably have nothing on our show that a listener couldn't get someplace else.
Don't get me wrong, having multiple sources of prep is great. The more the merrier. There's a lot of great show prep sites out there that are well worth the barter. Most have great stuff, but the one thing they don't have is what ONLY YOU can bring to your show. Your own stories, experiences and thoughts. You can't find that stuff in any show prep service.
When I was on the air everyday, I always had a note pad in my car and by my bed. I wrote down everything that I thought would work on my show. Only about 25%-30% of what I wrote down actually made it on the air, but that 25%-30% of my show was stuff that no competitor had. I used life as my show prep and supplemented it with a great national show prep service.
You should always have a wide variety in your prep. Pack your show with different things like pop culture stories, celebrity news, tons of audio (all things you can get from show prep services), listener calls and a lot of local stuff. Remember, you also need to bring relatable things that happened to you. Those won't come from any show prep service. They can only come from you.
Ask yourself this, what kind of show would you have if the internet went away tomorrow?
Can you please do me (and all of us here at DG) a favor and put a hold on the Lifestyle Information Service for a month. What a great cold-turkey way to get our on-air talent to push themselves out of their comfort zone. I haven't looked at that service at all this year as I can't stand hearing talk about surveys on the air as most times the surveys are not relatable at all to the audience they are being delivered to or to the jock who is delivering them.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much information avbailable to us in our day-to-day lives and with just a brief click of a mouse, I really believe the survey has outlived it's usefulness.
Great post, John.