MAKE TIME FOR TALENT

This is for PD's. It's important.

I was reading Mark Ramsey’s BLOG about AOL getting into the talent/personality business:

AOL will on Monday launch a late-night video block featuring highlights from podcasts by director Kevin Smith and comedians Adam Carolla and Kevin Pollak.

“The idea is to take these very popular podcasts with their very rabid audiences and find a platform-appropriate way to create a programming block,” said Amber Lawson, AOL’s head of programming. “We want to tap into their audiences and create video content that is consumable in one- to five-minute chunks.”

…AOL will likely add more elements to the comedy block in the future and is searching for women and minorities who fit the concept.

AOL sees the importance of compelling talent. Why doesn’t radio? Now more than ever is the time to make sure that you are coaching, motivating and critiquing your talent.

They want the feedback. They crave the attention. It will make your station better. It's a win-win for everyone.

It's amazing to me when talking to air talent how few of them get coached (or get any feedback) from their Program Director. I realize PD's are really busy and have a ton on their plates. PD's need to tackle the biggest priorities first. To me, there are very few priorities as big as talent. Especially today when there are so many different sources of media and entertainment competing for the listener’s attention, like AOL. Spending a little time with your talent is not only good for moral, but the future of your product.

While sitting down and listening to an aircheck together is always good. Sometimes just spending some one on one time with your talent "talking radio" has numerous benefits. Your talent needs to know your expectations, your philosophies and your goals. If they are not getting better, growing and meeting your expectations, it's really nobody's fault but yours, the PD.

If you’re not making time for talent, I would start. Let them know you care. And if you don't care, maybe it's time to find a new career.

REMEMBER WHEN PEOPLE USED TO SAY “I HEARD ON THE RADIO…”

I wonder how many times people get to the work and say to their friends “I heard on the radio this morning…?” I would bet not as much as they used to. Not because they aren’t listening as much, but because radio isn’t doing a great job of giving people the content to have them say “I heard on the radio….”

Music doesn’t count. They can get that anywhere. I’m talking about things personalities talk about and do that’s riveting, interesting and relatable enough for the listener to go and tell their friends about.

Most radio stations have been stripped of all marketing money. So all that’s left is word of mouth. Unfortunately, many companies have also stripped down the personalities and taken away anything that will garner word of mouth. This needs to change. Playing just music with no real one on one connection, fun or personality is bound to make radio even less interesting than many stations are already.

I’d love to see radio get back to being more than just juke boxes. If done right, stations can play 12-14 songs per hour and still be fun and have the connection that used to make radio so great.

Ask yourself, “what can I do to make people say to their friends ‘I heard on the radio today?’” Your station will be more successful.

TEASING TRAFFIC AND WEATHER

Don’t get me wrong, weather and traffic are extremely important to many radio stations, but how you tease those features could end up making your station sound old and outdated.

A majority of listeners can get traffic and weather on their phones or computers faster than you can tease it. I find it especially annoying when a jock will say “going to rain all weekend. I’ll tell you the latest forecast in fifteen minutes.” Hold on! You just told me the weather and I don’t have time to wait to hear anymore.

Same goes with traffic. Teasing me to wait for traffic will force me to turn on the AM news/talker, or just go to my smart phone to get whatever I need quicker than you can give it to me. Plus, many medium/smaller markets that do traffic don’t need to. If you are in these markets and do traffic and you’re not making money from it, I would think about dropping it. To your listeners it’s more likely useless clutter. Let real listeners call in and give you traffic reports when things are bad. 97 Rock in Buffalo does a great job with this. They call it “blowin’ in the fuzz” and it’s extremely popular and useful. Plus, they have real people, using real language giving the reports.

Today, people don’t expect or want to wait for traffic and weather. It’s an “on demand, give it to me now” world. Continue to give traffic and weather to your listeners. They count on that, but to avoid sounding outdated, be careful how you tease these elements.