Some things are said--and a few of them with the best of intentions--that do nothing for you. The truth is that intentions don’t matter. If I step on your foot, then apologize for it, that’s nice of me, and it was well-intentioned, but it doesn’t stop your foot from hurting. So even though you mean well, as if it’s going to “catch me up” somehow to say “Off mic, we were talking about x….” or “Before we got on the air, we were talking about x….” it doesn’t put any points on the board. It just refers to a time when I WASN’T LISTENING. So I don’t care. Remember, time flows in ONE direction for the Listener—from this moment, right now, FORWARD. Referring back, or referring to something I couldn’t even hear, is pointless (read more - Tip #18)

It seems like multi-station ownership has brought a "bottom line" mentality to everything. "All they care about is the bottom line" is said about every major radio company nowadays. And stations in every market jostle for what they perceive to be the strongest "bottom line" positions to their Listeners. But do they have any real interest for--or meaning to—the Listener? Here are some examples.
· "The At-Work Station." (Isn't it possible that this has come to mean "the blandest music, so the boss won't bitch about it" station?)
· "Favorites of Yesterday and Today." (Invalidated with the first song I hear that I can't stand.) (read more - Tip #19)

Don't you just hate it when someone on a music station has an interview with a guest or an artist, and all of a sudden, the radio station and the host just turn into shills for the record industry? What could possibly be more boring than those "So, when does the new album come out?" and "Where's the next stop on your tour?" questions, and their lame, predictable answers. Don't settle for that pap (read more - Tip #20)

It seems sometimes like we have an entire generation of air Talents that insist on asking the Listener questions on the air in the way they phrase things. This ancient and weird habit also invades commercial copy ("Do you want a great deal on a new car?"), and promo copy. I’m convinced that questions are the death of radio. Especially those little rhetorical questions, like ending a line with “Right?” or “Okay?” or “sound good to you?” If you need my response, you’re out of luck. I’m busy. In my seminars, I illustrate how silly this is with these two rhetorical questions:
· Why do people ask rhetorical questions?
· And do they expect an answer? (read more - Tip #21)

I couldn’t believe it. Here we are in 2007, and I’m hearing a morning team do the ancient “What women say, versus what women really mean” thing. (You know, when the husband says, “Can’t you pick up the kids?” and her answer is a clipped, “Fine.” Which, of course, doesn’t mean “fine.” Then he says, “What’s wrong?” and gets an even more clipped, “Nothing!” as a response. Etc.) (read more - Tip #22)

Arthur Penn, the director of movies such as "Little Big Man" and "Bonnie and Clyde," is known for getting what he calls "happy accidents" on film. Little things that happen unplanned during the filming of scenes that have become golden moments in his pictures. Part of the reason for this is that he doesn't over-rehearse scenes with the actors. He prefers to hear the dialogue fresh with the camera rolling, and uses a lot of first or second "takes," even if a line is left out or a different physical movement occurs than what was called for in the screenplay. The key here is not that he doesn't have a lot of rehearsal (read more - Tip #23)

It's easy to confuse the words "pace" and "momentum." They are used almost interchangeably, but do not mean the same thing. Pace is how fast you go. But momentum is about how straight a line there is from Point "A" to Point "B." Clutter, no matter what the pace is, defeats momentum. Too many things done real fast are still just too many things. As a matter of fact, it's almost worse to do them real fast, because then you just sound like another quacking, fast-talking "cartoon deejay." (read more - Tip #24)

Here's a tip that has nothing to do with any specific formatics, but applies to all formats. My wife has a wonderfully simplistic way of listening to the radio. For her, no one is worth listening to if they don't sound like they're having fun on the air--like they're genuinely interested in what they're doing, and like having their job. The old saying is that people who are interested are interesting (read more - Tip #25)

As we say in the South, this here's what you call your basic Zen thing. A lot of people, including a lot of Program Directors, talk about "concentration." You see football and basketball coaches pleading with their players to "bear down and concentrate." Baloney. "Bearing down" to will yourself through mental clutter and "concentrate" is stressful, exhausting, and doesn't work. Zen masters, experts at karate and great musicians and athletes say that they do their best when they simply isolate a thought, and allow all other thoughts to just melt away(read more - Tip #26)

Gary Larson, the creator of The Far Side comics, had a great two-panel cartoon. The first panel was titled, "What we say to dogs." A guy scolding his dog was saying, "Okay, Ginger! I've had it! You stay out of the garbage! Understand, Ginger? Stay out of the garbage, or else!" The second panel was titled, "What they hear." Same drawing--the guy pointing his finger at the dog, but the dog is hearing him say, "Blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah blah." Yes, this does apply to the Listener--you do have to be talking about things that your Listener CARES about (read more - Tip #27)

Even though I coach radio Talent, I often reference TV shows as examples. So think about this: From Andy Griffith, Bob Newhart and Mary Tyler Moore to Seinfield, Frazier, and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” all these shows featured a lead character who quite often (in some instances, almost always) gave the punch lines to one of the other cast members. And it just made them and their shows that much more likeable, because of the lack of ego that the viewer felt from the "star." (read more - Tip #28)

Radio legend Gordon McLendon once said that the only purpose of doing contests and giveaways at all was to make great promos. NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell said that his great Boston Celtics teams wanted to win every game--every pre-season game, every regular-season game, and every playoff game. Obviously, that's not really possible, but thinking like that enabled them to win ELEVEN championships in thirteen years! So, with those two thoughts in mind, let me give you a simple thing to go for (read more - Tip #29)

Once in a while, you'll have a charity auction, a grateful contest winner, traffic information, or a serious story to handle on the air. Instead of the all-too-typical "flippant disc jockey insincerity thing," play it for all it's worth. Straight ahead, positive, human, sincere. Not overplayed, no “winking at the audience” to let them know that you’re “hipper” than the material. Just real and down to earth (read more - Tip #30)

It seems so easy to hear the mistakes your competitor makes--the things he or she does that are dumb, not thought out well, phony-sounding, pukey, lame, irritating or obvious. So why can't we hear ourselves the same way? It's because we know it's us. Someone we like. Someone we root for and want to succeed (read more - Tip #31)

... That's why too many Talents resort to "kicker" stories and "News of the Weird." If this kind of stuff is a “crutch” for you, then you need to change the way you’re thinking. This pap isn’t what the listener really wants to hear. It’s mental tofu, passing through with no impact at all; just filling time.) Your job as a Talent isn’t to try and be the sun; it’s to “be the moon” and ... (read more - Tip #32)

It seems like the thing most air talents struggle with is show prep. I’m not talking about station events and promotions, contests, etc. What I’m referring to is what should make your show unique. The personal reflections and “camera angles” that shape your Content. The default settings seem to be three main headings (read more - Tip #33)

You've got a great bit going. The phone lines are lit up. You and the Listeners have each had funny or poignant lines about the subject. When do you stop? A lot of Air Talents won't stop. They'll continue to take--and air--phone calls as long as they keep coming in. This is almost always a mistake. In radiation terminology, things have a "half-life," meaning that even though it continues to exist, it loses energy or becomes dangerous past a certain point (read more - Tip #34)

Here’s a tip for PD’s trying to become better at coaching Talent. Here's what your Talent doesn't need to hear: "You had a good show today"...or "You guys were really funny this morning" or "Need to pick the pace up a little bit."  These types of non-specific comments, even well-intentioned, are too vague to result in any real progress. Remember that Air Talents, if they're really good (or if they're ever going to BECOME really good), are like musicians (read more - Tip #35)

This is another tip for PD’s, but if you’re not a Program Director, just put yourself in the Talent’s seat. You've just hired a new Air Talent. How do you get him or her off to a good start? Remember that it takes a long time to undo a first impression (if it can be done at all). So help your new person avoid overdoing it the first few days or weeks (read more - Tip #36)

I just saw a TV commercial with Bob Villa, former host of “This Old House,” now a male Martha Stewart-type icon. Seems the premise is that Bob’s going to visit a couple who’ve just bought their first house. As he walks up the driveway, they greet him and say they have a whole bunch of jobs to finish, to which Bob answers, “Craftsman Tools can help!” They reacted with stupid, carefully staged grins and typical ad copy responses, but I wanted them to say, “Well, Bob, we really didn’t ask what brand of wrench would work best. We just hoped you’d volunteer to get off your overly successful butt and lend a hand here.” So here’s the lesson ... (read more - Tip #37)

So much is the exact opposite of what its name implies. ("Military Intelligence" comes to mind.) The people that use your station are called "listeners." But "listeners" don't actually listen very much. As much as we'd like to not believe this, the radio is an appliance, like a light bulb or a microwave oven. We can't really expect them to listen intently to everything we do. That's why Research can be misleading--because listeners will say one thing, but do another. It's not because they aren't telling the truth. It's just that Research tends to ask them what they want to listen to, when in reality, they don't listen, they don't think, they just react to what they hear (read more - Tip #38)

In a previous tip, we discussed the fact that your "Listener" doesn't really LISTEN very much. He/she uses radio as a mood service appliance, an Information source, or (hopefully) an Entertainment medium. But the Listener is rarely just sitting listening to the radio. It's usually in conjunction with something else--working, driving, backyard barbecue, etc. I've heard many dedicated Air Talents say that they want to MAKE the Listener THINK about something or MAKE the Listener PAY ATTENTION to something. This can't be done (read more - Tip #39)

Think about this. I'm tuning in NOW. I didn't HEAR what you did a minute and a half ago. So if you refer back to it without some sort of explanation, I DON'T GET IT. We tend to think of our shows as being linear, with the Listener tuning at the beginning, and listening until the end. But in reality, the Listener comes in NOW or tunes out NOW. That's why you have to "reset the stage" every couple of minutes for the NEW Listener (read more - Tip #40)

One of the things we all try to get our Air Talents to do is be more LOCAL on the air. Recently, as I talked about this with one of the members of a Morning Team, he had a reaction that really made me think. He said that this was something that they'd heard from the station's consultant and the PD and the GM before, but that he had some difficulty seeing how it could be done on days when there really wasn't much of anything local to talk about (read more - Tip #41)  

This is one of the main two or three things I coach, and one of the most misunderstood. It’s appalling how many people give weak, vague or indefinite Time Lines when they’re promoting something. It’s kind of like the auditions on “American Idol.” Everybody thinks they do it well, but very few actually do (read more - Tip #42)

At one time, Jerry Lee Lewis was one of the fastest rising stars in the rock world—second only to Elvis. He’d done the rock & roll anthems “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire.” He gave great, high-energy live shows, the girls screamed with delight when they saw him, and guys thought he was the coolest thing going. He had the hair, the voice, the talent and the momentum. 
Then he made a critical error (read more - Tip #43)

Whenever you get down about anything on your station, turn on the TV. Television does so many things wrong that you can’t help but feel better about your radio product after watching them prattle on about stuff their Viewers couldn’t possibly care about, and spend most of their time telling the Viewer that they’ll “be right back” or that something will happen “after we take a break.” Aaaaaarrrrggghhh. TV people also seem to assume that we’re keeping notes on the entire lineup, so they promote three or four shows at a time—when in reality, we just want to be reminded of when American Idol is on  (read more - Tip #44)

All great movies have one thing in common—the screenplays are concise. That gives them momentum, no matter what the length of the movie is. Each scene is only as long as it needs to be, then the next scene starts. Bad movies are just the opposite. Even if a bad movie is short in length, it seems to drag (read more - Tip #45)

We’ve all heard about staying “one-on-one” with the Listener, but many Air Talents overlook the most obvious ingredient in doing it, and Program Directors tend to listen for the big things, and let little things slide. Connection with the Listener is such a fragile thing. Little things make or break it (read more - Tip #46)

Doesn’t it always seem that the people in the public eye who make the best impressions are the ones that seem the most “down to earth?” In real terms, this description means giving off the vibe of being open and accessible. So remember to keep your ego in check. It’s hard for me to care about you if you already care too much about yourself. 
Using TalkRadio as a great example, a bad Talent hides behind the “What do YOU think?” posture, while a good Talent gives you his or her thoughts on the subject first, and then you react (read more - Tip #47)

Many Air Talents sound like they’re on the TELEPHONE with the Listener when they’re on the air. This perspective actually pushes the Listener farther away from you. Think of it this way, instead--you’re right BESIDE the Listener, in the room with him, or in the car with him. So instead of talking AT him, talk TO him (read more - Tip #48)

One of the most difficult things to get across to MusicRadio Talents is why every show needs Content, and how to fit it into the show. Air Talents (being human) usually tend to move along lines of least resistance. And that makes it really easy to do as little as possible, play the music, and fall back on just sounding pleasant and using the music info and station liners as crutches to carry them through the day. The problem with this is that there’s nothing to make Thursday’s show different from Wednesday’s show. That “sameness factor” can make your station sound uncompelling, and can lead to what I call “subconscious tuneout.” (read more - Tip #49)

Here’s a test for you. Get a stopwatch (or use your wristwatch, if it has a second hand), and ask a few people during the course of the day to talk for thirty seconds. Time them, and you’ll be amazed at the variance. Some will go :20, some will go :40, almost none will go :30. The reason for doing this is to restore your perspective. First, thirty seconds is a long time. Second, how long you think something has lasted is usually nowhere near the actual time (read more - Tip #50)

“You’ll LOVE this!” (What if I hate it?)“This song just makes you feel good.” (What if this song makes me throw up?) “Here’s one you’ll really like.” (How do you know?) No one wants to be told what their reaction should be. (Free will, you know. Let me decide for myself what I think.) (read more - Tip #51)

There are basically two categories of morning shows. (Keep in mind that I think the only difference between a morning show and a show in another daypart is the amount of time available to talk or the number of times you can talk. No show should lack Content.)There’s the “bit”-driven show, and there’s the “visit”-driven show. I’ve done and coached both types  (read more - Tip #52)

Think of how often you hear (or worse, say on the air yourself) these two “crutches.” 
“Right now, it’s 85 degrees.”
(Gee, thanks for telling me that that temperature is “right now,” so I don’t mistake your station for the “Classic Weather Channel.”) 
“It’s 85 degrees outside.”
(Of course, it’s “outside.” If you were giving me the temperature inside, all you’d ever need to say would be that it’s “room temperature.”) 
Make sure that you’re not wasting the Listener’s time saying the obvious. If you consistently use extra words to say things that have no meaning, that’s what you’ll become known for (read more - Tip #53) 

There’s a tendency to focus on specifics when you work with an Air Talent—the formatics, chemistry issues (with team shows), etc. that we believe will best “get the numbers.” Very goal-oriented and businesslike. One thing that’s easy to overlook, because it’s not “technical,” is to set a MOOD, an environment, that nurtures the Talent into a “glass half full” outlook that leads to WANTING to put out the effort to improve performance (read more - Tip #54) 

Phil Jackson was a decent NBA basketball player, a supporting part of the great New York Knicks teams in the 1970’s, which had one of the NBA’s best coaches, Red Holzman. He obviously soaked up some knowledge from Holzman, who won championships with players who were considered on paper to be undermanned against some of their opponents. Jackson won six championships in eight years (including two streaks of three in a row) as head coach of the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls (read more - Tip #55)  

Several years ago, my wife and I were having a silly argument over something relatively small, but annoying enough to each of us to have our spat result in some “heat-of-the-moment” remarks that were directed at each other, rather than at solving the problem. Then it occurred to me to say, “Honey, I’m not mad at YOU. I’m just mad at what HAPPENED” (read more - Tip #56)
 

On the DVD release of “The Shining,” there’s a “Making Of” section in which the great Jack Nicholson relates a conversation with the movie’s director, Stanley Kubrick. Nicholson says that “As an actor, you’re always going for REAL. You want be as REAL as you can. We had finished this one scene, and I thought it was the best I could get, but I could see that Stanley didn’t agree. I told him that I thought that was IT--that was REAL. Kubrick paused, and then replied, “Yes, that was real…but it wasn’t INTERESTING”  (read more - Tip #57)

Jocks take WAAYYYYY too long to get back into a subject, or get into a phone call. Here’s a great way to get what “resetting the stage” for the Listener is all about when you have an interesting subject working, especially when it gets some phone response (read more - Tip #58)

Here’s something that you hear every day that is virtually MEANINGLESS to the Listener. 
“That’s it for me. I’ve gotta get out of here. See you again tomorrow.” Who CARES? First of all, the focus is through the wrong end of the binoculars—on you, instead of the Listener. Secondly, your Listener probably has no idea of when you come on or go off the air. (And why SHOULD he notice? What’s in it for him?) (read more - Tip #59)

I’ve played guitar since I was 12 years old, and the process for learning a musical instrument is exactly the same as refining radio skills. First, it’s about learning technique. The proper technique--which fingering to use when playing chords and single notes, learning the scales, developing intonation, learning vibrato, etc.--gets you fast and accurate, and enables you to play whatever you hear, or read from music  (read more - Tip #60)

The most important decision a movie director makes when he’s about to film a scene is where to put the camera. The placement of the camera decides how the story will be told. If you and I are talking, does the director show both of us? Or just me, making my point? Or just you, reacting to what you hear me say, but I’m not in the frame? (read more - Tip #61)

This may seem obvious. I wish it were. But apparently it’s not, from what I hear flipping around the dial and working with Talents who tell me, “Yeah, I meant to do something on that, but I forgot.” I look at some content like it’s perishable food. Use it quickly, or else it’ll go bad. If you have something that is time sensitive, find a place for it on the air NOW (read more - Tip #62)

Coaching Radio Talent is very much like being a drama coach working with actors, or coaching athletes. You want to see them not only get better, but learn to love the PROCESS itself (read more - Tip #63)

Sometimes it’s a battle of wills to get a Talent to do--or NOT do--something. I recently had a session with a morning man who didn’t realize his tendency to do sexual content. His argument was, “I don’t see why you’re harping on this. It’s not like I’m Howard Stern.” But what he didn’t get is that his station’s Listener would perceive ANY sexual content as being “like Stern.” This Talent thought that “a little” was okay, as long as it wasn’t as much as Howard (read more - Tip #64)