Pie Day Friday

Fridays tend to be pizza days for lots of people.  How about a new Friday feature called Pie Day Friday where you let listeners tell you about the homegrown local pizza shop that’s their favorite?

Zog and Ivy Unleashed, Power 96, Miami with Neighborhood Confidential

Neighbors like to tell on neighbors.  Honestly, what do you think of those people who live in your neighborhood?  What do you know and what do you see about them you rarely tell anyone about?  Who’s cheating on whom?  Who quietly doesn’t like others?  Who has the parties you’re not invited to?  We were looking for a relationships-based weekly benchmark for Zog and Ivy Unleashed, Power 96, Miami.  And organically we hit on this one.  Ivy was telling us about her neighbors and we wanted all the tea.  She had so many great stories that we developed a new feature called Neighborhood Confidential, where we let listeners anonymously tell us juicy stories about those who live nearby.

 

“No” Is a Complete Sentence

Several years ago, when Hubbard wanted to transition mornings on the iconic The Drive in Chicago, they asked me to help identify and launch a show.  It was a bit of a needle-thread because the daypart had been driven almost solely on music images.  But Hubbard knows how to build media brands, so they were all in on being strategic.

We had our sights set on Sherman and Tingle.  They’d done some time on Q101 in the market and had chemistry.  Steve Tingle and I had worked together before, so we knew each other.  In my conversations with Brian Sherman, I discovered something that made his hire an automatic yes.  In between radio gigs, he worked for his home city picking up trash in the morning.  That real life experience made him an interesting person to me.

The reason Brian interested me wasn’t because he was collecting trash.  It was because he had a life.  He had experiences outside of radio and interacted with people consultants and programmers never meet.  He had stories, perspective, and empathy.  Ditto Steve Tingle who survived a brain tumor.

I read a lot of radio advice where talent are implored to do even more to protect their jobs.  I understand why.  But at some point, we must ask what that “more” is costing us.  Where will the balance come from to keep our talent both interesting and protect their mental health.

Radio says to do more.  But more isn’t always better to create interesting people who have interesting lives.  Mental health matters, relationships matter, and creativity needs replenishment.

Which brings me to maybe the two most important words you’ll ever learn in a business that constantly asks for more:  say no.  And make it a complete sentence.

That’s no to another volunteer committee.  No to checking email at 11pm.  No to another appearance request.  No to another podcast.  No to another social media post.  And no to sacrificing your kid’s soccer game for a meeting that could have been an email.  Especially if it creates space for you to have interests outside of radio.

Saying no is hard for many of us in radio – an industry that wants us to do more.  Why?  Because we’re pleasers.  It’s almost impossible for me to say no to anyone in the industry who needs something.  When we rarely say no, our entire worlds – professional and personal – get out of whack.  Say no too much and that will certainly impact you.  But having your worlds in alignment makes for happy, productive people.

In my previous blog, My Love to Valentine, I shared the phrase “emotional hygiene”.  Where does yours come from?  What big or small things do you have in life that give you that balance, make you a more interesting person to be around, and create a more “whole you”?

Those who know me are aware that I officiate high school basketball in my hometown.  Officiating gives me a mission that has nothing to do with ratings, social media metrics, or coming up with another idea.  It gives me balance.

I am in leadership and working on creating a stronger organization and financial future for officials who come after me.  It’s quite rewarding.  That’s my jam.  What are yours?  And what should you say no to at work to create that space to find or do them for yourself?  We must.

How we do that is important.  It’s not no “because I’m not getting paid to do that.”  Or no “because it’s not in my job description.”  It’s no because I need space to be a real person in life – to find things outside of this industry that fill my cup with pleasure and happiness.

“No” is a complete sentence.  When we get there, we’ll be healthier mentally, preserve our relationships outside of radio, continue to have a better, more satisfying life, and become better talent.

Radio needs talented people.  But we only get that from mentally healthy people.  The goal isn’t to become less committed to radio.  The goal is to become more committed by having a life worth talking about on the air and the emotional hygiene that makes it worth living.

And to get there, it might just take an occasional no.

Straight to the Comments

We’ll all agree that the comments on posts (whether a Facebook post or a review online) tend to be hysterical.  This is where the real venom lives.  Craft a new feature for your show called Straight to Comments where you read the funnier and edgier comments you find online.  Bonus points if you create a character reading them (i.e. assigning the feature to a funny person you work with).

The Cruz Show, Power 106, Los Angeles with Six on Sex

Tension is what creates the lean in moment.  No tension or drama in what you’re doing deprives those listening of the electric moments that make content memorable.  Here is throwback audio from The Cruz Show, Power 106, Los Angeles.  Two topics that tend to work all the time are relationships and sex (this audio is super-edgy, but fits the brand).  We added a feature to the show called Six on Sex, which plays to both topics.  One listener had to answer six very probing questions about their sex life in front of their mother.  The questions got increasingly more personal and revealing, making both the mother and daughter profiled in the feature more and more uncomfortable.  As things escalate, note your own discomfort as the tension ramps up.  This might not be a bit that works for your brand, but it’s the kind of thing where Cruz show fans left not just remembering it, but talking about it because of all the tension.  The Cruz Show is now on Real 92.3 in the market.

 

The Teacher Lounge Makeover

Remember when we were kids and we’d walk past the teacher lounge at school?  I always wondered what when on in there!  If you can pull off a back-to-school promotion with some clients, find a teacher lounge at a local school and make it over.  Clean it up, get new furniture, and stock it with refreshments for the teachers for a few months.  Could be a fun idea that gets you chatter in area schools as everyone heads back this fall.

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego with the Eric Church Interview

Your first job when doing and interview, especially with an A-lister, is to connect with them.  That opens the portal to talk with them about near anything because they know you did your homework and trust builds.  Enter John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego with an interview they did with country music star Eric Church.  This happened while college basketball season was upon them.  Eric came on because he had a new album to promote.  There’s no “where did you get your inspiration for this album” questions.  These guys know better.  John poking at Eric about his alma mater (UNC) and how a local San Diego team was doing softened Eric to talk with him about drinking and what he was going to do for his wife for the upcoming Valentine’s Day.  It’s a good game plan because it’s what makes listeners interested.

 

 

My Love Letter to Valentine

Valentine, Nebraska is a town of just 2,640 people.  It’s surrounded by bison in Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, home to Nebraska’s highest waterfall, receives 38-inches of snow a year, has a median home value around $149,000, and is just 2.6 square miles.

Mike and Kim Burge own KVSH 940AM in Valentine.  I met them while in Lincoln, presenting to the Nebraska Broadcaster’s annual convention last week.  They were absolute delights and radiated pride for the radio station they own, manage, and are on.

Spend five minutes on industry websites and you’ll find news about layoffs, consolidation, endless debates about our industry’s “monetization challenges” (thank you Bob Pittman for the re-frame) and radio’s future.  Spend five minutes with Mike and Kim Burge and you’ll remember why radio still has a future.

Mike McVay and I were asked by Jim Timm and Jenna McKain, both with the Nebraska Broadcasters Association (NBA for short – go have fun with that!), to do the programming sessions this year.  We both marveled at the energy we found.

We sat next to each other at their Hall of Fame banquet.  Mike knew one of the four honorees.  I knew none of them.  But at the end of every speech, I fought back tears at the pride in the room as each celebrant thanked their families and those they met along the way in broadcasting that helped them be immortalized.

When I was young, I wanted nothing more than to get to the Big City.  As my coaching career matures, I’m increasingly amazed by how radio is done in markets few of us know and by people whose names we’ll never hear.  Mike and Kim (and the many like them) will never be mentioned in RAMP or Inside Radio nor profiled on Barrett Media (hey Jason – profile these people!).  But they still have inside of them the thing we all felt when we got in the business.

I’m lucky to coach shows in smaller markets.  They have a commitment to growth and their talent in ways you’d never know.

Mike and Kim Burge aren’t outliers.  Across the country, I see and work with broadcasters in smaller markets making the same commitment:

  • Fort Myers Broadcasting and Sun Broadcasting in Florida know that without talent, they can’t make money. Mark Gilson and Jim Schwartzel are deeply committed to live and local all day and the growth of their people.
  • Jay Chapman owns Woof Boom Radio in Muncie, Indiana. We recently put a two-hour talk show on their oldies station as a differentiator in the marketplace.  The show’s goal is to “elevate and celebrate Madison County”.  Woof Boom’s mantra is “we use our voice to build and connect our community.”
  • And kudos to Kurt Johnson, Jared Willig, JB Wilde and their team at Townsquare. I get to work with live and local shows for them in markets like Binghamton, NY, Portsmouth, NH, Rockford, IL, and many others.  Shows that know that live and local ain’t just a marketing slogan.  They live it and take care of their communities in ways that’d shame many larger markets.

KVSH 940AM, Valentine, Nebraska makes me long for those glory days of radio when we all did it for the right reasons – in every market size.  It’s still being done like that in many places we don’t pay attention to.  Visit KVSH’s website and you’ll see they have everything from obituaries to agricultural news to a trading post, where someone needs to get rid of a piano in very good condition (yours if you haul it away – call Cody) and someone is selling a galvanized chicken feeder for $25.  Quaint, cute, and very about the community.

Meeting Mike and Kim, going to the NBA’s Hall of Fame dinner, and doing the work with the companies I noted above is emotional hygiene for me.  It reminds me that, while corporate-owned radio stations can sometimes serve up bad news and taint our perception of our own industry, there are so many people in markets we know nothing about who are truly committed to their communities.

Sometimes the future of radio isn’t found in a conference keynote, a consultant’s deck, or a corporate strategy session. Sometimes it’s found in a town of 2,640 people, on an AM station, where two owners still believe their job is to serve a community.  That’s where radio’s soul resides.

Spend time with people like Mike and Kim Burge.  You’ll remember why you started.  And you might just remember where radio’s future really lives.

Hawkeye in the Morning, KSCS, Dallas with Matt’s Bachelor Party

Let me in.  When you dig deep and let lsiteners into every part of your life, they feel cvlsoer to you.  Here’s some retro audio from Hawekeye in the Morning, KSCS, Dallas.  His ten-=parnter Katelyn, was about to get married.  She was due to have her bahcleortte party that weekend.  But her fiance, Matt, had his bachelor party the revious week.  So that we feel like we were there, Hawkeye had Matt keep an audio journal of his shenanigans and surprused Katelyn with that audio on the show so she could feel like she was there, too.

 

Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston with Barrett is Punished Over His PS5

The audience wants to get to know you.  Your fans will care about the show when they care about you.  Think of any TV show that mattered to you.  When it went off-the-air, you were sad because the characters meant something to you.  That’s part of connection.  So, share those parts of your life that have drama and humanize you.  Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston are masters at this.  Karson’s son got a PS5.  The show made a bet on how long it’d be before Barrett did something where the punishment was them taking his PS5 away.  The brilliance of this is hearing Barrett’s voice, as well as his parents, for not brushing his teeth.  Human, real, drama-filled, along with the perspective of the cast.  Here, I’m learning about everyone (character development), see myself in this story (especially if I have a kid), and care about them through relatability and laughter.