Steve’s Pet Peeves: Volume 1

Just before the holiday break, on a morning when I had some extra time, I decided to check out some shows I’ve been hearing about.  One placed, in a prominent content slot, celebrity birthdays.  Not that I think this could work anywhere, I felt it was time, as we conclude the year, for a list of pet peeves – the things I hear some shows do that I believe ding them.

Great personality radio is about Conquering Content and Creating Connection.  Check out our first installment of Steve’s Pet Peeves (Volume 1).  These are the little things I hear some shows do that I think are minor mistakes that, when added up, could impact their perceptions (and yes, if you’re wondering, there will be other installments!).

The things some shows do that bug me:

  1. Taking the first break of the show and telling the audience what’s coming up on the show that day (doing a rundown of that day’s content). It’s 6:05.  I’m not coming back because you have tickets to give out at 7:20 or are doing that phone topic at 7:50 or have an email from a listener with relationships drama at 8:15.  I’m here now, connect with and entertain me now.
  2. Lists and surveys and National Theme Days. There are lower forms of content, but this is prep service-driven lazy radio.
  3. Birthdays and This Date in History. Now, that’s the lowest form of content.  My goal in radio is to rid every show still doing this, who believe the audience cares.  They don’t.  We can be better.
  4. Talent who answer the phones on-the-air, “Hi, who’s this?” You don’t answer your phone that way when you pick up, right?  It sounds immensely impersonal.  Get their name and then introduce them to the audience.  It’s much more warm and human.
  5. Tie breakers in trivia games. All that does it make the break longer without making it more entertaining.
  6. “What station just made you a winner?”  You know who asks questions like that?  DJs do.  You’re a real person, not a DJ.
  7. Happy Hump Day. See #6.
  8. Social media posts where talent show how wonderful their life is. The perfect meal, the excellent seat at the game, the most wonderful vacation, a first-class seat, your new 65″ flat panel TV.  Your listeners aren’t leading that kind of life, so doing this is a disconnect.
  9. Talking about any TV show is always perilous (most of your audience doesn’t watch that show you’re talking about). But doing it and not running any audio so I have context to your comments puts listeners not watching that show you’re so excited about at a disadvantage.
  10. Breaks where someone makes a simple mistake (like slipping up on a word or accidentally saying it’s 9:13 when it’s really 7:13) and then that mistake becoming the next sixty seconds of the break. Listeners aren’t hanging on your mistake so just move on and get to the real content.

If you do one or two of the above, not fixing them won’t make your ratings go down.  Fixing them won’t make the ratings go up.  But in our quest for excellence, every second counts with the audience.

You got a pet peeve for a future installment?  Email it to me here.

I Wouldn’t Be Here, If They Hadn’t Been There

I ponder lots about how the hell I got here.  Radio’s had its ups and downs for each of us, but on balance the industry’s been good to me.  I’ve found my place.  It’s been quite rewarding to help talent grow.  My favorite part comes when shows I work with have breakthrough moments that change the trajectory of their careers.

Catching up with my friend Greg Strassell from Hubbard the other day, he referenced a gentleman we both know who was having a milestone birthday.  When I met Jay Williams, he was a manager of a station in Boston and the consultant in Springfield, MA where I had my first morning show.  Jay laid the foundation for my love of personality radio.  Jay pushed me a lot.  But that built resilience as he compelled me to reach levels I didn’t know I had by making me uncomfortable. I knew deep inside he liked and respected me.  That vibe compelled his honesty.  Most of his critiques were tough.  I still have all of them, in boxes downstairs, forty years later.

Steve Reynolds, as an original, doesn’t really exist.  He’s a Frankenstein.  Over the years, I’ve been lucky to meet some of the smartest people in radio.  What I am is a little of him and some of her.  So many people have influenced how I look at radio and all have accelerated my belief in talent.  It was Jon Coleman (founder of Coleman Insights), knowing had I not gone into radio that I’d have been a school teacher, who first saw the opportunity for my company with consolidation happening.  When it’s time to wrap all this up, it’ll be Jon I have the most to thank.  Of my Frankenstein composite, I’m more Jon than anyone else.   But lots of folks are on that list.

I bet you’re like that, too.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I’d like to suggest something to each of us, but especially talent.  Who are those people who are always there for you?  Who have believed in you along the way?  The ones who return your messages when you need a friendly voice.  Those who freely gave of themselves when you needed advice or direction, asking for nothing in return?  Who, in the face of the industry’s flux, has always been honest, even when it’s been tough to hear?  Who was there in the beginning?

There is so much we don’t control about the industry’s future.  It’s all being figured out at a pay grade higher than most of us.  As the holidays approach, I’d like to suggest you reach out to those few who you know you can always count on and thank them.  Those who helped you at the start of your career.  And do it old school.  No texts or emails.  Get their home address and write them a note, and send it in the mail.  It’ll blow them away and make you feel good you did it.  You’ll feel like a kid again by putting that positivity out there.

Yea, I know you’re super busy.  But I guarantee you’ll do nothing more important than this as we close out the year.  You’ll change their day when they get it.  Maybe, more importantly, you’ll change yours when you send it.

Besides Jay and Jon, I have an exceptionally long list.  I won’t bore you with it lest the walk off music start from the Academy Awards.

But I’ve got my note cards, addresses, and stamps, and plan on thanking those who’ve given me what I have – those who’ve made me a Frankenstein.

Because I wouldn’t be here, if they hadn’t been there.

The Power of the Purple People

A couple of weeks ago, former Coach Tim Walz asked me to sit next to him at a high school football game in my hometown of Raleigh – he bought me popcorn.  JD Vance stopped over last week to see if I owned any cats.  Kamala’s coming by on Thursday for coffee (I hear she likes a splash of hazelnut).  Trump wants me to stop by the Applebee’s on Hillsborough Street next week to look at some discounted watches.

I live in one of the seven purple states that will decide who the next president will be.  They are here All.  The.  Time.  Asking for my vote.  It’s powerful to be a purple person!

Retail politics (showing up and asking for the vote) is something we’ve gotten away from in radio.  It’s now a powerful differentiator for shows and stations that truly are live and local.  Having actual eye contact, shaking the hands of fans and asking those who aren’t to try out your show.

If you’re a talent who desperately wants to win even more, create space with your competitor with a year-long commitment to meeting fans and would-be listeners in your market.

Here’s what I’d love you to consider:  develop a 2025 campaign to do just that.  Maybe call it One Hundred Thousand High Fives or Fifty Thousand Fist Bumps.  Or come up with your own name.  Then bring it to sales to find a title sponsor so they can make some money (you’ll be more valuable to the cluster if you do).  Then commit to do it twice a month.

Do you need to actually fist bump 50,000 people?  Nope.  But craft in-person appearances to meet as many people as you can.  Your competitor won’t and it will be a difference-maker for you.

Hint:  don’t ask them to come to you.  The “I’ll be at Jiffy Lube this Saturday from 9-11” won’t work.  Ain’t no one going out of their way just to meet you.  Instead, where are people you can go to?  Set up outside an arena before a big game or concert.  Find the busiest intersection with foot traffic and go there at lunch for a half hour.

I know we ask a lot of you as talent.  And I also know what you’re thinking.  You won’t be paid for this. But meeting as many people as you can (wherever they are) and asking them to give you a shot works.  That makes you more powerful as a talent because of the higher ratings and revenue opportunity you created.  Those will be your wins.

I’m not sure who’ll get North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes.  But whoever does, it’ll be because they were here a lot paying attention to us purple people.

You do that, too, and watch what happens.

A.I. Doesn’t Know U

Let’s chat about how A.I. and the one thing it really can’t do to help you be successful.

The three best areas for content for any show, regardless of format, are pop culture (pop = popular = familiar), local, and character development (you!).

A.I. is marvelous at getting you the latest on topical news items and can even shrink them down to bite size.  A.I. can even write your teases, name things, and be somewhat creative.  A.I. will have no problem, with the right prompt, to curate local topics and references.

But what A.I. cannot do is reflect your life or teach you how to tell your stories to the audience, so you connect with them.  And that connection is the key that unlocks every door to your forming a relationship with listeners.

What is character development?  It comes from two areas:  be honest discussing a topic.  That means no concocted points-of-view to create phony conflict.  If I tell you golf is stupid or that Diddy deserves to be in prison with no parole and mean it, I’ll convey to you something about me that will teach you who I am.  If the tone with which I deliver that message is fun or serious, then you’ll get my vibe.

But the best character content comes when you share stories about your life the typical listener can identify with.  If they say “yea, me, too” then it’s a win.  And only you can generate those by having a life and engaging in experiences large and small in your market to find them.

Stories are essential to connect with others.  That’s why country music is so beloved.  Every song is a story, and any songwriter will tell you their imperative is to tell their truth.

In efforts to move your show from being feature-driven to being personality-driven, having those stories fans identify with and see themselves in, will reinforce a bond between you and them that is almost unbreakable.  A.I. cannot get you there.

I ask shows when we start our work what they want listeners to say about their show unaided after we do this for a year.  They all say they want the audience to say they feel like they know them.  That’s a big win.

And no matter how much you use A.I. (free or otherwise), it will never be able to tell your stories in your way.  Because, as the title of this blog says, A.I. Doesn’t Know U.  You have soul, A.I. doesn’t.

Work hard to have a life.  Figure out which experiences will give you stories that will allow pure connection points with the most listeners.  Continue learning how to tell stories better, then do all that.  Because nowhere else in the market can listeners hear your stories, but on your show.

Go use A.I. to make certain tasks doing your show easier.  But understand its limitations today.

When the audience cares about you, they’ll care about your show.  And when you’ve accomplished that, you become something your radio station truly needs and can’t find elsewhere.

Use A.I. for what it does well.  But know that if you can’t truly reveal who you are to the audience, they will never get close to you.  If who you are isn’t part of your content package, A.I. won’t be able to compensate.  Because A.I. doesn’t know U.

While both are important, radio’s substantive wins will now come more from art than science.  Go be an original.

Promo No No’s

Apple has new devices for sale.  Even though they’re one of the world’s most recognizable brands, they’ll still market the hell out of them.

This week, let’s tackle marketing your morning show.  No, I’m not gonna suggest you buy a TV campaign and billboards (even though they could probably use them).  You don’t have the resources, and I know that.  So, I’ll save the space.

But let’s engage on how you use your station to promote your premiere talent and their shows.  Namely, promos.

I love when brand managers decide to run promos.  The question I always ask is:  what are you going to promote?  What’s our marketing message?  I tend to get back a mish mash of everything:

“Let’s promote their next day’s content.”  Or “we’ll talk about the prizes they have to give out.”  Or “we should do some character development outside the daypart, so the audience knows who’s on the show.”  I get several other suggestions.  None with a strategic theme that helps the show win.

I’ve learned much over the years about show promos.  My thinking on this has evolved more than anything else associated with its success.  Let me wade through all the options.  Most of them are promo no no’s.  I’ll land on the one I think is most viable.

  1. Let’s promote the plot of the show. This is a “promo no” because this is too esoteric for the audience to get.  It’s just words to those hearing it.  They must consume the plot in action to feel it.  Think:  if you saw a promo that Seinfeld was “the show about nothing” you’d scratch your head.  But watch it and you get it.
  2. Let’s promote our characters. This is a “promo no”, even with clips.  It’s so hard to feel someone in the short time allotted to promos.  How can I get what you’re all about in a 20 second clip from the show?  I really need to hear the story or break in real time to get a sense of who you are.
  3. Let’s have the station voice tell the audience how fun and real the show is. This is a “promo no”.  I worry all the audience hears is hype and hyperbole.
  4. Let’s tell the audience the content they’ll do tomorrow. This is a “promo no” because free flowing content breaks are not appointment listening.  One minute after you’ve told them, thousands of other messages bombard their brain and they’ve forgotten what you said.  And anyway, it’s not likely I’m coming back tomorrow because you’re doing a phone topic at 7:30 or will read that letter about the relationships drama at 8:15.  If you’re really, really, really doing something unique and special tomorrow, this doesn’t apply – promote that!
  5. Let’s promote the prizes you can win tomorrow. This is a “promo definitely no”.  That promo talks to only contest players, which is about 2% of your audience.  We need to worry about earning images with the other 98% and that’s about content.
  6. Let’s run clips of the show to reinforce images. Hmmm…I’ll take it.  Any promo that proves via clips how fun things are, how real the talent is, how relevant the content is, or how unique/different the show is will work.
  7. Let’s promote the show’s signature feature – the guaranteed moment everyone loves and is entertained by. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.  We have a winner!  Every show needs to be known for something.  If your signature feature works then promote the hell out of it every hour.  Burn it in further.  Make sure 100% of your cume knows of this fun daily benchmark.  The more who know, the better your images, the more tune-ins.

Promos can play to one’s head (“we’re going to do this thing tomorrow at this time”) or one’s heart (I have an emotional reaction).  Play to their hearts with promos.  Make them feel something so it resonates:  I don’t like the brand of car I drive.  I love it.  My laptop doesn’t just get the job done.  I love my MacBook Pro.  Go for that.

Human beings are not logical creatures.  We are emotional beings.  Emotional attachment forms relationships. Continue to build your one thing and make me feel it.  I promise it’ll work.

Number seven is the smartest route because every positive image earned from a signature feature transfers to the show.  If the feature is fun and relevant, so is your talent.

Good things come to people who focus.  If we do a combo of the above, none of it will stick (and much of it is non-strategic).  But if we put all the klieg lights on one thing (your big thing), then it stands its best chance of cutting through, being remembered, and having a positive impact for you and the show.

Are Your Teases Google Proof?

There are two reasons to tease content.  I bet you only know one of them.  Before we get to that, let’s hit the way-back machine and join Steve, a few weeks ago, as he sits in his home-office, listening to a show in his blue, terry cloth Land’s End bathrobe…

Dateline Friday, August 23, 2024, 6:51am in Steve’s house while streaming a morning show:  “Hailey and Justin Bieber had a baby last night.  We’ll tell you the name they chose right after we play some Ed Sheeran.”

Dateline Friday, August 23, 2024, 6:52am:  Steve Googles that exact tease and finds out it’s Jack.  Now I can grab a coffee, look at Facebook, or check out another show.

Let’s agree that that’s an ineffective tease.  Why?  Because I can Google the answer.  Not like your listener actually will.  But it’s not very inspiring or intriguing to get me to stay with you.

I wanna talk about teases this week.  But let’s back up for a second.  Why do we tease content in radio?  The traditional answer (and the one I get most often):  so listeners stay and we extend TSL.  I’ll take it, but it doesn’t always work.  Listeners have ADD and when they think of something else (or get to their destination), that tease is long forgotten.  It just doesn’t have anything that hooks the audience and ends up being very tactical.

The strategic reason to tease is to intrigue the audience with something they can’t get anywhere else so they actually do stay.  Here, you gain an image that something special is about to happen, so they return to the show the next day out of a fear of missing out.

What is that unique thing only you have for that content?  The item they can’t find out on Google?   You only come up with that in prep and ideation and that’s the thing you tease.

Like this instead: “Hailey and Justin Bieber had a baby last night.  We’ll talk next to a nurse who was in the delivery room to find out why they named their kid Jack.”

See the difference in the effectiveness of the two?  A great tease notes the story then leaves out a big element they can only get from you if they stay.

Teases can’t be throwaways.  If they’re going to serve the two goals above of extending TSL and creating intrigue, we must not only prep for those goals, but write teases before the show to have impact.  When I was on-the-air, I was the king of coming up with teases on the fly.  As I reflect, almost all of them had no consequence to keeping listeners tuned in.

Today, with so many choices for connection and entertainment, we must spend more time creating our content breaks to be special, then crafting a tease to communicate that.

Pull all your teases from the last few days.  See how many of them pass the test:  are they Google proof?

“C” Is For Cat Lady

I live in a house addicted to Penzeys Spices.  At last count, we have 193 of them.  A dedicated drawer for spices with the overflow on several shelves in the pantry.  Just when you think you have all of them, four more show up in the mail.

One of the things that draws us to the Penzeys brand is that the owner (or marketing people) send funny emails centered around topical news items in their effort to sell us more spices.  Almost all of them make us laugh.  The most recent, seen here, is titled “’C’” Is For Cat Lady”.  Any spice starting with the letter “c” is on sale.

It’s a simple, but brilliant marketing move that places staid, boring spices into the national conversation.  It cost nothing more than a creative mind to conceive and put together.

How about your radio show?  How do you do there?

Great radio is about whatever is going on right now.  I listen around the dial and hear way too much evergreen radio.  Topics that could work as well next Wednesday as they do today.  Stuff that feels like it’s mostly from a prep service.  And all of it is a C+ to me.

When Leno and Letterman were in reruns, they’d air a show from years prior.  Until they realized two things:  the comedy and conversations on those shows were very dated (and it stood out).  They also got that the typical viewer didn’t watch every program.  So, when in reruns, they started airing shows from a few weeks before.  Because those topics, guests, and comedy pieces were still relevant.

If we air the show you did today in two weeks, would it feel “dated”?  If so, it really, really work today.  Go for that.

Be about right now in your topic choices.  This blog is about right now and that’s the sweet spot.

We have way more cumin in the house than we know what to do with.  If you need any, let me know?

Only Talent Can Do That

The biggest gathering of radio’s truest point-of-differentiation starts this week in San Diego.  Don Anthony is hosting his 36th Morning Show Bootcamp.  Talent from all over the country, looking to become more valuable to their stations, clusters, and companies, will get together to be inspired by people and panels who’ll give their wisdom away.

So often in radio, we work hard to predict the future and get there before anyone else.  We also work overtime talking about how much radio has changed.  Andrew Curran from DMR Interactive wrote an interesting article that caught my eye about this.

In it, he talks about a question Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was recently asked about what won’t change in consumer behavior over the next ten years. The answers include we’ll still want choice in our product selection, we will still want our stuff tomorrow, and we will still want low prices.

With talent from all over so dedicated to their growth, this got me thinking about what won’t change about radio’s listeners.

Here’s a partial list.  I’m sure you’ll have one or two to add.  In the next ten years, this is what won’t change:

Listeners will still want to be emotionally connected to other human beings.

Only talent can do that.

Listeners will only want to buy (tune into) brands they trust.

Only talent can do that.

Listeners will still want to turn on the radio and have fun.

Only talent can do that.

Fans will look for someone to make sense of a complicated world and bring comfort to that as they start their day.

Only talent can do that.

In a world of negativity, listeners will want to know that a brand radiates goodness in their community.

Only talent can do that.

Listeners will look for an escape from the pressures of their daily life.

Only talent can do that.

People will search for brands that make their communities better.

Only talent can do that.

Clients will want to place their precious marketing money with brands that have built trust with their fans.

Only talent can do that.

Listeners will continue to search for other people just like them.

Only talent can do that.

Listeners will want to be around brands that radiate authenticity and humanity.

Only talent can do that.

Morning Show Bootcamp reminds me that, as much as we wanna figure out what’s next to gain any advantage, there are some constants about our industry that will never change.  And that’s the power of great talent and talent groomed to be great for the health of your radio station and our industry until the end of time.

If you’re a talent reading this, never take for granted what you do and always, always, always stay humble so you keep growing.

How Wheel of Fortune Solved Instant Boredom Syndrome (You Can, Too!!)

We all have a dreaded disease Big Pharma has yet to bombard our TV with ads.  IBS is Instant Boredom Syndrome.  We get bored quickly with everything.

The most critical part of a content break is its start.  In its first few seconds, listeners are making conscious and unconscious decisions:  is this topic interesting to me?  Do I care about it?  Is it entertaining?  Yes, and they stay for a few.  No and we lose them in some fashion.  Each of us do, too, when consuming content.  Which brings me to Wheel of Fortune.

It’s the most popular game on television whose ratings have not eroded over the years.  This, in part, was due to the affable Pat and Vanna but also because of its design.

It’s highly familiar, which plays in its favor.  It’s mind-candy, too (not very taxing after a long day at work).  But over the years, it’s evolved.  Because we have changed as viewers.

I talked about this in the blog I Learned How to Do Radio From Pat Sajak and Porn.  In it, I note how Wheel re-designed the beginning of the game years ago to hook us more quickly because we all have IBS.  Once the letters start appearing on Vanna’s board, that’s when we’re in as viewers.

Need proof?  Here are two video clips.  The first is an early Wheel when they started the program by showcasing the prizes to win (not the prizes I couldn’t win as a viewer, of course), then an intro of Pat and Vanna, then the worst part, the interview with the contestants.  Watch this and see they don’t make this about us (we want the puzzles, the puzzles!!) until 3:01.  I don’t care about any of this as a viewer.  They’re giving me many reasons to depart.  All of it delays my win, which is guessing the puzzle before the three contestants.  Then watch the newer show after the redesign.  The first letter in the first puzzle appears at :31.

Here’s Wheel of Fortune from yesteryear with a whole lot of This Doesn’t Matter to Me.  IBS is killer.  Take note of when your Instant Boredom Syndrome kicks in.

Now here’s Wheel of Fortune today, with a much faster start and hook for those of us watching.

Some radio shows continue to put listeners through process and promotional stuff at the beginning of breaks, delaying the actual content (whether a story or game or interview or other substantive content), eroding listeners’ interest and inviting them to stop paying attention.

Listeners come for content so let’s engage them there almost immediately, before their IBS kicks in.  In your prep, spend the most amount of time figuring out how to engage the audience the quickest so what you do in your first twenty seconds makes them want to hear the twenty seconds after that.

When airchecking shows, I sometimes play “The 20 Second Game”.  We listen to just the first twenty seconds of a content break and for one purpose.  Is enough done to hold on to the listener for another twenty seconds?  Don’t be version #1 of Wheel above.  Be version #2.  Your fans will renew their interest for more of that content and stick around.

Show these videos to your talent to help them get to it quickly so fans don’t mentally drift.  We are given precious few seconds to grab the audience.  Let’s not disrespect that lest their IBS appear and they move on to another available choice for connection, content, and entertainment.

The Trump Story and Your Monday Show

The hardest and the easiest shows are the ones where there is a central topic everyone knows about and is being talked about.

What happened to former President Trump at his Pennsylvania rally Saturday night applies.  I believe great, relevant shows are about what’s happening right now.  So, let’s touch on how to handle this charged topic:

Understand that listeners are looking for connection and humanity around their content.  This story is very top-of-mind so share updates of current information.  Work to know what’s new before you take to the air.  Because you are not used for news, finding someone with news credentials to deliver this information in a conversational way, it might be appropriate.

Don’t ask listeners how they feel about this and definitely don’t take phone calls.  Listeners could very easily make this about politics, which is a no-win.  Don’t let them take you there.  Ditto any commentary from you.  You want to be careful listeners don’t misconstrue any of that.

A safe spot to be in is to reflect on the volatility many people are experiencing on social media.  Anyone seeing anything even remotely partisan is repulsed.  That’s not a bad place to be.  Using your power to dial down the temperature is easily rewarded by almost everyone in your audience.

Remember that you control how people feel when they listen to your show.  There’s fear and anger – play into that and you accentuate those emotions.  But if you are the trusted talent and calm people, that builds you and your show more.

Some guests that might make sense:  a child psychologist to talk about how you have this conversation with kids.  Another show I respect is finding a former Secret Service agent to talk about the training they go through for just these situations.

You might only need to prepare a half of a show and rerun (or re-do) those segments later.  Listeners come to us for very little time so don’t feel the pressure to do several hours of original content around the topic.

It’s very important you know your stuff.  Sometimes it’s easy to take what’s read on social media as gospel.  Be prepared and know what you’re sharing is accurate.  Because having a plan will make doing the show much easier.

Humanity is where radio shines.