The Truth Can Hurt, Which is Why So Many People Avoid It

I set out to write a blog post about the things that annoy me about hosts / talent / personalities who apply for jobs. I’ve been going through mounds of mp3, CDs, even a stray tape or two. Listening through just a few minutes of each demo can be a struggle. But, then I realized – someone is telling these guys/gals they have talent. One of three things is certainly happening.

1. These “talent” are being lied to about their talent by people who mean well.
2. They’re getting bad advice from PDs or fellow talent.
3. They’ve stopped listening to the people in their life that know better.

Leaders: I implore you to stop lying to people about the size of their talent and stop dishing out decade old, stale advice.

Hosts: If you only hear what you want to hear consider yourself at the top of your success. You’re never as good as “they” say you are and never as bad as your harshest critic. But, you must always strive to be better.

In an effort to be helpful, here are four things you can start doing today to be better a host.

Know What Big Story Your Show Is About Each Day.This is my “pick a lane” advice. Be about something each day. If even it’s a slow news day, it is better to be about something than trying to be about everything. What’s the thread holding your show together? It is not picking one story to talk about for three hours; it is picking one story that you want your listeners to remember you for that day and giving it more and better treatment than everything else.

Immerse Yourself in Details of the Stories You Want to Talk About. When you “play the hits” of the day, whatever they may be. Do your homework. Read up on it. Read everything you can. The more you read the better chance you have of finding a unique angle and creating a more memorable, substantive conversation.

Edit Your Own Audio. How can you tell the story, the way you want to tell it, if someone else is deciding what the key characters are going to say? Editing audio is not beneath you. Why leave the heart and soul of your show up to a $10 an hour board op. In my experience not only does editing your own audio give you certainty on a topic, it makes your treatment memorable and remarkable.

Do Not Let Segments Dictate The Length of a Story. Drives me crazy when hosts look at the clock and see they have seven minutes and look to see what topic they can stretch to fill the time. You should take the necessary time you need to tell a story and make your point and then move on to the next story or angle. It takes discipline and preparation. Don’t do your listeners any favors by “filling” the last two minutes with idle chit-chat on the topic. Give me a quick hit of something else, that’s great. Respect my time.

These four concepts are a good starting point. If it resonates with you, try it. Let me know how it goes.

Tim Sanders Tells Radio To Get Busy

I am a pretty positive guy. But, put me in a room full of legacy (old-time) radio vets and it’s easy to get caught up in a cyclone of negativity when it comes to the future of radio. That’s why it’s so important to look outside yourself, your radio station, your format, and sometimes your industry to find out what CAN be done and how you can make a difference.  

Tim Sanders (twitter: @sanderssays) is the former Chief Solutions Officer of Yahoo! and author of “Today We Are Rich.” Last month, he spoke to a group of radio folk at the Talk Media Conference in Dallas.

He was just the shot of ‘get-off-your-butt-and-do-something’ that I needed. I believe most leaders in radio needs to listen to more guys like Sanders who offer inspiration, preach innovation, and provide motivation. In his opening address to leaders of talk radio Tim affirmed what we all know, “the reality is there’s a lot of trouble (in radio).” But, he didn’t wallow in it, like many of us like to do. He pointed to Napoleon who defined a leader as someone who, “defines reality and then gives hope.” Hope is what has been missing from most of the discussions I’ve been privy to in regards to the future of radio. I’m going to try harder to be a provider of it.

Sanders insisted that the time is now for all of us to get busy. (my interpretation; stop talking about how bad things are going to be and how antiquated radio is — and start doing something about it).

Sanders is a real positive force. His advice assembled below for easy consumption is valuable if you’re a programmer, a talent, a producer, an account executive, sales manager, front desk receptionist, engineer or other…

Feed Your Mind With Good Stuff and Get Rid of the Poison in Your Life

1. Understand that “success” is not a destination, it’s a mind-set — an attitude.

2. Feed your mind with success experiences (the great interview you did, the sale you closed, the great story you broke, etc.)

3. Read your fan mail. Save it and pull it out in high-stress moments to remind yourself of your successes and how what you do does make a difference.

4. Move the conversation forward. This is how you change culture. Culture is just a conversation about how things are done. Stop asking people, “how’s it going?” and start asking, “what are you excited about?”

5. Don’t reward fire starters.

6. Be conscious that you have thee invisible things to give — and they grow as you go; knowledge, network, and compassion.

• Share your knowledge; you will not get dumb helping to make  people smarter.
• Activate your network; you spent a lot of time meeting people and making an impression — now what are you going to do with it? Are their people in your network that should know each other? Introduce them.
• And be compassionate. Sanders reminds us that feelings are facts to the person who is feeling.

So,…what are you excited about?

Six Keys to Success for Talk Hosts

Every day I talk to hosts who strive to model themselves after someone who is already successful. They say, “I want to be the next Rush Limbaugh, Dan Patrick or Jim Rome.” Newsflash: Those shows already exist. Success isn’t found in the shadows of giants, it’s found under the feet of the most creative, entrepreneurial, daring, vulnerable, honest, talented and motivated amongst us.

So, here are the Larry Gifford Media six keys to success for a talk host.

1. Be yourself, which is to be different than everyone else. Individual perspective and experience is the catalyst for creativity.  

2. Be a trailblazer. Build your show around your talent and then hustle to sell yourself and your show every day to the listeners, clients, staff, and management. Figure out how you can be a personality on the radio station instead of the host of a show.

3. Be bold. Take risks. Don’t fear failure, learn from it. Surprise your fans.

4. Be open. Give yourself permission to be emotional, impassioned, and wrong. Be self-deprecating. Allow the listeners to know who you really are.

5. Speak your truth. Enterprise your own content. Notice what you notice in the world. Have opinions, perspective, and insight. Challenge conventional wisdom. Be informative and entertaining.  (and self-deprecating).

6. Surround yourself with people you trust, people who will challenge you and people who make you better.  And listen to them.

Every Moment Matters

Arbitron will tell you, in general, there are listeners coming and going from your radio station every minute. Listeners are dipping in and out of stations searching for a comfortable place to rest. This is either terrific or terrifying news if you are host, producer or programmer. It means you have opportunities to snag new listeners every minute. It also means if you are off topic, too sloppy or boring – you’re going lose some too. 

Here’s the truth about these non-P1 listeners:

• These listeners do not know who you are.
• These listeners do not know your show.
• These listeners do not know what your station is all about.
• These listeners do not know your inside jokes.
• These listeners want to be included.
• These listeners want to like you.
• These listeners want you to be relatable.
• These listeners want you to be local.

In order to take full advantage of this opportunity, it’s important that you pay attention to all the details. Every moment counts. Are the hosts resetting who they are, what they’re doing and what station they are on often enough? Are bench mark segments being explained and sold to the listener as a benefit? Are you saying the web address, phone number, text, and twitter accounts slowly and clearly so new listeners can play along? Is your board operator paying attention, running a tight board and hitting all the correct audio? Are sound bites edited properly? Are producers carefully screening callers? Are hosts prepared for interviews? Are you playing the hits uniquely  or are you covering the story the same way everyone else is? Are you providing social currency or are you wasting time? Are you letting new listeners play along or are your jokes and references too inside?

 In a PPM world every moment, every word, every piece of audio, every phone call, every interview, everything you do – counts. Make sure everything you do on your station is best serving the fans in your city in that moment or the listeners will keep searching until they find the station that does.

Want more on PPM? Listen to this Larry Gifford Media podcast with Charlie Sislen from Research Director Inc.  Charlie Sislen Interview Podcast

Is This The Best You’ve Got?

“A diamond is a chunk of coal

that made good under pressure.”

– Anonymous

Every day whether you are a producer, a talent, a board op, recording a podcast, or editing audio – ask yourself these important questions…

1. Is this the best we’ve got?

2. Would I listen to this?

3. Is this relevant?

4. Are we playing the hits?

5. Is there a better, different, more impactful way to do this?

6. Does this live up to the Mission and Brand of my company?

If the answer is, “no” – what are you doing to change it, make it better, evolve it, and own it?

“It’s the little details that are vital.

Little things make big things happen.”

– John Wooden

When I come across smart, successful people have can contribute to our conversation, I enjoy passing along their thoughts. Radio consultant Valerie Geller wrote the book “Principles of Creating Powerful Radio.” Her principles are worth reviewing…

 · Tell the truth.

· Make it matter.

· Never be boring.

· Speak visually, in terms listeners can picture.

· Start with your best material.

· Story tell powerfully.

· Listen to your station but also check out other media – know what’s out there and what the audience is listening to and how they get their information and entertainment!

· Ask: Why would someone want to listen to this?

· Talk to the individual. Use “You.”

· Do engaging transitions & handoffs.

· Promote, brag about your stuff (and other people’s stuff!)

· Stay curious, relax, and allow the humor to happen.

· Be who you are on the radio.

· Take risks, dare to be great.

I love those principles. Use these as a guideline as you go about your daily tasks. Every day, whether it’s the NFL Playoffs or the dog days of summer, make certain you are passionate, relevant, interesting, engaging, curious, entertaining, informative, impactful, telling stories, teasing, taking risks, being creative, driving for results, doing everything it takes to make remarkable radio, acting with urgency, thinking differently and having fun. These are the things that separate good from great.

 “Success is dependent on effort.”

- Sophocles

Do You Know Your Listeners?

Your listeners are regular guys with regular jobs, regular families and regular problems. They work hard and can’t afford to go to a lot of sporting events. They’ve likely never been court side, walked on a Major League Baseball field or even talked to a pro athlete.  You are their ticket inside. They crave local sports information.  These guys are smart, more media savvy than you think, and they know what they like when they hear it. They have high expectations for sports content whether it is on TV, radio, the internet or other. They likely know more about at least one local team than you do and certainly believe that to be true. They are passionate about these teams. They don’t want you to rely on the audience to provide your content, they won’t be calling in and they won’t enter contests.  They don’t want you to try too hard to be funny, smart or connected. They don’t want you to waste their time. They are listening by themselves and using you as an escape from real life. These guys are tuning in to hear YOU talk about the things that matter most to them. They want to like you, but often times think you are an idiot. They have no loyalty. If you are boring, they will find someone who isn’t. They want you to take a side, have an opinion, provide unique information, explore an angle, or a go in a new direction. Tell them a story. They want to know you, recommend you, rely on you, and trust you. They want you to entertainment them and tell them something they don’t know. They will steal your opinions and use them as their own in front of their buddies. They’re not as sick of Brett Favre, steroids, and BCS talk as you are, even if they say they are.  These are your listeners to lose. What are you doing today to win them over?

Your Station is a Restaurant. Would You Eat There?

Everyday I get questions from hosts and programmers about “how important” certain elements are in the overall scheme of a show or station.

For example,

- Is the bumper music that we choose really that important?

- Is it important what my Legal ID sounds like?

- Why is it important to talk about the things everybody else is talking about? I want to talk boxing/MMA/bocce/soccer.

- Is important to tell people repeatedly who I am? If they’re listening don’t they know?

- How important is it for a local show to talk about local sports, I think people are more interested in national stories?

Simply stated – it’s all important. Think of your station or show as if it’s a restaurant. When you go to a restaurant there are many details that are important, but you wouldn’t qualify them as important unless they weren’t addressed properly. You notice everything from the moment you arrive until you leave; How you are greeted, that you are seated promptly at a freshly set table, the flowers aren’t dying, the carpet is clean, the music and lighting, the consistency of the menu and whether it’s easy to read, how attentive is the wait staff?, and on and on and on. If the food was excellent, but the carpet was dirty, the waiter was rude and the table was littered with crumbs and old napkins when you were seated – how much would those “details” impact your experience?

In radio, everything you do or don’t do influences the listeners experience and ultimately impacts ratings and revenue. Everything counts. Every choice you make – production, formatics, show prep, topic selection, imaging and every word you say – helps to shape the listeners experience and informs them who you are and what you’re all about. Sweat the small stuff. Make decisions for your shows and station that appeal to the largest cross-section of your audience and make their experience with your station Zagat worthy.

Who’s Next? Dave Rothenberg

**UPDATE 05-01-2012: Dave Rothenberg is now hosting 7p-10p on ESPN Radio 98.7 FM in New York City.

Programmers are always asking me “Who’s out there?”, “Where’s the next talent?” So, periodically, here on the blog, I’ll be shining a light on rising stars in radio.

Dave Rothenberg is “who’s next” today. Dave, a New Yorker by birth, has recently picked up some shifts on 1050 ESPN in New York. He’s tells LarryGifford.com that he’s excited for the opportunity, “It means everything.  I am a born and bred New Yorker with a crazy passion for the New York sports scene.”

Dave has a familiar story. 13 years ago he started running the board and providing the halftime show on high school football broadcasts on WGCH-AM 1490 in Greenwich.  He was a weekly football expert on WALE-AM 990 in Providence, RI.  He skipped around with stops at Air America, Sirius, and Cablevision. in October 2007, he moved to Raleigh, NC to help launch 99.9 FM The Fan.  He was recently a casualty of budget cuts.

So, how’s a guy who’s laid-off in Raleigh end up on 1050 ESPN in New York?

Dave says, “The key to having any success in this business is perseverance.  I have always tried to make good connections and stay in touch with them.  The problem with sports talk is there are always decisions made that make you scratch your head.  I had the number one sports talk show in a market and lost my job.  My last check included my ratings bonus.  But, no matter how little sense things make at times, you need to keep positive and look ahead to bigger and better. I set up a meeting on a trip to New York City with Justin Craig, the PD of ESPN New York and I guess impressed him enough to land this great opportunity.”

Networking. Networking. Networking. Should I say it again? Networking.

Dave has a marathon on 1050 ESPN starting this weekend: Sunday, December 5th 7a-9a, overnight Sunday into Monday Midnight to 5am (part of the Jets 24  hour pre-game show), and then overnight Monday into Tuesday. Take a listen (online at www.espnnewyork.com)

You can contact Dave directly at Dave@DaveRothenberg.com and his website is www.daverothenberg.com

Are You A Host or Personality?

HOST vs PERSONALITY

There are a lot of “hosts” on radio and some of them are very good. They do the basics well, they talk about the right stories, they are likeable, and they never embarrass themselves or their bosses.

CBS Radio Programming VP Bruce Gilbert says, “Being a good host is nothing to be ashamed of, but if you really want to make huge money, cut through and achieve significant ratings you must advance from “host” to “personality.”

Gilbert admits the true radio personality is rare and exceptional. He created this chart to demonstrate the subtle but important distinctions and has graciously agreed to share it with us all.

HOST	VS	PERSONALITY
Knows the Science of Radio	vs	Knows the Art of Radio
Wooden	vs	Animated
Harsh & Pretentious	vs	Self-Deprecating (imperfect, human, lives life)
Wrecking Ball	vs	Architect
Plain	vs	Real, Genuine
Announcer	vs	Seller
Sprinter	vs	Marathoner
Reads Stories	vs	Tells Stories
Rehearsed	vs	Real
Know More Than You	vs	Never Assumes They Know More Than You
Meander	vs	Always Knows Where They Are Going
Copycat	vs	Original
In Hurry	vs	Develops Over Time
Safe	vs	Uncomfortable
Shallow	vs	Deep
Always Goes With First Thought	vs	Always Explores New Angles

A good personality will generate complaint calls to your office, fans will call for him to be fired, he/she will make you nervous or uncomfortable from time to time, and you will have to protect them. He/she also will increase your station’s ratings and revenue.