Programming To Win columnist Robby Bridges has worn many hats in his career, but until now, he has never hosted a morning show. Drawing on his experience as a consultant, as well as a new morning host, Bridges passes along some habits and observations of top AM drive talents
Robby Bridges
By Robby Bridges
Generally, I find you meet people in the radio business who aspire to something other than what they are doing: board op’s who hope to become air talents, promotions staffer who hopes to be a Music Director and of course, every talent in just about every format has dreamt of being a morning host. There are certainly a lot of perks: the morning show always has celebrity visits, their own promos/billboards, they get to star in TV ads, there is more time for longer “bits” and they tend to be the highest paid. While I never found myself immune from the allure of these things, I never really aspired to be a morning host. I guess when I was in my twenties; the idea of going to bed by 9PM was horrifying enough that when the offers would come along from time to time to host a morning show I never found them appealing. Fast forward to this summer, when I accepted an opportunity to return to Connecticut (where I have a home) to program and host the WEBE Wake Up Morning Show on AC legend WEBE 108 FM. I’d worked in markets major and small, syndication, network radio, done everything from CHR to Country, even news…but I’d never regularly hosted a morning show. I’d hired/coached them; I’d worked with them, but never done it myself. So I did a lot of thinking about what makes a morning show great and realized I’d been preparing to host one for some time without even realizing. Particularly with my most recent assignment: guest host and occasional co-host for Scott Shannon on the 24-Hour “True Oldies” from Cumulus Media Networks. I thought I’d share some of my own notes with other talent/programmers.
HABITS AND OBSERVATIONS OF TOP TALENT
Working with Scott & Todd, Elvis Duran, John Lander, Giovanni, Dale Dorman, Paul Perry and admiring/sampling classic morning talent like Kidd Kraddick, Blair Garner, Rick Dees, Jay Thomas, Larry Lujack, Don Rose and others I’ve found some common traits:
-PREP Being prepared is easily the most important trait of any compelling air talent but it rings especially true for morning talent. This goes beyond the “know how you are getting from point A to B” of any on-air rap; it’s plugging into what your audience/demo are into on a given day, what the market(s) on balance are, what’s trending in the format/news. To truly be prepped means, yes, mapping out a run sheet and a format clock that’s a given but truly magical talent are able to pinpoint the relevant and relate/react to at key moments in the morning.
-SHARING SPOTLIGHT Whether it’s letting a co-host get the laugh, setting a guest up to shine or making callers the showcase regularly there’s not a successful morning host who keeps the spotlight on themselves all the time, the reflective glow is always the brightest.
-ENDEARING The giant morning hosts all endear themselves to the audience over time, as I mention in the way they respond to what happens around them from news to culture BUT also in what they reveal about themselves as people, how they treat others and perhaps most key critically—by pushing the emotional button at the right time. Humor, sadness, shock, anger, disgust, disbelief, heartstrings—great talent know how to use the intimacy of radio to connect with their listener emotionally on a regular basis and that drives passion for the show/host in a way nothing else, even big contests or format passion, does.
-THE FORMATICS MATTER There are always young (and sometimes not-so-young talent) that hear a Howard Stern or a Ryan Seacrest and think they can skip all the building block steps a talent grows through and are capable of just being a “big personality.” The giants of morning drive have all evolved and developed as characters on the air but they mastered each step of what being an air talent requires and can easily do the basics as effortlessly as they anchor radio-thons or make phone scams. Great talent instinctively remember the importance of the format, setting appointments for benchmarks, features and upcoming events, put the radio station on a pedestal, respect the music (if they play it) and the service elements. In other words: they think of the listeners needs first and foremost.
-COMFORT This is an intangible but all talents make themselves comfortable during their show. It’s the way beds/sfx are labeled, the set up of their studio, the flow of a show that develops and the team around them—to achieve the needed intellectual and emotional energy required to perform a morning show (without the luxury of a teleprompter like TV talent) morning hosts like comfort; this brings these tips full circle, another reason PREP is so paramount, when you know where the show is going and ready that its ready to go there, no stress inhibits creativity and “BIG” thinking.
Now if I could only master making a decent cup o’ joe at 5 in the morning…..
Robby Bridges is a host on WPLJ/New York and the True Oldies Channel on Cumulus Media Networks. He is also President of BBOR Productions, developing and marketing syndication, music and production pieces nationally. Previously Bridges has worked in various capacities at WCTK/Providence, Z100/New York, Q102/Philadelphia, WODS and Mix 98.5/Boston and elsewhere in New England. Robby can be reached at 203-333-9108 or bridges@bborproductions.com.
