by Jay Trachman

(This Summer Re-Run originally appeared in February, 1997. –jt)

Here are some thoughts for PDs on how to get the best out your air talents… The first, most important element of any relationship — whether business or personal — is respect. For DJs to learn, it’s crucial. Until he or she senses your genuine respect, all you can teach the jock is to avoid pissing you off. Always approach talent as an equal: your skill is programming; his or hers is entertaining.

The first few weeks a DJ is working for you, you need to teach him or her policy and make corrections as you go along. Once that has been covered, critique sessions should evolve into “two professionals working to improve a product.” The performer needs to understand that he or she is in control of, and responsible for, their own show; your only concerns are the broad outlines of programming policy, and helping him/her to put out the best, most entertaining product they’re capable of.

Express policy as guidelines and rules of thumb. The jock (and you) should know that he or she has the ability to break formatics, if a bit is that compellingly good, and absolutely requires it.

Critique on a schedule. The DJ’s biggest complaint is, “The only time I hear from management is when I screw up.” Critiquing sessions on an “as needed” basis are bound to make the jock defensive. When it’s simply your turn” for a session, you and he/she can work together productively.

Don’t nit-pick in critiquing sessions. If the jock makes an obvious mistake, he or she knows it. Try to retain your perspective that while formatics are easy to focus on and point fingers at, what’s really important is the substance of the show: does this performer have something to say, and is the presentation entertaining? The best kind of critiquing is where the jock analyzes each break first, with the standing question, “How could this break have been improved?”

Entertaining always involves risk. In order to be creative, a performer needs the freedom to “bomb” now and then, without repercussions. It’s one thing to point out that the bit didn’t work — another to whip the performer for something which he or she attempted, in good faith.

Require prep of your performers. No entertainer — with the sole exception of DJs — would ever think he or she could take the “stage” without preparing and rehearsing material. If “personality” is important to your station, material must be prepared in advance.

If you’re an on-air PD, remember that everything you do sets an example. There’s no way you can expect prep from your team if you don’t do it yourself. You’ll never get them to relate honestly and warmly to listeners, unless you do it yourself. If the control room isn’t at least semi-sacrosanct during your air shift, it won’t be at any time of day.

Be generous with compliments. Every performer craves appreciation. Don’t save it for when you have to chew the jock out, and that awful “sandwich” technique (putting a compliment before and after a criticism), because every jock alive knows what’s going on and sees through it. If something the jock says makes you respond emotionally — in other words, entertains you — let him or her know.

Don’t ask for what they can’t deliver: people don’t readily change their “energy levels,” or their basic speech patterns. Nobody can be “up and bright” all the time; some people always look on the dark side of things and some are incurable cynics. If the jock has a fundamental problem that makes his/her personality fit poorly with your vision of the station, don’t try to brow-beat them into shape — either accept the variation as worthwhile in its own right, or replace the performer.

Behavior always has to be measured against the standard, “What am I trying to achieve?”  If the thing you’re after is an air sound filled with creative, entertaining jocks whom people will bond with in addition to your music, then remember: you are not there to control them; you’re there to liberate them.

Jay Trachman is publisher of “One to One,” a weekly information and humor service for broadcasters. Jay can be reached at: phone (559) 448 0700, fax (559) 448 0761, e-mail at 121@att.net, or www.121online.net. Reprinted with permission.