It’s never too late to makes some New Year’s Resolutions! Pat Welsh offers a list of helpful reminders to air talent for 2014, with a number of suggestions to improve your on-air performance, and be an even better jock.

Pat Welsh

Pat Welsh

By Pat Welsh

I spent a lot of time last year working with air talent. I spent countless hours listening to airchecks and lots of quality time in person and on the phone with talent, talking about the craft of communicating. It was time well spent.
It’s true that personality is a big point of differentiation for terrestrial radio. It’s what sets us apart from most other audio platforms. We all like a little companionship; digital music services without it seem empty. We like to trust that the people on our favorite station will turn us on to new music we’re going to like. It doesn’t matter whether they’re choosing the music or not; great air personalities can still get you interested with enthusiasm and passion.
That said, a friend suggested that I pass along some of my thoughts in this forum. So, in the spirit of sharing, I hit upon the idea of a list of New Year’s Resolutions for air talent. I rejected clever techniques like relating losing weight to doing shorter break in favor of a few subtler points. Most of these can apply to any kind of air personality. These work whether you’re doing mornings or another daypart.

  • Respect the performance – Remember that you’re entertaining people, not just talking to amuse yourself. We’re in show business and it’s important that we take the entertainment aspect seriously. I still hear lots of shows that feature talent talking to one another, with little apparent regard for the listeners. The number of shows is dwindling, especially in the PPM markets, but there’s still a lot of self-indulgent junk on the air – I don’t know any kinder way of saying it. It’s about them, not about you.
  • Tell me a story – This one is especially applicable to morning talent. People relate best to other people’s real stories, not theoretical situations. An interesting tidbit about a survey can be a launching point for a topic, but the survey shouldn’t be the focus. Turn it around and relate it to a real story about real people – even if you have to make it up.
  • Display passion – Facts are nice for the intellect, but passion is what attracts our emotions. In the vast majority of cases, in music radio, we’re using emotions. Music is an emotional hook and an emotional trigger. Get excited about a new song. Talk about why you love a particular artist. Relate to a concert that most of your listeners will remember. Passion needn’t be lengthy.
  • Drive for the payoff – Here’s your “don’t talk so much” entry. Don’t waste time, just get to the point. If you focus on where you’re going, you’ll pick up the pace and get there faster. Here’s one time in life where it truly is about the destination, not the journey.
  • Highlight the benefits – No one really wants to play a game or enter a contest, they want to win something. If you keep your eyes on their prize, you’ll keep them hooked. When we’re literally talking about a prize, this is difficult to do. The on-air talent can’t win the prize. To the jock, the contest is just another liner card to read; to the listener, it’s a big deal. Put yourself in the listener’s shoes and sell them on what they can win, get or do.
  • Edit yourself ruthlessly – This applies to scripts, phoners and even show prep plans. It’s hard to be objective about your own creative output, but you need to learn to recognize when you have to change something to make it stronger, or dump something you spent considerable time on because it just falls flat. If it’s your show plan or content break, this can be tough. We invest a lot in what we do, but we have to recognize when we might be
  • Visualize your entire audience – Be aware of the general audience profile of your station, but don’t get carried away with it. I’ve never agreed with the idea that there is a typical listener; it’s a group of listeners that make up your core, and you have to be able to speak to them all. Not everyone is married (or single). Not everyone is male (or female). Not everyone is over (or under) 35 years old. Not everyone makes more than $75,000. Talk to real people in their cars, jobs and homes, not a cardboard cut-out in the studio (or your mind).
  • Know the answers ahead of time – If you have an on-air guest, you should have a good idea of the answers before you ask the question. Do your homework and you’ll be able to structure the interview to get more out of your guests and to make it more entertaining and revealing for your listeners.
  • Learn the game – Learn the ratings methodology, not just the numbers. I’m often surprised at how little the air talent knows of how ratings work. Whether you’re in a PPM or diary market, you need to know how you’re being evaluated and how ratings survey respondents behave. In fact, I also urge PDs in diary market to share PPM methodology with the on-air talent. There’s nothing about the PPM that doesn’t apply to diary markets since the PPM is a window into real listener behavior. If you don’t know much about ratings, ask your PD. The more insight you have on your listeners, the better.

If you’re on the air, these suggestions can help you improve your show, making it more entertaining and effective. They’re based on years of working with talent, looking at ratings and talking to listeners about what really connects.
And before I close, my last piece of advice is to acquire new skills. Doing one thing for one station in one market is a thing of the past. Flexible, multi-talented people are the ones who will survive. Often, the areas of the station or cluster that need the most help are areas that will provide the jobs of tomorrow: social media marketing, web design, digital sales, etc. Work hard today to remain relevant tomorrow.

Pat Welsh
SVP Digital Content
Pollack Media Group