Brian Wright “Diving For Pearls”
When talking with your on-air talent it is very important that they understand that “time does matter” and whenever the listener says to his/herself or to someone else listening, “Man, these guys talk way too much” we do great damage to our product. Many times this has nothing to do with the topic and everything to do with going far beyond the essence of the content. It’s always best to leave your listener wanting for a little bit more than to give them more than they want.
In many coaching sessions I have conducted, the air talent stated that they were well aware how important it is to present their content in THE most efficient manner and are now doing this. Then as we listen back to the show, we hear two or three bits right away that don’t represent that type of planning and care. The air talent even seemed surprised that this happened. In each of these cases, the talent was actually unaware of how inefficient each bit was and did not mean for this to happen. They had not yet developed a clear sense of urgency for getting to the primary essence of their point. Doing this requires a developed skill that takes time to master. The first step in this process is to always plan what your exit strategy is going to be. This detail is often left out in the planning process.
An Illustration that can be applied here is the corral reef diver that is searching for pearls. The native way of doing this is to dive deep beneath the surface without any scuba gear so bubbles to not stir up their surroundings. The diver must be well conditioned, knowledgeable, and keenly aware of his/her fate if they miscalculate. The pay-off for all of this is a great treasure of pearls. We need to teach our air-talent to start diving for great treasure, without the liberty of an underwater breathing apparatus. Right now, many on air personalities are drowning is a sea of their own words and miscalculations of what their audience wants.
We truly feel that personalities are the mortar that holds the bricks of the radio foundation together. Without them a station will not be battle-strong. We simply believe that we must be much more efficient in our talk sets. Let’s work hard for great treasure.
Brian is a 30 year radio veteran who has successfully served many companies over the years as Program Director, Operations Manger and VP of programming. After many years of success working for individual radio stations and clusters, Brian Joined one of the most trusted consulting firms in the country, Audience Development Group. For the last 15 years Wright has enjoyed building alliances with scores of stations in the US & Canada helping them grow in ratings and revenue. Contact Brian at brian@audiencedevelopmentgroup.com
