Radio talents — whether in news/talk or any other format — can be notoriously fickle.
The words “high maintenance,””diva,””prima donna,” and “egomaniac” can be thrown around all too frequently in radio circles. And with those differing personalities, many brand leaders admit to you that everyone is different.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach in managing talent,” said 95.5 WSB Director of Branding and Content Ken Charles. “They all need certain things.”
When asked about how different a strict all-news program — like Atlanta’s Morning News — is from a talk show like The Mark Arum Show, The Erick Erickson Show, or The Von Haessler Doctrine, Charles shared that there are similarities from the talent, but there are certainly vast differences, too.
“Every talent is different. Managing personalities — whether it’s a news personality, whether it’s a talk personality — there’s a lot of similarities, because they’re high achievers. All personalities, all talent, have egos,” admitted Charles. “They are invested and want to be successful. They work their asses off. So there’s a lot of similarities between the talk talent and a news talent.
“The challenge is learning them and managing them as people and not as you know, things or as objects or the same. Because what motivates Chris Chandler is going to be different than what motivates Erick Erickson is different and is different than what motivates John Kobylt or Bill Handel in LA.”
Ken Charles has been successful in managing talent during his long career as a radio brand leader. In addition to his role at 95.5 WSB, where he was voted the third best major market Program Director in Barrett News Media’s Top 20 in 2023, he’s previously worked at KNX News in Los Angeles, as well as the National Brand Manager for iHeartMedia’s news, talk, and sports formats.
And in his experience, he shared that everyone from the producers booth to the highest-paid, highest-rated host is looking for something different.
“Some talent wants to spend time, and talk and meet every day. Some talent’s very happy if they never see me except once a quarter to go over ratings. And lots of talent are in between.
“So learning the language that they speak, learning what motivates them, learning how you can get the best from them, and then learning how to mix all of that into a recipe of making sure you communicate, you get your message to them, and they’re on the same page (is key),” said Charles.
Longtime news/talk leader Dave LaBrozzi, who is set to retire from KDKA in Pittsburgh next month after being voted the fifth best Program Director in the 2023 BNM Top 20, shared similar sentiments.
“I took a person-to-person approach, because each person is different and an individual doesn’t react the same way somebody else would,” shared LaBrozzi. “I tried to get to know them as best I could and manage them in a way that was appropriate for them.
“(Finding out) what motivated them ,what worked, what didn’t work for them (helped),” he continued. “And, to me, that was the best way to approach talent on an individual basis.”
Charles used an analogy to make his point, equating the personalities inside a news/talk radio brand to those inside an NFL locker room.
“I gotta believe Bill Belichick managed Tom Brady much different than he managed Randy Moss,” the Atlanta-based programmer stated. “Both are stars, both are big personalities, and both are huge, high achievers, because they’re at the height of their field and professional athletes, but both are such different human beings and people. Top talent is exactly the same.
“Take Mark Arum, take Erick Erickson, take Eric Von Hassler. They’re all doing basically the same job, right? They are talking to an audience. They’re trying to get big ratings. They’re trying to be compelling and entertaining, but they’re three different personalities who need very different things from me so that they can be successful. I help give them what they need to be successful. And if I tried to treat Eric like I treat Mark or Erick Erickson, it would be terrible. It would be terrible for everybody.”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
