In just 23 days, spring will arrive. Think about a wonderful spring day.
Hiking with friends, you come upon a clearing with spectacular spring flowers in bloom, colors of every hue while smells that would knock a bee off its perch waif past your nose.
It’s a thing of God’s beauty but chocked full of flaws. When you drop to your knees and view a small patch of this wonderful field, you also notice a tremendous amount of – weeds surrounding the flora.
GREAT radio stations are much like this field. The talent is on cue, executing with genuine communication. Imaging flows flawlessly, both painting the station and generating momentum.
Inside the details – you find the weeds.
Once, while inheriting a tenured staff who was charged with nothing more than guarding a jukebox (their station), we challenged them to put their unique personality into each break.
Put their personality into the promos. Build a personality break every quarter hour. The trained ‘line-readers’ eventually embraced the concept, and record ratings followed.
No radio station is perfect. You need change in order to grow your station – with every change, ‘weeds’ will sprout. We can pull them, but like dandelions, they tend to grow back with veracity.
Plus, with proper perspective, weeds can be good.
The late legendary programmer Dave Robbins once noted in his weekly All Access Success Tips – “…The only difference between a flower and a weed is the attachment of a judgment…”.
As you grow your talent, challenging them to attempt new, creative content, you’ll get ‘weeds.’ It’s a natural human trait. No one is perfect the first time – or ever.
Places inside your brand where ‘weeds’ are growing, and you don’t see it:
Coaching
Radio has always been reluctant to coaches. Even more foreign, radio does not – practice. It’s difficult to understand why – when the suggestion is floated to a colleague, the look resembles a head-cock like Nipper, the RCA dog.
Our sellers receive more coaching and more training than our air staff. Yet, air talent still thinks that the way to improve is to go live to iron out the ‘burrs.’
Try putting your new morning show in a studio and running through several practice rounds—a ‘scrimmage’—before going live. This exercise knocks the rust off and builds timing before you go ‘life,’ avoiding rookie ‘weeds.’
Music Matrix Design
Getting a near – perfect music playlist design is effortless with market – leading G Selector and Music Master. Other lesser – known programs (and not nearly as expensive) are on the market to also assist.
Yet we have programmers who spend hours weekly massaging music logs to their idea of ‘perfection.’ Here’s the reality – it matters little. The listener only knows song–to–song programming. Here’s a test. As you’re reading this – without looking – what were the last three songs you heard on your – or any – radio station?
Set up a solid program to manage music and let it run. Have your programmers invest fewer hours on music management and much more time on the first bold point above and the three that follow.
Recorded Copy
The calendar reads 2025, and we’re still ending commercial copy with a phone number (which no one will remember) and the phrase “… for all your (insert company line of business) needs.” Bad copy is far worse than a bad song—and a huge Time-Spent Listening killer.
Poor copy is a by-product of lack of training among sellers or – worse yet – allowing the client to write the copy. Listeners don’t care about you or your problems. They ONLY care about themselves. Telling a story about how a product changes THEIR life attracts buyers.
At last week’s Country Radio Seminar much anxiety was spent on the steamroller that is A.I. and the effect on Country Music. Used wisely, A.I. significantly improved local radio copy. Embrace it.
Live Copy
There is no equal to The Legend that was Paul Harvey when it came to live copy. He crafted stories when delivering the endorsement that pulled you close to the radio, and before you knew it, you were picking up the phone to buy a Leatherman or Bose Radio. He even sold us a bong.
Why do we allow talent to read emotionless bullet points during a premium-sold live endorsement? Many among us bark out product data like they’re late for a much-needed bathroom break.
Put a critical ear to your talent when they air live copy this week. If you’re a seller, ask if the talent is earning their fee handling the critical points of the story they’re telling about your client. If you’re a programmer, coaching talent to be passionate about the client’s story will build longer listening periods.
Remote Broadcast Presentation
When did it become cool NOT to wear gear on location that identifies you and the brand you represent? Yet we see talent on location at a local bakery or mattress store time and again without a station-identifying logo.
On-location events are perfect for solidifying listener relationships and connecting with new listeners. Stationality should be everywhere, as most who attend won’t know you or where to find you.
Market Managers, Sellers, and Programmers pop into an event your brand is hosting in the coming weeks, taking inventory of station exposure to visitors. You’ll surely be making future improvements.
A great quote – “What you allow, you endorse.”
Better yet:
“What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own. What you tolerate, you deserve.”
Do you have confidence that YOUR brand is on solid ground, projecting a sound that’s big and confident? Perhaps – beautiful and grand?
Find ‘weeds in the field,’ and you’ll discover opportunities for improvement.
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Kevin Robinson is a passionate award-winning programmer, consultant and coach – with multi-formats success all over the country. He has advised numerous companies including Audacy (formerly Entercom Communications), Beasley Broadcast Group, Westwood One, Midwest Communications, Townsquare Media, Midwest Family Broadcasting Group, EG Media Group, Federated Media, Kensington Media, mediaBrew Communications, Starved Rock Media, and more. He specializes in strategic radio cluster alignment, building lean-forward tactics and talent coaching – legacy and entry-level – personalities.
Known largely as a trusted talent coach, Kevin is the only personality mentor who’s coached three different morning shows on three different brands in the same major market to the #1 position. His efforts have been recognized by The World Wide Radio Summit, Radio & Records, NAB’s Marconi, and he has coached CMA, ACM and Marconi Award-winning talent. He is also in The Zionsville High School Hall of Fame as part of the 2008 inaugural class. Kevin is an Indiana native – living near Zionsville with his wife of 39 years, Monica and can be reached at kevin@robinsonmedia.fm.
