There’s always an adjustment period when you get plunged into a new situation. That goes for work in radio, relationships, or life in general.
“Hit the ground running” is a nice idea, but life has a way of obstructing that. Overnight sensations put in a lot of time and effort before that “overnight”; there’s practice and research and talent recruitment and just learning the market. The latter is key to understanding where you’re going and what will work.
You don’t show up for a radio job (yes, they still have some of those) in a market for the first time and instantly become a local, and real locals often consider newcomers interlopers and carpetbaggers who can’t possibly know all the ins and outs of the local scene. If you’re a newcomer, your opinion may sound like someone without knowledge of the true story reacting to a news item. Why should they listen to you?
You have to put some time into learning about your market, whether you’re a talk show host or just voice tracking from someplace else. It’s not just knowing the power brokers in town, it’s knowing what used to be where, who the local celebrities are (hint: TV anchors), what the traffic patterns are, what the neighborhoods are like, where the good and bad schools are… in other words, the stuff you’d know if you grew up in the area. While the internet helps with that research, you really have to go out and experience regular daily life for a while to get enough local knowledge to sound like a local.
The other day, that thought came to me while running errands. I spent a lot of time in South Florida before moving here a few years ago, my wife went to school here, my father lived here, and I could get around without a map. I didn’t, however, know nearly as much as I thought I did about the things natives know.
For example, the stereotype of the South Florida driver is that we’re all a) old and b) prone to driving 30 miles under the speed limit on highways. That’s wrong. Seniors here, as it turns out, are aggressive (and aggressively bad) drivers, speeding and tailgating and running red lights and willing to challenge you to a fight over a parking space at Publix. The real danger on the roads are young male drivers in their 20s and 30s driving over 100 mph in leased Lamborghinis (I swear, I’ve seen more Lambos and McLarens on the road here than at a race track) and weaving between lanes on I-95, so much so that I put a dashcam on my Volvo just in case.
What else didn’t I know? People here don’t love Publix, the grocery chain, the way it’s portrayed in the rest of the country; it’s perceived as expensive, owned by Trumpers, and so ubiquitous that there not only seems to be one on every corner, but there are some that are directly across the street from each other.
The Cuban refugee influence on the area is really concentrated in Miami-Dade County, making that area seem like a different world from Broward and Palm Beach counties, which are filled with former Dade residents, Haitian immigrants, and ex-New Yorkers complaining how there’s no good Chinese food, bagels, or pizza here. I-95 is hell, and the stretch of I-95 north of downtown Miami is the worst (and I’ve survived the Schuylkill Expressway, Belt Parkway, and the 405 at rush hour).
You need a car here, unless you’re going to Miami International Airport, in which case you can abandon all hope of getting there by any means. It will take you longer to get out of the parking garage at loanDepot Park than to watch a Marlins game, not that it’s likely that you’ll do that. Yes, there are a lot of Wawas here, along with the requisite CVS and Walgreens stores. Politics? As corrupt as it comes, especially in Miami, and you can go Google Joe Carollo for more about that.
We have a lot of bugs, but people don’t complain about them, they just call their exterminators when it gets out of control. The love bugs that used to swarm and take the paint off the front of your car seem to have disappeared. We do have gators and crocs and sharks, but you might never see one. Iguanas, on the other hand…
See? This is what I mean when I say that you can’t fake local. You have to be there to experience what life is like for locals, so that you can speak to their concerns. You can’t know what those concerns are by just reading something online and learning how they pronounce things. Every market is like that.
If you’re moving to (or voice tracking) a new market, it’s going to be a while before you’re really “one of us.” Your new listeners can tell. They can always tell.
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Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
Jim Kerr of Q104 in New York knew this instinctively back in 1973. He was 21 years old, recently from Detroit and got the morning man slot at legendary WPLJ, where I was the Music Director. Every day after he got off the air, Jim went to another New York City neighborhood (totally unpromoted) to just hang out, eat local food and meet people from all over the city. I’d already been working in radio for three years at that time (and thought I knew a lot!), but I hadn’t seen ANYONE take to the streets like Jim did. It was all under the radar, and that was the beginning of his meteoric rise. He CARED (and still does) about his listeners and wanted to get to know the ins and outs of all the local NYC neighborhoods. And if you’re FROM NYC, you know people identify with the local community — i.e., I’m from Flatbush, Flushing, Riverdale, etc. Manhattan was “the city,” and no one ever said they were from Queens — you were from Astoria, Corona, Jamaica, Hollis or numerous other sub-communities, each with their own local flavor. So, after a few months, Jim was completely “connected” to the audience, and they totally connected to him. A true master who taught a master class in how to make it all work. And the most important thing was he was genuine — this wasn’t an “act.” And that made all the difference.