Last week, as my favorite sporting event of the year — the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament — kicked off, I wrote a column about embracing some madness for your station, not just in March but all year round. Now, if you know me, you are probably aware that a big part of my love for the tournament is driven by being a Michigan State basketball fan. But imagine my surprise when I was poring over various post-game interviews with Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo after the first two rounds of the tournament and came across a clip of him talking about how much value he places in his longstanding tradition of regular one-on-one meetings with players.
Do you realize what this means? Tom Izzo does airchecks!
As someone who has touted the value of coaching sessions with hosts throughout my career, I couldn’t have been more excited to find out that my favorite coach feels exactly the same way.
And it turns out college basketball players are a lot like air talent — outwardly it might seem like they don’t appreciate the opportunity for feedback, but for many it really means a lot to them. In his comments, Izzo mentioned two former Spartans now playing in the NBA, Garry Harris and Jase Richardson. “First thing when they leave, [they say] I don’t have to have any more meetings. And they get in the league, and nobody talks to them. They say, ‘Hey, call me, give me a meeting over the phone.'”
Izzo also knows that not every aircheck — I mean player meeting — is about fixing things in the moment. Sometimes it’s about planting seeds for the future. “Those meetings, to me, are priceless, because what they do is they lead to things later on in life,” says Izzo.
When I dug deeper looking for more about Izzo’s meetings with players, I found additional wisdom from the coach that every Program Director should take note of. In a video posted to Coaches Insider, Izzo talks about how, at any level, building relationships with players is key to success and that developing those relationships takes time. He adds that honesty, trust, and listening are the main building blocks, saying, “If you can’t be honest with someone, you’re a used car salesman.”
He adds that it’s important for a coach not to be afraid of face-to-face meetings. Also, he explains that he has a table in his staff room where any important meeting — with a student, parent, or staffer — always takes place so that he can sit a few feet away and look them in the eye.
He also says in another interview that the benefit of his coaching style and direct honesty is that players always know where they stand. There may be things they don’t want to hear, but they understand what he expects from them — something I hear air talent complain about frequently: not really understanding what station management is looking for.
In fact, all of Izzo’s methods mirror best practices for Program Directors. Replace driving ratings with winning championships and he’s trying to accomplish the same things we are. Being willing to provide honest, constructive feedback to the players on the floor — or hosts on the air — is incredibly valuable.
Unfortunately, in my experience, many Program Directors are either intimidated by the idea of providing feedback, struggle to deliver hard news, or simply fail to make spending time with talent a priority because they have so many other things to do. It’s a real problem, because from what I’ve seen, as the radio industry gets tougher to navigate successfully, investments made in relationships, trust, and communication are often what sets great stations apart from their competitors.
Go Green!
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Mike Stern is a Classic Rock columnist and Features writer for Barrett Media. He has been with Jacobs Media consulting stations in the Classic Rock, Rock, Alternative and AAA world for more than a decade. Prior to that he programmed stations in Chicago, Detroit, Denver Las Vegas and other markets. He also worked as News/Talk Editor for Radio and Records, wrote about Top 40 Radio for Billboard Magazine and had his own radio talent coaching business called Talent Mechanic.
