When I grew up listening to the radio, I immediately knew I wanted to be the next John Landecker or Dan Ingram. If you’re too young to know who they are, you truly missed out on greatness! Just Google them. They were on the air at a time when a great radio personality could become one of the most recognizable people in a community — without ever seeing their face.
Back between the ’70s and ’90s, radio talent didn’t just fill time between songs and commercials. The best jocks were the station. They owned their audience. Like every great brand, they were relevant and became part of the contemporary pop culture in their market.
So, what was it that made them different from the talent today? Frankly, it was the same things that make any great brand.
They made promises based on the relationships they created with listeners and wrapped it all in addictive experiences that consistently brought them back for more.
The personalities back then were set free and encouraged to be individuals. Sure, they had formats to adhere to. But within those confines, the best of the best had distinctive voices, points of view, senses of humor and personalities that shined. It magically came through the speakers. You could identify them within seconds. They were anything but interchangeable.
What Made The Role Unique
I came up at a time when you had a live four-hour show every day. We used to say that doing four hours back then was like driving a car for eight hours. You were physically and emotionally exhausted when it was over.
We didn’t have prep services, the internet, and got the newspaper every day. We bought magazines and carried a pen and pad or a small tape or digital recorder. No one tracked for any other markets. There was no such thing.
Yeah, I know it sounds like the old, “we walked to work in the snow with no shoes, uphill, both ways!” But the reality was that we had to focus on one show per day for one market. A market we actually lived in and cared about as much as the listeners.
As an industry, outside of morning shows, many of which are now syndicated and non-local. We have reduced the number of hours available for prep when doing multiple markets. Thus, we’ve minimized the ability to even interact with listeners. You can’t do a remote if you’re never in the market.
Today, many personalities are also forced to operate inside way too much structure.
I’m not complaining or suggesting that change is a bad thing, nor that it isn’t inevitable. I’m just wondering how we expect talent to perform when we don’t give them a platform on the radio that empowers them to create meaningful, compelling content. What we hear on the air today can be technically polished but sometimes seems unremarkable and totally anonymous.
Be The Storyteller
Old-school talent understood the value of storytelling, but it’s tough to tell a great story that relates to three different markets for three different formats.
Great talent can take something that happened at the grocery store, on the way to work or at their kid’s ballgame and turn it into compelling radio. They weren’t necessarily trying to deliver “content.” Moreover, they were telling stories, making observations and inviting listeners into their lives.
That may be one of the most overlooked differences. Great radio personalities didn’t simply talk at an audience. They talked with it. Listeners interacted and were engaged. They even wrote letters, showed up at station appearances, and recognized the personalities.
If I were to summarize the magic that came over the speakers, I would say that there was a genuine sense of a relationship between talent and listeners that went both ways.
Local Always Mattered
Local market knowledge went a long way. A great personality knew their town. They knew the schools, neighborhoods, politicians, businesses, sports teams, scandals, traditions and characters that made the market unique. They understood the references that somebody 500 miles away couldn’t possibly understand.
If you can drop the same person on the air in three or four different markets, then the chances of them sounding like they live in any one of them are minimal.
But the biggest difference of all was the risk great talent took. The great personalities weren’t afraid to have a point of view. They could be funny, outrageous, emotional, controversial or occasionally wrong. They weren’t trying to sound like everyone else.
None of this suggests that everything about old-school radio was better. Today’s talent has access to extraordinary technology, research, social media, video and production tools. A smart personality can potentially reach listeners 24 hours a day across multiple platforms.
But in the end, technology doesn’t create personality.
The great radio talent of years gone by understood something the industry sometimes forgets. Your listeners don’t fall in love with formats. They fall in love with people.
The lesson for today isn’t that radio needs to go backward. It needs to rediscover what made those personalities powerful in the first place.
- Be distinctive.
- Tell great stories.
- Know your community.
- Have an opinion.
- Be entertaining.
- Be human.
Because the greatest radio personalities weren’t merely voices coming through a speaker. They were bigger than life and became part of people’s lives.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
Bob Lawrence writes weekly columns on radio leadership and business. He most recently served as market manager for MacDonald Broadcasting in Saginaw, Michigan. Throughout his career, Bob has held virtually every position in the business over his 40+ year career, from being on-air in Philadelphia, San Diego, and San Francisco to programming legendary stations including KHTR St. Louis, KITS Hot Hits and KIOI (K101) San Francisco to serving as the head of all programming for Saga Communications and working for the Radio Advertising Bureau. Before landing his current role, Bob helped lead Seven Mountains Media’s cluster in Parkersburg, WV/Marietta, OH. He can be reached by email at BGLawrence@me.com.
Bob also honed his research skills over ten years as Senior VP of Operations at Broadcast Architecture, eventually launching his own research company and serving as President/CEO of Pinnacle Media Worldwide for 15 years. Bob spent five years as VP of Programming for Saga Communications before joining New South Radio in Jackson, Mississippi as GM/Market Manager. Prior to joining Seven Mountains Media, Bob served as General Manager for the Radio Advertising Bureau, overseeing its “National Radio Talent System”.