Now Is The Time To Make Time

In the most recent Jacobs Media Air Personality Survey (AQ4), it was extremely disappointing to see the low percentage of coaching that talents get on a regular basis. Think about this – almost half – 45% - said they hadn’t had an aircheck session in a year! Twenty-three percent said it happened a couple of times a year; 6% monthly, 9% every two weeks and only 8% weekly or more! Amazing! Almost half of those surveyed have gotten little direction from their PD in an entire year! Let that ruminate for just a second.

I do realize that most program directors these days have multiple jobs, but I also wonder where air talent sits on the priority list. Judging from the numbers, not very high for most, apparently.

You’ve seen in this column and various others the renewed importance of talent in the overall station programming plan. We’ve established, for the most part, that the music on most Country stations is the same, so why do we spend so little time with our talent, the one entity that will set us apart?

Now it’s time to MAKE the time! First, you must treat ALL of your talent as if they were local. You need to spend quality time with all of them. It’s obvious with your local talent. Schedule at least two sessions/meetings per week, 45-60 minutes in length. Agree on what the talent brings to each meeting. Make sure they are part of the process. It’s not just you picking a random day and critiquing it.

I used to set up four different scenarios that would rotate evenly through a two-week period: a one-hour sample of the show picked by both of us; their five best breaks of the past week and why they fall into that category; their five most disappointing breaks of the past week and what they could have done to make them better; and a one hour show brainstorming session covering current benchmarks, future benchmark ideas, creative content ideas, etc. However you do it, you need to make sure this is not a one-sided situation. It must be give-and-take to work.

The coaching process is somewhat different with your voice-tracked talent. Set up two calls a week with each personality, one at the beginning and one at the end of each week. You can cover the upcoming week with one and the upcoming weekend with the other. Make sure you have given the talent enough time for this prior to when they record. Since they may already have a PD in their home market critiquing them, hopefully, this should be more of an information call covering station events/promotions, key market events and hot topics among the local listeners. Arm them with as much as you can to sound as “live” as they can.

With syndicated shows, it’s similar to coaching your voice-trackers, but you’re providing as much station, local and topical information in one 15-30 minute call per week. Most likely, this is a show with lots of affiliates, so respect their time but do make sure they have that they need to compete on a local level. Communication is the key from your end.

With both voice tracking and syndication, use email as much as you can for weather issues, some additional local information between calls, etc. You want everyone to sound local and relevant. No one should be able to tell the difference between your local and out-of-market talent. Make sure they are TOTALLY prepared. TAKE THE TIME!

When I was programming three daily syndicated shows several years back, I noticed that the stations that communicated the most often were the ones who had the most success with our shows.

The days of “set and forget it” are over. The ONLY way we set ourselves apart from our competition and from other music sources IS our talent. Talent should be your #1 priority, so NOW is the time to MAKE the time!

“Taking Your Radio Presence To The Next Level. Be it an artist, radio programmer or on-air talent. Coaching and mentoring down to your foundational level”

Contact me:
John Shomby
Owner/CEO Country’s Radio Coach
jshomby@countrysradiocoach.com
757-323-1460
https://countrysradiocoach.com