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May 30, 2023
Tribute To My Brother, Ron LaneI recently lost my beloved brother. Ron Lane was the consummate broadcaster. As an air personality, General Manager, and owner, his radio stations super-served small towns in Camden, TN, Bartow, FL, Russellville, AL, and Flora, IL.
Ron was both my personal and professional mentor, coach, and inspiration. At eight years old, somehow over my whining and complaining, he taught me to play baseball and a short time later basketball.
Under Ron's mentorship, I went on to become a little league All Star and All State basketball player in high school. It wasn't until years later I realized Ron was playing vicariously through me. Ron was stricken with polio at age nine, a few years before the vaccine was available in the US. I never once heard him complain.
After my freshman year of college at Memphis State University, he gave me a summer job in radio. I got the bug, and he guided me through my radio career.
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May 25, 2023
A Winning Culture Can’t Be For EverybodyIf you’re a pro basketball fan, this is, no doubt, your time of the year as we go deeper into the NBA Playoffs. For the most part, the best, most well coached teams make it this far. Nothing exemplifies that more this year than the crazy playoff path of the Miami ...
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May 23, 2023
Bring On The AI TalentI recently took a Lyft in San Francisco and the radio was on in the car. For the whole drive, the on-air host talked about one thing and one thing only: Disneyland. Between songs it was 40+ minutes of non-stop Disneyland hype: “Your chance to score those ...
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May 18, 2023
Put Me In, CoachWhen I decided that coaching and mentoring talent and artists is what I wanted to do, I asked MY mentors lots of questions and received lots of advice. The two things I heard the most was that it takes lots of study and lots of time. Coaching air talent is a time ...
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May 16, 2023
Lessons From Ted Lasso's DeclineIn the first two seasons, Ted Lasso was a cultural and ratings sensation. It singlehandedly boosted Apple TV’s subscription rate. The show won a ton of Emmys, and the main characters were doing interviews on all the top TV talk and news shows. This current third ...
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May 11, 2023
Trading Profits For Loyalty – Now There’s An Idea!I recently came across a story about Delta Airlines that, for most large companies, was something you never, or rarely, see. Check this out: the airline reported their first quarter results, and they were scary – a loss of $363 million! Most organizations would be ...
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May 9, 2023
Choose One: AM/FM Survival TestCould you survive in the wilderness? The How Stuff Works podcast recently featured a survival skills quiz, with questions like: “What's the single most important thing you need to survive in the wild?” Food Water Warmth Correct answer: Water. Going ...
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Each week I view websites of radio stations in Australasia, North America, South Africa, the UAE, the UK and other English-speaking countries as part of BPR’s monthly Website Check Up. The one thing I continually notice is the vast difference in ...
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May 4, 2023
It’s All About The Artist … Again!For several years, Country programmers had been very outspoken about the genre/format being more song-driven than artist-driven, the contention being that the Country format has been the most successful when it was artist-driven. In the ’90s, we had Garth, Brooks & ...
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May 2, 2023
Three FAQsAs a program director, how often should I meet with the show? In recent years, I worked with a top 10 market program director who met with an experienced morning show for 60-90 minutes every day! Most of the time he spent pontificating and telling stories. It drove the ...