I’m fairly well-known as a big proponent of radio show prep. But in my seminars I warn jocks:
If you do what we’re talking about; if you constantly stay aware of what’s happening in your community; if you always walk into the studio prepared…
You can expect to be ridiculed.
“Oh, isn’t that cute? You’ve got your little notebook of ‘show prep.’ You know, a real professional doesn’t need to prepare. A real pro knows how to ad lib. ‘Spontaneity,’ ever hear of it?”
If you’re always prepared before your show, sooner or later you will hear that from someone else at your radio station.
Invariably, it’s some older jock (always a male, for some reason) whose claim to fame is that he once worked in a “big market.”
For a few weeks.
Then he left that big market and has spent the past 20 years in smaller markets.
Why did he leave the Big Market?
“Politics. The program director played favorites, and I refused to kiss his ass. So instead of staying there and playing that game, I left.”
Strangely, this guy never says, “To tell you the truth, I wasn’t good enough. Plus, I had a lousy attitude, so they fired me.”
This guy couldn’t make it in the big leagues. He’s bitter, he despises his job, and he’s jealous of anyone who has achieved any level of success.
Also, he hates your enthusiasm for radio, because in the distant reaches of his memory he recalls when he felt that passion.
That emptiness hurts. He hasn’t found anything to replace it, other than a couple of very unhealthy addictions, several marriages, a bankruptcy or two, and an aggressively negative attitude.
When that guy ridicules you, don’t take it personally. Stepping on your dreams is just so much easier than owning up to his own failures.
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It’s not just the “old pros” who do that. Towards the end of my 33 year on-air career I had young “first job” DJs tell me everything I was doing wrong — including prepping.
It just isn’t a good idea to ridicule anyone. I always got along with my co-workers because I think respect is important among colleagues.
we spend our entire lives making jokes about other people on air – shouldn’t we do it to the people we know and love around us? Actually having a game plan is the best you can do for yourself- nobody elses name is on the product that comes out of your mouth but you or the guy who sold you bad raw seafood- everything that comes out of your mouth could be because of the guy that sold you bad seafood (not even thinking about the other end).
I was once ridiculed on air by a jock who had found a competition question I had written He suggested I was unable to ad lib at all and so would be very boring to talk to as I would have to write down my reply first
Prepping also leads to spontaneous gems. Remember the White Rabbit advising Alice: Feed your head.
Besides, it takes me two weeks to write a good ad lib.