DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

A Loyal Reader Writes:

I currently subscribe to a show prep service as one source of material for my show (Oldies format). It’s frequently very funny but more times than not, the humor is either forced or just plain not there. I’m trying samples of other services currently, but many are either worse or contain no humor at all.

In fact, most read like a morning newspaper. The reason these services are still publishing is obviously that there’s a market for this type of prep, but frankly, I have never figured out how to use them.

My question is:

(A)  What am I missing in these services that is obviously there, since many others find them of value?

(B)  Since it looks like I’m going to be forced to write my own bits, what methods of show prep would you recommend that I haven’t thought of?

My Reply:

What am I missing in these services that is obviously there, since many others find them of value?

It sounds as though you haven’t found a service that fits well with your own perspectives. There’s no law that requires you to use a service.

Since it looks like I’m going to be forced to write my own bits, what methods of show prep would you recommend that I haven’t thought of?

First, determine why you are writing material. Is it to express a point of view? Is it to entertain? To make people think? To make people smile? To enlighten? Or is it solely because you figure you’ve got to say SOMETHING?

In short, do you have something to say? If you don’t have something to say, then you’ll certainly never find a prep service to your liking.

You work for an oldies station. Maybe topical humor and commentary aren’t your style. Why not talk about the music instead? The music, after all, is the primary reason most of your listeners tune you in.

I don’t mean just the obvious stuff — title, artist, year. I mean sharing your own reactions to the music. To the sound, the lyric, the performance, the arrangement, the feeling it invokes in you. Making a connection from that decades-old hit song and your listeners’ lives today.

Keep a notebook in your pocket at all times. Whenever anything happens in your daily life that provokes a quizzical or emotional reaction from you, jot it down immediately.

Don’t worry at that moment about how you’ll use it. First make sure you capture the inspiration. Often you’ll know how to use it right then. Otherwise, sit down with your notes each day and spend a couple of minutes on each one, looking for ways to weave it into your show.

It might take the form of an observation. (“Wherever I go, I see people talking on their cell phones. Talking while driving, talking while walking, talking while eating…”)

Or a rhetorical question. (“Exactly when did the cell phone become a required fashion accessory in our society?”)

Or a complaint. (“If I have to jump out of the way of one more idiot driver who doesn’t notice I’m crossing the street because he’s talking on his stupid cell phone, I’ll take the law into my own hands.”)

Or a bold statement. (“As far as I’m concerned, talking on the phone while driving is as bad as drinking while driving.”)

Or you give the subject to a character.

Or you use it to stimulate phone-ins.

Or you use it on the request line OFF the air, to stimulate conversations that later can be used on-air. (A listener calls in to make a request and, off the air, you ask, “Do you think restaurants should require diners to turn off their cell phones before eating?”)

Or a comedy bit. (A seven-step program for weaning addicts away from their phones. Step One has the addict use a phone with a very short battery life. Step Six replaces the phone with a cigarette lighter, which the addict can hold to his ear when necessary to mimic the feeling of a phone.)

If you want to create your own fresh material on a daily basis, you must capture every inspiration as it occurs. That probably means writing it down. (Some people prefer dictating into a mini-recorder — or, yep, into a cell phone — throughout the day.)

The two biggest mistakes people make are:

• Not writing it down when the inspiration occurs.

• Not writing it down because they’re not sure how they can use it.

First capture the inspiration. Then figure out how to use it at your leisure.

A few exercises that are virtually guaranteed to produce original results:

* Hop over to TV Guide. Pick out the Top 10 comedies or dramas and give yourself just ten seconds to write a ridiculous “log line” (a one sentence description of that week’s plot) for each show.

* Create three different characters (who will exist only for the purpose of this exercise) based on an amalgamation of various people you’ve known. Maybe a 7-foot tall, Bible quoting, gun toting ballet dancer….And an artistic, sensitive racist…And an oversexed septuagenarian who is convinced that inhabitants of the planet Mercury have infiltrated her basement.

For every item in the day’s news, mentally “listen” as each of those characters presents and reacts to the story. They will help you discover unique perspectives you wouldn’t otherwise have thought of.

* Select five headlines from the day’s news and challenge yourself (off the air) to present each story in the form of a song (whether operatic, rock, country, etc.).

Some readers will look at those three oddball techniques and think, “What a waste of time!”

Others will think, “Oh, I get it. He’s trying to force me to approach ‘everyday’ material from a fresh perspective. If I begin my daily show prep journey from a different point than I’m accustomed to, I’ll automatically end up at a new, unexpected destination.”

And maybe the jock who submitted this question will throw off the shackles of what other people (i.e., those who produce show prep services) think is interesting and will make that decision for himself on a daily basis.

When you find your show prep inspiration not in a service (and there are some good services out there) but in your life, your challenge dramatically shifts from:

“What can I possibly talk about today to fill the time?”

to

“Of all this material I’ve gathered, how can I possibly decide which to include and which to omit? I’d need twice as much air time to fit all of this in!”

LEAP OF FAITH RADIO PRODUCTION with Bobby Ocean

Only da bes’.

It’s the names of the other people on my resume. They sure do validate my credentials, almost helping me overlook the fact that they also age me as clearly as the rings on a sliced redwood.

It has been my good fortune, and many times, depending upon, of course, which Program Director we discuss, comedic sit-com through madcap melodrama, to work with the best.

Each era seemed to have spawned it’s army of keen radio minds and leaders. Almost as if to add another exhibit to the “like minds think together” maxim, we seemed to all be drawn together.

I was always a corporal, never a General. I think that’s a contributing reason to my being able to meet so many different examples of the extremely good programming minds while in the thick of it, and these were the best of the best. My ego was in an performer’s arena and didn’t compete with the PDs ego because we wanted to work WITH one another and win.

As a good, always giving 110%, sharpshooter soldier, I always brought up the rear with extra effort in all Image Production. After meeting with the Program Director, Operations Manager, whatever the decision maker in Programming was called, I hopped into my workspace, wrote the Liners, matched up and plotted their music, communicated specific style points to engineers, voiced and/or coached voices, produced them and generally made sure they were airworthy. What a control freak.

This task array wasn’t in my job description, those things were what was necessary to get our boat afloat and its Image Sound up to its best. Also missing were my operation orders as Staff Psychologist, Soul Searcher/Sealer, Interpreter, I-Ching Reader/Question Designer and True Believer. Format needed it, I noticed that and pitched in with it. We all instinctively did what we could.

But all those irregular techniques and tasks fell from one compass heading and fit into one mental folder, created for one process I had developed and regularly practiced, probably best described by the word, “Aligning.”

When allowing my empathy, support and forces to fall in line with someone else –aligning my soul with another’s, man to man, spirit to spirit (‘that beyond identity’ to ‘other referential being’), essence to essence– enormous understanding is possible. Much wisdom flows and is absorbed, questions are answered, love and reverence are deeply, profoundly felt, and blossom, BEing is recognized as both facets of who we are and the language we use, naturally, spontaneously.

We all experience this aligning process, to one degree or another — [“He likes you, I can just TELL about these things,”; “It all sounds great, the numbers back everything, we have budget for this investment, but THERE’S JUST SOMETHING that tells me…”] — without realizing it is a normal process, something that can “be done” by anyone, can even be taught. We haven’t been educated to the degrees and levels we may be steered by different methods and systems, that by aligning, the process becomes more dimensional, thus changing everything, all the time. That’s a lot to find out and we have to do it ourselves.

Sifting through, I might guess the service of most value and effectiveness we in Image Support are able to provide, both for our boss and our listeners, is that of interpreting. To best accomplish this, my experience clucks at me to keep my eye on the course, free from competition, free from desire.

Seems almost beyond notice, doesn’t? Stupid simple, but it was that very freedom that always made it easier for me at comprehending, then clarifying what it was that those great, constantly moving and often troubled minds were trying to put into humble words.

Jon Carter offers a good example of how to “image” a music program (or station).

Your radio station or radio program is important only insofar as it’s the place where your listeners go to hear something they enjoy, want or need.

Time for another look at award winning radio commercials — spotlighting the good and the bad from the 2007 Radio Mercury Awards

This one was a finalist in the “PSA” category.

As I listened to this spot, my reactions were as follows.

1)  “Good grief. A computer voice from the 1980s?? How relatable is that?”

2)  “Oh, wait. These are supposed to be old computers. Okay.”

3)  “They’re getting me to picture those old computers.” (I have half a dozen that I keep around, “just in case.”) The humor is a bit lame, but they are getting me to listen to the voices, which in turn trigger visual images of the computer-like devices.

4)  “Oh, now they’re giving me a good reason to act on the sales message: I can get rid of those old computers and help the environment. Not bad.”

5)  “Wow, they’re raising one of the biggest objections targeted listeners have to acting on this sales message: fear of their old computer files being perused by strangers.

‘All of the data on your hard drive will be cleaned out or destroyed.’

“The spot sounds a bit lame, but all that matters is whether it causes the targeted listener to act. These guys know what they’re doing.”

6)  “Oh, my God! Now they’re scaring the listener with the very objection they just overcame!

‘I still know your personal information and all the sites you used to go to.’

“Are they nuts??”

They came so close. But in a misguided effort to be funny — a goal they never achieved, by the way — they brought the targeted listeners to the brink of taking action…and scared them away.

Sad.