This video isn’t part of the series of free training videos I’ll be releasing very soon for audiobook narrators.
Think of it as an appetizer. The videos that comprise that actual series are much meatier.
1. Enjoy this little video.
2. Put your name on the Alert List, so you’ll know when the real videos are available.
A member of our Radio Pro Facebook group asked a question about how to create and introduce a new character for his radio show.
“I have a character I have been playing with adding to the on-air line up — sort of the flip side of my own personality. I have tested the character on a few friends and everyone loves the idea.
“Planning on recording a couple dozen bits before adding it to the on-air side of things. Just not sure how to introduce the new person to the audience. Advice?”
One of our group members responded, “The best character is you.”
While I agree that to sustain an entire and recurring radio show “the best character is you,” for a peripheral character I would change that to “the best character means something to you.”
That might clearly be a facet of your true personality.
Or it might be your personal reaction to a type of person very unlike you — even a type of person you dislike.
When presenting a character who is fundamentally different from you, the key is to play it as honestly (even if exaggeratedly) as possible.
Rather than “Here’s me, mocking this kind of character” it should be, “Here’s me, doing my best to present this character just as he would present himself in real life.”
I have strong negative opinions about people who con other people by claiming to have “psychic powers.” But my “psychic” persona is one of my more popular “characters.”
The voice is pretty much just my regular ol’ voice. Having a fair knowledge of the mechanics of how they con people I simply create a fun situation, put the character in it, and let him react to it as he naturally would.
I don’t really have strong feelings about “self-help gurus” (some are good, some are terrible) but usually I find them funny-to-ludicrous. I also have a strong background in psychology. So I find it easy to adapt that persona when that character can serve a scene.
I suspect that character doesn’t resonate with my audience as much as my “psychic,” simply because I have stronger feelings about the “psychic.” But it’s still entertaining, probably because I’m able to bring in my psychology background to help inform the bit.
Your Character
What is the character like? What will he be bringing to your show?
(Injection of outrageous P.O.V.? Unique perspective based upon his profession, geographic or family background, etc.?)
There’s no “right” way to introduce a character. But if you give us some information about your guy, perhaps we can suggest a few different approaches.
His response:
The character is “Edward” who is more or less the flip side of me. The stuff I would not say, Edward would be able to voice a little better.
I don’t hunt or fish — he could talk about those for example, but with a humorous caricature type voice and let Edward have the punchline while I play dumb.
Examples…
Edward giving a review of “What The Fox Say” and explaining that they actually make a bark or yip like a dog
Me asking if that means my neighbors might be housing one and calling it a chihuahua.
Edward explaining that the better question in our area is “What The Deer Say”
Me asking what that might be
Edward saying “damn a bumper!”
(We have a lot of deer/vehicle accidents in our rural area.)
For some reason trying to explain it doesn’t seem as funny as it actually plays out when joking around….
Well, going from “seems like a funny idea” to “here’s the fully realized funny piece” is where the work lies.
But the structure you’re suggesting has a lot of promise. It’s a way for you to bring in a broad topic in which much of your audience is interested but about which you know nothing.
Rather than faking a personal interest or pretending to know about the topic, you’re acknowledging and using that local topic to add relevant entertainment value to your radio show.
Being willing to give “Edward” the punchline is smart. Too many radio DJs think they themselves need to “get the laughs.” But it’s their show. If the audience laughs at their show, the host gets the credit.
You also have a good ear for material:
What The Deer Say: “Damn, a bumper” — that’s a solid joke that fits the character and the topic.
How To Introduce A New Character
You don’t need to make a big deal about the introduction of a new character to your radio show. And you don’t need to indicate it’s the introduction of a new “running” character or cast member. Instead, just do the bit.
Example
You might casually remark about “What Does The Fox Say?”:
“Actually, around here it might be more appropriate to ask what does the deer say.” Just drop it in there as an amusing little aside, and move on.
Then you take a phone call.
YOU: Hi, (Radio X).
EDWARD: Yeah, this is Edward (Surname). I’m a ( ) here in ( ). I’m what you’d call an outdoorsman.
YOU: Ah, yessir…?
EDWARD: I can tell you exactly “what the deer” say.
YOU: What would that be?
EDWARD: Damn, a bumper!
If the audience responds — or if in your gut you feel it worked — do two or three more similar calls. If the character clicks with the audience, then you can simply continue to feature him as a regular.
If it flops…Don’t worry. People don’t remember your failures.
Here’s the first on-air appearance of one of the best radio characters ever — Howard Hoffman’s “Mr. Stress” on Z-100/New York.
Note how the jock (Ross Brittain) simply takes a phone call from a listener. There’s no signaling to the audience, “Hey, here’s a new character!”
Inside Story
Ross was in charge of the Z Morning Zoo’s comedy. But Scott Shannon (his on-air partner and Z-100 program director) didn’t like the bit.
So Ross did what any self-respecting morning jock would do: He waited for the PD (Scott) to go on vacation, and then he played the bit. (You’ll hear Mr. Stress refer to Shannon’s absence from the show.)
By the time Scott returned, Mr. Stress was a hit.
Questions to Jump Start a New Character
What does he care about?
What is he passionate about?
What gets him angry?
What makes him deliriously happy?
Whom does he view as the world’s “villain”?
Who is his all-time hero?
What secret is he trying to hide? (Mr. Stress, for example, might be hiding the fact that deep down he’s insecure, and he tries to cover that up with his bluster.)
The Character’s Catch Phrase
Most attempts at manufacturing “catch phrases” fail. Usually you discover the catch phrase only after the character has been introduced.
The ones that “go viral” somehow represent the core of the character.
For example, “Answer me!” immediately became Mr. Stress’s catch phrase. But why? “Answer me!” isn’t funny…at least, not without the right context.
But this character is a guy who is so stressed out that he doesn’t have the patience to answer a question that he just asked. That’s why “Answer me!” caught on; it expressed his core character.
By the way, “What Does The Fox Say?” was:
1. A hit record in 2013.
2. YouTube’s fastest trending video for 2013. (As I write this, it has 321,742,665 views.)
3. The creation of a couple of friends of ours, the Ylvis Brothers. If you haven’t already heard it, check out this wonderfully good radio bit of theirs from several years ago.
While I continue feverishly to work on my Big Secret Project, let’s welcome 2014 with Part Two of a coast to coast radio aircheck journey created by Phlash Phelps in 1985-1987 and shared here with his permission.
In case you missed it, here’s Part One.
This is the most popular thing I’ve ever written. Reprinting it is this blog’s New Year’s Eve tradition.
Hope you enjoy it — complete with the original illustrations by Bobby Ocean.
A Reader Asks:
“Following your advice, we’ve looked for and actually hired part-timers from several unusual places. (One was a waiter our GM had while trying to pitch a potential client, another a door-to-door salesman who came into the station lobby.) But when they get on the air, they seem to clam up and become much more boring than they were before we hired them. When training ‘newly discovered’ part-timers, what are the most important things to start with?”
My Reply:
TELL THEM STORIES…
…about how & why you got into radio, who influenced you, your best radio moments, what you still hope to achieve.
War stories about broadcasting despite impossible conditions, accidentally locking yourself out of the studio, on-air flubs.
Stories about personal connections that have been made with listeners: The girl who called to request her late grandmother’s favorite song…The fan who sent you chocolate chip cookies on your birthday…The listener who berated you for mispronouncing the name of his favorite artist.
Stories about transistor radios under the bed covers and at the beach. Endless struggles to control the car radio buttons.
“Would you PLEASE turn that down”
and
“Wait, I want to hear this!”
Novelty records and girl groups and Motown and Stax and Cadence and Elvis from the waist up and hearing “I Want To Hold Your Hand” for the very first time.
Stories about lovesick teenagers dedicating songs back & forth to each other. About children turning on the radio before they’re even awake, feverishly hoping to hear those magic words from their local disc jockey: “No school, snow day….”
About loneliness and a solitary voice reaching out to you. About making a complete stranger laugh or reflect or remember. About baseball games from far away on car radios. About someone driving across town or across country, with only you and your radio brethren for company.
Stories about Larry Lujack and John Records Landecker and Robert W. and Wolfman Jack and Gary Owens and Dr. Don and Kenny Everett (ask someone from the UK about Kenny) and those crazy young jocks who brought American-style radio to Europe in the 1960s by taking to the seas in honest-to-God pirate radio ships (imagine broadcasting under the worst possible conditions; now imagine doing it while seasick).
Stories about bad news and everyone immediately turning on the radio. About sad news and where you were when you heard it. About practical jokes and misunderstandings and mild or wild revenge.
About getting fired, packing up the U-Haul, and being scared all over again.
Getting angry, getting older and “the good old days.”
Static-y voices criss-crossing in the night. Fifteen-hour air shifts, flaky jocks, disappearing engineers.
Stories about legendary radio people you almost met in an elevator at a convention. The major market PD who did you a favor; the request line caller you can’t forget. Practical jokes on the news guy, disappearing stationery, and a bedroom full of promo records that one day will be worth something.
Staying up late talking radio, swapping tapes, “borrowing” ideas, “embellishing” your ratings, deepening your voice, losing your voice, losing your place, losing your keys, losing your cool.
Wire service copy paper, 15-inch reels, pin-controlled automation. Caffeine addictions and junk food and whatever the station could trade for. Old friends, borrowed headphones, uncontrollable sleep-deprived laughter.
Razor blades, splicing tape, grease pencils. Draping the tape edit over your shoulders until it was safe to throw away.
Cue tones, cue sheets, in cue, out of breath.
Slip-cueing, back-announcing, and hitting the post.
Egos, rivals, and friendships.
Imagination, excitement, Orson Welles and Jack Benny and Ma Perkins and Franklin D. Roosevelt and Arthur Godfrey and Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club.
Losing jobs, gaining weight, changing names.
“How do they do that?”
and
“Listen to this!”
Storz, McClendon, Drake…and Chuck Blore’s Color Radio. Play-by-play and blow-by-blow; sports scores and election returns and Number One on the charts this week.
7-7-7, First Ticket, Hooper, Pulse.
“You don’t look anything like you sound!”
“What am I doing with my life?”
and
7-day workweeks
and
“I can’t believe I get paid for this!”
Slow starting turntables, nickel on the tone-arm, the cart machine sticks.
Stories about hotlines, hot shots, skimmers, phantom cume, time checks, time warping, ratings, feelings, winning, showing off. T-shirts and coffee mugs and iridescent frisbees.
Billboard and Claude Hall and Cashbox and Record World and R&R and Bill Gavin’s green pages.
Floods and tornado watches and power outages and school lunch menus. Lost dogs, lost accounts, lost tempers.
Jiving, shouting, rhyming, whispering. Hiccup remedies, lemon ’n’ honey, and good old-fashioned adrenalin to save the day.
Embarrassed, elated, delighted. Hi-Low, Name It And Claim It, and Dollar-A-Holler. Playlists and station surveys and Good Guys. Q, Zoo, and Boss. Bob & Ray and Mike & Elaine and The Monitor Beacon.
Jingles, stickers, Chickenman and The Oidar Wavelength.
Silly stunts, intense rivalries…Passion.
B-Sides and label colors and songwriter credits. Favorite songs, favorite artists, favorite moments.
Newspaper wars, live remotes, and meter readings. Shouts, stingers, sweepers, stagers, stabs.
Make-goods, live tags, rip ’n’ read and backtiming to the news. Allan Freed and Dan Ingram and Cousin Brucie.
Beat the Bomb and Lucky Bucks and Battle of the Bands. Pinning the needle, pegging the meter, riding gain.
Feedback and wrapping the capstan and “Hold on a sec, I gotta go on the air…”
Sign on, sign off, warming up the filament and Compression, Compression, Compression!
Gates board with rotary pots; Automax and Volumemax. Intros, outros, ramps, talk-ups. False endings and records popping & skipping and carts jamming.
Philosophical Differences and late night resume photocopy sessions. Tight board, good pipes, will relocate.
The big break, bad luck, skip waves, skipping town with the air staff’s paychecks.
Cueing past the splice, heavy phones, cue burn. Solid Gold, Hot Nine at Nine, Hot 100. WABC and KHJ and KLIF and WOWO and WLS and making it to the big markets.
Friday night countdowns, Saturday Swap Shops, Sunday drag racing commercials, twin spins, doubleplays, triple shots and instant replays.
Romantic entanglements, broken hearts, big dreams, small wins, and “Garbage Mouth Leaves Cleveland.”
“NO ONE is to touch these carts! And that means YOU!”
“Were you listening when…?”
and
“What’d ya think?”
and
“You should have been there.”
Then explain to that new jock:
Now you are there.
What are you gonna do with it?
