DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

I held my second Air Personality Plus+ seminar in Dallas, Texas, in 1988.

Among the 90+ attendees were two very good disc jockeys from KEGL/Dallas.

One was Jimmy Steal, now the longtime program director of Power 106/Los Angeles. The other was Kidd Kraddick.

During that weekend, Kidd was hard to miss. Rather, the sound of his large portable computer was hard to miss; he sat in the back row, constantly inputting notes into the only computer in the room.

During a break during the first day, Kidd came up to me and said, “Do you remember when I came over to your house?”

“You came over to my house?”

“Yeah. Ten years ago I was working in Fresno. I called you up and you invited me to come over, and we spent an entire afternoon on the floor of your living room, sitting in front of your stereo while you played me a bunch of airchecks. That afternoon changed the way I looked at radio.”

I still didn’t quite remember. But I knew it must have happened; I’ve always had the annoying habit of telling friends and acquaintances, “You’ve got to hear this.”

That would’ve been during Kidd’s first radio job, at KYNO-FM. He was 19 years old.

The “changed the way I looked at radio” remark staggered me.

Lest anyone mistakenly think I’m taking credit for any of Kidd’s success: No way. Kidd had everything you need to succeed as a radio personality: Intelligence. Self-awareness. Passion. Dedication. Vision. Strong work ethic. Resiliency.

He also had compassion and humor and genuinely liked people; not all successful radio jocks have those qualities, but in this biz those attributes really come in handy.

Kidd (Dave) was a natural entrepreneur.

(To me, “entrepreneur” doesn’t mean “someone who makes money.” It means “someone who has an idea, works hard to bring it to life…and possibly makes money as a result.”)

As I recall (he told me this that day in Dallas), when he was 19 he already was earning more money doing disco gigs than he was at his full-time radio job.

Fast forward to when the Internet turned the world upside down: Kidd quickly launched one of the first online show prep services. Just as later he entered the world of radio syndication, I don’t believe his primary motivation was money. It just seemed like a good idea to him, so he made it happen.

Until Rusty Humphries reminded me of this on Facebook this weekend, I had forgotten that Kidd (along with Rusty) also attended my Air Personality Plus+ seminar in Los Angeles a year later, in 1989. Among my guest speakers were Mark & Brian of KLOS.

Sometime after the seminar, I had a phone conversation with Kidd in which he related how he had approached the KLOS morning team after their session.

Mark Thompson had been cordial and courteous to him. Brian Phelps, on the other hand, “treated me like something you’d scrape off your shoe.” (I forgot the incident had occurred, but when reminded of it I immediately recalled Kidd’s report.)

Kidd really was shaken by that encounter. I remember how surprised I was by his reaction, because he so obviously was a talented, immensely likable guy who already was successful.

From what Kidd and a couple of other people told me over the years, Phelp’s shabby treatment of him made him consciously aware of the way in which he, as a celebrity, treated other people on an individual basis could have a profound effect on the other person.

Some radio people meet a rude “successful” jock and think, “Oh, so that’s how you’re supposed to act when you hit the big time.”

Kidd was smart and sensitive enough to think, “I never want to make a fan — or a colleague — feel as bad as that guy made me feel.”

Both in Dallas and in the radio industry itself, there probably are a thousand individual stories of how Dave went out of his way to make someone feel special. I doubt you’ll hear even a single tale of his playing the role of Big Shot Jerk.

Kidd, you knew I liked your work. But I wish I had thought to tell you:

I was a big fan of yours.

Kathy Lepak ordered my How to Create Maximum Impact Radio Advertising course and subsequently uploaded a couple of commercials for my review. 

“I hope they are both good examples of a story, with relevant information, the right music and light humor that you can’t take out of the story without missing the advertiser.”

Kathy has graciously (some would say foolishly) agreed to share my critique of her spot with you here.

Good job of identifying an everyday experience that people can relate to. “The seat belt warning light” won’t go out, even though her seat belt is buckled.

Covering the light with duct tape is a funny exaggeration of the character’s response to a common, minor annoyance that most listeners have experienced. (If not the seat belt light, another warning light.)

I’d recommend that you guys work more on not sounding like announcers.

The voices also need better balancing; they don’t sound as though they’re part of the same conversation. You’re working on-mic, as though the person you’re talking to is right next to you. Your partner, on the other hand, is indicating that he’s a distance from you and needs to raise his voice to get your attention.

You’ve succeeded in “intersecting common human experience” (as I teach in my course). Your next step is to work on having the audience feel as though they’re witnessing a real human interaction.

Wise and insightful time management video lesson from my friend and mentor, Harold Taylor.

By the way, the blue-shirted audio engineer is another friend — the late, great Terry Moss.

Click here to download the entire time management audio seminar.

I’m on the air, doing my radio show.

The hotline rings.

The station’s receptionist says, “I’m filling out some forms, and I need to know your middle name.”

“I don’t have a middle name.”

(That’s true. My family was so poor my parents couldn’t afford middle names for any of us five kids.)

“Oh, okay,” she says.

Two minutes later, the hotline rings again.

“Well then,” she says, “what’s your middle initial?”