Whether you’re new to radio or new to voice overs or new to podcasting, online video, blogging, etc., here’s some great advice & insight from This American Life’s Ira Glass.
If you’re a radio personality, you should always bring more material into the studio than you’ll be able to use during your show.
If your last break of the show ends and you cross off the very last piece of prepared material, you cut it too close. You weren’t prepared; you were lucky.
Crossing off your last piece of prepared material and congratulating yourself on how well prepared you were is like leaving on a two-week automobile journey. Just as you pull into your driveway at the end of your trip, your car completely runs out of gas. And you think, “I sure planned that perfectly!”
Well, no. You were lucky.
Always have a little extra gas in the tank, just to be sure.
As frustrating as it can be to leave the studio with great stuff you prepared but didn’t have time for, running out of time before you run out of material is vastly preferable to running out of material before you run out of time.
People keep asking me to repeat the “Egress” story and how it relates to radio programming.
Here y’go….
Download the entire HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE LISTEN LONGER seminar here.
Recently I wrote about the psychological approach to bring to a radio advertising campaign for laser eye surgery.
The Radio Advertising Advantage member whose consultation sparked that essay also mentioned that the know-it-all advertiser has “locked up the market” with celebrity sports endorsers.
When using a celebrity endorser, you still need to address the benefits and concerns of the targeted consumer…even if only by implication.
I’d select the biggest sports star in the advertiser’s stable and build an entire “addressing the fear without actually saying so” campaign.
Let’s say it’s a Major League baseball pitcher…..
“BASEBALL PITCHER” – :60
Hi, I’m Famous Pitcher. There are only two things that are more valuable to me than my left arm: my left eye… and my right eye.
I’ve always had a pretty good arm, but after my first few years in the majors I found myself having to squint to read the catcher’s signals.
I kept hearing about Lasik eye surgery, but I decided to wait until I was confident it was safe.
Finally, after seeing the difference it made for other guys in the league, I made an appointment with Ed’s Laser Eye Clinic.
The first thing they did was determine whether or not I’d be a good candidate for the procedure. Luckily, I was…As are most people who wear glasses.
Do I wish I’d done it sooner? In a way, I guess; I probably would have logged a few more strikeouts. But I’m glad I waited until I was ready.
Want to find out if you’re ready? Call Ed’s Laser Eye Clinic to schedule a completely free consultation at 310-555-5555. That’s 310-555-5555. Why not find out if the time is right for you to see your future?
Of course, the above story must conform to the facts of the endorser’s life.
But what this famous sports superstar is saying is, “I was nervous about this thing, too. If you’ve been thinking about getting laser eye surgery but just aren’t sure — Hey, that’s natural. In fact, it’s smart of you not to have rushed into something like this.”
And the only question for the targeted listener to answer is not “Should I get laser eye surgery?” The question becomes, “Is the timing right for me to get laser eye surgery?”
Much less threatening, much more specific, much more compelling to the target audience.
It doesn’t matter if you do your radio show prep on a computer, on your phone, in a spiral-bound notebook or on a bunch of napkins.
What matters is that you keep abreast of what’s going on in the world and that you make each bit of preparation your own; discover your own “take” on something.
Look for your own personal reaction to each item and ask, “What is the angle that is of interest to my listeners?”
A helpful exercise:
For every item you see in the news that you want to use on your show, ask yourself, “What will all the other radio hosts be doing with this bit?” — and then come up with something different.
Your competition probably makes it easy for you to stand out from the radio crowd, because almost certainly they do the the first, most obvious thing that pops into their minds.
If you don’t do the most obvious thing, compared to everyone else you’ll look like a creative genius.
