Modern media is now dominated by a handful of individuals, many of whom started in makeshift studios with whatever equipment they had on hand and a strong ambition to create their own content. They didn’t have companies giving them minimum posting requirements or anyone at all paying them for their content. They just hooked up a mic, turned on a camera and started cranking out content week after week. Often going years before making any real money out of it. They didn’t make excuses, they just made content. If we want any chance of competing with these motivated, hungry, risk-taking freelance digital creators we have to adopt more of a freelancer mentality than a traditional, safely employed broadcaster mentality. Here’s some thoughts on how to do that.
Stop looking at digital as something that’s done after all the more important broadcasting things are done. Digital isn’t just a requirement of the job. If done right it can feed our shows content, tell us exactly what to talk about and then extend the life of all of our best content for the twenty hours a day we’re not on the radio.
Work with what we already have with an eye toward what we’d like to have once we’re generating enough revenue to warrant upgrades. We all have a 4k camera in our pocket and, if it’s an iPhone 15 or higher, an affordable broadcast quality USB mic can be plugged directly into it. That’s a high-quality mobile studio that can be used anywhere there’s good Wi-Fi or solid cell phone coverage. Believe me, I enjoy purchasing the latest and greatest gear just as much as the next guy, but the quality of the gear is of secondary importance to the creative.
Take more creative risks. When they start out freelance creators have the freedom of not worrying whether they’re going to say something that rubs a sponsor or their boss the wrong way and end up getting fired. This allows them to push boundaries, leading to edgier and funnier content. That’s not a luxury employed broadcasters have. So, it’s on managers and owners to create an atmosphere where talent are given more freedom to take creative risks and management doesn’t give one or two angry, but loud, listeners the power to push out a broadcaster. An easy way to start this is with pre-recorded audio/video podcast content where we can push boundaries and leave the stuff that goes too far on the editing room floor. Once we find the line there, we can use that to inform our decisions with our live radio content and our live video streamed content.
Utilize affordable AI tools for every step of the process, but especially for turning long-form content into short-form reels and stories to use on social media. The hack freelance digital creators have been using for years now is that they don’t care as much about the number of views and impressions they’re getting on the long form content. Instead, they focus on the TOTAL views and impressions they’re getting between their long-form content and all of the short clips pulled from it that they’ve spread all over the internet. Now with AI tools like Captions.AI, Quso, Opus Clip, Cap Cut, and several others, what took video editors hours to do now takes literally seconds. Plus, they’re often more engaging because they’re strategically built and scored on how likely they are to go viral. Another hack is clip farming, where creators allow others to repurpose their content and even pay them based on how well it does. All of these tricks are how Joe Rogan became the most identifiable media personality in the world, with 22% of Americans saying they’ve seen some of his content in the past week.
As someone who spent the bulk of my career working for broadcast companies, I understand that it’s hard not to get discouraged when a boss won’t pay for something that you feel is necessary to do your job at a higher level. One of the things that helped me grow my consulting company quickly was having the freedom to invest in every tool I needed. Although, when it’s your own money you’re very picky about what you pay for. But, far too often employed broadcasters use not having the software or equipment they want as an excuse to stop creating digital content. Which is a huge mistake, because we’re all digital creators now whether we like it or not and employers across all industries put a higher value on employees who can create their own digital content. So, committing to do so will lead to higher paychecks now and in the future. The smartest thing employed broadcasters can do is use the platforms they’re being loaned to create tons of content that someone else is paying to promote using their name and likeness.
What do you think? How have you instilled more of a freelancer mentality with your staff? Comment below or email me at Andy@RadioStationConsultant.com.
Pic designed by Drazen Zigic for Freepik.com.