What’s the secret of baking a great on-air talent? It is as simple as pie.
Pie is spelled P-I-E… In Pie, the P stands for Professional. If you do not sound professional, then no one will listen for the next letter; they will go to another station that does sound professional.
The I stands for Interesting. Be the most interesting professional on the air. You must know your audience. If you are saying things that are not interesting to your target audience, then they will listen for a little while because you are professional, but they will hit the button because they are not interested in what you are talking about. Pass the Dos Equis.
The E stands for Entertaining. That does not necessarily mean “make ‘em laugh”. Look up the definition of Entertaining…
It means, “To hold one’s attention with something amusing.” The longer you can hold your listeners’ attention, the better entertainer you are. In radio, this means having a larger audience that listens longer. Be a great entertainer!
One of the great movie lines comes from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, starring Steve Martin and John Candy. At a particularly dark moment, and after hearing story after story as told by John Candy, Steve Martin launches into a diatribe, concluding with something that our listeners tell us every day:
“By the way. Here’s a good idea. Have a point. It makes it so much more interesting to the listener.”
When being professional, interesting, and entertaining, have a point.
When conducting an aircheck coaching session, here are the key principles to focus on:
- Concise, compelling content. Every break leaves listeners wanting more, with no wasted words.
- Strong, thoughtful preparation. Engaging, relatable, and hyper-local content keeps audiences hooked.
- Personality-driven entertainment and positive energy. Fun, energetic, and uplifting performances that build listener loyalty.
- Keen audience focus, flawless execution, and memorability. These are the core ingredients of talent preparation and performance.
- Practice the ABC cornerstones of Personality success:
Authentic talent performances
Brilliance in every moment, and
Create great content
When coaching talent, focus on enhancing the content and execution of the shows.
Pic designed KamranAydinov for Freepik.com.
John Lund is President of the Lund Media Group, a radio programming consulting firm with specialists in all mainstream radio formats. Did you find this article useful? You can leave a comment below or email John at John@Lundradio.com.