In todays radio world with tighter budgets and less creative time it's getting harder and harder for an air talent to get decent critique and guidance form his or her programm director. Nevertheless, now in financial uncertain times it's more important than ever to keep your presentation fresh, unique and up to date. So how do you do it? Try critiqueing your self! Not easy, not fully objective but absolutely effective!
Especially with these helpfull tips and guidelines that point out the most important areas to monitor and make your self critiqueing more objective.
1. Preparation
2. Rehearsal
3. Station ID-ing
4. Back announce
5. Teasing
6. Time and place reconstruction
7. Your name and personality
8. Showprep
9. Station promotion
10. Checklist for every voice break
1. Preparation
How much time do you spend preparing your show? So many times I hear "I don't need to prepare, I have 20 years of experience! If that ain't enough preparation...". How did an outstanding musician like Eric Clapton become the superstar he is today. Yep, practice! He's been in the business since the 70's and when he does a live performance, what do you think? Will he still prepare for it or just wing it?
There are even talents that think they shouldn't prepare because it makes them sound 'manufactured' or not spontaneous. Most of the time it's the (in)ability to implement your preparation in a natural way where it goes wrong and the preparation gets blamed.
Everyone needs proper preparation, whether you're an athlete, actor, rockstar or an on-air talent. The key to any confident and consequent performance is preparation! So where to start? It's not just getting some prep of the internet and recording some fun bits.
Find out what the demographics are for your targeted listeners. Get as much information as you can get from your PD or Brandmanager on age, jobs, income, education and social status of your listener. Try to get into the minds of your listener. Live and breath like they do...read magazines they read, watch tv shows they watch and even listen to other stations than your own that they listen to. Then when you've become 'one of them' it's easier to talk about the things your targeted listener is into. It makes it even easier to talk to them like a friend that shares information and opinions on the things they're passionate about. Also a good excercise is to take a day off and go in to town during the time of your airshift and find out what the people that are listening to you are doing meanwhile. They're not glued to the radio, they've got lives! This gives you an excellent opporunity to relate better to the situation the listener is in while listening.
Okay, you're waiting for the prep story? Ofcourse good showprep is eminent within the preparation. Entertaining the listener besides playing their favorite songs becomes more and more important. Radio shows just playing music and and entertaining listener loose everytime from the iPod or on demand music channels.
But showprep isn't just getting the most talked about stories out of the newspaper and reading it on the air. First you'll have to edit the text to a not 'written style' but a 'you know what I've heard' style. You wanna be a friend to your listener that tells them something they're probably interested in. So talk like a friend and do not just read the newspaper story out loud! You can even prepare the text with some key words and throw away the original piece. It helps you to tell the story like you would off air to for instance a collegue down the hall.
Know where you wanna go with this piece. Is it something you have an opinion about, is it something you find shocking or hilarious? Let the listener know how it makes you feel so you can make the story your own. Do you want to follow it up with a phoner in a serious way or in a more comedy like style? Always ask yourself what the purpose is of telling any story on the air. If doesn't do anything for your targeted listener, it isn't for your show.
But should you even go for the most talked about stories? Not always! If they're the most talked about stories, chances are every station is doing the same thing. Some stories ofcourse you just can't afford not to talk about, like the death of Michael Jackson or let's say the marriage of one of your station's core artists. But when digging for showprep don't always go for the easy way out. You know what I'm talking about, those strange funny stories that everyone in your market has an instant joke ready for. Digg deeper and come up with entertaining stories and topics that DO relate to your target but DON'T pop up on every other show.
Make every bit local! Even if the story is about something that happened on the other side of the world, there's a way to make it local. Let's say you're not in the market of Munchen, Germany and an elderly couple has been pulled over in Munchen on the Autobahn because they were driving in their disabled vehicle on the freeway at 25 miles an hour. You could just say: "wait till your hear this, a German couple has been pulled over on the freeway in Munchen". Or you can say: "if you're driving on the (insert local freeway here) right now. Imagine driving past a disabled vehicle going 25 miles an hour, think that won't ever happen? Well in Germany...". You can do this with every bit, really. All it takes is some creativity and preparation!
There's much more preparation to think about especially if you do prerecorded bits and phoners. Don't THINK it will be a great story or bit, KNOW it will be great by preparing!
So how to critique yourself with all this info? First ask yourself how much preparation do you really do? Aircheck yourself and critically listen to how your stories, bits and phoners sound. Are they focused on your target? Do they entertain? Do they have a clear vision of where you wanna go with the story? Does the break have a good flow. Did I give the listener the possibility to envision the story? Did I talk in a way a friend would on the street? Did I make the story local?
Finally, if you're doing a 3 hour shift then 3 hours of prep is nescesary. If you're not even close to that, simply do more prep! Good luck! Next time in the 'Critique yourself' series we'll get into the rehearsal of some important things for your show.
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