When we’re launching a station, or one of our existing stations is suffering to sell terrestrial inventory, its tempting to cut our rates drastically and sell spots for whatever we can get for them. Its an understandable decision, after all…

During Monday’s NCAA championship we all watched a college basketball team on the cusp of the first perfect season since 1976 get totally and utterly dominated. After the high of their Saturday night buzzer beater win, Gonzaga came out flat…

When we start on air everyone tells us the same thing, just be yourself. Its well-intended advice meant to get us to relax and not put on the infamous ‘trying to sound like a dj’ voice, but it’s also a…

Going from being a show prep rip and read DJ to an on-air personality who creates their own multi-platform content is easier than it’s ever been. Information we used to have to dig for is now readily available on every…

Every group struggles to balance the push and pull between the programming and sales departments. Sales gets frustrated by programming throwing last minute ideas at them with too short of a ramp up period to properly sell them and programming…

When I started programming music I made the same mistake most young programmer’s make, I programmed sonically. Being a life-long fan of country music, who happened to grow up in a country station, I thought I had such a pulse…

Any of us who have been in this business for a while have stories of blunt, over-the-top, and often crass, managers we’ve worked with over the years. I vividly remember a program director who was annoyed with two clients that…

Humans are creatures of habit. When we’re in the middle of something it’s easy to fall into a routine and spend the bulk of our work hours doing the same thing week after week. At various times throughout my career…

During a crisis like our recent unprecedented winter storms people are reminded of the vital role terrestrial radio plays in keeping the public in the know and connected to the outside world. Whether you’re stuck on the roads in stand-still…

Every station I’ve worked for, or with, over the years has said the same thing when discussing imaging, ‘We need a lot more imaging.’ They all feel like their programming staff isn’t cranking out enough imaging because they’re ‘hearing the…

Terrestrial radio’s biggest advantage over digital competitors like Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music Radio and others is our ability to engage with our listeners on a daily basis. Those consistent calls to action throughout the day with contesting, phone topics and…

We’ve all been there, the sleepless nights before the book comes out, refreshing your screen the day of anxiously awaiting the arrival of new numbers, praying to the radio gods that they’ll take pity on you. Hoping against hope that…

Whether we like it or not our industry is changing. The changes weren’t caused by the ongoing pandemic, the pandemic simply made it more obvious by fueling the fire and speeding up changes that were already underway. This monumental shift…

Within any company it’s important to have a healthy balance of creatives and critics. However, since radio groups are responsible for creating and monetizing content on a daily basis, for us that balance is mission critical. That’s because a group…

The ability to wing it on air is a rare and valuable skill that’s hard to teach, tough to learn and nearly impossible to master. But, it can also be the downfall of an otherwise promising on air talent. That’s…

With the pandemic lingering on and ad revenues down 20 to 60% depending on market/format/group, its an easy time to worry about the future of our industry. Yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel thanks to the…

My first radio mentor was my father and, to this day, he’s still the one I turn to the most for advice. But, I’ll never forget what he told me when I first starting trying to venture out and do…

The main reason a lot of on-air talent don’t regularly create content for their station’s websites and social feeds is because they simply don’t know where to start. Just like figuring out your voice and personality on air, figuring out…

A worldwide crisis has a way of acting as an accelerate for change that was eventually going to happen anyway and I believe we’re seeing that within our industry right now. The pandemic has poured fuel on a fire, bringing…

Nobody is better suited to podcast than a trained radio pro, yet many talented on-air personalities are still reluctant to start podcasting. I understand why some assumed it was a passing fad when it began, but now there is mounting…

My entire career in radio I’ve been told to stay away from politics on any music format radio station and for the most part I’ve agreed with that, adhered to it and preached that same philosophy to most of the…

Even prior to the pandemic we were seeing a trend toward increased listening in middays across most markets. But after Covid uprooted all of our lives and drastically altered our daily routines, that shift became much more pronounced. That’s why…

A website is still a radio station’s most monetizable digital asset. Beyond that it’s a great branding and marketing tool to introduce new listeners to our stations and educate them on what we do. But, for a station’s website to…

If a station isn’t creating digital content it’s often an indicator that their on-air product is lacking. When an air-talent are just reading station liners and the weather there’s nothing to work with on the digital platforms. I talk a…