I say this with love and reverence for the industry I’ve spent my entire life in, lately radio seems to be the last to know when an artist breaks or their career begins to decline. That’s because many of us…

As a consultant who coaches air talent on creating better airchecks, and previously as a programmer who hired talent for twenty years, I’ve gone through literally tens of thousands of airchecks. Going through that many airchecks there are multiple takeaways…

A decade or two ago the major record labels began doing what are called 360 deals to make up for lost revenue from declining CD sales. A 360 deal basically means they take a cut of everything an artist does…

We’ve all seen the headlines about the ‘Great Resignation’ and stories quoting stats like ‘40% of workers say they’ll quit if they’re forced to go back to the office.’ None of which is all that surprising…

The ideal size of a station’s active music database is an age-old debate between programmers. Those that figure out that sweet spot number that’s just big enough to keep TSL high, but small and mass appeal enough to reach a…

One of the big misconceptions I see with radio groups across the country is a feeling that its unnecessary for them to regularly spend money advertising on social media. I understand the thought process behind this, after all we have…

Despite the overwhelming growth of podcasting in recent years, especially during the pandemic, many radio broadcasters are still reluctant to take the leap. I still hear a lot of comments like, ‘Why would I want to talk to a handful…

Today’s music industry looks vastly different than it did just ten years ago. So, why are so many radio programmers across formats still using databases and categories that are structured exactly as they were a decade ago? Labels and artists…

Role assignment issues are the fastest way to doom a team show, regardless of the talent level of the participants. I can’t count the amount of shows I’ve seen fail because either the roles weren’t clearly defined, understood and followed…

The hardest part about coaching talent when you’re an on-air talent yourself, current or former, is not forcing your process, or routine, on others. We’re all drastically different people, with varying personalities, strengths and weaknesses, and all of our brains…

Even before the rise of Instagram and TikTok, social media had become a visual media. We all realized that text and audio alone wasn’t enough, so we began adding pictures to everything. But standing out in a crowded feed with…

We’ve all been guilty of it. Falling into the ‘That was…”, ‘This is…” trap to use as filler content either because we were too busy to prep or we’re still adjusting to a new format/demo and we simply don’t know…

There’s a mathematical reason why most surveys have one thousand participants. A sample size that big has a margin of error of just 3.2% at predicting the answers of the population at large within that survey area, provided the participants…

Most on-air talent do a great job identifying content that’s likely to interest their listeners. What they struggle with is how to tease it ahead of time, get into the content with a hook, deliver the meat of it concisely…

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…