Nothing is more important to the future of radio than
finding and developing distinctive, appealing and enduring on-air
personalities. Predicting a prospective air talent’s ability to attract and
hold a substantial audience is far from an exact science. I know. I’ve been
doing it for a living for nearly 30 years.
My “ear” and batting average for predicting success have
improved greatly over time. I’ve developed an informed sense of what it takes
to make it on the radio. The result of creating the Authentic
Personality method, working with some of the best – Rush Limbaugh, Kidd Kraddick, Jeff of Jeff
and Jer, Johnny Vaughan – and worst talent in radio as well as constantly
studying gifted artists – songwriters, authors, screenwriters, and creators of
TV shows.
A few years ago, a hugely frustrating experience compelled me
to codify what I’d learned about evaluating talent and predicting success. I
was helping a program director in a top 25 market identify hosts for a startup
talk station. We settled on a lineup we really liked. Before making any hires,
the COO of the radio group asked to hear each of our choices. The PD pushed
play on the first demo. Ninety seconds in, I kid you not, the COO told us,
“he’s not our guy”. We asked him to explain. He repeated, “He’s not our guy.
Let’s move on”. Yikes!
I was determined to develop a more reasoned approach to
evaluating talent. One that would go beyond a superficial and subjective
reaction to an aircheck or demo. I wanted to create a framework to have a
meaningful and productive conversation about why a prospective air personality
will succeed or fail. This led to identifying what my experience, research, and
study told me are the Fourteen Traits
Inherent in the Best Radio Personalities and the primary predictors of
success on the radio.
I look for the presence or absence of the Fourteen Traits in the thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors of the prospective personality in every contact I have
with him or her – listening to live shows, airchecks, and demos as well as
telephone and in-person conversations. I spend plenty of one-on-one time with
each prospect comparing the personality I hear on the radio with the one I meet
off-air. I frequently discover personality facets and untapped potential that
isn’t being revealed or exploited on the radio.
Fourteen Traits Inherent in the Best
Radio Personalities
I’ve separated the traits into three categories. Personal,
content, and performance. The personal traits predict listener appeal and
talent motivation. The content traits predict the ability to generate distinctive,
appealing and memorable content. The performance traits predict the ability to
present attractive content with impact.
Personal Traits
Ego Drive
The best believe in themselves. Some wear it on their
sleeve; others hide it with an outward humility. But all believe they are
talented and ought to be on the air. They think they’re funnier, smarter, more
entertaining, more insightful – and if they didn’t, they couldn’t open the mic
every day. This self-confidence can be shaken by bouts of self-doubt and fears
of inadequacy, but they have the ego strength to regain their self-confidence.
Mission
The best have a sense of purpose beyond themselves, beyond
fame and fortune. It can be as simple as “making people laugh every day” or as
profound as “helping parents raise strong children.” It’s difficult to spend
time every day with someone who is concerned only with themselves. This sense
of mission helps make the air personality real and durable over the long term.
Work Intensity
The best work hard. Their work dominates their life, and
they think about it a lot. Their show is the default setting in their brain; if
nothing compelling is happening at the moment, their mind drifts back to work.
They naturally connect all of their experiences to their show and ask
themselves, “might this be content I can use on the air?” Most are also
diligent about preparing for their show, according it the hours needed for a
superior performance.
Positivity
The best have a fundamentally positive outlook on life. They
laugh and smile more, grouse and whine less, and are more flexible about
dealing with change. They are likable and truly care that others like them,
which is essential to creating a durable relationship with listeners.
Sense of Humor
The best have the ability to find what is amusing or funny
about almost everything, including themselves. They find humor even in the most
serious subjects and issues. They don’t take themselves too seriously and often
enjoy self-effacing or self-deprecating humor. Most have a mischievous streak
in them, enjoying good-natured teasing, harmless pranks, and playful tricks.
Content Traits
Awareness
The best are keenly aware of their surroundings and highly
receptive to sensory input – everything they see, hear, taste, touch, or smell.
They notice what’s going on around them and pick up on other peoples’ attitudes
and behaviors. They are good listeners, hearing not only the words but the
thoughts and feelings behind them, making them especially effective with guests
and listeners.
Curiosity
The best are curious. They ask questions about almost
everything, acquiring more knowledge and information than do most others. They
think “fast on their feet” and change direction quickly. Curious people are
almost always very intelligent people (especially if their questions are good!),
but know that the reverse is not necessarily so – that intelligent people are
curious.
Imagination
The best naturally recognize how thoughts and feelings,
experiences and ideas, connect or can be combined to form new and greater
images and ideas. Simply, they connect the dots in ways that few others do –
and then they go off on tangents to invent new and interesting radio content.
Without imagination, content tends to be very ordinary; competitive battles
today require more.
Experience
The best have “been there and done that.” They may have
lived in many different places, traveled extensively, or held a variety of
types of jobs. Often, they have faced adversity, dealt with pain, and
experienced success and happiness. They know a lot, whether through formal
education, reading, or the school of hard knocks. All this experience helps
them deal with a broad range of subjects and connect with the diverse audience.
Quirkiness
The best are wired a little different. What might produce
conventional thoughts in others prompts distinctive, interesting, even
peculiar, lines of thinking in these people. Their strong opinions are more
likely to grab attention, remain in the listeners’ memory, and cause listeners
to talk about the air personality to their friends.
Performance traits
Communication
The best say more, using fewer words. They have
extraordinary clarity of expression. They paint powerful word-pictures. They
have a special ability to take complicated subjects and turn them into simple, concise
concepts easily understandable to a radio audience. They have a natural flair
for dramatic presentation, and frequently produce “theater of the mind.”
Passion
The best are emotional, demonstrative, and passionate. They
are this way on-the-air, around the office, and during a job interview. They
can’t turn it off. They have strong feelings about almost everything in life
and they express their emotions readily. This trait might make them challenging
to manage, but on the air, it gives them a range of expression that’s essential
to a durable relationship with listeners – they can be serious or flippant,
sensitive or carefree, laughing or crying.
Courage
The best don’t live with a wide range of fears, and they
don’t naturally second-guess themselves before acting. They have the courage to
express their real thoughts and feelings, try new things, venture into
uncharted territory, take chances. They believe “it’s easier to beg for
forgiveness than to seek permission.” This can make them more difficult to
manage at times, but coaching an air personality without courage is an even
more difficult management assignment (“it’s easier to tame a wild stallion than
to kick some life into a dead horse”).
Judgment
The best temper their courage with judgment. They sense the
limits, whether in show prep or when on the air. They monitor their
performance, even while they’re performing. They’re in the middle of it,
literally and figuratively, but at the same time they’re listening to it and
making it acceptable and appealing. This doesn’t mean they exercise perfect
judgment 100% of the time.
