One of my favorite questions to ask a talent in an interview is “what makes your show special?”

This is a basic question that shouldn’t catch talent off-guard, but nine times out of ten, it does. Then I watch them reach for the “stock” answers – “I work really hard every day”, or “I’m real….”

Whatever.

The sad truth is – if you are honest with yourself – you probably aren’t “special” enough.  Most jock content today falls into a few different buckets: 1) Contesting: Either teasing a contest coming up, or actually executing a contest, 2) Pop Culture News: Reading stories about celebrities that listeners can just as easily find on TMZ.com,  3) Selling something – whether it’s a client live read masquerading as content, or selling music quantity, or pushing people to the station website, or asking them to go to your Facebook page or follow you on social media…. Try listening to a full day of your show, and count how many breaks fall into these buckets…. for most jocks, it’s in the area of 95-100%.

There’s one big problem with this type of  “content” – almost anybody can do it, and it’s  all disposable – you hear it, and you forget about it. Nobody cares. If you think that’s enough to make your show special, you’re part of the reason terrestrial radio is in trouble.

So how do you “do it differently?”

Bob Lassiter was one of the best story tellers I’ve ever heard on the radio at WFLA in Tampa. While I didn’t always agree with his positions, I credit him for having an amazing ability to capture the audience and draw them into a story.  He once said something that summed up why he was such a success – “face it, you know more about me than you do about your spouse… unless you have a better-than-average marriage. You know my hopes, my fears, my failures and my triumphs. And you know these things because I have the guts to share it with you.”  He was right. Listeners knew a lot about him personally, because he shared it on the air.

Start by being human… talk about something that helps me get to know you better. I should know more about you as a person from the time I start listening till the time I stop. If you do a pop culture story, how do YOU feel about it? Tell me about something you did that I might enjoy too.  Have a headache? Talk about why you do.  Looking forward to your sister’s birthday party this weekend? Why? Great, share that. You’ll be surprised at how simple, relatable moments generate response.  Talk one-to-one with the listener…. its ok to be vulnerable! Don’t give them every detail in one sitting – just reveal more about you over time. Master the art of story-telling. Capture listener’s imaginations!

The only way to develop a relationship with somebody is to share life with them…. so why not do this on the radio? Share your life with your listeners, and let them share theirs with you. This is what separates announcers from personalities. Be a personality…. there’s no future in being an announcer.

I may live somewhere else now, but make no mistake, I’m still an “East-Sider” from Detroit. Those that know me personally certainly can attest to that. And when “East-Side Detroit Dom” comes out, it’s usually because I’m seeing the big guy beat up on the little guy… something that us East-Siders would never tolerate. We still know how to open up a can of whoop-ass on somebody when needed.

The East Side of Detroit is comprised mostly of working-class people like my father who worked at the Ford plant for 38 years. I will always cherish the values of hard work, integrity, authenticity, and spirit of the underdog that defined growing up there.

One of the staples of my childhood was a news anchor on the local ABC station named Bill Bonds. The man was literally walking history. He interviewed presidents from the Johnson days all the way to now. He covered the Detroit riots in the late 60’s that literally started in the neighborhood where Bill grew up on 12th street. Bill Bonds was literally a part of my memory for every major news event that I saw growing up.

But Bill Bonds wasn’t just a reporter – he was one of us – a real Detroiter – and everything he did was through that lens.

When he interviewed someone of authority, he would speak as one of us. He would ask “why should we believe you…?” and “how can we trust you?” – the “we” being us – Detroit. And whenever he saw the little guy getting beat up by the big guy, he would call the big guy out on TV.  You didn’t watch Bill Bonds to get the news… you watched Bill Bonds to get his take on the news.

It was this combination of brilliant journalism combined with authenticity that led Bill to massive ratings success. He knew how to connect. Working class people in Detroit had a voice, and we would sit at home and watch Billy give-it to authority when they were out of line, literally to the point where people would talk to the TV “go get ’em Billy…”

This wasn’t an act of his. Every bit of it was real.

One of the thrills of my life was to get to know Bill and his wife Karen over the past 10 years. Bill and I would have lunch regularly and talk about broadcasting, life, politics, and such. I learned something new with each conversation. Well into his 70’s, Bill was as sharp as a tack, witty, humorous, and a brilliant story-teller. And I was always captivated by his answers to my questions about what made him tick – and why he thought he connected so well with the audience.

The formula was simple. He said what he meant, and he meant what he said. And his manager throughout most of his career was another brilliant lady named Jeanne Findlater (who I also had the pleasure of speaking with on occasion through the years), and she would protect Bill from the corporate types who wanted to mess with his formula. She literally would tell the ABC bosses “don’t mess with the franchise…” when Bill would write promos about the resilience of Detroit, when corporate would rather have him talk about how “action news has you covered”. Bill wrote and performed brilliant promos… he wrote and performed brilliant news. But the key is his “performance” was authenticity. And his manager protected the environment around him so that he could do what he did so well.

Sadly, we lost Billy today. He passed away this afternoon from a heart attack in his home.

The lessons he taught us run deep, and are especially applicable to radio. Be your authentic self on the air. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. Have a genuine and real point of view. And if you’re a manager of a true talent like this, don’t let corporate mess with the franchise – protect real talent like this so they are free to perform and succeed.

This is the stuff that legends like Bill Bonds are made of.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Karen and his family. I feel like a part of my childhood passed away today with Bill. How many people could say that about ANY radio or TV talent today?

Sadly, the produced imaging on most radio stations hasn’t evolved much since the 1990’s, and stations that target millennials are really missing the boat because of this.

Millennials aren’t impressed by your ability to add zaps, stutters, and efx to a produced piece of imaging. Words actually matter, and anything that is too slick and produced is immediately considered “spam” to their ears.

Authenticity is the way to go.

Get rid of the grindy voice people and their growly reads… go with something that sounds real and human. You are far better served to spend lots of time writing a promo with meaning that actually has something to say, rather than the typical highly produced list of facts.

Get used to the fact that nobody cares about your radio station until you give them a reason to. And if you’re really good, and create an emotional bond with your audience, chances are that bond will be very difficult to break. Over time, you build loyalty beyond reason… and those are the most powerful brands of all.

An authentic, powerful message will be heard – everything else is simply ignored.

I’m often asked if I think talk radio is dead.

The answer is yes. And no. The old way of doing talk radio is dead. The skeleton has been walking around for a few years now to save funeral costs.

It used to be that you could find a former Congressman or Judge and give them a radio show and people would listen because they thought perhaps the former “insider” might have interesting stories to share about what it was like “inside” the machine. Or access to guests that other hosts didn’t have the juice to get.

Now, everybody hates the machine, and they don’t care about the perspective from the “inside” because that’s where the scoundrels are. And they have nothing but contempt for the “insiders” friends. Besides, this type of talk radio is monotonous and boring anyway… listeners are burnt out on it. Millennials certainly aren’t buying it.

To this day I’ll get an occasional on-air demo from a would-be talk show host who proclaims “I’m the next Rush Limbaugh that you’re looking for…” The problem is I’m not looking for the next Rush Limbaugh, and I can assure you that you aren’t him anyway.

Don’t misunderstand… I have nothing but the utmost respect for Rush and what he has accomplished. He single-handedly saved the AM band in the late 1980’s when he ushered in an era of entertaining conservative talk. His combination of humor, politics, and sarcasm, along with the confidence of “half his brain tied behind his back” was unique and compelling for the time. And despite all of the attempts to copy the formula throughout the years, there is still only one Rush Limbaugh… nobody else will ever do what he does as well as he does it. Period.

But the world doesn’t need another Rush Limbaugh.

I’m convinced that the next generation of talk talent is going to come from YouTube. If you actually take the time to filter past the non-sense and extreme stupidity that makes up about 70% of the videos on YouTube, you can find some real gems from people who have a genuinely powerful message and want to share it with the world. They’re not traditional “radio” hosts – they’re just people who have something to say – and they do so with passion and authenticity.

The reason that talk radio as we know it is dead is due to the fact that most hosts rarely have anything different or powerful to say. The future of talk radio will be generated by those who have truly powerful messages and they likely won’t deliver their message in the confines of a traditional broadcast delivery system. But delivery system doesn’t matter anyway… it’s really about the power of the message that will drive their listenership… and that’s a GOOD thing.

The new world of media over-saturation has one major benefit – only those that are truly good, unique, or compelling will stand out and command an audience. Everything else is ignored. Anybody can have a talk show now – but only those with truly powerful messages will be heard. I would rather take someone with a powerful message in their heart and teach them “radio” than take a “radio” host and try to teach them how to deliver a powerful message. That should be the new mission of all spoken-word programmers… find those with a powerful message to tell, and develop them into hosts.

Choice is only bad if the option that you offer isn’t the absolute best – so if you want to survive in the new world, you had better build an outstanding product… because the new world is an abundance of choice with no gatekeepers or barriers to entry. The absolute best content will be consumed – everything else will be niche at best, and most likely ignored.

So, how powerful is your message?

High achievers are motivated by more than just financial compensation. Sure, a good sized paycheck is a motivator, but there are many people in this industry that are well paid and still miserable.

Author Daniel Pink wrote a great book on this very subject called “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” In it, he lays out a very persuasive argument that the most satisfied high performers in any business  crave something more than just money. That “something” is autonomy…. the freedom to perform without being micro-managed.

I can tell you from personal experience that this is true. I’ve personally experienced situations with lots of autonomy, and others with very little autonomy. For most of my time at WKQI in Detroit, I had a good amount of autonomy, and did some of my best work there because of it. I was able to assemble a creative team who moved quickly and seized opportunities  without lots of red tape. And I gave the talented team there lots of autonomy as well – and they all took advantage of it. A highly-driven staff with lots of autonomy can do amazing things – and WKQI was an amazing turnaround and ratings success story. In the latter years, when a micro-managing, blowhard EVP came along and started removing autonomy from both myself and my market manager, while bloviating about how “high performance teams do as they’re told,” I knew it was time to move on. There was no way that his circa-1980’s “management by threat and intimidation” style would work with that team. And I was right. This toxic manager would go on to ruin many great brands in many markets, before finally being let go from that company. They’re still digging out from the damage this man did.

Great managers know that high performance teams are made up of high-performance people… and high-performance people perform best when they have the freedom and flexibility to… perform.

I’m always fascinated when I see a Market Manager or corporate PD spend lots of money to hire a super-star Program Director or Talent, and then stand over their shoulder the entire time and micro-manage every step. And somehow everybody is “shocked” when it doesn’t work out. Duh! What did you THINK would happen? No great performer wants their boss up on stage in the middle of the show calling the scenes right in front of the audience! Get off the stage and let the talent perform! Let a high performer develop their own plan. Hold them accountable for the results.

When you give a high performer lots of autonomy, they will go out of their way to prove you RIGHT for having done so. You can’t beat that level of motivation.

I’m a huge fan of Simon Sinek.

In his book “Start With Why,” Sinek proposes that the best and most innovative companies and leaders have a strong sense of purpose, or “why”. And much of the success of the most innovative companies is due to their leaders abilities to inspire through clearly communicating the “why” of the organization.

This inspiration then leads the team to develop systems, products, and processes (the “hows” and “whats”) to grow the company – while always remaining focused on the “why”. I know we reference Steve Jobs a lot here, but after all this page is about “disrupting” an industry, and Jobs is the poster child for disruption over the past several years. Jobs was a “why” guy – his sense of rebellion and desire to build products that empower the individual is what created the cult-like following of Apple.

There are very few broadcast groups today that have a clear sense of “why”. I can tell you that the experience of working at Jacor Broadcasting in Tampa Bay was a perfect example of this principle in action. Our CEO Randy Michaels is a “why” guy, and that kept the entire company motivated to do great radio. What was the “why” at Jacor? Very simple – a creative environment where creative people can create. I remember a line similar to this in the one-page company policy manual. I’m not kidding – it was one page. And it talked about ensuring that we had a playful environment to foster creativity.

And Randy is the perfect leader for a company dedicated to creativity. You actually looked FORWARD to corporate coming into town, because Randy would light the place up. The creative spark inside Jacor is something that I have only rarely seen since, and it’s because most radio companies have lost their “why”.

I don’t know of too many companies in our industry that clearly articulate their “why”. Perhaps its because they don’t really have one. Sinek points out in his book that when once-successful companies go into decline, it’s usually because they lost their original sense of “why” and just focused on the top and bottom line (the “whats” and “hows”), and the slide continues until they either a) recapture their “why”, or b) go away.

I’m concerned that without a clear sense of purpose, most of today’s big operators have already chosen B.

According to his employer’s website, Dan Thorn took the path that many others do who want to be on TV. He earned his degree in Broadcast Journalism from Brooklyn College. He interned at a couple of New York City TV stations before landing a starter job in production in upstate New York.

Eventually he was hired for a weekend news anchor position at WVNS-TV in Ghent, WV. He would quickly move up to anchor the 5, 6, 10, and 11pm newscasts at the station.

In the old media world, it would have taken years before anybody would even know this guy’s name. He would have had to land a job in a bigger market, and then an even bigger market, and if he was lucky, he might make it to a big network one day. But even then it would be doubtful that 10 million people would ever see him, muchless learn his name.

But that was old media.

Today, it just takes an idea to get noticed. So one day, presumably during a commercial break in the newscast at WVNS, Dan decided to crank up “Where They At Doe” by T.I. on his computer and started dancing in his chair, much to the annoyance of his co-anchor. I’m sure you’ve seen the video by now.

And guess what?

10 million views on Facebook, 2 million views on YouTube, and everybody from Time to Us Magazine is writing about him.

All because he decided to do something fun and unusual.

I couldn’t tell you the weekly number of viewers on all of the newscasts combined at WVNS-TV, but I can assure you that way more people have seen Dan dancing in his chair than have ever actually watched him read news.

This is another great example of what I’ve said here before…. you don’t need their transmitter anymore. You have your own. And if your content is good enough, people will share it. And if it’s really good they will come back for more. And if it’s really, really good and consistent, you might be able to make a great living off of it.

Stop playing PPM games, and start making the audience laugh. I promise you’ll have better ratings.

If you are one of the few who haven’t seen the video, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybcNSoh8vI4

I admit it. I’m a sucker for those YouTube clips from shows like America’s Got Talent, X-Factor, etc, where you see an awkward looking misfit who  works the fast-food window as their day job get up on stage and the judges all roll their eyes as if they just KNOW it’s going to suck – then the misfit belts out a tune that takes the entire room by surprise. I’m sure you’ve seen one at some point.

Why are we so taken by those moments?

It’s because deep down, we know that we ARE that person.

No, we are not all capable of belting out a tune and making the room cheer, but I believe everybody – and I mean every single one of us – has something special to offer the world, if we would only be courageous enough to get up on that stage.

I’ve always enjoyed working with talent. Through the years, I’ve discovered many good ones, and helped others that were already discovered get better.  And the secret is really simple – the talent usually knows the answer in their gut and for whatever reason (usually fear) they don’t listen to that internal voice. I simply teach them to listen to that voice and follow that instinct. One of my mentors, BJ Harris, who is a very successful morning host at KALC in Denver, used to say “follow your gut – it’s right 90% of the time, and those are pretty good odds.” And when I worked for him back in the day at WFLZ in Tampa, he actually let me do it. But what made him a great mentor wasn’t the fact that he let me follow my gut… but rather, the 10% of the time that my gut was wrong, he let me learn from it. It was okay to make a mistake and actually learn from it! And he didn’t crucify me for it. It was because of this environment that I took chances and knew that I could get up on that stage and go for it.

You have something special to offer the world. I bet deep down you actually know what it is, but you ignore it or drown it in a sea of excuses. You are scared – worried what your friends might think, worried what your boss might think, or perhaps worried that you’ll fail. Don’t listen to “them”…. Get up on that stage and show the world what you are made of!

Here’s the best part. Technology has given everybody a stage of their own. There are no gatekeepers anymore. You don’t need a transmitter… or a fancy camera… it has never been easier to show the world your gift.

I’m convinced that a lot  of the unhappiness in this world is due to people knowing their true calling deep down, but doubting themselves and accepting “just getting by” as their reality.  Greatness is a decision.

The clock is ticking…. get up on that stage!

If Steve Jobs were a Program Director, you can bet that he would pay attention to every detail of his radio station. Every sweeper, every segue, every break would be meticulously designed. He would hire interesting and unusual people that actually had something to say. Not mindless drones that recite contest times and bark for the website, but real communicators who would have a story to tell.

If Steve Jobs were a Program Director, he would protect the product and fight against adding units just to hit budget. He would limit spot loads to a reasonable and tolerable level. And when NBC wants to buy a “jock chatter” break over a song intro forcing the jock to talk about some lame TV show as part of their spot buy, Steve would say no – because  he knows it’s terrible radio and not authentic.

If Steve Jobs were a Program Director, he would take risks on songs that he really believed in, while paying careful attention to giving the audience what they want… even if they didn’t know that they wanted it until he made it available to them. He would balance art and science to his liking. And his ratings would be amazing because he wouldn’t stop until he succeeded in building a massive brand.

If Steve Jobs were a Program Director, his SVP of Programming would be constantly pissed that he’s not “following the corporate initiatives”. And his Sales Manager would be constantly complaining about him to the GM that he’s “too difficult to work with”.

If Steve Jobs were a Program Director, his GM – after hearing all of the complaints from the sales manager – and after talking with the SVPP behind closed doors – would fire him, even though the ratings were really good.

If Steve Jobs were a Program Director, he would be quickly fed up with the radio industry because of all of this, and take his genius to new media where it will actually be appreciated.

In other words… if Steve Jobs were a Program Director, radio would quickly do what it has done to so many other creative types… push him out….