Air Checking Yourself
I hear it all the time “I’m not getting any direction, all that my CD cares about is the Breakfast show, How can I improve if I’m not getting any feedback”? These 3 comments have surfaced in my circles more than once in the last 3 weeks. If this is true it’s staggering that with all the resources radio stations have got these days that Feedback is not one of the priorities.
If you are in this category of “Minimal development” let me give you some tools you can use to air check yourself! Now let’s be very clear about something before I do. It’s never going to be as good as giving your work to someone else to pick apart with a fine-tooth comb but it’s a start.
3 breaks is all you are going to need to get a good sample of your work. Make sure that you listen to them one by one.
You are looking for Confidence and energy first. You need to make sure that you are confident in what you are delivering. If you sound under confident in your presentation it means one of 2 things. 1) You have not researched your content well enough and your listeners will see through that or 2) You need more flying hours to feel completely comfortable behind the microphone.
Waffle is a dessert not a radio link. Make sure that you are not dragging your breaks out just because you love to talk. If you are delivering a music shift your talk breaks should vary from 15 – 30 seconds. Your job in a music shift is to enhance the music by adding color highlighting the breakfast show, other station tactics, contesting and keeping your listeners engaged with Creative hooking.
Listeners only enhance your show so make sure that within that 3 breaks you feature a listener at least once.
The first 7 seconds of every break you do on the air is key. Make sure there is some variations of what you do when you open the microphone.
If you use these pointers as a check list while listening back to your work then you should be able to pull out some key points that you will be able to action.
Feed back is the most important resource you are going to need when you are making a career out of radio. Weekly I work alongside some young talent who crave feedback to improve their craft. If you would like to know more about coaching and mentoring through leroybrownradio.com then make sure you reach out [email protected] we have a number of packages the will suit any budget.
