Before his recent retirement, Robin Prior spent more than 30 years with RCS in Africa (where he became the VP for that territory) and worldwide, including seven years in America. His tenure includes installing RCS’ first ever digital playout system in 1992, subsequently helping design what became Zetta.
This summer, Prior published Maths, Art, Or Magic? Radio Station Scheduling and Programming. It’s a primer on those disciplines, but it’s also forty years’ worth of radio anecdotes and strategies. For North American readers, it’s also informed by Prior’s very different POV. In one chapter, Prior shares a radio station qualitative survey and library testing … from Namibia. Here is what Prior had to say about the role of personality.
Who is the star? The music or the presenter? Your vision needs to be very clear on this issue, as your presenters may attempt to build their brand rather than your station’s brand.
We open with this comment from [Australian consultant] Brad March:
“Any radio station these days relying on the music to be the star is generally going to be in trouble. There are some formats like Soft AC and Classic Hits where the (uncontested) format is so strong that they don’t need morning and afternoon entertainment shows. But where you have 2-3 similar formats competing, morning talent in particular makes the difference. Radio must compete now with all other platforms, including social media, Spotify and Apple Music.”
Radio requires an excellent presenter who can maintain energy, has been sufficiently prepared to deal with a wide range of subjects, can listen and mediate rather than pontificate on their own opinions, can bring order out of chaos, and can add amusement and information to the process.
Howard Stern and his team, for example, reputedly rehearse at least three hours before each show and then have what he refers to as an “autopsy” for an hour after each show.
Spontaneous, yes, but within strict pre-rehearsed parameters. Stern, above all else, is an absolute master at forward-selling the next portion of his current show or tomorrow’s show. Continually, he teases and hints at what is coming up. The result? Phenomenal time-spent-listening numbers.
Often, the best talk show hosts come from different non-radio careers. They are found, nurtured, and mentored to become presenters. They are usually brilliant, well-read, highly opinionated Type-A personalities with an off-the-wall sense of humor and powerful personalities. So, they are challenging to control.
As a Program Manager for both talk and music radio hosts: “When you grab a tiger by the tail, you need to have a plan for the teeth.”
Curated Music Radio, which is often under attack by various media and information sources, relies heavily on the presenter’s contributions. Having a live presenter offering relevant, engaging, compelling, and amusing information and commentary is one of the primary differentiators between radio and internet streams.
However, your morning drive show presenter telling us how intoxicated he became the night before and how hungover he feels this morning offers little value to the station and its brand. If anything, it could damage your brand. Yes, I heard such a conversation on a major station’s drive show the morning I wrote this.
The golden rule is that a presenter or DJ never discusses their own opinions or experiences without other views being given an opportunity to be heard, and the DJ is never bigger than the station, except in the USA, where … talk shows often take a more extreme approach.
The reality is that despite a presenter’s confidence in their personality and belief in the infallibility of what they have to say, not many presenters can be engaging, amusing, informative, and compelling for more than a few minutes, at best.
Of course, there are exceptions. I heard one presenter, [South African personality] Kevin Savage, an absolute master of the art, talk for almost thirty minutes at an outside broadcast. He was compelling, sliding effortlessly from subject to subject, constantly engaging, and often humorous. Why did he talk so long? Because the engineer had asked him to keep going while they sorted out a technical fault at the site.
Never underestimate the value of curated music accompanied by an intelligent and amusing presenter. This is one of radio’s significant differentiators from our prime competitor, internet streaming music services.
A few stories about presenter behavior.
First of all, in the late 90s while driving across the heart of America after midnight, I was listening to an adult contemporary station. The presenter was both laid-back and professional. He introduced a song with:
“I was walking down a very lonely street late at night. A tall, elegant, and confident young woman dressed in a long, flowing red dress approached me. We approached, stopped, and looked at each other. As a car drove past, blaring this song, I immediately knew I had just met my wife-to-be.”
All this is over the intro to Chris De Burgh’s Lady in Red. His break was perfectly timed to hit the first vocal. On the backsell, he [shared DeBurgh’s story about how the song was inspired by seeing his wife at a party]. The presenter owned that song, and he owned me, too. True or not, he revealed something of his inner self, drawing me into his private circle. He also gave me some interesting information about the song lyrics.
Second, at a privately-owned station in a small town (250,000 population) north of New York. I visited to observe a real-world presenter at work, ensuring we were doing things correctly regarding our Master Control software. Jim was the station’s owner … he had hosted the morning drive show for twenty years and had agreed to let me sit in.
During the show, which I could only define as “controlled chaos,” there was an avalanche of differing opinions, phone calls, messages stuck on the studio window, and faxes. Subjects flew in and were debated, some quite hotly, and then he smoothly moved on to another topic. Only two songs were played during each hour.
I asked Jim how, after twenty years behind the mic, he managed to maintain the incredible energy and range of topics that his audience responded to so enthusiastically. He invited me to breakfast at the same diner where he’d gone for 20 years. There, the controlled chaos continued. Other customers approached us, shook Jim’s hand; some objected strongly to his stance on a subject; others demanded that he discuss a specific issue that was bothering them.
Jim said, “There you go. That is how I maintain the energy and find subject matter important to my listeners.” He was a perfect example of an, unfortunately, dying breed of radio personality: informed, involved, amusing, relevant, captivating, and giving a voice to a community of like-minded people.
Thirdly, a story from one of the top stations in New York. I was visiting the program manager. While chatting, the station’s off-air receiver burbled in the background. Suddenly, he stood up, excused himself, and disappeared for five minutes. When he returned, a different presenter was on air. The explanation? “I told him I would fire him if he didn’t keep to a maximum of one and a half minutes’ chat between songs.”
Finally, here’s another story, this one attributed to Randy Michaels. True or not, I cannot comment, but I have heard it from several sources. Randy reputedly suffered from insomnia. Being the committed, educated, and passionate radio person that he was, when he was awake in the middle of the night, he would open his phone book and, at random, call one of the Clear Channel stations’ on-air live studios around the country on the studio hotline.
He would open with, “Hi, this is Randy Michaels. What went wrong with that last break?” An outrageous start to the conversation? Probably not. And it certainly kept the mid-dawn DJ on his/her toes. Every break deserves a review, and every break could perhaps have been improved. This segued into a Master Class on presentation by the guru Randy Michaels.
Maths, Art or Magic? can be ordered here.
