Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Live like a listener.  Here's a great exercise for you and your PD to do with your morning hosts one morning.  Meet at the station early and do the following.

-- Pile into one car and go get stuck in traffic.
-- Travel the most common routes around your area.
-- Notice things like:
            … are people traveling alone or are they car pooling?
            … can you tell their "mood?"
            … ask yourself how genuinely relatable are we to what's going on?
-- Listen to your competition.
            … chances are, your morning host has never really listened to their competition.
            … does your competition provide better or necessary information?
            … in what context can you provide better service elements?

I guarantee you will learn a lot.  Make sure you follow-up; meet with your hosts the next day after their show or the day after and ask them what they learned.