Among the best: WRVA/Richmond.  It’s got everything a listener or potential advertiser might need, all in one place — including direct phone numbers and email addresses for every programming, news and sales staffer.  That list includes not only PD Jimmy Barrett, but OM Dave Symonds, as well.  And it’s all just one click off the home page.  This is clearly an organization that’s proud of what it does and welcomes interaction with its customers and community.

How does your Contact page compare?

“If you have an answer to the question, ‘Who are you like?,’ you have a problem. — Merlin Media CEO Randy Michaels 

“Personal branding is not about fabricating a persona; strong personal brands are based in authenticity. You can’t start building your brand until you understand who you are, what you want and what makes you exceptional. What are your superpowers? What do others think about you? Don’t create an image; be yourself — your best self. As writer/aviator Anne Morrow Lindbergh once said, ‘The most exhausting thing you can be is inauthentic.’”  – from TheLadders.com career website

As a power user of streaming, I agree with all of his observations. While many of the problems are out of a PD’s control, a good programmer can eliminate this one:

“Streaming more has made me very conscious, by the way, that six- and seven-minute stopsets very much still exist. And because some owners have made a greater recent effort to cover them with music (many Clear Channel stations) or at least fill them with real spots (simulcast with the FM signal or otherwise), one becomes very conscious of those streaming stopsets that are still cobbled together from hardsell PSAs, multiple morning show promos, and inducements to buy stream-only advertising.

“It often seems to be the case that the longer a station’s stopset, the less likely it will be covered in a listenable way online.”

When is the last time you listened closely to your stream?  Is it studded with stale promos, spots that play back-to-back-to-back, and dead air?

Based on my experience, it might well be.

IDEA: Do you have an APD, or an up-and-coming staffer who wants to learn the art of programming?  Put that person in charge of your stream. Let her own it, and hold her responsible for how it sounds and performs.

If you haven’t seen it, watch it right now.  If you are responsible for audio content creation in any way — news director, program director, podcaster — this could be the most valuable nine minutes of your day.  The lesson is simple: Writing is the be-all and end-all of great content.  This is an especially timely lesson in this day of limited resources. The words matter more than staff size, more than budget, more than the length of the newscasts, more than access to actualities. More than anything.

One great news writer can be a difference-maker.

I experienced this firsthand at WGST/Atlanta where I was lucky enough to work with David Hull, a former CNN Radio anchor with a gift  for  tight copy that was at once both conversational and near-poetic.   His newscasts were very often the highlight of our morning drive show.  I don’t have any David Hull audio handy, but here’s another powerful example of the power of pen and microphone

For our imaging and VO friends.

“Research indicates that our brains are wired to prefer [female voices] to male ones; that’s the reason robotic voices, like those in GPS devices, tend to be female. (This probably has an evolutionary explanation: fetuses in the womb, identifying with their caretaker, can distinguish their mother’s voice from others, a study published in the journal Psychological Science found.)

When it comes to credibility, however, research into the perceived believability of a voice — an important quality for the omniscient narrator of a trailer, as well as the spokesman or -woman for any product, which is the function a trailer serves — tells a different story.

“On average both males and females trust male voices more,” said Clifford Nass, a professor of communications at Stanford, noting some gender disparity exists in that women don’t distrust female voices as much as men distrust them. In one study conducted at Stanford two versions of the same video of a woman were presented to subjects: one had the low frequencies of the woman’s voice increased and the high frequencies reduced, the other vice versa. Consistently subjects perceived the deep voice to be smarter, more authoritative and more trustworthy.”

Read more HERE.

Thoughts?  I used a woman as our secondary imaging voice at WGST/Atlanta, and I thought she added a lot — youth, sexiness, energy.  The Clark Howard Show uses a female voice who has a very different effect, sort of motherly and reassuring.

“Radio has got to become more of an engagement vehicle. Engagement is critical for advertisers today. A lot of people listen to radio in the background and it’s not intrusive, and it’s not engaging. It is more passive. How do you make radio more engaging? So, I think return of investment proof and engagement proof is critical. If you can prove that, they will be buying radio all day long.”

No format is better positioned for engagement than spoken-word.  Is your show and/or station making the most of this advantage?

“Are you an award winning journalist seeking a new position? Do you have years of experience in a traditional newsroom? Do you have the training and talent to decide what people need to hear? Do you use jargon to demonstrate your competence in the language of news? Are you cynical, stubborn and committed to the playbook of traditional journalism? If so, you should send your materials to Michelle Komes-Dolge, News Director, WNEW-FM, Laurel MD.

“Are you willing to throw out the rule book? Can you write clear, colorful and interesting stories? Send something that blows us away to: Merlin@merlinmediallc.com.

“We are currently staffing Philadelphia, and markets yet to be named. Let’s reinvent the news business together.”

“There is a difference between passion and anger.  Passion is strength without anger.  It is the foundation of moral authority.  People are drawn to passion, they are repulsed by anger.”

Does anger have a place in talk radio?  Absolutely.  But as the Renaissance physician Peracelsus noted, “the dose makes the poison.”  Applied authentically, righteously and judiciously, anger can make for some compelling radio.  But when it is used as a core ingredient for a show, anger can quickly turn toxic and stunt or kill the program.

Any idea where this quote came from?  If so, please let me know so I can give credit where it’s due.  Email me at randall@talkfrontier.com

“If not for media bias, I’m certain that my news diet would taste so strongly of sawdust and talc that I would abandon news consumption completely. As long as I’m eating news, give me the saffron smoothness of New York Times liberalism and the hallelujah hot sauce excitement of Fox News Channel conservatism. Anything but a menu of balance, moderation, and fairness!

Not that I don’t value balance, moderation, and fairness—a good Associated Press story can nourish the soul as well as a six-pack of Bud on a hot summer day. But as a rule, I like my news chefs to make spicy meals or no meals at all.”

Read the whole thing here.  (Full disclosure: I wrote innumerable freelance articles for Shafer when he edited Washington City Paper. If you find my writing tolerable, thank him.)

Shafer’s piece got me thinking (again) about the near-white-noise character of so much talk radio news. Very seldom does the news on a politically-oriented station reflect that station’s point of view, or even it’s audience’s wants and needs.  In fact, the morning newscasts on many talk shows could air without change on the classic rock or AC station.

Take some time to really listen to your station’s newscasts next week.  Are they truly integrated with the rest of the station’s programming and presentation?  Do they include stories that will inform and intrigued your target audience? Do those stories reflect the audience’s sensibilities?

I honestly believe good CHR and Urban morning shows do a better job with this than most talk stations.  Listen to one of their newscasts and you instantly know exactly who the station is targeting.

Don’t get me wrong.  Your news needs to remain factual and accurate.  But as one PD who is about to revamp his newscasts told me, “You can do a lot with story selection and the angles you take on major stories.  A conservative news outlet is going to do a lot more Solyndra stories than a liberal one.”

Here’s a guy who knew all about story selection and angles.  Listen and learn.

Paul Harvey

I recently called the PD of a major market Talk station owned by a large group.  I called him because his email was not on the station’s website.

The call went like this:

ME: Joe PD, please.

RECEPTIONIST: I’m sorry, he’s not available.

ME: That’s fine.  Could you give me his email address?

RECEPTIONIST: I’m sorry.  I’m not allowed to give that out.

ME: chuckle.

RECEPTIONIST: I’m sorry.  All I can do is put you in his voice mail.

ME: Really?!

RECEPTIONIST: Would you like his voice mail?

ME:  Yeah, I guess.

I don’t understand this policy on ANY level.  It’s terrible customer relations and it doesn’t save the PD any time or heartburn.  Someone who leaves a voice mail had much higher expectations of a reply than one who sends an email.  That’s why they pick up the phone.  What’s more, this policy puts the station at risk of missing programming and sales opportunities, as I outlined in this July post.

A few years ago there was a fad for changing the PD title to things like “Listener Advocate” or “Brand Manager.”  No surprise that trend was short-lived.  Hard to be a “Listener Advocate” when you refuse to talk to your listeners.

PS — I left a message for Joe PD, but he never did call or email me.