Is Your Show Working Too Hard?

Happy Holidays from all of us at The Randy Lane Company!

Wishing each of you a season full of warmth, love, and exciting new adventures for 2017.

Randy

“The morning show gets paid twice as much money as anyone in the sales department, and they’re only working 25 hours a week!!”

We frequently run across managers in radio who are frustrated by the apparent lack of work ethic on the part of their morning shows to put in a “full 8-hour day.” Sales people, business managers, human resource directors and general managers live in a 9-5 world. Many believe they are more effective when they put in more hours making spreadsheets balance, writing impressive proposals, and attending endless meetings.

Creative people are not 9 to 5’ers. They thrive on less structure. Morning shows that stay in the office from 5 a.m to 3 p.m. may appear to be working harder; however, they are not likely making the best use of their time. Is spending time in meetings and surfing the web more productive than living a life? OR, is your station better off with morning talent that lives for the moment and has real life experiences and exposure to fresh and exciting content?

Listeners overwhelmingly find ‘entertaining stories about life’ their favorite, most memorable parts of a morning radio show. Many of these same listeners are the managers, comptrollers, lawyers, resource directors, etc., working ten hours a day. For many of us, a large part of the enjoyment and awareness of life comes from the stories of people who experience things we don’t have the time to experience.

If you have a morning show that shows up at 5:55 for a 6 a.m. show and leaves at 10:05, you may be luckier than you think. If a talent comes in with great stories of how she took her family out for a night on the town, or a talent who saw the latest movie your target audience is talking about, you may have a great show and not realize it.

Engaging morning show stories rarely develop on a computer screen or in a planning meeting. Conversely, morning shows do need to spend time group brainstorming and planning the show, whether that’s at the station for an hour or down the street at Starbucks. People are more creative when they are out of their regular environment. Many top shows also plan and communicate with one another throughout the day via Google Drive, Salesforce, or texting.

Red flag alerts!

• If you have a morning show or talent that is in at 5:55 and out at 10:05, goes home, smokes a bowl, watches TV and naps, get rid of them tomorrow.
•  If you have morning show that is in at 4 a.m. and leaves at 5 p.m., you have a show that needs to be redirected. Give them the cliché advice, “Get a life!” Then encourage them to share that life with listeners.

  If you have a morning show that lives life to the fullest and always has stories about that life to share, consider yourself fortunate, even if they don’t appear to be “working” as hard as you or your C.O.O.

Photo Credit: flickr.com/photos/jorel314/