Programmers need look no farther than the screen in front of them to find new talent, from on- air guests and pros to fill-in and full time hosts. Savvy programmers are picking up podcasts and online shows that have developed traction with significant numbers of supporters.
We’ve progressed since the early days when it had been a huge deal to take a successful blogger and website creator like Matt Drudge, and give him his own show on WABC in NY.
It wasn’t that way back, if you needed to be a talk show host, entry-level on-air roles were available- customarily the “overnight shift” at a talk station. That was the location for developing new talent locally. Hot on-air personalities could get experience, learn the craft, and make mistakesin the middle of the night. Since local overnight shifts have generally been replaced with syndicated programming or re-runs of daytime programming, online has become the new overnite shift.
The curse and blessing of the technology that makes it possible for anybody with a mike, a computer and the will to host a show, is that it is a level playing field with no filter. There’s a lot of actually bad talk radio on the web, but from the amplitude of internet personalities, real talent is developing. Smart radio programmers now use online and social media to search out the new generation of talk hosts.
Consultants have to do the same thing, sieving through hours of Internet content trying to find the diamonds in the coarse. After we find them, the polishing begins. The techniques which make up the spine of my work with broadcast radio stations and talent are being turned to coaching successful podcasters. It’s just like working with the overnite hosts in smaller markets, giving them the tools to become prime time, major-market radio stars.
Social media has changed the path to celebrity in every field. Creative people now get round the traditional vetting process. What all of them bringabove and beyond their talent, self confidence and contentare huge audience followings.
Have a look at the new Sports Illustrated cover girl for the famous swimsuit edition. Nineteen-year-old blonde beauty Kate Upton appeared, not from the ranks of standard modeling, but as her very own self-created net phenomenon.
On the music side of the business, my colleague, Sean Ross, could list for you multiple artists who’ve muscled their way into the record industry’s conventional talent development system and damaged through using social media, their own websites and YouTube.
DJs who need to move from music radio to chat radio find doing a show online is a perfect place to try it.
Everyone can talk, so folks think talk radio is straightforward. But as any person who’s sat in front of a microphone can tell you, it is a little harder than it looks . The very good ones just make it seem simple.
Since the Net offers a forum for any person who wants to, to do a talk showthe challenge becomes : Who will listen? How are you going to grow your audience? You have got to provide something deserving of people’s notice. What you are saying must be important and matter. You have to be a robust storyteller with unique content, who can engage audiences by informing entertainingly and entertaining informatively. I’ve written a book to help with this, but there are an abundance of places you can go to work on improving your skills. If you do not want to create and market your podcast wholly alone there are several resources, for example Podcasting for Dummies, Blogtalkradio.com or ThePodcastGuy.com which will help you, for a charge.
For talent, when you’ve mastered your podcast, getting noticed is your next challenge. Characters Brian and Mike (www.BrianandMike.com) started off with about fifty followersmostly friends and familybut as they continued to podcast their show, the spectators grew swiftly. About eighteen months later on based solely on word of mouth and social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Google+) to drive an audience to their site, they had over one million unique downloads of their podcasts. Brian and Mike are now having serious conversations with radio stations. These sorts of numbers also attract sponsors.
Kelly Carlin, child of the late comedian George Carlin, is a specialist who started her very own weekly online celebrity interview talk show. Carlin scheduled the largest names she could find to be on her podcast, and to be truthful, her pedigree helped. After almost two years of podcasting, programmers noticed. Kelly begins her new show on Sirius XM radio, this month.
If you’re a program director and you have found a web show you think has guarantee, try potential hosts as guests. Or if you’re feeling brave, let them do some vacation or fill in shifts. Internet podcasts may also be a great source of gurus for niche formats like home remodeling, auto, or cooking shows. If the characters are truly entertaining, they would move on to general talk.
To prep a podcaster, even one with a big following for radio, you’ll have some coaching to do. Why? Podcasters can record, cut, edit and perfect their shows. But podcasters are working with a netlive talk radio is a different experience. If someone has never done live radio before, she or he won’t know how best to deal with things like breaking news, challenging callers or boring guests. While podcasters might be great storytellers and interviewers, when you broadcast in real time, by the seat of your pantsit’s different. But most hosts would agree there’s no better feeling as reported tagza.