More of this Feature • Chapter 1 • Chapter 2 • Chapter 3 • Chapter 4 • Chapter 5 • Chapter 6 • Chapter 7 • Chapter 8 • Chapter 9 • Chapter 10 • Chapter 11 • Chapter 12 • Chapter 13 • Chapter 14

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Related Resources •  Want To Work On The Radio? •  Back On The Air - And Now It's Personal •  Radio Morning Man Terminology •  So, You Wanna Work In Radio? •  Confessions of a Morning DJ •  The Radio DJ FAQ •  How Do I Break Into Radio? •  You Don't Have To Be On The Air To Be In Radio •  Be A DJ: Radio Jobs Available

Living Outside Your Life

Successful Radio personalities never really stop preparing for their Radio shows because life goes 24/7 and great Radio is about life. Why do people listen to the music? Becasue it speaks to them about life, love, loss, etc. Why do people listen to talk Radio? Because the personalities say meaningful things that can validate and affect their view of life. Why do your listeners listen to you? Hopefully because you bring them relatable experiences, humorous or otherwise, each time they tune in.

Some of the best showprep you can do is living your life and then being able to recognize the universal, humorous or relatable events that happen to you. The absolute best kind of materials for a Radio show is the kind of information that, when passed along to a listener, makes them say, “Wow: I thought I was the only one who felt like that!” Nothing captures a listener's attention better than the recognition and validation of things either they thought only happened to them or they thought only they noticed.

Odd, bizarre, funny, goofy, weird, nutty, wondrous, strange, exhilarating, and even sad things happen to people all the time. But, most people don't think outside of the event because they're usually too busy living the event. That's okay for them, but not for you. Your mind should act like a digital recording device, constantly taking notes about the occurrences you're involved in and the events that happen between between you and your spouse, lovers, family, bosses, friends, etc.

To do this, you have to learn to not only be a participant in your life, but a keen observer of it. This is not as easy as it may seem. We naturally are NOT observers of our own life. To do so requires practice. When you walk into a new restaurant and something funny is written on the napkins, don't just smile and then use it to wipe that sticky barbecue sauce off your lips; pocket a clean napkin and take it with you so you can use that free material.

When you're waiting in a slow checkout line and the cashier is trying to ring up customers while talking on a phone to a friend, don't just get pissed off (although who would blame you), remember the moment and see how your listeners feel about that kind of behavior.

Here's an exercise for you to do:

Aside from whatever benchmarks you may have in your program that require prep from particular sources, see if you can come up with enough good phone starters and bits simply from one day's personal experiences. This means living outside of your life as often as you can remember during the day. Write down the possibilities. You might be surprised at how many things take place each day that would be interesting and even compelling to bring up on the Radio.

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