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

Finding new sources of showprep is essential for the Radio personality who wants to continue to amuse and surprise his listeners. I know what the traditional wisdom used to say: if you were seeking female demos, read magazines that target women, if you wanted men, read guy publications, etc.

Well, that's all well and good but your showprep should be an evolving universe of information that is constantly fed by various and different sources. Here are the ones I recommend:

Searches
Places
Individuals
Newsletters
Television
Zines

Searches by Others

As a Radio personality, it's important to have your “finger on the pulse”, as the expression goes. People look to you because they assume you're “in the loop”. So, just where do you find that pulse? An excellent way of quickly seeing what's on the mind of the public is to see what they are searching the Internet for. My favorite place to go is the Lycos Top 50. http://50.lycos.com .

Each week, the list is updated with the 50 most popular searches at the Lycos portal. You can watch, from week-to-week, as seasonal concerns rise and fall, how some subjects are perennial favorites and move very little and how others are more fleeting and pop into the list and then drop off.

I find this list is a good indication of both general and very specific interests. It is up to you to cull information from it that is meaningful to your audience.

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