Brian McColl
               PugetSoundRadio.com
               Tuesday May 19th, 2008


Product not Process.

The issue of ‘Prep’ came up again over the past week with some of the people I was dealing with.
You know…Prep.

That thing you are supposed to do before your shift.
That aspect of your daily pre-show routine, that is crucial to your performance.
That grey area that nobody tells you anything about, other than ‘do it’.

The concept of ‘Prep’ makes perfect sense.

Every professional preps in some way or another before embarking on a task.

Pilots look at weather conditions before boarding their aircraft and run through a checklist ahead of a flight.
Legal Eagles prepare files on certain cases before walking into a courtroom and Real Estate agents will have to see a house before trying to sell it.

You get the idea.

The only difference between these professionals and you is the fact that they have very definite avenues to pursue.
The pilot knows where he is flying.
The Lawyer knows what case she is working on and the estate agent sells one particular house to one particular person.

In radio, our ‘sell’ is not so defined.

We have music to prep, artist info, pop culture, news, comedy, promotions, weather, travel, competitions and on and on.

So where to start?  

Well, this is where the whole grey area of ‘Prep’ comes into it’s own.
You ask any presenter how they prep and they probably couldn’t give you a definite answer.
Sure, they could show you the websites they look at each day and the newspapers and magazines they read and possibly the prep service they subscribe to.

Showing you an exact method though, would be nearly impossible.
Maybe there is no exact method!
Maybe that’s why the area is so grey.
I find it hard to believe that any one presenter could prep the same way each day. It’s almost impossible because no two days on the radio are ever the same. The music will be different, the callers will be different, the content will be different and your mood will be different.
If they weren’t different then we might as well record Monday’s show and play it for the rest of the week!

Some Programmers will tell you that in order to prep properly for your show you need to:

Come in two hours before your gig.
Prep one hour for each hour you are on the air.
Print all your prep out so that it is always at hand.
You’ve heard them all, I suppose.

Here’s my take on the ‘Prep Process’:

It’s the Product not the Process that matters.

Have a think about this for a moment.
Are you putting yourself under pressure to get your three hours prep done for your gig and not really knowing how to go about it?
Do you sit at the computer in work, with the newspapers open in front of you, looking for inspiration?
Do you trawl through radio-online or Inter-Prep looking for the best American bits that you can translate into your market?

If so, then ask yourself ‘why’?

Why do you do that?
What are you getting out of that?
Are you doing it for you or for your boss?
Is it to ‘look good’?
Is it to appear as though you are working hard and are therefore a good employee?

I would imagine it’s some or all of the above (plus more, possibly).

What I have discovered over the years is that it doesn’t matter how long you spend in front of your computer reading websites and magazines if it doesn’t help your performance on air.
What’s the most important aspect of a radio station?
The noise coming out of the speakers…. that’s it!
Does the listener care how that noise was achieved?
Nope.

The listener is interested only in the product. You are the main part of that product. You are the human connection between the two.
Your listener wants only to be entertained, whatever that means to you.
If I was in charge of the radio station you work at, my main concern would be that your on air performance is the best it can be.
How you achieve that result wouldn’t interest me.
You could walk into work one minute before your gig wearing a Hawaiian skirt with a parrot on your head for all I’d care – so long as your performance was all it could be!

The Product not the Process.

We tend to get hung up on what we feel we should be doing.
Let me ask you a question:
Does your current method of prepping feel ‘right’ to you?
Does it fit?
Does it feel natural?
Or are you doing it because you feel you ‘should’?
If it’s not right for you, then change it.

How do I change it?
Anyway you want.
I’ve worked alongside some legendary presenters and each one of them has a different method of prepping.
One guy I remember, who had been in the business since the 50’s, was meticulous in his prep detail. Nothing was left to chance. He was scripted and had every angle covered. That’s been his method throughout his career.
Another was a morning man at a ratings leading station, whose show started at 6am. He walked into the building at five minutes to six every morning without fail and performed brilliantly.
The point is, both of these people knew what worked for them.
The first presenter needed everything in place – that’s how his brain worked.
The second guy loved to ‘wing it’ and ad lib. That was his strength. Do you know what he spoke about? His life. That’s it!
He never once researched artists or checked websites because that wasn’t his style.
His product brought him to the Number One morning slot in his market.
He got there because once he walked into the studio. He was in charge. He was in control. He unconsciously knew what to do and how to do it.

If he worked for a PD that insisted on prepping at your desk two hours before every show, then he would not have succeeded in the way he did.
Through trial and error he found his strength.


What’s your strength?
What’s your style?
Find what is right for you and use that method for prep.
The listener doesn’t care how you conceived your link. All they care about is how it sounds – the Product.
The Process…? Well, that’s up to you, isn’t it?

Brian.
brian@bmacmedia.com

http://www.bmacmedia.com


                                     http://www.presenterworkshop.com

Some Morning Shows notwithstanding - what other shifts require more than just showing up?

Granted, I've never worked in a Major, but everything I've ever heard from listening SEEMS like it requires a fair bit of prep.  

I was doing a MS a little while back, and on Friday afternoons would drive into the City to watch the local football team play, and along the way would scan through the PM Drive shows.  Some interesting similarities, and contrasts...

-All were very music-intensive
-The HOT AC station tried to develop a theme each afternoon, almost like talk-radio, and would try and drive calls into the station based around this theme.  One afternoon was "Is it okay for guys to wear cut off jean shorts"...and the phone calls came.  So, it seemed like, along with the usual music and pop culture prep, he'd at least taken the time to develop a plan for the show each day.  There was evidence of prep right there.

-The AC station wasn't as "caller-intensive" as the HOT station, but seemed to be more heavily involved with the pop-culture aspect.  Always lots of Paris-and-Britney talk.

-The HOT Country station could basically have been voice tracked. "That was, this is..."  Not very much in the way of pure content, even artist info was non-existent.

I guess the question is, "What are you trying to achieve with your show?"  Do you want calls?  Do you just want to play music and shut up?  What's the point?

I'm interested in hearing other people's take.  Personally, I'm in a Small, so I eat-sleep-breathe local.  I know the PSAs like the back of my  hand, I know exactly what's happening weather-wise, I read the weekly-paper, I'm well versed in our current contest-promo, and most importantly for me, I know as much as humanly possible about the music that we're playing.  I read the sites and the mags and scour for the daily gossip on this genre. If I've got all that in my back pocket when I go into the control room, then I feel pretty confident when the mic comes on.  Sure, I'll keep my eye on the wire for the national/regional stuff, but I like to think that I know what's important to my listeners and give them that, which, I THINK, makes me a decent prepper.

That said, I know that everyone has their own take, and their own way of doing things.  I work with a 35-year vet who comes in half an hour before his shift, scans the big-city "Sun" paper and that's it.  Uses the same weather cast as the guy before him, doesn't look at the PSA/Promo/Contest stuff until he's in the room.  So, again, everyone has their own way of doing things...

prep is a part of the job that I like.  Its a good life skill.  I find, even the times when I work outside of radio... I still tackle the job in a similar way.  research the job and prep my station.

With the internet and laptops and wifi... the reading happens long before my shift and anywhere comfortable... right now, it is happening on my couch!  god bless technology.

I work in at a music station, so a tiny fraction of what I want to talk about actually happens... but I just keep my geeky knowledge in my head for a cocktail party.  then if it is a hit at the party... gets recycled back on the air for Monday.

good prep might take you into the studio to produce something... or at least track down some music beds or sfx.

I like to hit the gym or pool before work... you hear interesting stuff... like one time I found out the lifeguard at Crystal Pool is a real goer... 3 different guys in the change room were bragging about landing her... and she is clingly, phone many times a day with "where ARE YOU?" messages.  


in the hot tub, this little 12 year old pudgy kid sneezed and snot went all over the place... like melted cheese between his fingers in a web and connected still to his nose and in the pool.  he just washed himself off in the hot tub and ran away.  holy shit... I come home and flick on the news and pool illnesses were way up, the talking head on the news said, don't drink any pool water.  really?
and that was just Friday at the public swimming pool, can't read that prep on the internets (or I guess you just did).

Good prep, in my opinion, is prep that you can't find on the internets.

Like what Flame mentioned above about going to the gym and pool... Listen to what people are talking about... Most likely, your audience is talking or even thinking about the same ideas. I usually make a daily stop at the post office and 7-11... hang for a bit at the places and listen to the chatter...

For example... I went hiking this weekend and ran into some wild coyotes.. How can I relate this to my audience?

Talk about safety while hiking in the woods... what should you do if you encounter a wild beast?
Get on the horn with your local conservationist... ask them for their advice on how to stay safe in the wilderness.

The better you can relate to you audience... you're more likely to connect and it's more likely that they will listen longer. increased TLH = more CUME = smiles on your PD's face

That's a great point about relatability.  When I was first starting out in the bizz, I used to send out "blind darts" to different PDs just to get an aircheck from a different brain, and I remember one PD telling me "It's okay to use national news, but you HAVE to find a way to spin it local and make it relatable for your audience".  That's a piece of advice I've always carried with me.  If I absolutely HAVE to use some national/international stuff because it's a huge story, then I'll find a way to spin it local.