The Morning Crutch

I’ve spent the past few weeks studying the content on morning shows.   It becomes clear the internet is not a friend of morning radio.

Many morning shows would dispute that statement.  But the fact is the audience has already found the content on the internet today that morning radio will talk about tomorrow or even the next day.

That makes morning radio sound stale rather than fully in touch.

The internet poses a severe challenge for most radio shows.

It requires a different type of preparation, something involving thought and creativity.  Most shows don’t seem very interested in that idea.  It’s too easy to rip and read and call that preparation.

The audience is already tuned into the information.  Now it becomes important for morning radio to find new angles, sidebars or even different sources of content.

Morning shows must talk the hits, but how they talk about them becomes the challenge.

This morning one show talked about Ryan Seacrest’s  fifteen million dollar a year deal with American Idol.    That was almost old news by the time the morning shows hit the air yesterday.

They also talked about Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo breaking up.  Again yesterday’s news today.

All the shows seemed to talk about these topics the same way.  To stand out your show must be different, it can’t be  the same as the one down the dial.

Morning radio requires way more time than doing ‘four and hitting the door’.  The preparation in gathering, brainstorming angles and topics, writing and even rehearsing is more important today than ever.

Most of the work should be done before and after the show.  It is an eight plus hour day just to create four solid hours of radio.

Every morning show should take a day or two off from working on the air to listen closely to morning radio and morning television.

Take detailed notes about how each broadcast handles their content.  Then create a show without boundaries.

Imagine you could have ANY guest, cover any topic and had all of the resources you could ever want to make an amazing show.   You should finish with a show plan would beat the competition hands down.

Morning radio is not for the lazy.  That’s why when done well the monetary rewards are so good.

Mi Profesor Jaime Jarrin

Job hunting is a slow process.    This year is slower than ever.

We dream of having lots of time on our hands during times we’re working only to suddenly find we have too much.

The job search might take me a while, but I can assure you my ability to speak Spanish is going to be greatly improved.

I’ve tried for years to become fluent.    Little kids do it all the time, so why not me?

Baseball is my summer (fall, spring and winter too) passion.  So I decided to combine the two, baseball and Spanish to   see if it helps.

My teacher is Jaime Jarrin.

He is a Hall Of Famer yet most baseball fans outside of Los Angeles have never heard of him.

Many Los Angeles Fans don’t know him either.  Jaime broadcasts the Dodgers in Spanish.  It’s something he’s done since 1959.

The Dodger broadcast booth must be a great place to work. Vin Scully started when they were still  the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Learning Spanish should be simple.   I’m using Rosetta Stone, Learn Spanish Like Crazy and Spanish broadcasts of LA Dodger games.

Each night I record the game then listen later in evening.  Jaime, Pepe Yniguez and Fernando Valenzuela make up the broadcast team.

It helps when the game is televised.   I can see the action and listen to the commentary.

Little by little I can tell the improvement.   Now it is easy to understand almost all of the play by play.   Occasionally the comments are difficult to get but I can always stop the ‘tape’ and listen again.

Jarrin is good.  Real good.  No wonder he’s is a Baseball Hall Of Famer.

The Dodgers should consider using him on the English broadcasts too, certainly on television.  He knows the game and tells interesting stories.

Adding him to television would help the Dodgers broaden the appeal for the telecasts and bring a new audience to their games.

Most of all, it would allow Dodger fans to hear a great broadcaster.

Pepe and Fernando deserve a shot at TV too.  The whole team is that good.

Gracias Jaime.

Oh, and my scouting report on the Dodgers?  Watch out.  This team can play.

Missing In Action

Memorial services generally make for boring radio.

Michael Jackson’s is more entertainment than memorial service.

The program handed to guests cleverly omitted the typical listing of speakers and guests.   The audience had to watch to see who would perform.

The drama made for great television.   But where was radio?

It was Jackson that almost single handedly revived Top 40 as it morphed to CHR.   Would stations like KIIS and WHTZ exist today had Michael  not come along at the right moment?

KRTH and KFI were among the stations with full coverage.  Los Angeles stations should be expected to broadcast what is so far the biggest event of the year in LA.  Sorry Lakers.

WCBS FM appeared to be in regular format.  So were WOGL,  and even WOMG Detroit home of Motown Records.

Television owned the event.

Brian Williams is anchoring for NBC in full wall to wall coverage that once would have been reserved for a space launch.

It’s hard to envision Walter Cronkite doing the same.  CBS Evening News didn’t even lead with Elvis the night he died.

Every cable channel broadcast their version of the service as did the lettered networks.

Radio, the medium that first pounded Jackson Five songs into our collective heads, and later provided a platform for Micheal’s reinvention was no where to be found.

Capitol Gold in London announced they’d play Jackson requests.  But there was no coverage of the Memorial Service.

4QK Brisbane rolled into their regular Breakfast Show.

KFI was the only News Talk station doing any sort of coverage.  But again anything at Staple Center is a local story.

Jackson whether you loved him for the music or despised him for the pedophile accusations was a giant.

Radio helped make that giant only to let Television, Twitter, You Tube and others own the story at the end.

It’s radio’s role to play the hits, whether music or cultural hits.

Michael Jackson was both.

Radio missed the party.