Radio’s unique strength
Dick Taylor is a friend I’ve never met. It happens, especially because I’m on the road so much.
I read Dick’s blog as often as I can, and he asked a question a while ago that intrigued me: “What can Radio do that other media can’t?”
Here’s what came to me:
Engage the mind, spark the imagination, unlock old memories and the emotion connected with them.
Video, if done well, allows us to see what the creator sees. But, it is rarely the same image we would have seen if we would’ve pictured it in our minds first.
That’s why, when we hear a voice, it rarely fits the actual person speaking because we’ve already imagined what that voice must look like.
Writing can be incredibly engaging, but it seems fewer and fewer allow themselves the uninterrupted time to allow for character and story development to do their work.
Only radio has the power to use sound and words alone to literally paint images in the brains of those who listen, and because listening is often done while alone. the engagement is intensely and uniquely personal.
No two people listening see exactly the same images.
And while the very best radio talent will help us feel, and feel deeply, each listener’s emotional response is personal because each of us has experienced life just differently enough to make it so.
Words, carefully chosen; the timbre of each voice delivering those words; pauses to draw listeners closer; ambient sound that can help paint a scene; music, which uniquely communicates the inexpressible…
these are your tools.
This is what makes personal human connection possible and deepens the experience of listening to you.
How many of your tools do you use?
How often do you offer something no other medium can?
How often do you create content that no one else your listeners can hear today can?
That’s the goal, isn’t it?