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How much passion would I hear when I listen to your radio station?

How much passion would I feel?

Listeners, all of us, respond to genuine passion. How can we not?

Authentic passion is impossible to ignore.

It’s the magic ingredient missing on most radio stations I hear today.

Maybe that’s because too much content is pre-recorded, voice-tracked.

Maybe it’s because there’s not one solitary individual behind the blueprint of everything I hear when I listen.

It’s format-by-committee. Paint by numbers. Safe. Nondescript. Forgettable.

But passion comes near the edges of things, not in the safe, solid center.

It comes from risking, from the occasional spectacular flame-out.

Passion needs a spark, not a time limit.

If you, as a programmer, or an air talent, are afraid of offending people, you’re in the wrong business.

Safe and bland and non-offensive is boring, a waste of our time when we have so many other options. The worst indictment for an entertainment medium.

Today, you have to have a viewpoint, an opinion, on everything that your listeners are confronting in their daily lives.

And to have a viewpoint on the stuff of life, you have to LIVE!

You have to have a vibrant life outside of the building.

You have to read books, and watch the latest films and series, and listen to the hot podcasts, and attend local events, and be involved in the lives within your own family.

Otherwise, what in the world do you have to talk about today?

Most PD’s I know are deathly afraid their talent’s going to say something that will bring complaints or alienate a political faction, or talk too long, when they should be worried about boring us with so much pablum we stop coming by at all.

Too many programmers don’t realize it’s not about what you say.

It’s about how you say it.

Be honest with yourself: What makes you special?

If listeners aren’t reacting to something you say every time you speak, you probably don’t have what it takes to be huge. You’re an announcer, not an “air talent,” not an entertainer.

If listeners aren’t hearing something on your station when they listen today, something they’ll be talking about later with their friends, you’ve failed as a Program Director.

You’ve got to make people feel something every time they listen. Every time!

That’s your job.

Do it.