Working in radio is a little like playing the accordion.

Stay with me on this.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan did an interview a few years back where he shared how his act changes over the course of a tour. As things kick off, he's focused on efficiency. He wants a laser-focused set, so he trims every bit of fat he can find. He'll cut an extra word here, skip an unnecessary detail there. It's a lean, mean comedy routine until, suddenly, there's no humanity left. The act has no room to breathe.

So he reverses course. Little bits of flavor reappear. He'll pepper in a few more details that help the audience get to know him better. He allows himself to have fun. But before long, he realizes he's added too much. The act gets bloated and self-indulgent.

Perhaps, like you, my heart has been heavy this past week for the more than 1,000 iHeart Radio talents who are "on the beach." Given the state of radio, many may never find their way off that sand and back on the air. I was fortunate to be part of the iHeart family ...

What is the most important trait of an air personality? I won't make you wait. It's being likable. Genuinely likable. A spirit of likability transcends everything else. And likable people are good-natured. A good nature is also the spirit of improvisation. Improv is ...

Raise your hand if you've seen this meme: Jesus probably wasn't talking about programming a radio station going into 2020 when he said, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ...

For a medium based on music and personality, there's an awful lot of science involved in radio. You can take all kinds of data, calculations, and research to build spreadsheets, and then you try to fit all of it around stuff that is, at its heart, not all that ...

There's no point in being "live and local" if you aren't capitalizing on things you can only do when you're "live and local." I keep putting "live and local" in "quotation marks" because the phrase has been so beaten to death in radio, that calling it "cliché'" ...

At this writing, we are three weeks from Thanksgiving. Many of us programmers are taking fewer label calls, slowing down on our adds, and getting ready to go all-out with Christmas programming as soon as the wobbly cranberry sauce leftovers make their way into the ...

Andrew Peterson wrote these lyrics in his song, "You'll Find Your Way:" Hold on to the hope that's taken a hold of you And you'll find your way. Keep to the old roads. A new decade is almost here. Wow. It's kind of shocking to think about. New possibilities, new ...

Seinfeld reruns never get old. They are classics and rich with lessons in character development, show preparation and story structure for radio personalities and programmers. And good old George Costanza. Seinfeld's best friend is one of the most memorable and popular ...

You're alone in the studio with a microphone and a show to do. The end of your show feels like it's 50 years away, because it's one of those days where you really don't have much to share. Maybe you haven't been out living life, maybe your brain's neurons aren't firing ...