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Becoming An Air Personality ...
November 1, 2016
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Becoming a successful air personality takes a lot of work. Once you learn the mechanics and start to excel at the art form, you'll enter a select fraternal order that only a few belong to. There are ways to be able to put yourself in a position for on-air success. You can learn from everyone, both from people you like and dislike. I have always learned a lot from the success and failures of others. Like sports, radio is about practice and repetition. A sports reporter once asked baseball Hall of Fame pitching great Greg Maddux, "How do you repeat your mechanics," his answer, "I throw a lot." It is the same thing for a radio personality; it's a lot of practice.
Focus On The Work
I once had a client who was adamant about making the perfect aircheck. While working with her on show prep, timing, conciseness and believability, I noticed regardless of her progress, she kept saying "I have to get this right for my aircheck." Then it dawned on me: She was concentrating on making the perfect aircheck/demo and not her overall approach to her on-air presentation.
Do Not Manufacture
PDs hire an air personality if their air work is a direct reflection of the demo. If the aircheck is a best of all your talk breaks and the PD finds out they've hired someone who can't consistently deliver what was on the demo; you will lose the gig. This is one of the main reasons that auditions have become so popular among programmers; they want to make sure the air personality sounds like his or her demo.
Can't Always Judge A Book By Its Cover
Years ago, during my on-air days, my PD hired a newsman based on his demo, resume, and the fact this guy's dad was a local news legend. Surely the apple could not fall far tree, right? On the guy's first day I tuned him in and what I heard was painful to listen to. When I walked into the studio for shift, the afternoon-drive jock said "Maybe this guy was adopted, because he sure doesn't have his dad's talent. It's been like this all afternoon and the GM has been blowing up the hot line. Where did the PD find this guy?"
Unfortunately, the PD had not checked on the background of his new hire and assumed the aircheck/demo was representative of his talents. As the new guy finished up his first and only day on the job, I noticed that he had more flop sweat than I had ever seen since the movie "Broadcast News" when the character played by Albert Brooks looked like a human waterfall during his live TV audition.
The Natural
Sometimes those blessed with natural abilities to comprehend and flourish in their chosen field have a hard time understanding people not on the same accelerated level. The fact that people learn and comprehend at different levels is what makes us human. Many of us began our on-air learning by copying the style of someone else until we became comfortable with ourselves. The creation story for each on-air career varies, except for those special teachers along the way who took the time to help you find yourself.
Worry About Yourself...
Stop worrying about other personalities, comparisons, or what somebody else has. There are no short cuts, just work. It won't take years, but it will take lots of time and effort. Be patient and do not start sending out aircheck/demos until it is time. Meanwhile, get a coach or an experienced mentor. Most important, if you are voicetracking or just starting in radio, get to the point you can do things in one take. Practice is about improvement; try not to fall into the perfection thing. Radio or any form of audio media is like life, a series of moments; each moment is a sound bite in time. The goal is to communicate the best way possible and hope that with more experience you can string together consecutive successful moments during a show. If a moment does not go well, don't sulk, just mentally prepare for the next on-air moment. Remember, regardless of what you are saying, everything deserves the same amount of effort in presentation.
Your Bread & Butter...
Your voice is an instrument and a powerful tool; you must learn how to use it. Radio is a platform for theater-of-the-mind and effective communications. A voice is capable of conveying motivation, energy, humor, hope, affection, worry, passion, desperation, desire, terror, fear and happiness. Radio is not television and there are no pictures. The sound of your voice paints the canvas; it provides the periods, question marks, commas, excitement and transitions from one thought to another. You will learn how to use your voice effectively when you realize no one else can do it for you. The real lessons will begin at that point.
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