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Anxiety & Being On The Air …
January 19, 2021
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The symptoms of anxiety are psychological and if you don’t learn how to manage it, your career in radio will be short lived. We all have stress to different degrees.
Here’s an exchange with an air talent having problems having anxiety issues when he’s doing his show.
Air Talent: I’ve been in radio for 11 years and I’ve always felt drained after I finish my shift.
Coach: What market are you in and what shift are you currently working?
Air Talent: I’m on in afternoon drive in a smaller market, trying to get to a larger market. I’d rather not say what city I’m in. In a town this size, I’d rather not let anyone know I’m having any issues.
Coach: Are you voice tracking your breaks?
Air Talent: No, that’s the funny thing about it. We’re old school, our program director makes us do our breaks live. She says it keeps us from getting lazy and into bad habits from doing a ton of takes to get one good one that we can air.
Coach: Explain your process during the show and before you do a talk break.
Air Talent: I prep before I start my shift, I go over the scheduled music for my show, and psych myself up to do my shift. Some days my body aches after I do my show. And my head hurts sometimes.
Coach: I need more detail, what do you do just before you go on the air?
Air Talent: I’m not sure what you are asking me.
Coach: Okay, I’m going to take a stab at what I think is going on and then you tell me if I’m going in the right direction.
Air Talent: Okay.
Coach: I used to be emotionally drained and tired after doing a show until another air personality gave me some advice early on in my career. I used to hype myself up before a show and stay that way for four hours until my shift was over. If one talk break didn’t go the way I thought it should, I would get anxious before the next time I had to turn the mic on again. I would aircheck everything and listen back to each break while I was on the air. Some nights were like a blur.
Air Talent: Wow, that does sound like me.
Coach: Let me tell you how I learned to manage anxiety and stress during a shift. There was a personality who had great energy, timing, and was bad ass on the air every day. He was consistent and every talk break was on target. Ironically, I also knew he smoked pot and was high on the air every day. I finally asked him one day how he made things look so easy when he worked. He told me, “Sam, I’m only on the air for 10 to 15 seconds at a time unless I have a live 30 second spot. I’m only on when I turn the mic on. When the microphone is off, I relax, take care of anything I need to do between songs, and I start to focus my energies about 20 seconds before I have to turn on the mic again and talk. When, I’m finished, I take the same approach again. I’m only on when I turn the mic on."
Air Talent: Only on when the mic is on?
Coach: Yes, it’s like a movie actor, the only time they have to act is when they have to do a scene. Then someone yells cut and that’s it until another scene has to be shot. In other words, you don’t have to be psyched up for an entire show, only when it counts, and that’s when you turn on your mic.
Air Talent: Really?
Coach: Yep, that air personality’s advice changed my life on air. If you are keeping yourself hyped up for your entire shift, it’s probably why you are so tired and your anxieties get the best of you. As my grandfather used to say, “You’re wound too tight.”
Keep doing your prep and going over the scheduled music before your show. But only go into “show mode” 20 to 30 seconds before you turn on the mic and go on the air. In between talk sets, relax, and prepare for your next time on the air. But don’t use all your energy by staying on the edge the entire time. Only when the mic is on, get it?
Air Talent: I do, no one ever told me this before.
Coach: Glad to be of service. Just be glad someone told me. Give that approach a try.
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