John Tesh, Pistaccios, And 4 A.M. Wake-Up Calls: A Show Structure For Podcasts And Radio Stations?

I am a 20-year radio broadcasting veteran who's launching a new podcast about the Detroit arts and entertainment scene called The D Brief. This podcast draws heavily upon my radio knowledge. With this column, I am offering a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this podcast so other broadcasters can learn from my successes and failures.

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I never met Bill Kelly, but the man had a profound impact on my career. Bill Kelly and Al Kline were the morning disc jockeys on 94.5 KWSS in my hometown of San Jose when I was growing up, and they were my first favorite DJs.

In the back of my closet, I still have boxes full of cassettes that I taped off the radio on which you can hear Bill backselling Huey Lewis, Belinda Carlisle, and Dr. Demento. I had no idea that I would one day follow in his footsteps, if only for a moment.

Nearly thirty years later, Bill was cohosting the morning show with Marla Davies on Mix 106.5 in San Jose. I had left my radio career behind -- or so I had thought -- when I was involved in a severe accident that left me injured and unable to work for an extended period of time.

When I recovered enough to return to part-time work, I reached out to Dana Jang, the Program Director at Mix. In a coincidence of timing, I was exactly what Dana needed. Bill had been diagnosed with cancer, and it had progressed to the point where he would probably have to stop doing the morning show soon. Dana had a backup host, but he could use another experienced jock to fill in if necessary. I hadn't pulled an airshift in several years, but as soon as I got behind the board for a weekend shift, it all came back to me.

As my health improved, Bill's declined. Sadly, Bill passed away several weeks after I started pulling weekend and fill-in shifts at the station. Our paths did not cross during that time, and I regret that I never got to tell him what a big influence he was on my radio career.

Chris Jackson took over for Bill on the morning show while the station conducted a search for a permanent replacement, and I became the second-string backup. When Chris accepted a job at another station, I was asked to fill in on the morning show for two weeks until the new permanent host, Jeff Pope, started.

I hadn't worked a morning show airshift since my days in college radio. I had forgotten how much fun it could be. There's more creative freedom in morning radio than in any other daypart, and I loved having that license.

But I hated the hours.

Getting up at 4am is grueling. I thought I would have the rest of the day free to do what I want, but you quickly realize that sleep is your master, and you are a slave to its will. As much as I enjoyed doing the morning show, I realized it wasn't for me, and any fantasies about launching a post-injury morning show radio career quickly faded from my mind. I stayed content with my weekend shifts while I healed.

One thought, however, never totally faded: "I would love to do a morning radio show if I didn't have to get up so early."

Inspiration from Syndicated Radio Shows

On the weekends, Mix's sister station, KBAY, aired Intelligence for Your Life, the syndicated radio program hosted by John Tesh. John would offer up short on-air breaks about a new study on the health benefits of pistachios or the importance of getting your cholesterol checked on a regular basis in between the smooth sounds of Wilson Phillips and Journey.

I wasn't in John's target demographic, but I took notice of the format of his show: He was essentially doing a morning radio show, but he didn't have to roll out of bed in the middle of the night.

KBAY also aired Delilah's eponymous syndicated show, which features positive life advice and requests. I was told the story of how KBAY found that the music Delilah was providing with the show wasn't a perfect match for the station, and in response, the network begun providing a version that allowed radio stations to insert their own music.

Listening to these two shows, I began to wonder: Would it be possible to create a show that on the one hand, made sense if you listened to it straight through as an 80-minute podcast, but on the other hand, could be broken up into individual segments, surrounded with music, and turned into a 4-hour radio show?

Public radio programs like Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, Fresh Air, and The Moth are pretty easy to make available on demand as a podcast without a lot of changes to the original program. Commercial radio programs, on the other hand, don't work nearly as well when uploaded as podcasts in their original form because there are big holes where the music should be. But what if you could design a show that was designed to work both as a podcast and as a commercial radio program?

I began to sketch out the concept in my mind: Sixteen segments, each 4-6 minutes long, each self-contained. All of the repetitive elements that come with a radio show -- call letters, identifying the air talent by name, asking people to follow social media, etc. -- would need to be done with production elements that aired on the radio station but were not included in the podcast. Teases would need to be structured in a way that worked for both a podcast and a radio show. It would take some thought, but it could be done.

Maybe, just maybe, there's a way for me to do a morning show and still sleep in...

COMING UP: Can a podcast take up radio's "live and local" mantle?

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