Jeff Dauler, Co-Host, The Jeff and Jenn Show, Star 94.1/Atlanta: "Walk with more swagger and claim a bigger slice of the advertising pie."

What's the best part about helping your listeners jump start their day?

Jeff: I take a lot of pride in being able to provide some escape to listeners from their hectic and stressful lives. We live in a world of constant streams of input. I like knowing that The Jeff and Jenn Show is consistently funny and stress-free, with cornerstones of laughter and kindness and gratitude.

Jenn and I set out to create that type of show when we launched in March of 2016, and when Jenn's youngest daughter was diagnosed with cancer a few months later, the importance of that mission was forged in steel. Everyone has stressors. Everyone deserves to escape those. I want to be part of that escape.

There's a lot of talk about influencer marketing. How do you view your role, as you connect your employed audience with advertisers?

Jeff: Radio was social media before social media existed. Successful stations and personalities have always had communities form around them and good advertisers know that leveraging those networks is the easiest way to drive spending. Two decades ago, it was twice-a-month appearances at the car dealership, because that was where a listener could ‘meet' the voice on the radio.

Now, it's driving a car provided by a dealership and organically working it into your Instagram story so the listener can see that you really do use the product that you talk about on the radio. It's backing up your meal-kit :30 spots with a FB live of making the meal in your own kitchen. Spots don't get money out of wallets. People do. If I'm not able to leverage my community to support the advertisers, I don't have value to the company.

When you spotlight a need, your listeners are amazingly generous. What's radio's role in serving the local community?

Jeff: Radio's role is leadership in telling the story and organizing the community. I believe that people are good and kind and will give if they have the means and know the need. Radio must find the story that will allow the need to be understood. It's more than ‘donate money because we need to repair hurricane damage.' 'It's, let's raise $50,000 so that we can relocate this amazing family from their storm-ravaged hometown where they lost everything to a brand new life in Atlanta.'

We create a story and get our community not to donate, but to invest in a compelling cause. Jenn has raised over $100,000 to find cures and treatments for the type of cancer her daughter beat, much of that came from our listeners who didn't just send in a check, they invested in the story Jenn shared and have an interest in the outcome.

You also do stand-up comedy. When you're on stage, how does the immediate reaction of the audience help improve being on-air when the response isn't as immediate?

Jeff: It's actually the opposite! The hardest audience that I have are the people in-studio and at the radio station. If I can make them laugh hard, then I know that I have something good. And then I can launch from that on the stage to something bigger. Stage performing has helped me become a better PPM storyteller. Details that aren't crucial to the core of the story come out, embellishments and exaggerations come in.

As an industry, we spend a lot of time talking about ways to fix radio. How can someone reading this article maximize and enhance what's already working?

Jeff: David Field, the CEO of Entercom, has started the process by insisting that radio start playing offense and rallying the industry as a whole to walk with more swagger and claim a bigger slice of the advertising pie. I don't pretend to understand the intricacies of the ad side of our business, I just nod politely when my VP of Sales digs deep on a Miller Kaplan report, but I know that Mr. Field is right. Radio undervaluing itself needs to stop in programming and promotions as well as sales.

We cannot charge what we are worth but show up at an appearance with a beat-up station vehicle and wobbly prize wheel anymore … that's not presenting ourselves in a way that will drive connection or value. People need to walk away from interactions with our station saying ‘wow.' That's online, that's over-the-air, that's in person.

Live TV viewership is down, yet they have maintained rates by creating a level of celebrity and showmanship that buyers will pay for. Ditch the cheap staff shirts, find a better prize wheel, make your studio look clean and cool. How much value would you put into a local newscast if the anchor presented wearing a logo t-shirt and there was a beat-up cardboard cutout of Jay-Z in the corner of the studio with the stations OLD logo on it? You'd laugh at them, and you certainly wouldn't trust them with your ad dollars.

With so many demands on your time, how do you set priorities? What advice would you give other talent?

Jeff: I wish I knew the magic formula, but it doesn't exist. What I try to remember is EVERYTHING is a marketing platform to the other. I want to use social media to drive listening, I want to use the radio show to drive online activity, I want both to build a community that trusts and engages and moves the needle for advertisers. Where my time goes varies week to week. What I do know is that the right tools and support make things easier. If I was prioritizing, it would look like this:

1. Prep a good show that is always driving to that one more occasion or sets an appointment
2. Market said show using social media, maybe finding a new tune-in in the process
3. Respond to messages to bolster the sense of community

I left sales calls off the list because they become a priority whenever they are presented. The answer is always yes. Above all else, the job is revenue. I know my 9-to-5 is to drive Nielsen numbers so that sales' job is easier … but I also know that sometimes showing off the ‘talent' is more valuable than being top 3 in the demo. So I make sure that sales knows that I am ALWAYS available and our studio is ALWAYS open to visitors.

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Thanks for reading and working each day to drive radio forward.