Programmers need look no farther than the screen in front of them to find new talent, from on- air guests and experts to fill-in and full time hosts. Savvy programmers are picking up podcasts and online shows that have developed traction with large numbers of fans.
We’ve progressed from the early days when it was a large deal to take a successful blogger and internet site creator like Matt Drudge, and give him his own show on WABC in N. Y.
It was not that way back, if you wished to be a talk show host, junior level on-air jobs were available- usually the “overnight shift” at a talk station. That was the spot for developing new local talent. Up and coming on-air personalities could get experience, learn the craft, and make mistakesin the dead of night. Since local overnite shifts have generally been replaced with syndicated programming or re-runs of daytime programming, online has become the new overnight shift.
The curse and blessing of the technology that makes it eminently possible for anyone with a mic, a P. C. and the will to host a show, is that it is a level playing field with no filter. There’s plenty of really bad talk radio online, but from the amplitude of online personalities, real talent is emerging. Smart radio programmers now use online and social media to seek out the new generation of talk hosts.
Experts have to do the same, sifting thru hours of web content trying to find the diamonds in the coarse. Once we find them, the polishing starts. The strategies which make up the spine of my work with broadcast radio stations and talent are being turned to training successful podcasters. It is just like working with the overnight hosts in smaller markets, giving them the tools to become prime time, major-market radio stars.
Social media has altered the trail to fame in every field. Creative individuals now get round the conventional vetting process. What all of them bringabove and outside their talent, self-confidence and contentare massive audience followings.
Have a look at the new Sports Illustrated cover girl for the famous swimsuit edition. Nineteen-year-old blonde beauty Kate Upton appeared, not from the ranks of traditional modeling, but as her very own self-created net phenomenon.
On the music side of the business, my co-worker, Sean Ross, could list for you multiple artists who have muscled their way into the record industry’s traditional talent development system and broken thru using social media, their own websites and YouTube.
DJs who need to move from music radio to talk radio find doing a show online is a perfect place to try it.
Everybody can talk, so people think talk radio is easy. But as any person who’s sat in front of a microphone can tell you, it is a little harder than it looks . The very good ones just make it look simple.
Since the internet provides a forum for any person who would like to, to do a talk showthe challenge becomes : Who will listen? How are you going to grow your audience? You have got to provide something worthy of people’s notice. What you say must be relevant and matter. You need to be a powerful yarner with unique content, who can engage audiences by informing entertainingly and entertaining informatively. I have written a book to help with this, but there are a lot of places you can go to work on improving your abilities. If you do not want to create and promote your podcast totally on your own , there are several resources, for example Podcasting for Dummies, Blogtalkradio.com or ThePodcastGuy.com that may help you, for a charge.
For talent, when you’ve mastered your podcast, getting noticed is your next challenge. Personalities Brian and Mike (www.BrianandMike.com) started out with approximately 50 followersmostly friends and familybut as they continued to podcast their show, the onlookers grew speedily. About 18 months later on based entirely on recommendation by friends and social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Google+) to drive an audience to their site, they’d over 1 million unique downloads of their podcasts. Brian and Mike are now having heavy conversations with radio stations. These kinds of numbers also attract sponsors.
Kelly Carlin, child of the late comic George Carlin, is a specialist who started her very own weekly online celebrity interview talk show. Carlin booked the largest names she could find to be on her podcast, and to be honest, her pedigree helped. After almost two years of podcasting, programmers noticed. Kelly starts her new show on Sirius XM radio, this month.
If you’re a programme director and you’ve found an internet show you suspect has promise, try potential hosts as guests. Or if you’re feeling brave, let them do some vacation or fill in shifts. Web podcasts can also be an excellent source of gurus for niche formats like home remodeling, auto, or cooking shows. If the characters are really entertaining, they might move on to general talk.
To make ready a podcaster, even one with a massive following for radio, you will have some training to do. Why? Podcasters can record, cut, edit and perfect their shows. But podcasters are working with a netlive talk radio is a different experience. If somebody has never done live radio before, she or he will not know how to deal with things like breaking reports, challenging callers or dull guests. While podcasters may be great storytellers and interviewers, when you broadcast in real time, by the seat of your pantsit’s different. But most hosts would agree there is no finer feeling as reported tagza.
