• Getting Them to Listen is Not Enough!
• Using Conflict to Create More Compelling Content
• Getting More Out of Brainstorming Sessions
• Conducting More Productive Meetings
• How To Create An Air Coaching Plan for 2004
• Does Your Morning Show Content Make the Grade
• Making time to Praise
• My morning show could be much more compelling
• 10 Steps to more effective radio air check and critique sessions
• Changing Air Personality Performance Behavior
• Improving the Creative Process at your Radio Station
• Air Talent Coaching Tactics that get results
• The Difference Between Speaking and Being Heard.
• The Morning Show as Improv
• American Culture Post 9/11
• Coaching Air Personality Development
• Building Better Time Spent Listening
• How to Increase Audience Passion for Your Radio Station
• Techniques for Managing Air Personalities New to Radio
• Maximizing News On a Music Radio Station

The second step involves instinctive decisions on just what kind of morning show each air personality seeks to create. This is usually followed by a rocky period of trial and error, as the personalities try out loosely ordered borrowed and instinctively conceived elements and ideas in an attempt to create a distinctive and compelling morning show.

This process yields radio stations many more weak or failing morning shows than it does consistently successful ones. And, if the product is weak, it is usually the process by which that product is created that is at fault. Improve the process and the product improves.

Radio is the only entertainment medium that allows instinct to drive so much of its programming. The problem is that very few people have good enough instincts to rely on instinct alone. This is one of the main reasons why there are so few really great morning radio shows.

If you examine the great radio morning shows today, you will find that the air personalities on those shows are instinctively good at three things: creating a mini situation comedy, stand up comedy and improvisational theater.

In radio, good improvisation is often mistakenly written off as simply "good chemistry". But, air personalities with good, refined improvisational skills will create much better radio than two people who just get along.

Anyone who has had theatrical training knows how difficult it is to master the art of improvisational theater. Actors spend years in improv classes because they know that is how much time and effort it takes to become great at this critical part of the acting craft.

Yet, only a handful of morning radio personalities I have come in contact with have ever taken a class in improvisational theater or are even aware that this is a critical component of their work.

So, in order to improve your morning show, the first step is to get your air personalities working beyond instinct by focusing on key performance components, like improvisation, off and on the air.

This is a challenge because it is much more fun to play the game than it is to do the drills. But, greatness in any discipline can almost always be traced back to practice process whether it is Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods or a great radio personality.

How many times have we seen that great, natural athlete underachieve because he did not commit to doing the work it takes off the court or the field?

There are many naturally talented morning radio personalities who never achieve their true potential, not so much because they would not do the work, but because they do not know what work to do.

To help you begin the process of training your morning personnel to improve their improvisational skills, here are some of the rules of theatrical improvisation as they relate to radio morning shows:

1. Pay attention and remember.
   Analyze the meaning behind the words and decide how it affects your character. Most radio personalities are so focused on what they are going to say next that they do not hear what is being said by others. Listening is a skill that most air personalities could improve upon.
   
   One technique to improve listening is to put one person in the role of stating and the second or more in the role of probing. Those in the probing role can only ask questions, not make statements.
   
   For example, the person in the stating roll might tell a personal story about something that happened to him or her over the holidays. Those in the probing roles are not allowed to go off and tell their stories, too. They must ask the story teller questions to learn more about the original story and probe for depth and interest.
   
   When you first try this exercise with your morning show, you will see just how hard it is for most air personalities to listen to and show interest in others, rather than tell their own stories.
   
   
2. Once something is said, it is part of the scene. Don't argue with it. This is where most morning shows' improvs go bad. I once heard the following exchange on a male/female morning show.
   
   Male: "You have problems getting dates, don't you?"
   Female: "No, I don't."
   
   Once she said no, the improv was over and there was no entertainment. But, had she taken his version of the truth and twisted it without a pure "no", the improv would have taken on some life.
   
   She could have said, "It's not that I have problems getting dates. It's that I'm particular, something you would know nothing about. If it has a pulse you'll go out with it. I have a few more criteria than respiration and a heartbeat." The revised reaction sets the stage for some entertaining creative tension.
   
   One way you can help develop your morning show's skills in dealing with statements that naturally evoke a "no" is through an exercise called an opening line improv. Ask one person on the show to give an order such as "Go get me a Coke" to another. The second person can say whatever they want, but it can't involve the word "no".
   
   The second person could respond with, "Sure, I'll get you a Coke. I have nothing better to do. Hey, after that, can I wash your car? And, I'm sure you've got some dry cleaning I could take in and then maybe this weekend I could come over and wash your windows!!!!"
   
   Once again, the first attempts at these exercises will probably yield some uncomfortable moments. But, after a while, those flabby improv muscles will tone up and it will get easier and easier to do this exercise.
   
   
3. If the scene is humorous, let the humor grow out of the situation or characters. Don't try to make jokes or say things that you think will get a laugh. It destroys the reality of the scene.
   
   So many morning show support people, in particular, mistakenly believe their role is to come up with a funny one-liner when it should be to probe for details and depth. It is not that one-liners are bad, it's just that everything in life is does not have a punch line. The proposed answer to the order, "Go get me a Coke" was not a one-liner. It was humor that grew out of the situation.
   
   
4. Keep each scene as simple as possible. By simple, I mean laser focused as opposed to shotgun targeting. Most radio morning shows tend to look to subjects for sets while great improvisational actors look for strong sub-themes under each subject for their work. Though it may seem paradoxical, simple requires detail. The more detailed a theme, the simpler the scene.
   
   For example, New Year's resolutions is a subject.
   A set launched with just this broad topic could go off in a million scattered directions. But, a set launched with a strong improv theme such as, Osama Bin Ladin's New Year's resolutions, resolutions I will never make or resolutions your pet would make, would be clear and concise. Thinking in terms of themes rather than subjects prevents everyone, especially support players, from going off on tangents because the focus of the set is much more precise from the start.
   
   
5. Play each situation even if it's silly or dumb. Too many radio people forget that they are characters in an audio sitcom.
   
   Reality just is not very entertaining.
   Entertainment lives in the gap between reality and fantasy.
   
   So, a regular guy or nice woman is not very entertaining. In his book, The Comic Toolbox, former Married With Children screen writer, John Vourhaus, says sitcoms are built around a strong comedic character whose key comedic characteristics are exaggerated.
   
   Encourage your morning personalities to embrace their eccentricities, quirks and oddball viewpoints. People who admit those are much more entertaining than so-called normal people. If you are wary, be extraordinarily wary to the point of seeing conspiracies everywhere. If you are picky about the men you date, have a written test, give them a psychological examination and do an FBI background check on them.
   
   Big characters get noticed. Little, normal people don't.
   
   Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says that most people spend too much time working on product and not enough time on product development.
   
   While most radio morning shows are working hard on putting together each day's show, they are spending little to no time in the area of product capability.
   
   One way to change that equation is to devote one morning show meeting each week to laboratory work on a key performance discipline like improvisation.
   
   Instead of discussing a show that is already on its way to another galaxy, spend an hour doing some of the improvisational exercises outlined in this newsletter.
   
   Not only will this help your air personalities learn and grow, but it will also add some fun and play to their work. And, fun and play are two of the most potent sources of highly creative thinking.