Put up or shut up.
One of the reasons I started this blog was to vent my frustration with what I hear on the radio and, to be fair, what comes out of the mouths of those on television newscasts and locally produced breakfast shows.
I do find myself holding back a little bit. Mainly, because I want to be constructive and share philosophies and concepts that I hold to be true with those that have been charged with pushing the buttons and trying to communicate with their listeners.
Most of the communication concepts that I have picked up over the past 35 years apply whether you are on the radio or on Twitter. Above all else, it’s a matter of communicating one-on-one from behind the mic or a keyboard.
My posts occasionally inspire a comment or a phone call.
One phone call I received a couple of weeks ago was from the Operations/Program director of a cluster of stations in my local market. Our paths have crossed over the years and we share quite a few mutual friends, but we have never worked together. He is well respected by many of my friends in broadcasting so I was pleased to be contacted by him and be presented with the opportunity to get to know him personally.
He obviously is not put off by my take on the state of radio – tempered though it is, so as not to bite the hand that feeds me from time to time.
The reason for his call? To ask if I would I like to get back on the air.
This is it, I thought… put up or shut up.
So I agreed to give it a whirl and see if it still offered some gratification. I spent a few hours learning the board and snuck in one evening, without telling friends or colleagues what I was up to, and did a few hours on the air.
I had that evening’s playlist e-mailed to me so I could prepare every break beforehand. That freed my mind to concentrate on the technical aspect of the show. That’s what was responsible for most of my anxiety – what button to push when. I am a fan of technology so I like to stay on top of what’s new, but not a lot has really changed in the last 5 or 6 years since I was on the air last.
So here I am. I agreed to do a little ‘vacation relief’. Why not? It will give me a new perspective on what is going on at the station level these days and give a little objectivity to the jaded ramblings of some ‘out of touch old guy’.
I admit I do feel like the pressure is on. I am now in a position to back up my romantic ideas of what being on the radio could be/should be by example. I don’t expect the manifestation of my programming philosophies to mesh perfectly those of the station, but that is where the opportunity to learn is. Will I be asked to do something that goes against the philosophies that I espouse? That’ll be the fun part…
Whether I live up to my own expectations or anyone else’s remains to be seen, but I am always ready to get up and dust myself off and plow ahead.
I might need some help with the getting up part though… my knees aren’t quite what they used to be.
NOTE: Next time I’m on the air, I’ll alert you to the time, date and station… I need constructive criticism, too.
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