It is focusing on one listener each time you talk, a different listener ech time you talk without offending the first listener. In their mind they hear you addressing different focuses to them but the real talent is always addressing a different listener because even though a true talent will never be able to be satisfied because he can’t get every listener , the true talent will get them one at a time, while keeping each one along the way.
The reason PD’s today say there is so little talent out there because there are too many PD’s who do not know how to recognize it. The true talent will do this without being aware of it. A true comic talks to an audience one person at a time, while the full audience is not only spectator but also participant just from what is being said.
The true radio talent does it instinctively. It makes people inside the station who have become jaded by what they hear to decide the true talent is somehow different which makes the less secure co-worker jealous in one way or another. The worse jealousy they have the more vindictive they will be. But true talent is everywhere in every market in the country.
PD’s who can instinctively recognize true talent are far and few because they have to have it too and it is very rare that a true radio personality with true talent is hardly ever considered to be management. Most managers in radio did not come up through the talent ranks. The rare ones that have talent and rose through sales or programming are the ones who will identify the next talent and there is hope in the industry.
But sadly, there are far too many in management who do not have talent and could not recognize it. They will eventually leave the business because it is much more than profits and quite aggravating to a person who does not understand what gave birth to commercial radio, and keeps it alive.
Mostly its the small market owners, GM’s and PD’s who have talent but cannot advance in market size because the bigger one gets the more positions will be filled by no talents. The people who want radio as a career have to develop passion for the business before they will gain the use of their talent. Once they do they have radio in their system and cannot get it out.
To identify talent all a PD has to do is listen for the manner in which words are placed in order. If they are simply recited the talent may not have gained the passion yet. If they are in the order in which the PD feels like one half of a conversation while listening to the talent, the passion has won and the PD has found a talent. Because a person cannot get the attention of a crowd. It has to be one at a time.
The talent who chooses the air check parts that relate to the PD will get the job, unless the PD can differentiate between himself or herself as listener and the target audience as listener. If the PD cannot, the tape will hit the drawer because the talent was utilizing talent but not talking to the PD. If a PD gets a tape that is directly talking to him or her, the tape is either a studio concoction, or a true talent with passion who choose a tape for each PD it is submitted to.
A different tape for each application is not practical so the industry relies on the PD to recognize talent, put himself or herself in the perspective of the target audience even when auditioning for talent and relies on management and owners to hire the PD’s who can. Of course the audition tape may be nothing but short ID’s and reading PSA’s. If that is the case some PD did not instill the passion in the talent that should have been there. Inexperience took over. Or the audition tape could have been reading liner cards. A good PD will hear the attempts at inflection in reading liner cards and can extrapolate that ability into couching the person to tap a hidden talent.
Talent is all throughout radio. But talent to be a radio personality is different. We all know of the period where consultants became a necessity. That was a direct result of the pushing down of radio talent through forced read liner cards placed by well meaning management. Liner cards are a wonderful way to control an unruly airstaff but they are only good for control. Once brought back to a manageable level of delivery and consistency the good PD will release the mandatory read cards to become talk points where real talents can put them in perspective to listeners one at a time.
The problem was that management was getting a stale product and as a result brought in consultants to fix it. Having to gain control over a lackluster or unruly staff consultants have to use liner cards but the problem never stops. It is a circle.
When looking for talent seek the person who displays it without being aware of it. Seek a person who seeks to be a force in the market, not one who seeks to be the loudest force in the market. Loud can draw a crowd but it can never warp into a conversation. A true radio talent will hold a conversation with the audience, one person at a time.
While you are looking for this person: allow me to introduce myself. http://www.radioware.net. Click on RESUME to hear it and read the credentials. If you are seeking a force in your community, you have found it.