Airchecks: How To Coach Your On-Air Team To Score

• By Thomas Giger, www.radioiloveit.com

Thomas Giger is a Radio broadcasting specialist, media journalist and online publisher living in the Netherlands. He shares many of his expert views as well as those of others on the brilliant website, radioiloveit.com. I had to share this for those who'd switch positions one day from talent to management... or those who already have. Enjoy.

Dedicated to today's Radio Bosses!

...here are 10 aircheck session tips for program directors to develop radio personalities who are hitting it out of the ballpark and help you to win the ratings game. ‘Become a great talent scout and team motivator, and you might be able to play in the major leagues of radio.’

1. Coach radio personalities regularly

Constructive feedback will motivate your presenters, and improve their show and your station. The talent’s current level of performance and impact on ratings determines the frequency of meetings. You might want to talk with your weekend overnight jock at least once a month, and see your weekday morning host at least once every week. Choose a convenient time for both of you, and stick to it (as cancelling could make your talent feel undervalued). Never critique presenters right before or during an airshift. Don’t call or text during a show. Put it on your list for the next regular meeting (or say it discretely after the show). A golden rule: if you don’t like something, name a specific example, explain why you want it differently, and suggest how to do so. To break the ice, mention one thing that you loved about this show (and explain why).

2. Make aircheck sessions interactive

Instead of just talking yourself, rather ask many questions and listen to what the talent has to say to get a better understanding before you respond. You can ask things like: what did you want to accomplish? Why did you do it this way? What do you think of the result? How could you’ve done it (even) better? What do you need to make your show (even) better? Encourage a discussion and be open for different points of view.

3. Do only one-on-one coaching

Praise publicly, criticize privately. Creative people are very vulnerable when their work is being put under a microscope. To establish a relationship of trust with your talents, keep aircheck sessions (and anything said during these meetings) private and distraction-free. Team meetings have a positive and motivating mood, personal feedback is for one-on-one meetings. Create a friendly, non-threatening setting – and be a coach, not a cop. Tell people what they should; not what they shouldn’t do, and make clear you comment on what they do; not who they are. Research, like how listeners think about a host, should not be shared directly (unless it’s positive) to keep the talent self-confident and creative. Be consistent in your feedback; don’t say you like something one day and change your mind the next day. And respect your team. Most of all, make radio personalities feel that you appreciate and support them.

4. Have a newbie bootcamp

Your on-air personalities can only perform well if they know what you’re expecting from them. You need a clear vision and people skills to explain it to your team. When you’ve hired new presenters with less station familiarity or radio experience, schedule additional start-up meetings about station formatics and radio basics to get them up to speed. Station formatics may cover target audiences, brand values, format clocks and on-air imaging. Radio basics might include addressing one person only, going in & out with the station name, sticking to one main thought per break, and using audience measurement methods to the station’s advantage (like regular time checks in a diary market or many content pre-sells in a PPM market). Ask what feedback talents have received (and which practices they’ve learned) before they came to your station, to see if there’s any old baggage to be dropped before the new journey can begin.

5. Balance positive & negative comments

Randomly pick a recent show, and listen to it together with the talent. Break by break, encourage positive elements and mention possible improvements. Focus on essentials, and remember to ask many open questions. Take notes and summarize them in a memo, where you first list 3 or more strengths and 3 achievable goals to improve the on-air performance before the next aircheck meeting (including the date and time when it takes place).

6. Check for feedback implementation

During this second session, invite the presenter to sit in your PD chair and operate the playback device. He or she will feel more relaxed and treated equally. You can use the first minutes to talk about what’s been done to improve the 3 points of attention from the previous meeting, and then listen for the results during this new aircheck of a random show from the last days. If one goal was to ‘speak more visually’, search for moments where you can see a picture, painted by words. Compliment the talent for his or her progress. While listening, you can both take notes (focused on the 3 areas of improvement) and compare them after. Or you can listen to the show in advance to save time for the actual coaching, having the aircheck stand-by as a reference. For each realized improvement point, a new one should be defined, so your talent always has 3 things to work on for the next session. It’s a great way to keep your on-air team motivated all the time.

7. Include greatest hits sessions

For the third session, let the presenter choose his or her top 10 breaks since the previous session. Play them one by one, and discuss what makes really awesome breaks strong (and less-than-awesome breaks weak). Listen also what studio guests and phone callers have to say. It doesn’t always (have to) come from the presenter, as selecting certain callers or asking specific questions can make a difference as well. Define the ingredients of fantastic breaks, and plan how to include the discovered success concepts in each and every break. Talk about emphasizing strengths, and conquering or reducing weaknesses. It’s a great opportunity to set long-term goals and to choose great material for a highlight montage, to be used in a radio promo, TV spot or sales presentation for the show or station.

8. Analyze external radio talents

Make every fourth aircheck meeting a fun one! Listen to the show of a direct market competitor (in the same timeslot) or of an outside market station (with the same format). Focus on what makes this presenter a strong competitor or role model. Listening to others is great for inspiration. Use this opportunity to generate new ideas for the show (and the station) together. This is a great way to build a good understanding with your talents.

9. Work on constant development

Also speak with your presenters about their bits and benchmarks. In terms of content, does the show hit a home run every day? Does it match the target audience and brand image? What’s being received well? What should be adjusted or terminated? Be careful with listeners who call or write you with complaints (as they usually do not represent the average audience) and do reliable perceptual research before jumping to conclusions. Give your people credit to learn by trial & error. If you never get any complaints, there is potential to make more exciting radio. Rather have talented individuals who are pushing the boundaries, occasionally breaking the rules, than people who you have to push. Look for personalities who are hitting it out of the ballpark.

10. Deal with high-profile personalities

Everyone benefits from coaching by someone who they respect and trust. If they listen with someone else present, talents will also judge the entire show (with callers, guests, co-hosts, etc.) and not just their own performance. But imagine being PD of Howard Stern – someone who also makes way more money than you, while you’re his boss. Then you have to let go of your own ego… As some top personalities don’t take constructive feedback well, you could avoid a traditional aircheck setting and talk about general concepts instead. Let hem do what you want by making them think it was their idea in the first place. Dive into human psychology books, develop your people management skills, and know how radio talents tick. And always keep in mind that aircheck sessions should be a positive experience from which you both learn. Strive to be a great talent scout and team motivator, like the coach of a winning baseball team, and you might be able to play in the major leagues of radio.