The Sound of Silence.

I had a short but interesting conversation with a local radio CEO a while back.
He has a large on air staff...mostly freelance and part-time with the daytime on air crew consisting of four main presenters. The rest all cover various weekend and fill-in shifts.
The chat was about....coaching, what else!
This CEO believes that coaching is a waste of time and money - their time and his money. I didn't set out to debate him. I did want to listen to his reasons though.
They varied from "Anyone could do that job" to "Sure they're just in there waffling" to "I've done a few shows myself and it wasn't that hard".
I wanted to say - "So, why do you think three of your presenters have come to me in the past year for coaching"?
But I didn't!

I was reminded of this while reading about the RadioDays conference in Amsterdam this week.
Industry leaders from programming and presentation and marketing, all pitting their wits together, mingling and sharing and developing. Was that a waste of time or money? Did everyone come away from that conference thinking they learned nothing?
Nope.
The very fact that people think and ponder on what we do for a living helps develop radio for us all. Someone will have had their career changed by one sentence uttered this week. That's worth any amount of time and/or money because that 'someone' will go and advance radio for all of us.

Radio presentation, in it's simplest form, is you filling the silence between two pieces of audio.
The art is in how you fill that silence. That's the debate, that's the discussion, that's the key.
There are endless ways and each one is unique to the individual presenter.
We can analyse and dissect every nuance and put each pixel under a magnifying glass, but the simple fact remains - you are filling silence as only you can.
As with anything in life, you need support and encouragement.
"Anyone could do that job" is the obvious opposite of that.
If your PD or CEO don't know how to help you advance and improve - find someone who will. A friend, a colleague, a peer, a PD in another market, yes...even a coach (any coach...they're all different).
Reach out and contact others. It's a small industry littered with people who think BIG. Find those people and engage with them and if your PD or CEO don't know how to do that, then don't wait for them to change. It will ultimately hold you back.
It's why people travel and attend conferences like RadioDays - to connect with and share ideas with like minded people.

I'd love to have airchecked that CEO's show !!