Why you can NEVER 'Be Yourself' on air.

Have you ever been told 'Be yourself' on the radio?
Good advice...if you know yourself inside out - which most people don't.

I prefer - 'Find the part of you that you want to present on the radio and be THAT'.

Let's say your name is John. John at work is different to John at home or John at a party or John alone. Same person, different interpretations. It depends on where you are and who you are with. Radio is just an extension of that.

'Be yourself' is too vague.

Think of the superstar presenters - Stern, Moyles, the late Gerry Ryan in Ireland.

Each one has/had ONE particular charaacteristic that they became known for. Think of Stern and you know exctly what to expect...the same for the others.
They take that one trait and expand upon it; but that one trait is their foundation. They build the other rooms and floors on top of that.

The listener needs to know what they are listening for. Then you can begin the process of building around that.

 If Chris Moyles jokes for 3 hours on air and then wants to be serious for 20 minutes, we accept it - because he built his foundations strongly.

To have any chance at success though, you need to ask yourself a few questions. Questions only YOU can answer.
What are your values and beliefs? What motivates you, gets you passionate, angry, sad? What do you find funny, tragic? What will you say/won't you say on air...?

And on and on.

If you don't know who you are then how can the listener be expected to know who you are?
It's impossible to communicate your message effectively without doing this. Impossible!

Imagine all of these other presenters trying so hard to be something on air - and they don't know what that something is. So they use crutches and clichés and "Hey how are ya" because they don't know.
And that sounds super unnatural (because it is) and that's what turns listeners away. It's not just the cheesy lines, it's the unconscious feeling of not knowing who that person is. This person on the radio seems odd because nobody they know speaks like that.

So...who are you?