The great Neil Young once introduced a song by saying: “Here’s a song guaranteed to bring you right down. It’s called ‘Don’t Let it Bring You Down.’ It kind of starts off slow, then fizzles out altogether.”
Pretty funny, but now think about how many times you’ve heard something on the air start in a fairly interesting way, but it just doesn’t go anywhere.
That’s usually because the jock didn’t really give any thought to the Subject expanding or contracting. It just kind of sat there. So frustrating.
You’ve probably heard the old saying that Content is King, and that’s true to the degree that you can’t make something matter to the listener. But once you have a solid piece of Content, PERFORMANCE is King.
Try looking at each Subject like a cone—big and wide at one end, small and pointy at the other end. The big, wide end of the cone is the global perspective, the subject that’s on everybody’s mind. From there, you want to bring it down to a very personal place—the small pointy end of the cone.
Or you can do the opposite—start with something very intimate and personal, and then show how it applies to everyone.
George Carlin used to describe this as “big world” or “little world.” I think those definitions are good, but the whole idea is that one leads to the other.
The “cone” concept always works, and it’s really easy. If you’ll try it, I think you’ll be amazed at what it does to your air work.
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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.