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  • The “Kings of Radio:” How Listeners Define A Great Talent

    • 05/25/2013
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: DJs, radio programming
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    With Cousin Brucie, one of CNN’s Top 10 As reported this week in All Access, CNN posted an article on the “Kings of Radio,” their Top 10 List of “All-time Great DJs” complete with mini-bios and audio clips. Fun? Absolutely! It’s worth clicking just to hear one of Casey Kasem’s signature teases from 1963 and Howard

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  • What if Usain Bolt Was On Your Staff?

    • 08/12/2012
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: DJs, radio programming
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    Imagine if the Olympics’ Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt was on your staff. The best at what he does. Incredibly visible. Never boring. Occasionally over the top? Yeah, but most everyone agrees that it’s more than OK. The WSJ’s outstanding sports columnist Jason Gay (@jasonWSJ) writes about Bolt smashing sport’s “Boring Line” but, with some different

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  • Talent and Listeners: A Paradoxically Strong yet Fragile Bond

    • 07/08/2012
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: DJs
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    You don’t have to look far to find documentation about the bond between listeners and talent. For the past 6 years, A&O’s Roadmap Study has revealed the significant level of importance listeners place on air talent in their overall listening experience. Last month a Katz-funded/University of Southern California’s Annembert School for Communications’ study discussed the

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  • A Cure for “Talking Without Saying Anything”

    • 05/25/2012
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: DJs, radio programming
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    It’s all too common to hear shows or stretches of shows where the talent doesn’t say anything of consequence.  Sure, they may tell me about a blood drive, where to go to sign up for a contest, or how to listen online (BTW, do I really need instructions for that?). But none of this is

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  • New Job Survey: Radio Personality Ranks Worse than Trash Collector, Better than Lumberjack

    • 04/14/2012
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: DJs, radio programming
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    Collecting trash is a better career than being a DJ. So says CareerCast.com which just released its ranking of 200 jobs based on physical demands, work environment, income, stress, and hiring outlook primarily using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other government agencies. Being a Garbage Collector ranked 159 while being a DJ

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  • Get Shorty: Communicating More Concisely

    • 07/05/2011
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: country radio, DJs
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    This blog is intentionally under 500 characters; that’s the threshold for the new messaging service Shortmail. Its mission? Improve your relationship with email by eliminating time wasters. Shortmail forces senders to acknowledge that attention spans are short and no one wants their time wasted. Emails are under 500 characters or they can’t be sent. Whether or

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  • Making Fans “Off the Field”

    • 06/25/2011
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: branding, country radio, DJs
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    The big crowd at Yankee Stadium showed that they remembered him with something just short of a standing ovation as he walked to the plate. JasonGiambi paused just outside the batter’s box to acknowledge us by touching his hand to the brim of his batting helmet.  Then he promptly hit a rifle-shot home run to

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  • The Long Life Span of Kind Words and Dismissive Behavior

    • 02/09/2011
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: air talent, country radio, DJs, radio programming
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    Last week I got the chance to say thank you in person to Willard Scott for a simple act of kindness and professional courtesy that he did more than 20 years ago. It was 1987 and I was the new PD at WYNY in New York City. That night at midnight, we’d flipped the then

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  • Take 10: 10 Show Strategies and Tactics You Can Use Right Now

    • 11/09/2010
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: country radio, DJs, radio
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    You know how when you’re reading about one thing and you’re struck with how the concepts also apply to something else? That happened to me as I was reading 10 Steps to More Scientific Social Media Marketing by Dan Zarrella  . While I was reading about Dan’s topic, I was thinking how each of his 10 points

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  • The 50 Minute Oil Change

    • 07/20/2010
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: air talent, coaching, DJs
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    Thanks to all who attended the standing room only panel Tommy Kramer and I presented Friday, 7/16/10 at The Conclave. And a very special thanks to all who created a video for us to share (credits in parentheses). Your efforts were appreciated by us all! In creating the panel, Tommy and I wanted to share

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