Joey Cummings – cell on 2009-09-29 at 23_

Joey Cummings, General Manager of KKHJ-FM and WVUV-FM, was interviewed with Kirk Harnack.  He had made it back to his apartment in the Tafuna area of American Samoa.

Joey Cummings Tsunami interview 09 30 2009

Some photos of the destruction are online here… These photos are credited to Mike Cayanan in Pago Pago.

Related posts

• No related posts.

All in all a great show put on by Don Anthony at Talentmasters and The Morning Mouth… but seriously, what joker books 200 or so morning radio “talent” into the same hotel as the Miss Jr. Teen USA convention with a bunch of 13 year olds?

Daniel Anstandig – McVay New Media’s 3 Reasons To Get Your Show Online

1. Develop an asset and platofrom of your own
2. It’s the new 24/7 Morning Show Promo
3. Supplement your morning show salary.

Top quotes…

“Be more brief and more to the point…  the world has ADD. “  Joel Denver – http://www.AllAccess.com

“Stop the Foreplay – Start the F**cking”  Steve Reynolds – The Reynolds Group

“The Ingredients Count” Kipper McGee

NEED A VOICEOVER? Choose Chicago Voice Actor Justin Kaiser when making your next casting decision. Call me at (815) 401-4632.

TECHNICAL AND WEB CONSULTING: I’m also available for one on one gear setup, web-design, and podcast consulting. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. Call me at (815) 401-4632.

Justin Kaiser
No tags for this post.

Related posts

• No related posts.

There are a variety of ways you might know the name of Darren Marlar. First and foremost, he’s been a drive-time radio personality for the past twenty years.

If you don’t know him from his on-air work, you might know him from his station imaging through Marlar House Productions – or perhaps you’re one of the over 1,000 radio personalities who have used his show prep in the past ten years.

Or maybe you know Darren Marlar as a clean standup comedian, as he performs in front of thousands of people every year. Or perhaps you’ve read his monthly humor column at TheChristianPulse.com. And we won’t even mention the possibility of an upcoming TV show.

His latest (and arguably biggest) venture is the creation of MARLAR 24/SEVEN (a.k.a., “The Darren Marlar Radio Show”).

According to Marlar, the product is a blending of both syndication and voice tracking – allowing a station to have a major market quality syndicated show, but have it be virtually local and yet remain affordable.
MARLAR 24/SEVEN comes with 35 fully produced cuts each weekday, several pages of dry voice work each month, a daily show promo, a monthly humor column by Darren for the affiliate station’s website, newsletter, etc., five “Power Charge” promos per month, a daily podcast for stations to make available to their listeners, and quite a bit more.

“This is something I’ve been thinking about for close to five years now,” says Marlar. “I’ve run it through my mind a million times but the timing never felt right until now.”

What made the timing right? For one thing, it was the possibility of unemployment. Marlar explains, “The announcement was made back in May that K-Love – that is, EMF Broadcasting, was purchasing the station (WQFL-FM). Everybody seems to think they know exactly what to expect when K-Love buys a station… you’re immediately out of a job, right? Turns out that’s not entirely true as they have decided to keep 101QFL live and local – but nobody, not even EMF, knew that would be the case at the time of the purchase.

“I didn’t really feel led to relocate, and the tiny amount of leads I had for radio jobs fell through very quickly anyway. So I resurrected the idea of having a syndicated radio show, and after a lot of thought and prayer it became abundantly clear that was the direction we needed to go. Doors began opening for us right from the start. Even before we had the website done (www.Marlar24Seven.com ) we already had our first affiliate: WWIL in Wilmington, North Carolina, which begins airing the show on Monday, August 3rd… and we’ve got a lot of stations asking about it already. It’s very exciting – I just wish I could get some sleep.”

To find out more about MARLAR 24/SEVEN, you can visit the website at http://www.Marlar24Seven.com , or call Bryon Poirier at 815/988-3210.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Just received an e-mail from a regular participant on BroadcastMastery.com…

“I’ve just gotten hired to voice-track a country station… how do I make it sound local and relevant?”

Tommie Lee from TommieAndTheBartender.com passes along some tips…

The only reasons I was even moderately successful during my two brief stints in Country without knowing the music are these:

1) I treated it like a Hot AC gig in terms of my delivery, because in essence, that’s what the format has become.
2) I wore out the content websites like a Bible in Salt Lake City.
3) I remembered that Country Radio isn’t a format so much as a cause. Those who love it are DEVOTED to it, and they’ll gut you if you screw with their baby.

—

And Darren Marlar offers this bit of info…

Go out and IMMEDIATELY get “Country Radio Weekly” if it’s still being published. When I was doing Country radio I found it invaluable for little odd day-in-the-life items for the artists. I often got compliments from the PD and the other jocks on my tremendous show prep, when all I did was use my typical day-to-day prep and added Country Radio Weekly to it. I had a 12-share on the weekends doing this.

As for radio show prep – feel free to use mine. http://www.onairprep.com.

DARREN MARLAR
No Cursing, Just Comedy.
www.DarrenMarlar.com

Related posts

• No related posts.

I was clearing out some old e-mail and found the following from Tommy Kramer.
I get asked a lot about exactly how to do show prep.

It all starts with the Listener Profile for your station. Obviously, if your target demo is 18-34 males (like on a Talk or Rock station), your prep is going to be different than if you’re a 35-54 female-targeted Soft AC station. So that’s the first step—know who you’re talking to.

You have to know what SUBJECTS your listener cares about. You may have seen my coaching tip on the five subjects that always work (Jobs, Entertainment, Relationships, “The Buzz,” and “Things that grow out of the show”). Just use those to guide you, so you don’t waste time talking about things your listener doesn’t care about, and sift them all through The 3 Questions: Why is it on, where are you going with it, and what does it mean to me (the Listener)…here in my city…today?

The bottom line is that it’s not about what YOU find interesting. It’s about what’s relevant to your LISTENER’S LIFE, what’s top of mind for her/him, filtered through your experiences and observations. Use the available tools of magazines, TV and movies. Examples: Female targeted? Watch “Oprah” or “Live with Regis and Kelly.” Young male targeted? Watch “The Bachelor.” Consider the differences in how a man feels about “American Idol” as opposed to a woman. Movies? Same thing. My wife saw “Finding Nemo” in the theater with our little nephew, rented it to watch it again, and now wants me to buy her a copy for her birthday. I watched it once, thought it was cute, and now I’m ready to move on.

Then it’s a matter of putting it into a form that your listener will find most interesting. Don’t just read some newspaper or magazine article to me, or make some generic comment. That’s not content, it’s just a deejay quacking.

Related posts

• Your Podcast – What Next? (0)
• Your Podcast – What Next? (0)
• Who/What are We? (0)
• What is Your Reason to Podcast? (0)
• Together in Electric Dreams (0)

Tommie Lee Closson is our focused personality on Life is Show Prep today.  Closson has been all over the US and is “officially” a radio personality after being fired at least twice from his radio jobs.  Tommie Lee has won several Addy awards and is a creative genius currently doing mornings at 95.3 WAOR.  WAOR is the Heritage Classic Rock radio station in South Bend, Indiana.

Related posts

• The Creative Camp Show # 2 – Joey Pepin Voiceover Talent Profile (1)
• New Media Monday Show # 2 – Holland Cooke (0)
• Life Is Show Prep # 2 – Corey Deitz from The Corey and Jay Show – Together in Electric Dreams (0)
• Excel in Selling Show # 2 – Bill Guertin – Reality Sells in Radio (0)
• Who/What are We? (0)

Corey Deitz was on with us today on Life is Show Prep. Deitz has done radio shows in some of the greatest markets including Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Richmond, Virginia Beach and Little Rock.

He and his partner now do mornings on KDJE-FM (100.3) in Little Rock and syndicate their show to several other Clear Channel radio stations. His first book about the inside world of Radio, “The Cash Cage” was published to rave reviews.

As we progress with the show, Corey and I started talking about the listeners… I thought that he had originally written the following story, but apparently not. I’m not sure who to attribute that to, however, I thought it was fitting to pass along.

Electric Dreams

It was a Monday morning just before 5 a.m. I’m getting ready to go on the air, waiting for the network show we’re running to end. It’s John Garabedian and the Open House Party.

As John is wrapping up, he tells us about a well known New England broadcaster who recently passed away… a man named Sonny Joe White. I wasn’t familiar with Sonny, but my news director hails from Maine and he had heard a lot about White’s work.

John ended the show by playing a song in Sonny’s memory… and he selected the song Electric Dreams, from the movie of the same name. Formatically, it fit the show perfectly because it’s a dancy tune… but more than that… the sentiment couldn’t have been clearer. “We’ll always be together in electric dreams.”

I found myself strangely moved… I didn’t know the deceased… but the idea of a broadcaster continuing to exist to his or her friends and fans in electric dreams appealed to my emotions. Moreover… I absolutely believe it’s true, and I’ll explain why.

As a broadcast professional, there’s a basic job you do each day: play the music, play the spots, read the weather, keep the station on the air. But what you really do goes way beyond those basics.

You make people laugh. You make people think. You make people happy. You provide companionship… perhaps even friendship. You may be a role model for a young person who has been bitten by the radio bug and wants to be just like you. You help make things happen in your community. You’re there when someone needs to talk.

Evidence of this? A listener you’ve never met before comes up to you at an appearance. Right away, the listener feels comfortable in your presence… not intimidated. Does that mean they don’t consider you a star? No. it means they consider you to be a part of their lives… and that’s the mark of a truly successful broadcaster. They’ve let you in!

It’s the listener who invites you to dinner. It’s the listener who comes up to you at a remote and throws their arms around you as if they’ve known you forever. It’s the listener who asks you to come to their daughter’s school play because it would mean so much to her. It’s the listener who did something nicer for you on your birthday than your friends did. It’s the listener who’s sad when you go on vacation, and is so thrilled when you’re finally back.

The bond between broadcaster and listener is a paradox. You’re broadcasting to thousands, yet it’s one of the most intimate forms of communication in the world. They care about you… and they want to believe you care about them. It’s a relationship that exists in an electric reality. And it lingers.

Every once in awhile I’ll get a call or a card from someone who used to listen to me in a different part of the state. They haven’t forgotten a thing! It’s amazing that the time we spent together on the phone or at an appearance made that big an impression on them. So perhaps during my absence, we were already sharing electric dreams.

In the electric dream, we’re always their favorite personality… they’re always our favorite listener. We live on somewhere in their memory whether we move, leave the business or in the saddest case, pass away.

Isn’t it a wonderful feeling to know that our life… our influence… doesn’t end the last time we open the mic? Isn’t it wonderful to know that the most positive part of our essence as a broadcaster… our personality… will live on?

Someday, somewhere, someone who used to listen to you will hear a song and it will spark inside them a pleasant memory of you. And there you’ll be… the listener and the personality… together in an electric dream.

Related posts

• New Media Monday Show # 2 – Holland Cooke (0)
• Who/What are We? (0)
• Together in Electric Dreams (0)
• The Creative Camp Show # 2 – Joey Pepin Voiceover Talent Profile (1)
• Radio Obits – Killer Radio # 2 – John Hendricks – Radio’s Business IS Content (0)

Related posts

• No related posts.