Make Your Listener the Star: Tips for Great Phoners

When we last got together here, we got into why listener interaction is a key ingredient to great radio, even in 2022. Shortly after sharing that, I came across a piece from radio researcher Jeff Vidler which furthered the case for shining the spotlight on your audience. Jeff singled out 102.3 Now! Radio in Edmonton, saying “Now! is a music station that puts personalities way up front and solicits and includes a constant flow of listener interaction.” Do their listeners care? Now! has only NOT been #1 ONCE (adults 25-54) in the past 12 years. So yeah, I think they’re onto something. (We’ll share links to Jeff’s article, and my first one in this series, at the end of our time together today.)

Perhaps you’re like “ok, yes. I’m on board! I’m gonna get more callers on the air!” If so, GREAT! Tell me when I can call in. #kiddingNotkidding Let’s make sure your callers sound better than anyone else’s.

1. Cut to the chase. You’ve probably heard a lot of DJ’s be like “Hey, Mike FM.” Then the caller is like “hey Mike FM, how are you?” DJ: “Good how are you?” Caller: “Good. I was calling for (whatever).” If there are no awkward pauses, bluetooth dropouts, you and your caller talking over each other, etc. this is roughly a 10 second journey (or longer if any of the other stuff happens). It’s 2022, my friend. The most viewed Tik Toks aren’t even 10 seconds long lately. Get to the part of the call that matters as soon as you can. “Hey it’s Mike FM. Todd’s here to talk about shoe leather.” (BTW: there really is a Mike FM. It’s a Classic Hits station in Lansing, MI.)
2. Edit out the “shoe leather.” 90’s TV phenomenon “Seinfeld” set the standard for minimal shoe leather. The Kramer character had a famously funny way of entering Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment: fast, and attention grabbing. What you never saw before those moments was Kramer getting off of his couch across the hall, putting his shoes on, and walking to Jerry’s door. BO-ring! That’s filler, or as Hollywood screenwriter Michael Jamin calls that stuff: “shoe leather.” Find the parts of your call (spoken by you OR your caller) that aren’t necessary, and shorten or delete them. (BTW, Michael Jamin is worth following on Tik Tok. A lot of his tips for screenwriters translate beautifully to radio.He’s @michaeljaminwriter)
3. Edit the silence. The pauses that would feel natural if you and I were talking in person can sound eternal on a radio phone call. Shorten those quiet moments in your calls. Carefully. You still want a pace that feels natural and conversational, not rushed. And there will be times where the natural pause length adds to the entertainment value. More often than not, tighter will be better. Just not so tight that your interaction sounds breathless and barely human.
4. Actually, your listener isn’t the star. OK, so sue me. This piece is titled “make your listener the star.” Yet I’m about to tell you that hearing less of them can help. I had this epiphany when I scanned into the Rush Limbaugh show a few years ago. Before paying close attention, I used to think he had a caller-driven show. When I actually opened my ears, I noticed that he used callers as onramps to his content.
   
   You’d usually only hear the callers for 5 to 10 seconds at a time. On those rare moments when the callers spoke longer, I found myself mentally drifting away. Because the truth is that between the callers and Rush, it was Rush who was the gifted communicator. Just as you can be. It wasn’t “The Rush Limbaugh’s Callers” show.
   
   Talent imbalance aside, the longer your caller talks uninterrupted, the harder it’s going to be for your listener to follow. Your listener is probably dealing with road noise, maybe chatty kids in the back seat, phone alerts, a distracting work environment, etc. It’s going to be easier on them to zero in on your voice than your caller’s.
   
   There are exceptions to every rule, and once in a while you’re going to have an amazing caller with such great audio quality, pacing, and speaking skills that you truly will wanna back away from the mic and let them go. Recognize those moments, but know they’re few and far between. Leaving your listener’s best moments in and losing the rest will make them AND you sound better.
5. Move the narrative along. Because too many seconds of your caller can be a mental (or actual) tuneout, don’t be afraid to insert your voice at key moments. Maybe your caller takes 13 seconds to describe part of their story, and you can find a way to say it in five seconds Perhaps they’re locked into a step by step sequence of events and barely paused to breathe. You can insert the pause, and your own voice, saying stuff like “what happened next” or “and then what?” Quick moments of YOU that break up the monotony and help the audience jump through the narrative with you. Maybe you have to rearrange the call altogether to make it easy for the listener to follow. Do what it takes to make the journey as simple and compelling as possible.
6. Audio quality matters. A perfectly edited and highly entertaining call is worthless if your typical listener can’t clearly hear your caller. This is hands down the number one thing radio misses the mark on. Revisiting item #4 from above: your audience isn’t listening in a quiet studio like you are (they have road noise and other distractions). And your caller doesn’t have the benefit of an audio chain worth many thousands of dollars, unlike you with your studio quality mic, processors, etc. The least you could do is make sure the caller’s volume level is equal to yours. You have meters on your screen to easily measure. And actually? I give my callers an extra db more volume than I give myself, because they don’t have my fancy audio chain.
   
   It’s more than levels though. You want (well, I want you to want..ha ha) the listener’s audio to be beefy. Thick. Full. Phat. Like my waist size. In Adobe Audition, run Classic Soft Knee compression on your caller’s audio. Like what you hear? Need more? Run it again. If you know your way around Audition, there are other things you can try too. VoxPro has a basic compression tool, but I prefer to have Automatic Gain Control enabled as I am recording the caller. This way, I don’t have to mess with levels much when I edit. As you’re beefing up your caller’s audio, be sure to not also beef up their road noise or other background ambiance. If you’d like, feel free to email me a call that you’d like help with, and I’ll walk you through what I’d try. (mikec@boostradio.com) If software alone doesn’t do the trick, you may need to have your engineer examine your phone system’s audio path…could be time for an upgrade.
7. Take the first exit. I’m writing this whole thing with the assumption you’re in a music-based format. In which case, just like with any break you do, learn to recognize when the first natural exit happens in a call, and make that the end of your call. Is there still more audio in the call you think is worth airing? Save it for another break. Just like losing “shoe leather,” credit to the first exit concept may belong to the Seinfeld show.

On that note, I wish you happy trails in getting more of your listeners involved with your show! Bye!

Oh! As promised, links to the articles I mentioned up top: Making Your Listener The Star... & Shared Experience Opportunity...