Blog Archives - Page 15 of 23

WRITER’S BLOCK VS. WRITER’S BLAH Writer’s Block has an evil twin called Writer’s Blah. Neither of them are very pleasant, quite frankly. If you find yourself sitting at your desk, head resting on your hands so that your cheeks have turned into stretchy jowls, your eyes at half-mast … a disgusted, bored expression on your face … well, you probably have Writer’s Blah. Not from lack of ideas, but from overload.

Writer’s Blah is when our thoughts are too busy, and maybe too grandiose. We’re so distracted and bogged down that we can’t propel a single idea into action. It’s like losing your phone. You can hear it ringing, but it’s buried under so much clutter that you have absolutely no idea where it’s coming from or how to answer it.

Instead of inspired you are immobile.
Instead of motivated you are sluggish.

The solution is in the calendar. It’s time for Spring Cleaning.

SPRING CLEANING YOUR CREATIVE BACKLOG
Just like dirty dishes, unfiled papers and unpaid bills, our minds can get buried in a backlog of unattended tasks and ideas. This often happens right after the winter holidays, when the excitement of the season has passed. Gone are the Christmas lights and colorful decorations, leaving us in a somewhat uninspiring, dull atmosphere. And that’s when the unattended tasks show up. It’s “back to reality” … with a sigh.

But then, a ray of hope. Springtime tiptoes in, accompanied by motivation. The desire to get one’s house in order. Some people have the insatiable desire to clean. So if in the spring you find yourself with Writer’s Blah, it’s not the end of the world. It just means that it’s time to purge that backlog of ideas and allow fresh new ones to flow. Remember … new blooms can’t happen unless the dead leaves fall off the tree.

THE IDEA EXAMPLE

For example, let’s say you have an idea for a parenting book. It’s been on the backburner for years. Empty that old file and start new. Get a new folder, put this year’s date on it, and begin to brainstorm.

Instead of a book, let’s chop it into bite-sized pieces that both you and your listeners will appreciate. Or consider a parenting podcast. Each chapter of the book can be revamped into 10 minute segments … recorded and uploaded easily. Whoa….with a fresh approach, inspiration is coming over you in waves of new possibilities.

SPRING FEVER
We hope this post has given you a sudden case of Spring Fever! The Bible talks about singing a new song to the Lord. About shedding old wineskin for the new. About doing things for the Lord with skill … decently and in order. Let’s “spring” into action together!

Want more specifics on putting the pen to paper, the keyboard to use? See our post with Seven Tips for Audio Writing.

So something happens, or is going on, that everyone is talking about and aware of. A Presidential election. The Olympics. The death of Billy Graham.

So how do we talk about those things in a Christian radio format? Do we talk about winners and losers, and the details of a life and funeral?

Well, we start with – and stick with – who we are and why our format is here.

Our format is about the things that are most meaningful to people. Not facts and information and news. Not scores. Not entertainment. We can need and enjoy those things, but for us those things are secondary.

In this format, we know we’re a family. A family with a common faith. A family of believers. From that faith we share a strong set of common values – love, grace, second chances, redemption, forgiveness, a God named Jesus.

We see the world not as filled with information, but as filled with things that can connect us to each other and God.

The facts and information matter, but the MEANING of the facts and information matters more.

So, when a news event occurs that everyone is aware of and talking about, we can simply ask:

Why does this matter? What does this really mean? What part of this thing is meaningful to US with our shared perspective and values? Where is the hope?

When Billy Graham dies, these simple questions don’t lead to “Pastor to Presidents” or “He spoke to millions around the world.” Sure we mention those things. But that’s not what his life and death MEAN.

With a story like Billy Graham, these simple questions lead to:

The family of believers has suffered a loss. It’s as if our patriarch – as much as we can have an earthly one – has died.

Because of what we value, we dwell on what kind of man he was.

We dwell on the IMPACT of his life, not the facts.

We marvel and are inspired by what God can do through one person.

We share our own stories – and our listeners’ stories – about people we know who show us what a well-lived life looks like. We tell THEIR story, inspired by Billy Graham’s story, and we tie it in with his life and passing.

We ask, “Who else do you know who God is using to make a meaningful difference with others? Would you share their story?” “Who do you know who has a well-lived life?”

We let those stories inspire more stories, and our radio stations sound unlike any other media – we sound like real life.

No matter who you are or what you believe, everyone is drawn to the idea of grace and second chances and forgiveness and hope. And the idea that one well-lived life can make a difference.

So when the next current event happens and you know it’s on everyone’s mind, and you want to have a meaningful way to talk about it that is worthy of your station and listeners, ask:

“Why does this matter?”

“What does this really mean?”

“What part of this thing is meaningful to us with our shared perspective and values? Which shared values are in this?”

“Where is the hope?”

Answer those questions with others at your station and put what you learn on the air. Your show or your station will sound unlike any other media – you’ll sound like what people really care about.

Note: Friday March 2nd, Carol, Keith and Chuck presented the following concepts at the Digital Summit in Nashville, part of NRB’s convention. Here’s Jan’s summary.

We talk about our digital space a lot. Apps, website, Facebook ads, Instagram and Twitter. Numbers, today’s feed, time of day. But how much of our conversation focuses on what to include as content and what to skip? Your reader/listener/viewer has bazillions of choices and about 10 seconds of patience. Yes, that’s right. Ten seconds and she’ll make a decision.

That’s why we believe there are three foundational secrets to programming for digital. If you’ll follow these three big truths, you’ll have increasing spiritual impact.

Secret #1 Interesting and relational for HER

Your content must be interesting to her, and must be relational. Yes, to her, not necessarily to you. We’ve discovered through multiple surveys that Christian radio listeners find two topics most interesting. They crave encouraging devotional thoughts and a “word” from Scripture that may encourage through the day. We’ve also seen that Facebook is her place to relax—perhaps for just a minute or so, in the windows of her day. Real pictures relate and can create an ongoing relationship. She is likely already your listener—and this is your chance to pull her close. This desire to relate is so much bigger than traffic, weather, pop culture or today’s headline. It’s not a choice—it’s a friendship!

Secret #2 Consumable Length

The length of what you present, whether in video, print or audio must fit her life. She has a busy, distracted life, and when you take too long—or not long enough—you either don’t get viewed or you annoy and are quickly skipped over. Here’s where our ten seconds comes up again. You’ve got ten seconds to grab and hold. And more than that, one she looks into your content, about a third are gone by 30 seconds. Let findable and fascinating become your key goals to conquer the ten second rule!

Secret #3 Understandable

What is obvious and understandable to her counts. Again, not what is obvious to you as you read your latest favorite theological release. We know through Gallup’s research that she may not know specific theological terminology—and may not grasp “insider” words like “exhort”. (Wait, is that exert? Or maybe extort?) So be Biblical, but be clear!

With these three basic but deep secrets, you’ll expand your impact—bringing people closer to Jesus. And after all, that’s what it’s all about.

NRB is upon us. We’ll be seeing you. Yes, us: Chuck, Jan, and our newer digital consultants Keith and Carol.

We are delighted to see you again. And yes, we do have some significant media materials and concepts and future-thinking to pass along. But mostly, we feel blessed to be able to see you again. And we hope we, in turn, can be a blessing. We all have our personal joys and challenges, and we know you do, too. We are praying for you, for the very busy NRB team and for God’s greater glory.

Here’s our information, if you need to find us (Tuesday-Friday):

Suite G-6092
Chuck’s phone is 214-676-7713
Jan’s phone is 719-331-6482
Keith’s phone 630-235-3542
Carol will be attending Friday

Visit our NRB page for more information.

Before we wrote this blog about Virtual Assistance units, we immersed ourselves in radio history. Nostalgia warms the heart, right? Because, quite frankly, the thought of a small, stark white device controlling everything in a home leaves me a little cold.

We found old photos of families gathered around the radio, odd smiles on their faces, ears inclined forward to catch every word. This was cutting edge technology. Not so different from Alexa after all.

Did radio bring families and friends together? You bet. Radios were expensive and hard to come by. If you wanted to stay on trend, you had to interact with other people. Conversations shifted. Access to relevant information doubled. Family discussions changed. Radio listenership boomed, and the Golden Age of Radio was born.

Radio listenership increase is all about accessibility. With the installation of radios in automobiles and the introduction of FM, radio stations began targeting specific audiences.

When the private sector embraced streaming, we became a house divided. People became isolated listeners on phones, iPods and other devices. Meanwhile, streaming stations celebrated a few “golden years”.

Listenership statistics now include all forms of broadcasting and listening devices. Each listener in their own world … headphones on, enjoying podcasts, webcasts, music mixes and station streaming. You CAN always get what you want, but research shows you’re listening alone.

GETTING YOUR STATION BACK IN THE HOME

Until now. With the introduction of Echo’s Alexa, Google Home, Microsoft Cortana and other smart speaker systems, radio is returning home to its rightful throne. Front and center. In less than two seconds following a simple verbal command, you can be jamming to your favorite tunes. According to Edison Research, 7% of American households have purchased a smart speaker system … just in the past year or so. Gartner Inc. Technology Research firm predicts a saturation of 75% within three years.

That’s great news for your radio station, provided that you get onboard. One of the most important steps you need to take is to establish your branding and a “skill” with the likes of

Alexa. The market’s already glutted, so listen up. It doesn’t matter what your brand is over the airwaves, another station can snag it for themselves on this new platform. So it is recommended that you create an “invocation” name that is recognizable by a system. So when a listener says, “Alexa, play fifty-two-five The Point”, Alexa will know what to do. Even if your station is readily available on iHeart or TuneIn, nothing takes the place of a personalized experience.

Carol Ellingson, from our consulting team had this to say. “People are making new habits now in the digital world, the question is are you going to be part of them or left behind? Now’s the time to own the names associated with your brand not just as a url or social media page name, but also in the new digital frontier known as skills.”

We agree. Our own digital consultant, Keith Thode had this to say about smart speakers:

”Smart speakers, and the digital assistant technology that powers them are going to change the way we interact with nearly everything in our environment. Being front and center with this technology is critical to retaining your current audience and paves the way to reach a “new” in-home audience.”

Yes, it’s time to put the radio back where it started. The home. Let’s get started. To learn more, visit our Digital Services page.

Sources: http://www.insideradio.com, http://www.aliveradionetwork.com, https://www.newsgeneration.com, https://www.statista.com

The simple sandbox. I played in one. I’ll bet you did, too! Remember those days? Bring your Writing Team and come with me for a few minutes to be reminded of what makes meaningful writing for audio, in my Sandbox Approach to Jumpstarting Writing for Audio! Yes, you can!

“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.” – Robert Frost

The sandbox is a defined space, but a creative blank. Accept the limits and go for the sandy opportunity to communicate.
Remind yourself that we want God to speak through our writing to a listener, with a focus on what she needs to hear. Pray for God to use you.
Sit to just write/create: imperfectly, unfinished, inexact. 140 words is about 60 seconds, but don’t worry about that as you begin.
Include a premise on your topic. What one topic is interesting to your listener?
Add an “a-ha”, “I-never-thought-aboutit-that-waylesson. It may be obvious to you, but may be new to others.
Read your writing aloud. Does it sound natural? Use words that you usually speak?
Now, edit. Make it concise and go!
Need more help? Call on Finney Media if you don’t have time or energy. We love It when we can join your sandbox crew!

Thoughts from our Talent Coach, Gary Morland.

When an air talent hears advice to be brief and concise they can think two things to themselves (well, I did anyway):

1. “You don’t really think I’m that good and you’re trying to limit the damage.”

2. “How am I going to be able to say anything worthwhile?”

Brief is never seen as positive by the air talent. And often whoever is coaching really does mean #1.

But brevity is actually every brilliant air talent’s secret weapon. How? It takes advantage of an expectation “law” built into all humans:

We associate time with value.

The longer a break takes, the more it needs to be worth it for the listener to be satisfied. The longer they listen, then the higher the bar goes for their expectation of satisfaction.

It’s true. The listener subconsciously expects a higher payoff for listening longer! The payoff can be an emotion, information, inspiration, a laugh, an insight – anything that makes the listener feel satisfied. But the longer the break, the higher that satisfaction needs to be.

If the break ends with the listener feeling the length wasn’t worth it, they begin to get trained to tune out after the first few moments of hearing the talent’s voice. We all hate listeners tuning us out. It frustrates our desire for them to hear what we have to say.

We all love listeners tuning IN when they hear our voice. Satisfied listeners tune in and DO hear what we have to say.

So the shorter the break, the easier it is to satisfy the listener.

Briefer breaks that leave the listener satisfied over and over build credibility and affection for the air talent. Which helps for those times when a break IS longer.

Brevity is a secret weapon. Yes, an individual break contains less of what the talent has to say. But the listener hears a higher percentage of it, and the talent lets it add up break after break,

day after day. In the end, the listener hears MORE of what the talent has to say, because they haven’t tuned out longer unsatisfying breaks.

So, a great message for air talent to hear:

“Do this enough and the listener will love you and bond with you. They’ll cut you more slack for times when you don’t satisfy them. They’ll listen longer and tune out less. Ratings will go up, PD’s and GM’s will get happy, and your habit of brief satisfying breaks will have added up to a library of meaning and satisfaction for your listener. Then everyone does the happy dance.”

And it all started with “shorter breaks.” The secret weapon of brilliant air talents.

Want some help with your station…or for yourself? Contact Chuck at chuck@finneymedia.com.

An NRB Opportunity for You

Chuck, Jan and Keith look forward to seeing you in Nashville! Keith, did we say? Yes, he’s our newest consultant, our digital expert. Here are details before your calendar maxes out!

NEW this year: Website 10-point Inspection Appointments

An opportunity for you or someone on your staff to obtain a FREE Finney Media 10-point website inspection, valued at $699. Appointments are limited, so best not to wait! Sign up today.

There are LIMITED appointment opportunities. To learn more, visit our 2018 NRB webpage.

NEW Group Alexa Skill Sessions.

Ready for the Digital Voice Command frontier? The digital content challenge? Is your ministry or station using the wildly popular Alexa or Echo to distribute your unique audio message? Sign up today. To learn more, visit our 2018 NRB webpage.

One-on-One Meetings

Chuck and Jan will be available for meetings, of course. Here’s contact information to set up a meeting directly: chuck@finneymedia.com or jan@finneymedia.com.

It will be a packed week. Make it count with one or both of these digital opportunities.

From Peterson/A Long Obedience, p. 197

“I have a friend who is dean in a theological seminary where men and women are trained to be pastors. Sometimes he calls one of these people into his office and says something like this: “You have been around here for several months now, and I have had the opportunity to observe you. You get good grades, seem to take your calling to ministry seriously, work hard and have clear goals. But I don’t detect any joy. You don’t seem to have any pleasure in what you are doing. And I wonder if you should not reconsider your calling into ministry. For if a pastor is not touched with joy, it will be difficult to teach or preach convincingly that the news is good. If you do not convey joy in your demeanor and gestures and speech, you will not be an authentic witness for Jesus Christ. Delight in what God is doing is essential in our work.”

Thinking about this at our broadcast ministries – stations and programs – do we sound profoundly joyful? In a world of horrible daily news, sniping tweets, anger, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, does your listener hearjoy, peace, gratitude, unhurriedness that the Gospel describes. It’s not just the words, it’s the feelings those words reflect and create.

We have a client who has given his on-air folks these instructions/guidance:

“Your on-air job is a (to) worship, not preach. And, to do so concisely. Help connect our listener to our God through consumable, worshipful, heart connective communication.” Amen!

These days attention focuses more and more on addiction to smartphones. While we used to lament about the kids and their video games now even Gran can be seen playing “Words with Friends” more often than she is sitting down around the table with her community group exchanging words with her IRL (“In Real Life”) friends.

In addition, as the world keeps changing, the same “Apps” that used to live only on your smartphone are now also used on your tablet, reader, your television and even your car. Yes, your car.

More hearts

With so much more media content available to our audience wherever they are, apps provide the opportunity for us to remain a preferred channel for our audience even as how they consume media moves from an FM tuner to the latest iPhone (or Acura). As people move from tuning a dial to touching an icon, we want to be present for them to make a God ordained choice of what content they will consume.

More deeply

Apps provide a significant ability to ‘go deeper’ with our listeners. Apps provide a platform for interactively engaging with our audience. “Push Notifications” can enable us to remain ‘top of mind’ with an audience member amid the noise of the day. These personalized notifications can help listeners ‘keep on track’ with their good intentions to focus on God every day. Calls to listen, to pray and to give can nudge a listener in her busy day, motivating and easily enabling her to take the steps she wants to draw nearer to God.

Personalization can go even further as a listener would look to your station as the source for quality content to deepen her walk, in the specific way God is calling her. Some stations invite listeners to the station to download their App and then choose to consume content entirely music or entirely teaching in nature, based on their needs at that moment.

In general, Apps provide your listener access to all of the great assets of your ministry, whenever any given facet is the element that they need at that particular moment.

So what do we do about it?

If you are feeling the tug to move forward in taking your station or program into the future, but are overwhelmed by the task, take heart. There are ways forward that do not involve large technology investment or hiring throngs of new staff with degrees in computer science. What content you put in this channel is far more important than having all the latest features.

Want to go further? So do we. Read more about our Digital Services.

Spring Cleaning Your Creative Log Jam

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