Developing Show Content - Part Two

[ View Part One ] To see how well a certain broadcast will work we put every show through a trial period. Each show gets a six week probationary period to see if it works in numerous ways. Let me give you a rundown on what happens as a new show launches. The first show is always fun. It’s filled with nervous energy, gaffs, and just a lot of experimentation. The second show is absolutely amazing as the confidence level of the the contributors are much always higher usually from pure adrenaline of being on-air. Then the third show is  noticeably slower and the fourth dips so poorly in quality that I have to label most of them as horrible shows. Now why does this happen?

Historically, by episode four, you go out on air with everything you have--all of your bag of tricks on the table. You talk about so many topics and use up all your best stories so your show can seem filled with thought-provoking ideas. Unfortunately, what you just did was use two months worth of material on a single show. You must always remember that your broadcasting on your own terms. Control the pace of your content and learn to expound on ideas over a greater amount of time and you will see results. Build your content as a series of high-quality topics that can be used on numerous episodes. Basically, showing your entire hand in one episode is a sure-fire way to slowly decay the interest and uniqueness of your broadcast.

Your content, as I’ve said before, is the key to your show. Without it you are simply rambling on the internet. Take the time to develop strong content that you know your audience will want to follow and of course, what you want to talk about. If you have no interest in the subject this will reflect greatly on the conversation and suck the energy out of you as a host. We live in a powerful information based society that we need our media consumption to be as tasty as potent as powerful. If you enjoy a great meal from a great local restaurant you will return time and time again. Your content is your cuisine and it should always be prepared like a professional chef with finesse, multiple courses, and a great deal of personal craft.

I cannot stress the importance of creating an outline for your broadcast. Not only will this keep you organized during your broadcast but will result in tighter content. The outline should have key facts that you will talking about so you stay in line with the order of information and the flow of the show. Many broadcasters I work with don’t believe in creating an outline and simply want to direct their show by the natural flow by using whatever comes to them at any given movement. Not everyone excels at spontaneity  and it can be a struggle for those who are not very quick-witted individuals while on-air. Your life will be that much easier once you put pen to paper and create a basic skeleton of your show for yourself and your co-hosts to follow. This way not only will you have all your topics laid out in front of you, but it helps segue into each topic  and keep with the always important time schedule. Simply yammering about the first thing that comes to mind during a show and eating up an hour is not good broadcasting.

I generally try and write about eight bullet points of topics that I would like to get to. I don’t always get to them all but it is always better to be overly prepared then scrambling for material to fill your on air time. But truly, working on the quality of your show should be your sole concern. The audience will come in time and I’ll focus more time about finding your targeted audience to boost your numbers. But for now, build your content like a muscle.

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