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“Put up your rawkfist if you’re
feeling it” is a great to envision the next time your staff gets
together for a promo team meeting. Throw up your fist straight in
the air as you lead your team to discover ways you can be more
creative in the community by reaching out to your listeners.
The thing separating good stations
from great stations is not just the real and relevant content on the
air or even the music but the level of creativity that we invest
into what comes out of the speakers. There is a rock star at your
station or hopefully more than one that can help drive your
creativity into everything you do on the air from events, web site
contest and social networking to imaging and promos.
Challenges of any station is never how creative we can be but due to
all the hats we wear and what is often a small staff limits the
amount of right brain activity because we are smothered in the
details of what’s going on day to day. Our left brain takes over
while our creative side fights for room in corner just because there
is just so much to do.
As you listen to your station this
week, how creative are you in all areas of your station? Pay
attention to the imaging, the Day Sponsors, Impact Partners,
newscast, etc. Whatever areas need more right brain injections, as
you listen to your station this week, reflect on how creative it is
and how creative it can be. The person who is in charge of these
areas is naturally left brained but doesn’t mean you can’t make it
better it just means you have to lean on those more creative than
you are. That’s what makes a team a team when we surround ourselves
with people who are gifted in areas we are not.
So to get the right brain jumped
started, there a couple of things you and your team doing to help
you balance your station with where you are and where you wanna go
creatively.
1. Right Brain Storming Sessions
The idea behind these sessions is to
not iron out details aka left brain each other to death but to
cluster ideas you have or bounce things off each other. Whether you
are talking about Mother’s Day Promotions a year in advance or Back
to School or Christmas, it’s a chance to dream big by asking is
money and time were not an issue, what would/could we do?
Now you can’t let your creative team
only be PD’s or Air Talent but balancing it with your staff that has
both left brain and right brain super powers. These meetings should
be no less than once a quarter so that you can stay in touch with
your creative side. It’s obviously not the only time to be creative
but if you have ideas before the meetings just hold off on sharing
them till then. We can often get ideas and run down the hall with a
torch to get them rolling and no one has time to hear them and the
fizzle out before they ever had a chance to burn properly.
These sessions will challenge the more left brain people on your
team but it keeps you and your team from waiting till 30 days before
an event or holiday to do something on the air that ends up being
less than stellar because it was created out of stress. If you can,
take these sessions out of the building whenever possible. Then you
don’t get stuck being distracted by stuff in the station. Planning
ahead seems foreign to most stations because the day-to-day is
overwhelming. Right Brain thoughts beget more Right Brain
Thoughts. The passion you have for your station and ability to tap
into that creatively will make you station sound better and draw in
the listeners whether they are a P1 or first timer.
(Side note: Once you birth an idea in
these sessions then you point of action following that meeting needs
to be the execution of whose gonna run with the ball and make sure
it gets done. These can be accomplished in your regular
promotions/programming meetings.)
2. Appoint a Professor Right Brain
Not that we need more hats to wear
but having someone to spearhead the creative sessions and other
areas of creativity on the air will help keep you right brain
thinking all year. Make it a position on your team if you can but
having that one person churning out the creativity in the whole team
will make you a better station.
This person is also just not the person who generates the meetings
but all areas of copy, content and events. We can often do a task
for something on the air and while it may feel creative to that
person, it gets on the air and falls flat because it’s just not what
if can be. However, taking it to your “Professor Right Brain” on
staff will allow you both/all to make sure that it’s the right
messaging necessary to draw in the listener.
(Side Note: Asking for help makes you stronger and creates a
creative filter for you the longer you do it. It’s NOT a sign of
weakness.)
Creativity is in all of us. We just
need something to draw out it and its like working out or eating
better, Its hard at first but until we don’t make it a regular
habit, does it make us healthier. The brain is a muscle and when we
exercise it properly it will make us stronger.
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Ace McKay has been on-air and
programming stations across the country for the last 18 years. He
can be reached via email at
acemckay@gmail.com.
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