"Be Your Spectacular You: The Permission Slip Your PD Never Gave You"

 It's time for you to bring your real personality to the table. It's's time to let go of your fear of being judged. Throw that mindset out of the window. This is self limiting thinking. Say to yourself the next time you are on the air, "I'm gonna talk about this the way I want to talk about it". Throw everything else out the window and go for it. In a phone conversation I had with Ben Burnside back in 2021 from my notes I was taking, he said " I want to hear a show when everybody in the studio just says F_ _K it! That means a show where they have thrown abandon out the window. It means being yourself on the air, and you don't care anymore about being the real you before the people. You are shedding the false personna that you have tried to uphold for all these years. It's time to let that person go!

Throw those self imposed rules you have been carrying around in your head about how you want people to percieve you in the garbage can.

 Now what this does not mean is to be irresponsible and get yourself fired. What it does mean, is to give yourself permission to grow. I'm not talking about a shock jock. I'm not talking about saying things on the air that you don't mean for attention. I'm talking about the real you who does not care if people agree with you or not. Kill the go along to get along narrative that makes you boring to listen to. 

You need to talk to your audience in such a real way that they can't turn you off. You must learn to be  Your Spectacular You On The Airwaves. You need to make people feel something when they listen to you. 

Ken Dowe at KRNB in Dallas changed my attitude about on air performance. When I got there in Feb 2004 to do mornings, he sat me in his office and said, "coming from Charlotte, you were ok on the air, but this is what I want you to do. I want you to go on the air and just be a man. I want you to say what you want to say and just do it your way". Sam Weaver was my PD and he reinforced this new mindset for my development. Sam and Ken taught me alot about personality radio during that period of me being there. I became syndicated in 2005 through Superadio. It was a real growth stage for me and I was liberated as an on air performer, even though my time there was short lived, READ HERE (https://insideurbanmedia.blogspot.com/2025/12/driving-station-van-during-steve-harvey.html  ). I came away from that experince on another level. I hope you have a coach in your career like that who says Go for it! In case you don't, I'm telling you, because I know I'm right. Shake up the market by being you, everytime you open the microphone. This is the only way you will justify your existence for being behind the Mic!

Think Before You Broadcast: Whose Thoughts Are You Sharing?

The hard part, every single day, is that you have to prepare for the next one.

So how do you overcome the resistance with your show prep? You sit down. You get quiet. You let the silence enter the room — and then you start.

The reward for pushing past that resistance is confidence. Knowing you truly shared your mind with your audience, your best thoughts. They will hear the difference. Some days will be better than others, but the habit is what matters. You sit down and do the work.

The worst feeling in broadcasting is scrambling the morning of the show. Standing in the studio with nothing. No direction. But look, you spent three hours scrolling during the day.  Two hours before bed. So don't say you didn't have time, you had time. You just chose to be entertained .

If you're on air every day, accept what that means: this is a relentless push to create. If you can spend five hours consuming, you can find an hour or two to prepare. 

People overcomplicate what show prep is. Show prep is just talking about what interests you. Nothing more. You're gathering your thoughts on the world around you and giving us your take.

Back in the day, we bought every newspaper and cut out stories worth discussing. Sometimes there was nothing. What's the top local story? Nothing. What can we pull from it? But Did anyone actually read the whole article? We probably miss more than we realize by skimming instead of reading deeply. Thats lazy show prep by the way.

But the real prep happens before you ever open a browser or pick up a paper. You need time alone with your thoughts. One to two hours of quiet time a day. No phone. No noise. Just thinking. Because you are the original computer. Everything else is just someone else's output.

Think about it: all day long, we process other people's thoughts. A producer writes a story. An anchor reads it. You repeat it. Nobody in that chain had an original idea — we're just passing information around, waiting for someone to tell us what to say.

That's not being original!

Wake up earlier. Think. Produce ideas from your own perspective, your own life, your own view of the world. Become an independent observer — and watch how many people are drawn to your mind.

What you have to say matters just as much as anyone else's. Trust yourself and go prove it.

The Work of Becoming Yourself on the Air

We’re going to stop saying things that we really don’t mean on the air.
We are going to be definitive in what we are saying.

This is the only way you can be free on the air.

You must learn to exercise your freedom—your sovereignty, your authority—to say only what you really feel. And when you do that, it translates to your listeners. They feel it. They hear it. They know it. They say, I connect with this person.

Most people will never get a chance to express their sovereignty to the masses of the people.
But You do.

Every single day you get on the air, you have the ability to be what people could never be. You can be an inspiration to thousands of people who come into contact with you—people who are looking for a voice they can rally behind, a voice that empowers their own being.

A radio personality of consequence is that person.

It’s the relevant voice in a city. Out of all the voices people scroll past, ignore, or tune out, yours is the one they stop on. Yours is the one that confirms what they already feel inside but haven’t been able to articulate. When they hear you, it makes them feel safe. It validates them. It tells them, I’m not alone in the way I think about this.

They may not be able to express it—but they have somebody who can.
And that somebody has to be you.

So the question becomes: how do you become the person people are looking for?

First, you must do the work behind the scenes to shed the fear of being yourself.

There are levels you have to pass through to stop being afraid of letting people know who you really are. Once you reach the point where you no longer allow people to judge you based on the way you think, you’re in the beginning stages of becoming a sovereign, independent speaker.

If what comes out of your mouth hinges on approval—approval from a higher-up, a program director, a co-host—if your internal dialogue is what will they think if I say this? and your response is to play it safe, then you are not operating in your authority.

You are not exercising your sovereignty to say what you want, how you want, when you want, and for as long as you want.

And until you reach that point, you will never connect deeply enough with your audience.

The nervous system of your listeners will pick up what you’re sending, because it’s all electrical. Everybody’s nervous system knows when it hears the truth. The highest frequency in the universe is truth. When you speak from the heart—when you speak from your truth—you connect.

The problem is we’ve been saying what we think people want to hear.

That has to be extinguished.

So I challenge you to practice every day giving yourself permission to speak the way you want to speak. Period. Do not take into account what you think other people expect you to say. Say what you want to say. All the time.

Be definitive.
Stop doubting what your gut is telling you.

If this resonates with you, I can get on the phone and coach you through exactly what I’ve just laid out—help you begin the journey of becoming yourself on the radio. Send me an email.

This is the work that has to be done.

Reclaiming Control of Your Show: You're Either the Guide or the Obstacle

If you are the host of a show, you are either guiding it—or you are being led by the culture you’ve allowed to exist. And sometimes that culture annoys the hell out of you every single day you walk into the studio. You hate that the show feels like it’s on autopilot, and deep down you know why: you stopped directing it. It doesn’t sound the way you want it to. People are taking liberties with your show, and you let it go on way too long. Now it’s driving you crazy.

You’re not alone. Been there. Done that.

This usually happens when you try to make everybody happy by giving them too much leeway they were never qualified to handle. They are not you. They don’t hear the show the way you hear it. And now you’re sitting there asking yourself, How do I turn this ship around without people thinking I’m a player hater? LOL.

Course-correcting an ensemble radio show is not easy. First, you have to own the mistake. You allowed things to get goofy in the studio. I remember sitting my team down in a meeting and finally telling them how I felt about the show—and they stared at me with blank faces. Why? Because I was in passive-aggressive mode. What I was talking about things that happened eight months earlier. But I had to say it, because that’s where the slide began. Passive aggressive behavior is not a good look on the leader of a show.

Here’s the problem: when you don’t address things in real time, people assume everything is fine. So when you finally speak up, you have to be brutally honest so your reasoning makes sense. Bring examples. Specific ones. Don’t blame them—blame yourself. Let them know this correction is about making the show better. Then go through with it. Let there be silence. Don’t over-explain. Don’t fill the air trying to make everyone comfortable. Be ready for pointed questions. And when they come, you better be able to answer them with certainty.

Now let me say this clearly—make sure your insecurity isn’t the real issue. Is there an inadequacy in your own performance? Hmmmm....

As the host, the quarterback, it’s your job to make plays. That also means coaching. Spend time with your people one-on-one. Take them to lunch. Listen to what makes them tick. I wish I had done more of that with some of my teams looking back. Because when the energy is off in the studio, people don’t look at the producers or the co-hosts first—they look at you. Your nervous system already knows things are off. Every time you close a break and feel that tightness, that’s your body telling you, You need to fix this. They know too, but they may not say anything to you, but they will among themselves.

Good coaching—real coaching—means dealing with nuance. It means navigating delicate egos without breaking spirits. That’s hard. And before you correct anyone else, you owe yourself one honest question: is it really them, or is it you?

Are you insecure about your own performance? Are you jealous of the people you surrounded yourself with? Are they outshining you? Are they getting more attention than you as the host? Can you keep up with your co-host? Only you can answer that. Think carefully before you walk into that room and say anything.

One thing I know about myself—I love talent. I’ve never been jealous or envious of anyone I’ve chosen to be on my show. What I was guilty of was being too liberal. Not saying no. Letting a wack feature live way too long. The kind that made you cringe every time the intro played. “Oh God.”

Those were learning lessons. And I’m passing them on to you so you don’t have to repeat them.

This article is for anyone leading an ensemble of two or more people on a radio show or podcast. Get control of your ship before it sinks.

If this is speaking to you, you’re who I write for.

Your Talk Game Is Soft—You Need an On-Air Sparring Partner

Most people don’t get better on the air because they never put themselves under pressure before the mic turns on. You need a pressure cooker challenging the way you communicate.

If you really want to sharpen your on-air instincts—your comebacks, your timing, your ability to think instead of ramble—you need a sparring partner.

You need someone who throws real punches at you. Someone who challenges your on air statements. Someone who makes you uncomfortable by practicing with you off air on a weekly basis. Mental gymnastics training that will teach how to cut the BS. Someone to help you say what you mean. These are practice sessions done off air to get you ready to verbally thump with anybody that comes in your studio.

That’s how you stop repeating the same angles and start finding new ones.

This is thinking-on-your-feet training.

It’s resistance training for your mind.

Just like lifting weights in the gym, you’re strengthening your talk game. Your reactions. Your clarity. Your presence.

Do this a couple times a week and watch how your verbal fluency gets sharper.

You will stop wasting words and get to the point quicker.

Clarity becomes your calling card and people will enjoy listening to the real you. This will kill the anxiety you have about your ability to deal with hostile guest and interviews.