Listening Is a Form of Love

 

There is something about your vibe that attracts people — enough for them to give you some of their time that they can never get back. It’s a sacred exchange of currency, hoping for an equal exchange of value.

You know, people are really disappointed when their time is wasted. This is why the love of what you do must be rooted in thoughtful preparation.

It’s really disrespectful when you don’t prepare to talk to your audience. People can tell when you care about what you do — it shows in your work. The more you show your audience that it’s important to you to deliver quality content, the more they will lend you their ears.

You don’t just get to have an audience — you must earn the right to have one. To be listened to faithfully every day by someone is an act of love for what you bring into their lives.

Being Real Is the Currency: Why Execs Keep Missing the Point of Podcasting

 

In both radio and podcasting, being a real person on air is what sells. Listeners don’t stay tuned because of your microphone or your intro music—they stay because they feel you. They hear the passion, the humor, the truth. That’s the bond.

But corporate execs have spent the last 20 years proving they don’t get it.

In my genre of urban radio. The powers that be decided the best way to represent Black America’s voice was to handpick a few comedians and syndicate them across the nation. Steve Harvey. DL Hughley. Rickey Smiley. Others. Now, this isn’t about disrespecting those brothers—they’re talented and they carved out their lanes. But let’s be clear: this was a business decision, not a cultural one.

Corporate execs told legacy Black radio talent, the people who carried our stories for decades, to take a seat. They decided for us who gets to speak for our communities—and apparently, they think it should be comedians.

Now ask yourself: Have you ever seen this model applied to white America?
Are there five or six comedians syndicated across the country as the “voices” of white radio? Of course not. White radio still allows space for political commentators, storytellers, cultural critics, even everyday personalities to rise. But when it comes to Black America, execs boiled our voices down to comic relief.

That’s not authenticity. That’s a business model.

And if you think it can’t get worse, here comes the next wave: AI-generated radio. Imagine waking up to The Fred Sanford Morning Show, complete with Esther’s voice as the sidekick and Lamont and Grady chiming in—every joke programmed by a machine. Funny? Maybe. Authentic? Not at all. That’s the future corporate America is cooking up.

But here’s the good news: you don’t have to play that game.

Podcasting is the long game. It’s the antidote.
Because podcasting isn’t about who corporate America picks. It’s about you choosing to share your voice, your journey, your perspective with the world. Nobody can tell you to sit down. Nobody can silence your story. Nobody can AI-generate your soul.

And that’s why execs keep missing the point: the very thing they undervalue—authentic human connection—is the one thing AI and big-box business will never be able to fake.

So, the question is:
Are you going to wait for corporate radio to replace you with an algorithm?
Or are you going to claim your own mic, your own lane, and build your own audience—one authentic conversation at a time?

Because in this game, BEING REAL
is the only real currency.

The Boston Bombing and the creation of New Black Media

All throughout the media coverage of the Boston bombing did you notice that something was missing?Where was the Black media's reporting on this massive event? I am not pointing fingers at any media outlet, I am just saying what was our take? I am positive that people did cover it the best they could, and if you work for a mainstream media outlet, you were definitely restricted in what you could say. As I looked at the story with so many holes in it, it was a time to question some of the evidence especially about the how the man who found the suspect in his back yard (Tsarnaev, 19, who was charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death, according to a statement from the Justice Department) in his boat. He looked inside and saw the suspect and you mean to tell me he just sat there and waited for the police to come? Really?

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Since we do not have news departments in Black radio stations anymore, we have to get back to reporting what is happening around us. Since we have the Internet we should use that medium to create news organizations that can compete with any news outlet in America.

I have some suggestions for alternative news gathering businesses we could start today.

1. An IPhone news gathering team. With this device and a great production person, you could create a news gathering team in any city that would knock the local 6pm news cast out the box. Create a website or a blog that is the go to site for news in your city. With your IPhone or Android reporters out in the field, you could get instant audio and video. You could have a daily newscast (video) that you upload everyday at 6pm or 7pm that people can watch at their leisure. Hyper local news reporting that goes deeper into any story your local TV stations cover. Example...if there was a police shooting in your city and people say that the youth who was shot, did not have a gun and there were witness's. You could interview each witness and get all the details. Mainstream media can't and won't do that. "If you want the truth about the (blank) story go to www.mynewscharlotte.com.  Create a mynewsChicago a mynewsDetroit a mynewsMiami a mynewsPhilly website and kill'em!

2. All newscast are determined by an editor that chooses which stories should be important for us to consume. Who said so? Why do you get to pick what is important for us to know? See this Internet has leveled the playing field. You want to be relevant in your radio career, then get busy doing something as simple as this. The days of waiting for a phone call for a job is OVER! (I will write more on that topic later).

3. Creating content is the business you want to be in. You and I should do this! Buy a domain name, build a website that you can update and upload content yourself!  Create a staff of creative people and teach them how to gather information.

4. Marcel who use to work with the popular Russ Parr show is pioneering on the web. He is creating his own media company called (www.wmarmedia.com).We will be creating a video blog soon so he can teach us how to capitalize off what he is learning how to master.

Marcel

5. Videocasting is the new radio!
Marcel is doing it! Check him out here (Marcel Video show).
YouTube is replacing TV watching, blogging is the new news source, especially twitter which gives you instant news within seconds. Podcasting is also the new radio without brick and mortar and radio towers. People are making a living off these pre-recorded shows that are uploaded for people to consume at there leisure.

Missed opportunities?

I hope this article is inspiring you in some way to begin your new media career online. Just like you were the hottest thing on the radio in your city, you can reinvent yourself and become even hotter, and best of all no one can tell you how creative you can be. Don't miss an opportunity to do something for yourself in the new media space!

To All of my radio friends out there I believe in you and I want you to use the God given talent that you have and shoot off like a rocket!!


Please if you have any creative ideas leave a comment!

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