Openly we speak…daily blogs, texting, tweeting and podcasting—I call them Common Man Broadcasting 101. Emails, Skype, You Tube and My Space…we love it when something we’re doing is getting attention. Ask my trucker friend Brad who laughs and laughs and laughs about the videos he painlessly edits easily connecting him to over 500,000 hits a piece.
I’d fall over in Oscar Award Winning Halle Berry tears if 500,000 people all of sudden elected to tune into my radio show. That’s over 7 million dollars in Avatar Imax 3D money!
Barely twenty years ago, the common everyday voice was picked up and tossed into the mounting masses via the Opinion section of a local newspaper, radio morning show seeking listener participation, standing on a soapbox at church or connecting five farming families on the same out in the country party line.
It’s not that we haven’t wanted to say something—getting to a willing listener has been the mountain.
Removing one stone at a time from its highest peak was a humble leader who never became President of a nation. Yet he communicated with everyone as if he were. Historians call Benjamin Franklyn the worlds first Blogger. He wasn’t hired by the local rag. There were no tin cans on a thin string radio station broadcasts. Ben may have been fried by lightning while flying a kite but there were no television cameras to document it. So, our Great, Great, Great Grand Parents relied on his daily writing to which he printed then sent out.
About ten to fifteen times a year I’m invited to break bread with hundreds of up-and-coming Broadcasters—for several hours we do nothing more than share conversation about an industry dedicated to being this nations voice, entertainment and educator. In every cluster of visitors there’s always someone who wants to land a gig inside these chapters because of a burning desire to speak up and out.
I remember Tom the station program director looking at me with bewilderment the day I firmly stated in an air-check session, “I honestly believe my path is taking me toward Talk Radio.”
“You have to have something to talk about first…” his only comment.
Blunt, to the point, painfully honest with an impact that totally shut down my dream of being something other than a voice between the records. He was right! At the horribly old age of thirty…what would I bring to a two speaker stage that would attract 10 new listeners a day? Five shows a week…52 weeks equals twenty six hundred new listeners a year. Let’s be honest…for some stations that’s just down right the biggest show since CSI.
Having a voice is great! Locating a following can be the beginning of the end. Those attempting to make waves do so by putting energy in moments that motivate you, be it politics, Corporate American corruption, Hollywood glitz and glamour, potty mouth talk, the Stock Market to hawking cigars. There’s so much talk and talk and talk that it’s inspired over 500 million of us to be full fledged Face Book members. Holy cow we finally belong to something! We are loved! We are accepted!
Step back three feet from your computer screen and take note of what’s being written…
We’ve become so addicted to self help and motivation that we’ve now turned to each other. The afternoon quickie has become two horribly misspelled and badly punctuated sentences. The web is cotton candy and we can’t get enough of the sugar rush.
Being a Broadcaster…I can’t stop there. My real mission in life is to be the silent wolf—the watcher, note taker, the vividly clear but often times too poetic communicator who stops for a moment to view his surroundings and sees a village quickly turning into a pillar of salt.
New research shows that its time to stop telling coworkers, family members and friends to take a chill pill or lap up a pot of coffee. The once assumed instant high those beans delivered aren’t fast enough anymore. Our pursuit to hold a fair amount of self esteem comes in a tiny box with a screen attached. It doesn’t matter what’s being typed onto the pages we keep…attention is all we seek. A place to let our inner voice be heard.
One problem…like any addiction the journey toward collecting tweets, text messages and emails has made people brittle and nervous. We are winning the wrong prize. Being lifted on a daily if not hourly basis destroys personal goals and the willingness to conquer them. Relationships are hindered leading to friendships completely falling apart.
Just because you have 750 Face Book friends doesn’t make you a people person.
I love what author Lou Solomon writes, “Real confidence is not about feeling great about ourselves and being a big deal. It’s about knowing that acting like a big deal is completely unnecessary.”
I instantly erase emails that offer a compliment. I see it as cheating. If I’m getting a high off someone’s thoughts I’m not being true to myself…therefore it’s an emotional love affair. It’s too easy to fall into a vat of fat and call it honey. When reality wakes you up…its back to being fat.
Lou Solomon offers these four rules to keeping real:
I will tell you what I know from experience but I don’t know everything.
I stand for certain beliefs but I don’t believe I am better than anyone else.
I am interested in what you think.
I am open to consider a new perspective.
I’ve never smoked pot…but I know from a distance that if the state of California legalizes the drug 98% of this nation won’t care because a web high is far greater and longer lasting and although it may shatter a marriage research has yet to prove that it destroys brain cells.
Making someone’s day is a beautiful thing…don’t become their pusher.
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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