Tag: Holland Cooke

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Occasions, Not Duration

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgFor 100 years, radio programmers have tried to keep listeners listening longer. “Coming up next…”

Another few minutes? Yes! Ask! And do so as-seductively-as-possible, saying “you” and “your.” But there’s very little you can say to keep someone sitting in a parked car after they’ve turned the engine off.

A more realistic opportunity?

Life is fragmented. Audio is everywhere. Listeners move among broadcast radio, podcasts, streams, satellite, YouTube and whatever their phones serve up next. Oh, and off-air promotion – billboards, TV, direct mail – remember them – cost money.

Sales 101: Say it with me: “Your best prospect is…?”  An existing customer! Sell ‘em again, in this case inducing an existing listener to listen again later – specifically later-today, and same-time-tomorrow. You can’t win by earning TSL when they’re not listening. So, seem useful-enough that they’ll want to come back again.

  • First thing in the morning…
  • Before leaving home…
  • During the commute…
  • At lunch…
  • Before the drive home…
  • When weather threatens…
  • When big news breaks…
  • When the game will air…

All-news stations have understood this for decades. The very first one – 1010WINS/New York, to-this-day #1 in morning drive – said, “Give us 22 minutes and we’ll give you the world.” The product was designed for repeat use.

This also changes how we use digital tools 

Too many stations treat the app, stream, and social media as separate products. They should be pathways back to useful content. A push alert can invite immediate listening when something important happens. A social clip can preview what the morning show will develop tomorrow. A podcast can serve someone who missed the original conversation while promoting the next live one.

The objective is not to trap listeners. It is to accompany them. Try this…

  • Map your target listener’s day. Identify five moments when your station could be helpful, entertaining or reassuring. Then ask yourself…
  • Do we offer something worth returning for at each moment?
  • Do listeners know we offer it?
  • Do we remind them when to return?

And when they do return, do we deliver immediately? Or make them wait through clutter?

Duration still matters. Every unnecessary word still spends attention. So, program at-the-speed-of-life. But focusing only on longer listening per-occasion overlooks how people actually live. You can’t keep someone sitting in a parked car. You can earn more visits.  

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

“Superfans Are Driving Podcast Usage Now”

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgThe “Pareto Principle” is a rule-of-thumb that roughly 80% of revenue comes from about 20% of customers, in many industries. Including radio, where so-called “First Preference” or “P1” listeners – those who listen to your station most – contribute most of your Time Spent Listening.

Ditto for podcasting, where 17% of podcast listeners are the ballgame, according to Point-To-Point Marketing and Strategic Solutions Research. If you missed Tuesday’s webinar “The Podcast Study: Turning Listeners/Viewers Into Superfans,” here’s the deck – and an appetizer: They listen while commuting, cautionary to broadcasters’ in-car dominance and opportune for podcasters.

This research also fleshes-out who these “Superfans” are, how to engage them, and how NOT to tune-them-out.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Looking for Work?

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgToo often, for too many in radio, it has been a Blue Christmas in recent years. If you have been displaced – or if you are working, and, shall we say, “assessing your options” – don’t underestimate what you have to offer.

  • The skill set you have accumulated doing-what-you-do can advantage you in other walks-of-life. Here are 18, from a previous TALKERS column: https://getonthenet.com/CareerAlternatives.html
  • Now try this: Paste that URL in ChatGPT or MS Copilot, and ask for “opportunities near [where you live].”

Artificial Intelligence has changed the rules for your resume

Its job isn’t to get you hired. It’s to get you the interview. In the 2026 update of her “Resumes for Dummies,” Laura DeCarlo has some advice that may surprise you:

  • A better resume may contain LESS of your experience. Keep what proves you fit THIS job.
  • A plainer resume can perform better than a prettier one. Clear headings and ordinary text help screening software find your qualifications.
  • Your most impressive achievement may not be your most useful one. Relevance to the opening wins.
  • Don’t describe everything you did. Describe what changed because you did it.
  • Claiming a skill isn’t proof that you have it. One concrete example can do more than a long keyword list.
  • Your opening lines aren’t an autobiography. They’re the answer to “Why should we interview this person?”

To read a generous free sample – how AI changes your job search — scroll-down to “Recommended Reading” on the home page at HollandCooke.com 

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: When Anyone Can Make Content, Why Should Anyone Listen to Yours?

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgThe Wall Street Journal recently described what it calls, “The Trillion Dollar Race to Automate Our Entire Lives.” Artificial Intelligence is rapidly evolving from something that answers questions into something that does things – researching, writing, analyzing, organizing and creating. WSJ describes a coming world of personal AI concierges capable of everything from executive presentations to filling out March Madness brackets. For podcasters, there’s opportunity here. And a warning.

Podcasting already had a low barrier to entry 

AI is lowering it to almost zero. Research a topic? AI. Outline the episode? AI. Suggest questions? AI. Write show notes? AI. Create social posts? AI. Identify clips? AI.

Result: Even. More. Podcasts. So merely having one becomes less impressive. More consequential is how AI changes the value of information. The Journal quotes one Silicon Valley investor saying how travel, vacation research, newspapers, email, grocery shopping, music recommendations – essentially everything he wants to know – now goes through AI. That should make anyone producing an information-only podcast squirm. Why listen for 37 minutes to “Five Ways to Save Money on Your Next Vacation” when I can ask an AI and get the answer in 10 seconds?

As information becomes abundant, perspective becomes valuable

“Here’s what you need to know” becomes less compelling than “Here’s what happened to me.” Or “Here’s what I think everyone else is missing.” Or “You won’t believe what my guest just told me.”

And interviews may actually appreciate in value. AI can synthesize what thousands of people have already said. But if you get someone to say something new, you have created primary-source content. Which makes the skilled interviewer more valuable. Not “Tell us about your new book.” Rather, “Something you wrote on page 173 surprised me…”

There’s another implication for authority podcasts – those hosted by lawyers, financial advisers, realtors and other professionals hoping listeners eventually become clients. AI can dispense enormous amounts of expertise. So simply demonstrating “I know stuff” won’t differentiate you. Instead, the podcast lets prospects audition YOU. Do I trust this person? Does she explain things clearly? Does she understand people like me? Would I want to work with her? That makes personality, empathy, storytelling and point-of-view more valuable, not less.

AI should make podcasts shorter 

If it saves hours of research, preparation, editing and repurposing, spend those savings creating 10 compelling minutes instead of 45 windy ones. Because the scarce commodity is no longer content. It’s the listener’s time.

So, use AI aggressively behind the microphone. Let it research, transcribe, organize, summarize and repurpose.

But protect what happens to the microphone. Let AI do everything that listeners don’t care who-did. Protect everything they listen to because YOU did it. 

“And thanks…”

…for all the feedback for this month’s series on optimizing commercial copy, the finishing touch on the work that pays for us all. If you missed any-or-all, I have assembled these columns as a free E-book, “The Outcome Method: A Storytelling Framework for More Effective Local Advertising,” which you may download and share: https://getonthenet.com/TheOutcomeMethod.pdf 

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Sell the Outcome, Not the Product

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgAll this month, I am outlining revenue-producing strategies and tactics, proven by advertisers’ results (which pay us all). If you missed our first two installments, here are “So what?” and “Stop Sounding Like Commercials.”

Listen to a stopset of local radio commercials and you’ll hear lots of stuff for sale.

Cars. Mattresses. Furnaces. Checking accounts. Replacement windows. Legal services. Appliances. But consumers don’t really want any of those things. They want what happens next.

  • Nobody wakes up yearning for a new HVAC system. They want the house warm when it’s 12 degrees outside.
  • Nobody dreams about replacement windows. They want lower heating bills, less street noise, and a living room that isn’t drafty.
  • Nobody wants a mattress. They want to wake up without a backache.

Great salespeople sell outcomes. Great commercials should too.

But too often, advertising gets bogged down explaining what something is. Instead, demonstrate what it does for me.

  • Don’t tell me your auto shop provides complimentary loaner cars. Assure me that I’ll get to work even when my car can’t.
  • Don’t tell me your landscaper offers weekly maintenance. Let me spend Saturday enjoying my yard instead of working in it.
  • Don’t tell me your restaurant makes everything from scratch. Make me hungry.

Consumers need clues

Help them picture themselves after doing business with the advertiser. That’s especially powerful on radio because our medium doesn’t provide the picture… the listener does. And the picture in someone’s imagination can be more persuasive than anything you could put on a screen.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Stop Sounding Like Commercials

By Editor | by Editor

By Holland Cooke
Consultant 

imgTHANKS to all who offered feedback about my most recent column. ICYMI: “So what?” Prompted by your interest – and because we all get paid based on our advertisers’ results – I am declaring “September For Sales,” a month-long series of proven revenue-producing strategies and tactics, right here each Monday.

This week: Why – the instant a listener recognizes the typical commercial formula – they can stop listening.

There’s a peculiar voice heard only in radio commercials. You’ve heard it.

  • “For all your _____ needs…”
  • “Conveniently located at…”
  • “Serving the community for over __ years…”
  • “Your one-stop shop for…”

Nobody talks that way.

  • You don’t tell a friend: “For all your casual dining needs, conveniently located on Route 6…”
  • You say: “We found this cool place last weekend. Ya gotta try the ribs.”

Yet turn on the radio and the voices are speaking fluent Commercial. Ugh. Listeners have heard the language so many thousands of times that they recognize it before they process it. Oh… commercial. 

Don’t Announce. Intrigue.

Compare: “Miller Appliance has proudly served the area for 37 years and carries all major brands of refrigerators…” with: “I wasn’t planning to buy a refrigerator that day.”

The second sentence creates a question: So, what happened? That’s all we need. We’ve earned another few seconds.

Or compare: “Johnson Roofing offers quality workmanship at affordable prices…” with: “I noticed the stain on the ceiling.”

One sounds like advertising. The other sounds like a story. Which would you keep listening to? 

Delete the First Sentence

It’s worth trying with almost any commercial. Maybe delete the second sentence too. You may discover that the commercial doesn’t actually begin until sentence three. Start where something happens.

  • Instead of: “At Wilson Veterinary Clinic, we know your pets are important members of your family.” Try: “Buddy stopped eating Tuesday.”
  • Instead of: “When it comes to choosing the right insurance coverage, you need an experienced professional.” Try: “The tree missed the bedroom by six feet.”
  • Instead of: “For more than three generations, Anderson Jewelers has helped celebrate life’s special moments.” Try: “She said yes before he finished asking.”

That’s radio. We can introduce the advertiser later. First, make the listener wonder what happens next.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: “So What?”

By Editor | by Editor

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgAbout those commercials… which pay for you. When a prospective client says, “We tried radio. It didn’t work,” I ask to hear the commercial. Within seconds I can tell why.

It opens with the business name. It lists products. It rattles off prices. It stuffs in an address, a website, a phone number, and a slogan. Then it ends. Nothing happened. Nothing memorable. Nothing emotional. Nothing that gave a listener a reason to care. Yet radio gets blamed. Like blaming a fishing rod because you cast with no bait.

The commercial has one job: Make someone care enough to take the next step

That’s it. Not explain everything. Not impress everyone with how many years you’ve been in business.

Its purpose is to create curiosity…confidence…desire…trust…urgency…hope. Any one of those emotions can motivate action. A list of merchandise almost never does.

The listener doesn’t wake up hoping to buy a water heater, or hire a lawyer, or replace a roof. People act when something in their lives creates a need. Good advertising connects with that moment.

A mattress store isn’t selling mattresses. It’s selling better mornings. A financial planner isn’t selling investments. She’s selling confidence. A heating contractor isn’t selling furnaces. He’s selling warmth on the coldest night of the year.

Translate Features into Benefits

Every advertiser has a product. Every customer has a problem. Say it with me: “Successful spots connect the dots.”

Here’s a simple exercise: Every time they mention a feature, ask, “So what?”

  • “We stock thousands of [item].” So what? “You won’t spend your weekend driving from store to store.”
  • “We’ve been serving this community since [year].” So what? “We’ve helped generations of local families buy homes, build businesses, and send kids to college.”
  • “We offer custom designs.” So what? “The ring she’ll wear forever will be unlike anyone else’s.”

If the answer explains how the listener’s life becomes:

  • easier
  • safer
  • faster
  • healthier
  • happier
  • less stressful
  • more convenient
  • more secure
  • more enjoyable

…you’ve found the benefit, and you get paid.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Radio: Human Reserved

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgBill Gates has a useful term for something radio should be thinking about: “Human Reserved.” In an essay about a turbulent AI era, he sketches an unsettling future, and – for broadcasters – has a consequential warning… and an opportunity.

As artificial intelligence performs more and more work traditionally done by humans, he suggests there will be activities we could turn over to machines and deliberately choose not to, because something important would be lost. AI can write a weather forecast, summarize a police report, transcribe a school-board meeting, generate a commercial, voice a liner, research a sales prospect, and assemble an hour of music.

As content gets cheap, human presence becomes more valuable

Search results are AI summaries. Social posts, photos, voices, and videos may be synthetic. Gates warns of AI-powered fraud, disinformation, and deepfakes. Amid all that uncertainty, imagine hearing: “I’m here at the courthouse, where the jury just returned a verdict…”

Could AI manufacture that sentence? Sure. But I know who’s saying it. That’s an asset radio shouldn’t automate away.

Yes, use AI aggressively behind the scenes. Let it transcribe meetings, research prospects, clean up audio, draft proposals, repurpose interviews, and handle routine administrative work. Automate tasks. Protect relationships. Let AI summarize the school-board meeting. Then have your reporter tell me what it means to my kid. Let AI draft ten commercials. Have someone who understands the advertiser decide which idea might actually make the phone ring.

Why advertisers still need us?

Soon every local business owner will be able to generate logos, videos, emails, websites, social posts, and commercial scripts almost instantly. So, “We’ll make your commercial” becomes a nearly worthless sales proposition. The station’s value needs to migrate from selling spots and making ads to: We know this market. We know how to get people here to notice you. And we help make your advertising work.

AI will create an infinite supply of information. What’s scarce will be trust, judgment, relevance, relationships, and recognizable local humans. So, radio’s AI strategy can be surprisingly simple: Use AI to DO more. Use humans to MEAN more.

Here is Bill Gates’ essay: https://www.gatesnotes.com/a-turbulent-ai-era-and-critical-choices-to-make

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: AI Does More with Less. Radio Must, Too

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgThe most important sentence in Sharon Gai’s How to Do More With Less: Future-Proofing Yourself in an AI Economy (Wiley) isn’t about technology at all. It’s about leverage. She writes that the goal is to stop being “the busy bee” and instead become “the beekeeper… someone that controls the ‘bees’ to get what you want.” That’s the wakeup call radio needs right now.

Because while our industry debates whether AI is a threat, the rest of the world has already moved on. Gai describes watching Alibaba engineers generate hundreds of thousands of ad banners in seconds – work that once required “thousands of designers” and weeks of back and forth. That moment, she says, was when she realized “the next era of work had already started.” Radio is still acting like it hasn’t. 

AI won’t replace radio. But it will replace radio people who don’t use it.

Gai is blunt: “Will AI replace workers? Absolutely.” But she adds the part radio needs to hear: it replaces tasks first, not people. The winners are the ones who learn to orchestrate the tools. For radio, that means:

  • Sellers using AI to prebuild spec spots, proposals, and category insights
  • Programmers using AI to audit clutter, analyze rotations, and tighten imaging
  • Production using AI to version spots, clean audio, and accelerate turnaround
  • Managers using AI to summarize meetings, draft memos, and model revenue scenarios

This isn’t theory. It’s survival. 

The OnePerson BillionDollar Company — and The OnePerson Radio Station

Gai cites Sam Altman’s prediction that AI will enable “one-person billion-dollar companies.” Radio should hear a different version: the one-person radio station. Not as a cost cutting fantasy — as a competitive necessity.

A single operator, armed with AI tools, can now:

  • Build a full digital presence
  • Produce daily content
  • Generate sales materials
  • Analyze audience behavior
  • Maintain advertiser relationships

Small market owners — the ones already stretched thin — stand to gain the most. 

The Real Message for Radio

Gai’s book isn’t about replacing humans. It’s about reclaiming agency in an AI-driven economy. Radio needs that mindset more than any legacy medium. Because the question isn’t whether AI will change radio.

It’s whether radio chooses to be the bee… or the beekeeper.

To read 2 sample chapters, free, click here.

Holland Cooke is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Who talks like THAT???

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

img

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, broadcasters and podcasters should avoid clichés like the plague. And redundancies, “Period, full stop.”

Consultant, longtime TALKERS columnist – and, yes, long, long-ago English teacher – Holland Cooke has been collecting verbal misdemeanors for decades. His new quick-read e-book Who Talks Like That??? skewers broadcast-ese, bloated wording, antique vocabulary, redundancies, mispronunciations and other ways we accidentally make listeners notice how we’re talking instead of what we’re saying.

“Because radio and podcasts are intimate media, and unforgiving,” Cooke urges, “sound human.” Especially now that every word is competing for attention with SO many audio competitors. FREE download to TALKERS readers: https://getonthenet.com/OOPS.pdf

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Prospect Retailers Who Are Podcasting

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

They’re low-hanging fruit. They “get” audio, and they crave the listeners radio can bring. We train station sales reps to ask, “If we don’t tell our listeners about your podcast, how will they know you’re doing one?” Incorporate sound bites from their podcasts into their spots.

Holland Cooke is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Radio’s New Fall Season

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

 

imgAs TV is touting its coming attractions, take a step back. We – inside the box – live-and-breathe radio.

Listeners have their hands full just living and breathing. Their day is time-crunched and financially-challenged, and we want to be its soundtrack. But listening is free, unlike umpteen other purchase decisions they agonize. So what’s high-stakes to us is low-stakes to them.

We only matter if we matter, and we’ve never had so much audio competition.

  • This month, as the school year begins in so many places, the listeners local retailers want as customers revert to “normal.” Their tempo changes, and builds to a holiday season climax. Do they know who you are and how you can help?
  • Off-air promotion (remember that?) merely says give-us-a-try. When they do, does what they hear deliver? Even with scant (or no) off-air promotion, much of what you can do to become more habit-forming costs nothing. As consultants do, I’m talking about “the fundamentals,” the blocking-and-tackling stuff. For starters, think: recognition and relevance.

Who are you?

  • Are call letters or station nickname delivered frequently? PPM myth: call letters matter less. Baloney. Awareness drives use. Ditto your dial position(s) and how to listen via smartphone, smart speaker, and streams. Name-and-address.
  • As your listeners cume 3 stations this week, help ’em remember yours more than the other 2 (not to mention streams and satellite radio and podcasts). And are you selling — or merely reciting — call letters, dial position, and slogans? This is often an issue with veteran talent, creatures of habit.

“Who cares?”

Or as my WTOP successor Jim Farley (RIP) asked: “W.G.A.S.?” He hung a sign in the newsroom there, meaning “Who Gives A Shit?”

  • Are topics relatable and useful? Enable listeners with helpful information, and they’ll keep coming back.
  • Do you say “you” and “your,” a lot? It’s a litmus test for relevance.
  • Do you keep setting the stage as audience tunes in? Someone JUST got in the car.
  • Are you teasing the next quarter hour? And what you’ll offer same-time-tomorrow?
  • Even with apps in the dashboard, weather and traffic are super-local and can be super-impactful.
  • Is your on-air imaging about the station? Or about listeners’ lives? “Because ONE traffic jam can jam-up your whole day…”

There’s more from radio’s right-now To-Do list at HollandCooke.com

Holland Cooke is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Trust is the New Currency

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

Holland Cooke

It is now the ultimate competitive advantage, and for broadcasters it’s a survival strategy. In The Five-Year Century: Bold Leadership and Accelerated Outcomes in the Age of AI, Mihir Shukla and Nancy Hauge explain how—as artificial intelligence accelerates change and demographics reshape the audience—trust becomes the only durable asset radio and television can bank on.

The book describes a 2026 world where the “twin engines” of growth—population and productivity—have stalled. Birth rates are plunging, workforces are shrinking, and productivity has flatlined across most industries. Meanwhile, AI is compressing decades of innovation into months. This collision creates what the authors call “The Five-Year Century,” in which the pace of change overwhelms institutions built for slower times—broadcasting, for instance.

Radio and television were built on industrial-era assumptions: mass audiences, standardized programming, rigid schedules, and hierarchical decision-making. Those assumptions worked when the audience was broad, predictable, and captive. On February 9, 1964, the Beatles tripled Ed Sullivan’s ratings. Back to the future…

AI is rewriting the rules of content creation, distribution, and consumption. Personalized news feeds, customized ad loads, and algorithmic programming are expectations. Younger audiences don’t wait for a newscast; they expect a feed. They don’t tune in; they scroll. They don’t accept one-size-fits-all; they demand one-size-fits-me.

In this environment, trust becomes the new currency because it’s the one thing AI cannot manufacture.

Broadcasting’s advantage has always been credibility. When a storm hits, people still turn to local radio. When a shelter-in-place alert hits their phone, they still switch on local TV. That instinct is powerful, but it’s not permanent. Trust must be earned continuously, especially as AI-generated misinformation floods the ecosystem.

The book’s chapter on the “Trust Economy” makes a critical point: trust accelerates outcomes. High-trust organizations move faster, innovate more boldly, and adapt more effectively. For broadcasters, trust accelerates audience loyalty, advertiser confidence, and community relevance. But trust now requires new behaviors.

It requires transparency about how AI is used in newsrooms. It requires clarity about what is human judgment and what is machine assistance. It requires authenticity as AI-generated talent becomes increasingly commonplace—and increasingly convincing.

Trust requires broadcasters to lean into what humans do best: context, empathy, moral reasoning, and community connection. The book reminds us that “work worthy of human potential” is work that machines cannot replicate. For broadcasters, that means storytelling, accountability journalism, and the human presence that makes local media local.

By all means, assign AI the routine tasks: editing, logging, transcription, versioning, and production. Then reinvest the human time you save in the relationship between a station and its community. In The Five-Year Century, trust isn’t just a virtue. It’s a conspicuous differentiator. It’s the currency that will determine which broadcasters thrive and which fade into the noise of an algorithmic world. As our industry suffers workforce cutbacks, we risk downsizing trust.

To read two sample chapters and watch a short video interview with the authors, click here.

Holland Cooke is a consultant working at the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn.

Industry Views

Monday Memo: AI Can’t Fake Real

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgIn Full Stack Human: The Mindset Upgrade You Need to Stay Human in a World Ruled by Technology (2026, Wiley Books) Dara Simkin and Tane Hunter describe a 2026 media landscape where people face information overload, shrinking attention spans, negativity fatigue, algorithmic manipulation, and constant distraction.

The irony is that radio may win the future not by becoming more like technology, but by becoming more human. In an age of artificial everything, that’s the sustainable competitive advantage local radio has. And the more crowded the media landscape becomes, the more valuable radio’s unique strengths become.

Consider what today’s digital platforms do best. They personalize content as algorithms learn what users like and deliver more of it. Streaming services can build custom playlists. Social media feeds are tailored to individual interests. AI can generate content instantly.

What those platforms cannot do is belong to a community. Spotify doesn’t know why I-95 is jammed. TikTok doesn’t care that the town council just approved a controversial zoning change. An AI-generated playlist can’t tell listeners where to find shelter during a storm or why Friday night’s high school football game matters. Local radio can. And as media becomes increasingly global, local content becomes increasingly scarce. And scarcity creates value.

Citing research, the book points to another opportunity: Digital platforms are optimized to trigger emotion, especially outrage and conflict – the 1990s talk radio caricature on steroids. The result is a public that often feels overwhelmed, exhausted, and anxious.

Listeners want information, and are looking for context, usefulness, connection, and (dare we?) a reason to smile. Stations willing to do more than simply amplify the argument du jour become indispensable. Winners deliver local information, from trusted voices, a genuine connection that answers the listener’s constant question: “What’s in this for me?”

Click here to read a free sample chapter of “Full Stack Human: The Mindset Upgrade You Need to Stay Human in a World Ruled by Technology.”

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Robot vs. Robot

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgRadio stations used to announce the present temperature at the end of the weather forecast, empowering listeners who are heading out to dress accordingly. It’s the ultimate live-N-local information.

 It was SO conspicuous that – in diary markets – competing stations would fib if the temperature was a competitor’s dial position. I was the 7-midnight DJ during WPRO’s 1970s Top 40 heyday — yep, a live voice at night, before the overnight guy took over. Our AM dial position was 63, a temperature never announced on WGNG (55) or WJAR (92). And vice-versa.

Back to the future: The forecast still airs on AM/FM radio, but often without a live temp’ at the end, because the station is robotic and the weather is canned. Common faux pas: At 4 pm, the forecast begins “Today will be…”

Listeners who want the temperature now get it – instantly – where Amazon Prime subscribers can also ask for 2 million songs…from a robot, Alexa.

In next week’s column here: How radio wins the future – not by becoming more like technology, but by becoming more human. 

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Eat Your Ice Cream

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

img“Globalization and the deconstruction of community and country, an addictive media system that runs on algorithms we don’t understand and can’t escape, the unpredictability of climate change, Gilded Age-level inequality, and the worry that generative AI will control rather than be controlled by us.”

Those facts-of-life come from Ezekiel J. Emanuel MD, who reckons make us “feel vulnerable, anxious, and powerless – at the mercy of forces beyond our reach. So, we embrace what we can control: our own wellness.”

Emanuel is a University of Pennsylvania professor, bioethicist, and oncologist, and was one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act. His best-selling book, Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life, is HIGHLY recommended. Much of what you read will be as surprising as the title.

Click here to read a sample chapter, FREE.

If you own or manage a radio station, reread his quote above. See the opportunity.

In a world where people feel unmoored, a local radio station that reliably shows up with clarity and calm — that helps people feel a little less powerless — becomes more than a medium. It becomes the one they won’t live without.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Radio’s 2027 Talent Strategy: Destination by Design

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgIf your station is outside the top 50 markets, you already know the pressure points. A mature workforce stretched thin. Fewer applicants for on air and production roles – specifically the younger creators who don’t see radio as their first creative outlet. And a competitive landscape where streaming, satellite, and podcasts divert attention with the gravitational pull of a black hole.

But radio can absolutely attract these next-gen creators. We just can’t do it with yesterday’s playbook. In “Future Work World,” Barry Winkless argues that organizations must intentionally design themselves to “excite, entice, and engage” the next generation of talent. He’s talking about the future of work broadly – but his framework fits independent local radio like a blueprint. Especially in medium and small markets, where stations are fighting a two-front war: defending local relevance while competing with global audio giants. Accordingly…

  1. Redesign roles for the “Work Salad” generation.

One of the book’s core ideas is the rise of “work salads” – workers who blend skills, platforms, and creative identities rather than fitting neatly into a single job description. That’s today’s creator economy in a nutshell. For radio, this means offering roles like host+podcaster+social storyteller; or news voice+explainer video creator+local events personality. Younger creators don’t want an airshift. They want a mix – a portfolio of creative outputs. Stations that offer that mix will win talent that would otherwise bypass radio entirely.

  1. Make your station a Designed Destination.

Winkless’ “Destination Designer” mindset recommends environments where people want to be, because the place itself inspires them. For radio, this means a workplace that feels flexible, fluid, and creatively alive. You don’t need a big market budget to create a big market feel. You need intentionality and a willingness to break from “how we’ve always done it.” Turn a legacy operation into a future ready talent magnet.

  1. Use AI the way creators already do.

In one of the book’s fictional “jumps,” Winkless introduces the “cowerka,” an AI assistant that handles tasks, anticipates needs, and frees humans to focus on what only humans can do. AI can help prep shows, suggesting ways to localize trends and topics. Nextgen creators already use AI as a collaborator. Stations that embrace this reality will feel familiar – and attractive – to them.

  1. Sell the one thing no competitor can match: Local Reach

Streaming platforms offer scale. Podcasts offer intimacy. Satellite offers variety. Only radio offers local presence at scale.

Creators want audiences – podcasters hunger for what radio has: cume. Broadcast radio can give them something TikTok can’t: instant legitimacy in a real community. As I have explained here previously, we position client stations as reach engines: Instead of asking creators to serve radio, radio serves creators.

  1. Tell a Better Story About Who You’re Becoming

Winkless’ “Next Level Storytelling” chapter cautions that your recruitment story can’t be: “We need someone to do afternoons.” Instead: “We’re building the next chapter of local media, and we want creators who want to shape it.”

Creators don’t join job descriptions. They join stories.

The Bottom Line

Local radio doesn’t need to out tech the tech giants. It needs to out human them. By redesigning roles, modernizing culture, embracing AI, and positioning radio as a creator platform – not just a broadcast outlet – stations can attract the next generation of talent that will keep them relevant, resilient, and indispensable.

Your RIGHT NOW opportunity: As fill-in voices cover for vacationing full-timers, you can preview 2027 talent options. To help them smooth-out any rough edges – and assess how well they take direction – here are 12 Tips for the guest-hosts who are not career broadcasters and don’t share our second-nature performance routines.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgNo two summers have been alike since the pandemic upended listeners’ lives and retailers’ businesses. So, we’ve seen this movie before. To sound relevant and relatable and helpful, connect the dots:

Gas prices and pricier airfares are scortching summer getaways many hoped for. Are there family day trips and local attractions that locals might take for granted, or not know about?

Do “Fun-formation.” Inflation is pinching everyone in every way… including YOU. Notice how you yourself are coping and share on-air. And interview locals who can suggest money-saving life hacks. Including… advertisers you have made household names. Airing their advice will result in even more “I heard you on the radio.”

Start with financial advisors. Heavy AM/FM users are in the worry-about-IRA / 401K demographic.

It’s a safe bet that listeners have the talk radio gloom-N-doom script memorized. Stuff like the above HELPS them.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Improving Results from Endorsement Spots

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgThe stations I work with make big money with live endorsement spots delivered by familiar local on-air personalities. Remember them? With most AM/FM broadcast hours now robotic or non-local, your relationship with the listener is precious and can be leveraged… carefully.

Quality vs. Quantity

The more products or services you endorse, the less special each pitch will be. You’re asking the listener’s trust each time, so asking too often can sound insincere. So back-to-back “I’m [name] for [account]” is verboten, and that can happen when spots you voice air outside your show.

“Tell me a story”

When the late, great Don Hewitt – the father of “60 Minutes” – spoke at a NAB convention years ago, he told us that he was often asked, “Why is this the most successful TV news show of all time?” And he said, “I can tell you in four words: ‘Tell me a story,’” which every piece does.

Describe your personal experience with the advertiser’s product or service in before-and-after fashion – problem was, problem solved – in a relatable way.

OOPS. Are you saying, “I haven’t sold you yet?”

Often, these are long-standing advertiser relationships.  Two cautions:

If you’ve been touting an advertiser for a while, DON’T say so. “For years, I’ve been telling you about [name of business].” Translation: “…and I haven’t sold you yet, have I?” Instead, keep the pitch fresh.

And keep it customer-centric; rather than talking about a store. In one spot I heard, for a sewing supply retailer, the well-intentioned host sounded awestruck as he recited the store’s inventory (“over fifteen hundred bolts of fabric!”). That’s the store’s problem. Instead, solve the listener’s problem: “Imagine the money you could save if you made all your kids’ back-to-school clothes this year?  [advertiser] will give you free sewing lessons!”

Avoid saying…

  • “MY GOOD FRIENDS AT [name of business],” which sounds phony.
  • “All-new:”Say “new,” if it IS new, AND if newness is a listener benefit (and say why).
  • “…AND MUCH MORE,” which means nothing. Weed-out stuff like this, and you’ll give copy more time to breathe.
  • “Needs,” as in: “FOR ALL YOUR [product category] NEEDS” (the ultimate “BLAH, BLAH, BLAH”).

More?

My video “Make Money with Endorsement Spots:” https://youtu.be/fReiC8WLTac

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Time to Update Baseball Sponsors’ In-Game Spots?

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

img“Baseball is back!” was welcome in April (especially after a rough winter in many places). But it sounds embarrassingly old by now.

Does the advertiser have a new offer or other copy change? Even if not, you-being-in-touch sends a message… as does you not-being-in-touch.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Because “Check-Out Our Website” Sounds SO 1995…

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

img…I’m sharing promo copy now airing on my client stations, which addresses listeners’ – and advertisers’ — 2026 apprehensions:

Voice1: Online safety and privacy were already a concern…

Voice2: …and that was BEFORE what we now see Artificial Intelligence doing.

Voice1: But digital media are now part of everyday life, and always will be.

Voice2: So WHERE you get your information matters more than ever.

Voice1: And your-only-local-news-radio also makes [domain name] a place you can visit with confidence…safely and securely.

Voice2: We don’t put spyware or junk on your browser. We don’t spy on you. We don’t violate your privacy.

Voice1: You can trust [domain name]

Here is a produced example, featuring our morning host and anchor: http://getonthenet.com/30-KTBB-Trust.mp3

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Hungry for Some Summer Fun Next Month?

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgIf you are doing talk radio, much of your programming is syndicated. If you do music radio, your most formidable competitors are robotic streams that live in the cloud. Either way, YOU, being local, can make friends — and money — if you plan now to exploit these occasions.

  • Monday, July 6: National Fried Chicken Day
  • Tuesday, July 7: World Chocolate Day
  • Friday, July 10: National French Fry Day
  • Tuesday, July 14: National Mac & Cheese Day
  • Sunday, July 19: National Ice Cream Day
  • Wednesday, July 29: National Chicken Wing Day

And after all that, may I suggest a National Alka-Seltzer Day? JUST kidding. Wash-it-all-down on Friday, July 24, National Tequila Day.

For more upcoming opportunities to mingle with listeners — and engage advertisers – download my FREE 2026 Events + Occasions Calendar. Scroll down the home page at HollandCooke.com

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: Sayonara CBS

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgAlthough I don’t have a machine to play it, I have saved the cart. December 9, 1980, the sad morning-after John Lennon died, Charles Osgood, doleful: “I read the news today. Oh boy.” That morning’s CBS World News Roundup – and on-hour newscasts throughout that day – delivered more moments that would keep you sitting in a parked car at your destination. As they would 3 months later when President Reagan was shot. Then soon again when Pope John Paul II was severely wounded in St. Peter’s Square. And five years yonder, when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into its flight.

There have been countless other such moments we emotionally bookmark. But it is the dependable day-in-day-out certainty of its on-hour newscast – what we programmers call “a benchmark” – that we will miss most after Friday, when CBS News Radio ends. Among the stories they will cover that day: Stephen Colbert’s CBS “Late Show” finale the night before.

The CBS Radio Network would have turned 100 next year. It sent home the sounds of war, live from a rooftop: “This… is London,” reported by Edward R. Murrow, whose name adorns the news award broadcasters still strive for. His trademark sign-off “Good Night and Good Luck” titled a 2005 biopic directed by George Clooney, who starred in last year’s ambitious Broadway production (available on Netflix). The New York Times: “Clooney makes Edward R. Murrow a saint of sane journalism for a world that still needs one.”

“It’s no secret that the news business is changing radically, and that we need to change along with it,” is the CBS corporate spin. But neither supply nor demand failed. What failed is the supply chain, 1996 deregulation run-amok. And news/talk stations have borne the brunt of it. Depopulated of local talent and starved for promotion and other resources allocated to co-owned music stations now losing to streaming, too many talk stations became angry, non-local, one-sided political caricatures, too predictable to seem vital. Other stations, with diligent owners hellbent on Doing It Right, are all-the-more conspicuous. They will continue to succeed, even without precious CBS assets. But those stations are anomalies, now outnumbered by others in unattended operation mode, some of which could end up broadcasting dead air on-hour Saturday morning.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: AI Side Hustles

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgJason Reddick’s The Complete Guide to AI Side Hustles is aimed at beginners trying to build passive income. But read it through a broadcaster’s lens and it suggests a blueprint for how radio talent and podcasters can leverage AI to expand their influence, diversify revenue, and stay indispensable in a media economy that rewards relevance and speed.

His central thesis is simple: AI doesn’t create talent – it amplifies it. And that’s especially advantageous if you are already a communicator.

AI Enhanced Audio Services: Your Voice, Supercharged

Reddick writes about “leveraged skills,” and the most leveraged skill you have is your voice. Consider exploiting AI tools to offer:

  • local tourism audio guides,
  • church or nonprofit announcements,
  • fundraising video narration,
  • audio newsletters for local businesses,
  • corporate training narration,
  • e-learning or product demonstration voiceovers.

Each of these is high-trust, high-value, and repeatable. Businesses want a real human voice, and if you’re on radio or have a popular podcast, local businesses already know and trust your voice. AI simply lets you scale it. 

Repurposing: Your Secret Weapon

Reddick emphasizes turning one idea into multiple assets. You already generate hours of content. With AI, that becomes:

  • a monologue turned into a newsletter or newspaper column,
  • a segment turned into a blog post,
  • a rant turned into a daily, shareable email.

You’re already doing the hard part. AI helps multiply the output.

“Small, Fast, Useful”

Reddick likes what he calls “microproducts” – simple digital items that solve a problem quickly. As a broadcaster or podcaster, you already know how to explain things clearly and in plain English.

Whether you are repackaging interviews you already do or advertisers you already have (or want), or exploring your own personal interests, or simply addressing the everyday issues you yourself confront as a consumer, what can AI help you produce?

  • “How to Explain Tech Problems to Customer Support”
  • “How to Write a Complaint That Gets Results”
  • “Explaining Big News Stories to Young Children”
  • “Talking to Teens About Online Safety”
  • “How to Cancel SiriusXM Without the Runaround”
  • “Welcome! Starter Kit if You’re New to the Area”
  • “How to Sound Confident on Conference Calls”
  • “Airport Survival Guide for Infrequent Flyers”

Why These Work: They’re “evergreen” (relevant today and a year from now), high-utility (solves a problem quickly, low-lift (AI drafts, you refine), and trust-based (your voice + clarity = credibility).

If AI can scale your talent, the only limit now is your imagination. You can read the first two chapters of “The Complete Guide to AI Side Hustles,” free, here.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry Views

Monday Memo: You Will Save the Aircheck

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgMay the Fourth be with you today, as DJs and talk hosts are bumping with Star Wars music. And with Mother’s Day looming, here’s a tune that can be a wake-up call for forgetful listeners this Friday and Saturday – and a topic for Sunday’s show if you’re live-N-local then.

Got a mom in your family? Make a fuss. She earns it, every day. And if your mom has passed, I suspect that you have found – as my brothers and sisters and I have – that she never really leaves you. And THAT is a call-in/text-in topic that always clicks: “The best advice she ever gave you?”

You will hear stories. Some are so laugh-out-loud familiar that you may finish the caller’s sentence. Other callers’ tearful reminiscences will hit a nerve.

Emotion drives engagement. The most shared moments aren’t the clever bits that jingle-out. They’re the ones that connect. When listeners hear someone choke up talking about Mom’s advice, they lean in. That’s the magic of radio: real people, real time. Whether it’s “Star Wars Day” or “Mother’s Day,” what keeps radio relevant is what keeps it human: shared moments that make listeners feel seen.

And set a reminder now: Same bit for (and approaching) Father’s Day, June 21 this year.

Holland Cooke is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn