In the Room, NOT on the Phone

If you've worked with me or read any of my coaching tips, you know that pretty much anything you say on-air -- besides the name of the station -- each break is open to being "broken down" and examined. Motive is the key to what poisons radio for a lot of people, and techniques that get around the "agenda" of most air talents and radio stations are what I teach a lot of the time.

Giving your phone number out on the air is something that's so fundamental, so seemingly simple, that most people botch it like a third baseman with a Teflon glove.

We all want listeners to call, but seem to only give out the phone number when WE need them to respond. A contest or a "topic" (God, I hate that word) seems to almost always be the spark that pounds the phone number into our foreheads like dogs being told to sit up and speak for a jerky treat.

Now, of course, you want to say the phone number when you need a caller to give something away. That's not the issue here. Instead, let me give you an easy way to generate more phone traffic without trying so hard -- and sounding "needy."

Once an hour, say something like "You're always welcome to join the show" and give the phone number. "You can always get a hold of us anytime at (phone number)" is another one. Or "anytime you have a question about something" or "anytime you want to jump in" will work, too.

What this does is threefold:

1. It extends an invitation at a time that you don't "need" someone to call. This takes away that disc jockey desperation factor.
2. It gives the number periodically to the listener at a time when it may be more convenient to write it down. (We normally seem to only give the number out when people are driving. I'm not the only one who won't take my eyes off those other idiots around me in traffic for even one second, in order to find a piece of paper and a pen to write something down.)
3. You'll get different callers; people who aren't the same "regulars" who call in every day and bore people to death, or turn into the station's "prize hogs" who win everything you ever give away. You'll get people who call because they want to; people who feel like you're accessible, and they just want to chime in on the conversation.

The best call you can ever get -- the call you want to get -- is the person who says, "I've never called a radio station before, but I just had to call about this..."