Jeff McHugh 
What are the most common mistakes we hear from television, radio and podcast hosts? Here are the top three and what you can do about them. Weak start How you begin determines whether your audience listens to you or not. The first words out of your piehole in the first few seconds are where your … Read more
What are the most common mistakes we hear in ensemble television, radio, and podcast shows? Here are the top three and what to do about them. Talk-over and interruptions A multi-player show sometimes becomes a cacophonous din where no one is understood. On new shows, there is sometimes a lot of stepping on toes as … Read more
Those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it. One of my favorite radio stories from the 1940s may be repeating itself in 2020. As president of NBC, David Sarnoff was a technology guy. Sarnoff believed that once you owned all the radio stations and built the network, you had won. And NBC was … Read more
The future of local television involves podcasting. Some stations repurpose newscast audio into downloadable shows while stations like WTTG in Washington have dedicated studios for creating original podcast content. Experts predict that podcast advertising will surpass $1 billion in 2021. News content has always been popular with podcast listeners, and demand has surged during the … Read more
It is exciting to hear more local television and radio stations producing podcasts. But I often find myself waving a yellow caution flag to our podcast coaching clients about copyrighted music. Music copyright infringement is potentially a huge problem for podcasters. Many folks are surprised when I bring it up. I created a game called … Read more
Every morning in 6th grade, I listened to Monty DuPuy, Greenville’s favorite on-air personality on WFBC-FM. Monty had a jabbering myna bird named Moe, who interjected frequently. But at 10 AM, WFBC went dead. You heard mechanized time checks and canned “hosts,” saying, “Here’s Time In A Bottle by Jim Croce” exactly the same way … Read more
Once upon a time, your radio show or podcast talked about something other than the COVID-19 pandemic. Today your listeners are more interested in that topic than in anything else. Ratings are way up for TV news and news radio. Health-related podcasts like NPR’s Coronavirus Daily and CNN’s Coronavirus Fact or Fiction are tops on … Read more
Imagine great news: you have just been hired as a program director or news director! Then the bad news: your job includes a show so godawful bad that you wonder how they were hired in the first place. I have been there many times as a talent coach. Let’s begin with some perspective: Every show … Read more
Think of your airtime on a radio show or podcast as you would dollars in your 401k; Invest more in your high return-on-investment content, and divest what does not pay you back as much. High-performing shows not only plan content, they also discuss how long they are going to take to execute each segment. There … Read more
Today, everyone is on-camera. Competitive radio and podcast hosts now also have a video presence, executives are presenting on video chat more often and nearly everyone does social media video. Mindfully practicing good movement, gestures and expressions can add energy, emotion or meaning. The best presenters move and do stuff. But if you are not … Read more