Former WFAN brand manager Mark Chernoff has been in the radio business for 30 years and has seen many changes in the way shows are done. As things are changing, there is one thing Chernoff wishes there was more of in today’s radio.
Chernoff was a guest on the latest episode of the Takin’ A Walk podcast with Buzz Knight. He bemoaned the lack of opportunities for new talent to develop at the local level across all formats.
“It is so important to develop local talent,” Chernoff told Knight. “At WFAN, we were always able to stay live and local, 24/7. So many stations, even music stations, are missing that. Many stations have morning shows and nothing else. They are syndicated. Alright, fine, they play 12 songs in a row or 2 hours in a row and it’s commercial-free, but we are not developing talent the way we need to develop talent.”
He noted that there is more opportunity than ever to find fresh voices. Podcasts, YouTube, and other outlets give people the ability to get reps without waiting for permission. Radio is missing an opportunity by not taking advantage of those talents.
While Chernoff was at WFAN, his former assistant program director Eric Spitz, came up with a theory called POKE, which ended up being a good talent evaluator for radio hosts.
“Passion, opinion, knowledge, entertainment. That kind of capsulized how we felt about the talent. We always made sure if the talent had those four qualities, they were going to be superstars whether it was Don Imus, Mike [Francesa] and Chris [Russo], Joe Benigno, Boomer Esiason, Craig Carton, Evan Roberts. If they could have all four of those qualities, you knew they were going to be successful.Every show was different, but every show knew how to hit the hot topics.”
Mark Chernoff has always revered great talent. He told Knight that he tried not to overmanage them unless it was needed. He hopes that’s something his staff would remember about his management style.
“I’m sure there are some people who say I over-managed them. Sometimes with newer staff, you sometimes did need to teach people the format and how to be on-the-air and stuff like that.”
