Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for stars.
Despite all the technical improvements, it still boils down to a man or a woman and a microphone, playing music, sharing stories, talking about issues -- communicating with an audience.
Success doesn't happen in a vacuum. You’re only as good as the people you work with and the people you work for.
If the beat gets to the audience, and the message touches them, you've got a hit.
I accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. That is the timeless thing.
Anytime in radio that you can reach somebody on an emotional level, you're really connecting.
Vegetarianism is the cure for 99% of the world's problems. Think about it.
I must have done about 25,000 promos.
A non-violent world has roots in a non-violent diet.
Songs used to be short, then they became longer, and now theyre getting shorter. But otherwise, music is about a beat and a message. If the beat gets to the audience, and the message touches them, youve got a hit.
The first syndicating I tried was when two partners and I created a production company in 1952. We wanted to syndicate famous Bible stories and sell them for $25 a show.
I like the storytelling and reading the letters, the long-distance dedications.
Some of the things that I do, I think are very important and much more important than the radio show or the television show that I do or anything else that I do. I think right at the top of the list is the basic thing. And of course the basic thing is to hopefully stop people from killing anything. And to create a non-violent diet for themselves, because a non-violent world has roots in a non-violent diet.
We tell stories. We talk about statistics. And in 1978, we added an element of the show that gave it its heartbeat: the long distance dedication.
My first commercial was for Miller High Life beer.
For years everyone looked toward the demise of radio when television came along. Before that, they thought talking movies might eliminate radio as well. But radio just keeps getting stronger.
That something extra, I believe, is a certain humanity that comes from upbeat and positive human interest letters and success stories. Advertisers like to be associated with those qualities.
Always be consistent.
I started radio in 1950 on the Lone Ranger radio program, a dramatic show that emanated from Detroit when I was 18 years old and just beginning college. I did that for a couple of years.
Basically, radio hasn't changed over the years.
I was drafted and went to Korea where I had an opportunity to create a production team that did dramatic and comedy shows. I had also done a little disc jockeying.
It's been amazing, the number of commercials that I've done, starting back in 1968. It must be 8,000.
My agent said that I was one of the top three busiest people in the country.
As you know, in the past several years, month after month, radio has increased its revenues - some of it even coming from Dot-Com advertisers. So, radio is a survivor.
The stories are success stories. The letters from listeners often touch the heart and can be inspiring.
