With the pandemic, I’ve been hearing that question a lot lately.
For me, the answer is simple: yes!
But by doing what? That’s what we’re going to talk about here.

At exceptional times, exceptional questions: should we continue to go on the radio, to host shows? Several questions that have arisen recently because of the pandemic and confinement.

For me, it’s yes thanks to 4 words: social link, human warmth.
These are the primary missions of radio, so let’s accomplish them!
Of course, all the sanitary conditions must be met: work at home, disinfection of studios, safe distances… But, this is what has been set up in most radio stations.

Some also asked me: “listeners get up later, so why continue the morning shows at 6am?”
Because we can forget about the audience for a few days and focus on the primary missions of our job. This is when radio is of public utility.
Okay, there’s a little less people getting up at 6:00 in the morning… so what?
Those who get up are the ones who help us: medical staff, shopkeepers, farmers, delivery men, truck drivers and I forget some… They are the ones who save our lives! So why shouldn’t we be there to help them wake up?
Since the beginning of this period, we have never had so many messages from listeners on our social networks. All of them are happy to find their usual voices and morning benchmarks. They commit to us, so we can continue to commit to them!

Once the question of being present or absent is settled, the next question comes: what do we do?
Already, we pass on important messages such as health instructions, for example.
And then we do what we know!
What does a news channel do when there’s a lot of news? It reinforces its promise.
What is a local radio station doing right now? It also reinforces its promise with very good local initiatives.
Why not do the same on an entertainment music radio station?
Do listeners feel less inclined to smile in a time of sadness and anxiety? I don’t think so.
Let’s imagine that you go to work in a hospital. Do you only want to hear bad news? No, of course not. You just want the host put you in a good mood on the way to work.
So let’s wake up that listener with as many smiles as possible.

Of course, the show has to be connected to the sense of the day.

3 contents are important in this period:

– all the new situations of daily life that this confinement brings us to experience
– the nice stories and initiatives that are being put in place in this period
– highlighting the heroes of our daily lives
These 3 contents help maintain the promise of entertainment, strengthen the link with the listener and accomplish the radio’s primary mission: social link by transmitting human warmth.
For listeners who are no longer awake during the show, social networks help keep the link with them. Many morning shows are broadcast on facebook during the day and thus remain landmarks for listeners. Let’s take advantage of these “quieter” weeks to strengthen our presence and gain in creativity: listener challenges – hosts, interactive lives with artists, viral videos…

This period should allow us to focus on what is the primary vocation of our profession: think only about our listeners and their needs! And we must never forget this.
In a musical morning of entertainment: change his ideas, with a lot of smiles and playing him the music he loves.
When my alarm clock rings at 3:30 a.m., I measure every morning the chance and privilege we have to wake up people who save lives!

So let’s think about it daily and do it with our hearts!