Mark Ramsay, Tracy Johnson On What Makes Great Talent

Tracy Johnson

What makes radio talent great? Where do you find it? And how can you leverage it?

Those are just some of the questions tackled by Tracy Johnson, CEO of the Tracy Johnson Media Group in this Q&A from hivio, Mark Ramsay Media's audio future festival.

According to Ramsay, Johnson has a long and decorated career as a broadcast executive, specializing in programming, marketing, talent coaching and management, and he’s the author of three books about developing on-air superstars that have been described as The Bible of Personality Radio.

Tracy answers these and other questions:

• What is the state of talent on radio from your perspective?
• When will radio wake up to the talent in the world of podcasting and use either those podcasts or that talent in its arsenal?
• While platforms like Pandora may be all music, others like Slacker and iTunes are not. How soon until online radio pure-plays look to make a major on-air talent play?
• Morning Shows…What characterizes the best entertainment (i.e., morning) shows? What common trouble-spots do you find?
• Is talent so scarce? Or are we not looking in the right place? Or have we lost the skill to nurture it?
• What advice do you offer to talent who want to leverage their popularity across digital platforms?