On Being Creative

Some of the best radio I hear in America is on public radio stations.

The national talent on NPR is really strong, but I'm talking about the talent on your local public station.

They're literate, for starters. They're uniformly intelligent and well educated.

They not only understand the power of story-telling, many of them do it every show, every day, and do it well.

The best of them, some of whom I hear daily on Colorado Public Radio, do it -- as you would have to -- on a music station, where their content has to be edited for brevity and have some connection to a piece of music.

Why should public radio be producing some of the most interesting content in each city?

For starters, they try to -- it's part of the expectation when they're hired.

And, the best of them have paid their dues. They've tried, and failed, and kept on trying. They've learned what works.

Listen to Ira Glass: This is great advice!

I know most of you aren't allowed to tell stories on your commercial music station, but I bet you could post them on your website. In fact, I don't know a radio website anywhere that couldn't use a great story-teller.

• Start with curiosity.
• Dig into the emotion below the surface.
• Edit. Edit. Edit.
• Make me feel.

That's it. You didn't sound as good as you do today the first time you worked on the air. Allow yourself time to try and fail, and then try again.

It's one more way to make yourself remarkable and irreplaceable.