Maria Palmer: Radio, Rage Bait, Real Community
Maria Palmer got her start in radio because iHeartMedia's James Howard walked into a dive bar in Washington D.C., possibly ordered a whiskey, and witnessed talent in action.
She was bartending, working her way through acting school, when James, then Program Director DC 101 noticed something: she was both entertaining and taming simultaneously. He asked if she'd ever considered radio. Two weeks later, she was in.
She's now part of the Morning Mosh Pit on Chicago's Rock 95.5, and she's built a significant following online. But the words I loved to hear: She's adamant that radio is her number one. Social media is apart of the gig, not the destination.
In an industry asking talent to do more with less—skeletal staffs, endless platforms, daily content demands—Maria's approach is instructive. She spent a year just building the habit of posting. No expectation of perfection. Just repetition. Just showing up. If you somehow decide to skip this episode, you are going to miss some really amazing takeaways. These are the things where I said "Oh wow":
Take an acting class or 10: Play the role of a villain. You'll learn empathy.
Post consistently: Your audience with thank you for being there and the algorithm will reward you.
Strategize for the nasty parts of being public: Your audience projects, they don't know you. The vulnerability of being seen is real, especially for radio talent used to the cloak of the studio. But the harshest comments aren't about you—they're about what people bring to the screen. Resilience comes from recognizing that distance.
"I always tell people just for at least your first probably year, the only thing that you should be focused on is posting. Just for at least your first probably year, the only thing that you should be focused on is posting. If you can post every single day and just build that muscle, then just inherently by doing that, you're going to get to know yourself more because you'll be watching yourself on camera. You're going to get to know your followers more. You're going to see what videos get liked more, what gets comments more, which ones get sent to people, which ones get reposted. That's data you're going to be inherently taking in, and that's just going to make you better without having to even think about it." — Maria Palmer, Morning Mosh Pit, Rock 95.5 Chicago
Comments