Aspiring radio DJs never ask me for advice (probably because there are very few people who aspire to be on the radio these days), but if I had one recommendation: If you’re not tired at the end of a three-hour airshift, you’re doing it wrong.
I always tell DJs, if you’re not having fun doing your show, why would you expect the listener to have fun? For my three-hour show, I’m tanked-up on caffeine and having fun. At 3:01 p.m., I collapse into a chair and just sit for a couple of minutes.
On the other hand, someone once asked the legendary Dan Ingram — who ruled the New York City radio airwaves for decades on WABC and WCBS-FM — what it took to become a successful Top 40 DJ.
The average pop record is about three minutes long. Ingram said successful DJs only had one real talent:
“You must be able to defecate in less than three minutes.”
Listen: Dan Ingram on WABC, June 1970