Be interested in what people have to say and be yourself.

These two tips are at the heart of the success of broadcasters Alan Jones and Ray Hadley, who led their station to 100 straight ratings wins this week.

Jones told Fairfax Media, “if you’re interested, you’ll be interesting… your audience feel when you are interested in them. If you’re jaundiced about it, they will go somewhere else.”

Ray Hadley remembered what one of his mentors, Gary O’Callaghan told him about the secret to success in the radio business. There is no secret handshake or secret formula, it is just about being yourself:

“You can’t define the engagement between you and the listeners… I remember talking to Gary O’Callaghan about it… he said to me, do you think you can be Ray Hadley [on air]… do you think you can cry when you’re sad, laugh when you’re happy and be angry when you’re angry? Well, be yourself because that microphone can tell people directly when you’re not being yourself… I try to be  true to myself as Gary explained to me all those years ago.”

A simple formula… but not so simple to emulate, otherwise every talk station woudl have scored the century of consecutive top results that 2GB earned this week in ratings survey 7.

Congratulations 2GB.