Everyone "knows" that the quality of their station's presentation and reporting must equal network standards. But while the MEGS team heard some fantastic work, we also heard examples that were almost embarrassing! Reminding ourselves - and our staffs - that listeners make judgments about the quality of our work every time they listen is essential to achieving consistent quality.
For most stations, this means making the difficult decision to do less local programming - whether that programming is (within the context of Morning Edition) spot news or features. Most stations simply don't have enough great reporters, producers and announcers to do 20 minutes of network-quality local material in an hour.
As one PD observed after the conclusion of the MEGS workshops:
"The first thing I did was, in no uncertain terms, challenge my people to aspire to network quality EVERYTIME they contribute content of any sort. I've been more pointed and more regular in providing critiques of on-air people and I've been hammering into them the importance of good promo writing and strategic use of promo copy and audio promos. I have challenged my people to give their best at ALL times and most of them are responding beautifully to the challenge."
