In an inspiring conversation, four of the best-known morning show hosts of Germany talk about their relationship with their audience, how they wake up in the morning and what saves them on a bad day.
What do you need to be a morning show host? Arno Müller, who introduced the modern morning show concept into the German market, says that “the most important advice is: the audience needs to know you”. Markus Fahn, host of the Bayern 1 morning show, in contrast, stresses that you need discipline and professionalism.
To keep their performance level high, the hosts have individual techniques: Johannes Scherer listens to conversations of people on the bus to know what’s going on: “I try to be the normal one”. Markus Fahn meanwhile does airchecks with himself two to three times a week to check on whether he still meets his standards. Sabine Heinrich opens up about more extraordinary techniques: to get herself going, she listens to radio stations from different countries (she doesn’t even understand the language of). To keep herself fresh and awake, she uses post-its with mottos for the week, or even comes up with games like “the floor is lava”.
Arno Müller stresses that your audience needs to get to know you, has to know for what you stand and how you live. You do not only want to be a voice, you want to be a person, a friend, a part of their morning routine. On the other hand, you also have to know the audience: “the most important rule is the 80-20 rule: 80 percent of your listening comes from 20 percent of your listeners. So you need to know those listeners – if you lose them, you are dead.”
Asked for important advice for future morning show hosts, Sabine half jokes: “You can sleep everywhere, at every time”! Arno Müller adds that it is important to keep the own health in mind. If he would have known that he would be that successful, he “fought less for unimportant things”. In the end, the hosts all seem to agree that it is important to do your thing. That and going to sleep early enough.
