Radio show prep: what a prep service is, and how to judge one

Show prep is the written material a radio host takes into a shift: the stories the audience will already have heard about, the topic that opens the phones, the game, the calendar item, the thing to say coming out of a record. A show prep service is a subscription that produces that material daily so the host doesn't have to build it from scratch an hour before air.

That's the whole category. What separates one from another isn't how much they send — it's what you can do with it once it lands.

The six things worth judging any prep service on

1. Can you check it?

The worst thing a prep service can do is hand you a confident sentence with nothing behind it. You read it, it's wrong, and it's your name on the door — not theirs. Ask whether every factual item carries sources you can click before you say it, and whether items they could only confirm once are labeled that way instead of mixed in. A prep service you can't audit is asking for trust it hasn't done anything to earn, every single show.

2. Is it timed?

A break is a length before it's anything else. Material that shows up as one undifferentiated block leaves you doing arithmetic in your head as the song runs out. Look for a read time on every item and a way to see a segment's running length as you assemble it — ninety seconds of copy is about 225 words, and almost every long break is long in the setup.

3. Can you read it on the air as it sits?

This is the one people find out about last. A twelve-point document is something you decode; reading copy is something you read. If getting the material on-air-ready means retyping it into a bigger font every day, they've handed you a second job. Ask about large-type reading copy, a prompter, or both — and whether you're stuck with the prompter if you don't want it.

4. Does it arrive when you actually prep?

Roughly half of hosts prep the night before. Most services build once, around 5am, which means the night-before half are prepping yesterday's edition and hoping it holds. Ask when the edition is built, and whether it's refreshed for overnight news.

5. Can you hear yourself back?

Almost nobody expects this one, because almost no prep service does it. Every consultant in radio tells hosts to aircheck themselves and almost nobody does — not because listening back is hard, but because recording, finding and filing the clip is three jobs at the busiest moment of the show. A service that already knows what break you're reading, and when, is the one thing in the room that can take all three off you.

6. Is any of it local?

National material makes you sound like everybody else. The one defensible thing a local station has is that it's local, so a prep service is worth more if some of what it hands you is about your market — or at least written so localizing it takes ten seconds instead of a rewrite.

When you shouldn't buy one

Honestly: if you've already got a prep routine that works, an hour to run it and a co-host to split it with, a subscription buys you back time you didn't need. And no service replaces local reporting — none of them know the diner burned down in 2011, and none of them ever will.

What a service is for is the week everything goes wrong. That's the week the routine either holds or it doesn't, and it's the week most shows go on the air thin. If you want the routine itself first, there's a whole piece on building one, free, no account needed.

Where ShowPrepPro fits

ShowPrepPro is a daily edition for radio: 21 sections, built overnight and finished before you sit down. A host who still does a morning show built it, for the station without a big-market budget or a prep person — and every rule in it is a fix for something that went wrong on a real shift.

• Sources on every factual item, linked and dated, on the item where your eye already is. Two independent outlets wherever they exist, and a single-source item says so. Why that standard.
• A break builder that counts the clock as you pick, so a ninety-second break is ninety seconds.
• Reading Mode and On-Air Mode — the same segment as a still page in large type, or as a moving prompter. If you hate moving copy, nobody's making you use it.
• One-button airchecking, so you hear yourself back. Press it when you open the mic and again when you're done; the clip is kept, beside the script if you built one and on its own if you were adlibbing. It compensates for the delay between your microphone and your stream, so the clip starts where you started talking. Listening back is the habit every PD preaches and almost nobody keeps, and it's how hosts get better.
• A show that files itself. Close the day and every break, every word as it was read, and that day's airchecks are kept under one reference — searchable months later, for the call that begins "you said on the 2nd…".
• The edition lands at 5pm the day before and is refreshed with overnight news, so both kinds of prepper are served.
• Local Angle — coming. Your city and call letters are already in the copy. The market section itself is still being built, and it says so wherever it appears.
• Pronunciation guides on hard names, a searchable archive of past editions, and a show rundown in the order you run it, with air times if you want them.
• A streak and 10 trophies for recording your show and listening back, and a producer free on your account.

Here's a whole show being built in it, with screenshots →

What it costs

$19 a month, or $190 a year. Everything's included — there's no tier that holds the good parts back for another $40. The trial runs 14 days and needs no card, and if you forget to cancel we email you instead of charging you.

Questions

What is a radio show prep service?

A subscription that delivers written material for a host to use on the air — news the audience will have heard about, talk topics, games, calendar items, and things to say between records. It's preparation, not automation: a person still reads it, picks what fits their market and says it in their own words.

How much does show prep cost?

Services aimed at individual hosts and small stations generally run between $15 and $60 a month. ShowPrepPro is $19 a month or $190 a year, with every feature included and a 14-day trial that needs no card.

Is show prep worth paying for if I already read the news?

Depends on what your day looks like. If you've got an hour and a quiet room, probably not. If you've got twenty minutes, a sales meeting at ten and a remote to confirm, the value isn't the material — it's that somebody already checked it, timed it and put it in a form you can read out loud.

Does show prep work for a one-person morning show?

That's the case it's most useful for. A station with a full air staff can share the load. A one-person show can't, and it's the show most likely to go on the air with material nobody had time to check.

Start the 14 days freeIf you're a one-person air staff