Shopping for a Unicorn at the Dollar Store

Why is a great morning show producer harder to find than Wi-Fi in the wilderness? Ask any program director what the toughest gig to hire for is, and they’ll skip the dramatic pause: morning show producer.

Why? Because the job description reads like it was written by three different committees on three different planets. You need technical chops, creative sparks, endless curiosity, and the people skills of a hostage negotiator. A great producer doesn’t just “do the job.” They inhale the show’s DNA, understand the cast’s quirks, keep an eye on the audience’s taste buds, and never quite find the “off” switch on their idea radar.

The best producers I’ve worked with and witnessed in action take the job personally. They’re analytical and empathetic in equal doses. They can smell a dead-end idea before anyone else, yet they know when to push a hunch because the audience is whispering it back to them in a hundred subtle ways.

Sound familiar? It should. Swap out the title on the business card and you’ve just described a Program Director. Maybe that’s why hiring a producer feels like shopping for a unicorn at the Dollar Store. PDs are basically looking for a mini-me. Who can blame them? The best morning show producers are the program director of their daypart.

Here’s the rub: people with those skills are usually chasing a PD chair, or they’re already in one. Unfortunately there are fewer of those chairs with each passing year. Which makes me wonder: how many seasoned PDs have seriously thought about jumping into the morning show producer’s chair?

Yeah, I know. It sounds like a backward career move. But think about it. If you’ve juggled a station’s programming, music, brand, talent, sales ideas, events, contests, promotions, and digital content, all while carrying the weight of a 24/7 operation, what happens when you shrink that load down to one show, 20 hours a week? You don’t just survive. You dominate.

Now, don’t get me wrong: producing isn’t easy. Trial by fire is still the training manual. Every successful producer has the burn scars to prove it. The same goes for PDs. But imagine unleashing a veteran PD on just one morning show. 

Suddenly, you’ve got a laser-focused operator driving a single morning show’s programming and operational elements we consider to be the most important to the future of radio: hyper-local content and storytelling, on-demand audio and video, building real-world in-person communities, and a more meaningful engagement on digital platforms and social media.

Take it a step further and imagine a PD turned morning show Producer for multiple stations backed by AI. A human “super producer” training a team of AI agents to understand each show’s content strategy, audience quirks, and creative targets. One person could replicate success across multiple shows and markets without losing the flavor that keeps local, authentic talent on the air.  

To get there, you’d need the right human running point, a smart content strategy, skill in training AI agents, and a framework that scales. Local voices stay on the air. Their content gets sharper. Their reach expands. Ratings climb. Revenue follows.

That’s not sci-fi. That’s the natural evolution of how every industry is adapting their thinking about AI. This model might not be what the future looks like for radio, but I can promise you it’ll rhyme. And the only way it works is if human talent brings the creative muscle and AI handles the repetitive load. When we show AI how to do the work, we get to do more creative thinking.  

I’d love to know what you think, what you’re working on, where you think we’re going, and how we’ll get there. lindy@lindymedia.net.