J. Craig Klope started a celebrity talk show for radio even though he had no experience or training in radio or communications. Here's how he did it.
Starting With No Experience[00:01:30] Craig started listening to Mystery Theater on the radio as a child, and later he'd listen to radio talk shows as he traveled. The celebrity interviews intrigued him. After moving to Nashville in his 20's, Craig came up with the a name for a production company, had a letterhead made, and started contacting radio stations. He was finally able to secure a time slot at one of the Nashville stations, but he had no guests![00:05:07] Craig's determination and persistence paid off. His first guest was Bob Denver, the actor who played Gilligan on
Gilligan's Island. Once that first show was done, it became easier to get more guests. Craig shares how he recorded the show in a spare bedroom with an answering machine.[00:07:23] Anybody could have looked at what Craig was doing and said, "That'll never work," but it did. If you have a dream, it's important to get people around you who will encourage you, not people who only tell you all the ways it won't work. Craig says, "If I'm with somebody else that has a dream I tried to look at the ways it can happen, because I know how it is to have somebody, or people, just say, 'Oh wow. That's great but you know it's impossible unless...this or this.' Well, we know that things aren't impossible. We've seen that over and over through many people that have had success."
Celebrities in My Guest Room which will include stories from the celebrities he's interviewed.[00:16:02] One interview that stands out is the one with television legend Art Linkletter: "He found that the people on the street, people that were not given a script, were actually funnier than people that had memorized monologues. So he would just go with it. Everyday people.That is a big testimony to his skill of bringing people out and getting the stories out of them."[00:23:32] Craig says once he got a few celebrities as guests, others followed. He learned to look for those who had a book to promote. Craig says, "Any time they had an autobiography, I knew that they had certain engagements they would have to make through the publisher." That was a prime opportunity for Craig.
Mentoring, Criticism, and Encouragement[00:25:48] Craig discussed some early mistakes. You can start without any knowledge or experience, but you can't stay that way. He tells ho
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