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Christopher Springmann - Host and Executive Producer, Life Love & Health and Body Language

By Erin Upton

In radio broadcasting, language is everything.  Without pictures or video to compliment the words and help the story flow, sound is all Christopher Springmann has to connect with his audience.  That’s why it’s absolutely crucial for each spoken word to touch his listeners. 

As the host and executive producer of Life Love & Health, a health and lifestyle program, he’s able to share moving stories that capture an individual’s personal challenges and by doing so bring a sense of unity to his listeners. The program airs daily around the country on XM and Sirius Satellite Radio news and talk stations including ABC, CNN, Fox and ESPN, on NPR affiliates, on Wal-Mart Radio and, internationally, on Voice of America Radio Network and the American Forces Network. Springmann has been producing 20 of these programs a month for nearly five years. 

Springmann has also been working on a new program, Body Language, set to debut on July 8.  It’s a one hour feature program based in great part on integrated health and wellness.  The show will initially consist of six programs that will run six consecutive weeks on KALW-FM in San Francisco.  After reviewing the audience response, the plan is to launch the program nationally during the first quarter of 2009.

“A typical Body Language story that we’re running features an integrative oncologist from UCSF (the University of California, San Francisco) and one of his patients, a woman who had breast cancer,” Springmann said. “She was not pleased with the type of service she was receiving from a conventional oncologist and chose this path because she found the integrative oncologist much more engaging, much more personal and willing to try therapies that would be considered either complimentary or alternative.

“Now that interview with the patient is very powerful in the sense that she really had an opportunity to convey for the first time her thoughts about the whole process,” he said. ”I always feel that when we do an interview like that people get closer to the radio.  They really listen because it’s not me talking, it’s not a doctor talking, it’s someone who they can identify with and that’s really the key with this: to find people who tell compelling stories.”

Whether using photographs, written words or broadcasting, Springmann has always sought to tell these stories.  With his broad range of experience and desire to make a positive change in people’s lives, he knows exactly what elements make up a truly inspiring and influential piece.

“The compelling stories that always intrigued me as a photographer, later as a writer for Chief Executive magazine, were ones that pushed my emotional buttons,” Springmann explained, “those personal health stories that celebrated the human spirit, that incorporated elements of behavior and relationships, choices and decisions, all coupled with struggle and often, triumph.”

Pitching Tips

“We don’t take pitches except from people who have listened to the show, researched us well, and who have determined that a partnership with us would benefit their client,” Springmann said.  “We will not accept telephone or mail communications.”

He does not wish to be e-mailed directly; instead, visit the Web site.  Take a look around and listen to the programming.  After you’ve done that, if you decide you’d like to contact them you can do so from the Web site.

 “We are not anxious to put individuals on the radio whose mission is to sell something.  They really have to be a valuable service to our audience and give people valuable information,” he explained.  “For example, we won’t put authors on alone.  We will put authors on with their readers, people who’ve bought the book and benefited from it.  Otherwise, it’s a very one-sided conversation and it’s not very compelling for the listener.”

Springmann prefers aggregators like The Wall Street Journal, Marketwire and Health Behavior News Service. He also loves long-term relationships with PR firms. One of his goals for the future is “to continue the wonderful relationships we have with committed and inspired professionals” at several PR firms. Springmann appreciates PR professionals “who serve their client’s best interests well and appreciate what we do well.”

One of his pet peeves is being viewed as a press release dump.  He also finds vague e-mails disturbing.

“I have noticed more e-mail pitches are very vague to the point of being duplicitous, not mentioning the client’s or product name or even the name of the Top Ten PR firm in the brief signature file,” he said.  “More and more e-mails are coming from people with Gmail or Hotmail addresses, which don’t reveal the name of the sending company.  These are also from subcontractors for larger firms.”

Springmann sees PR’s role as one that facilitates access to the people he needs to speak with, not one of securing free advertising time for goods and services.  From his perspective, media coverage is not an entitlement.

“Most PR firms measure their value to the client in hits, scores, not by service,” he explained.  “That’s unfortunate, as we need their input and that puts us in a difficult position.”