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Normally you don’t talk about your birthday on the air, right? No one really cares when you’re in the office and someone else goes on and on about their birthday. But, if you add audio of those at the birthday party insulting your partner for not attending, you create humor and character development for them, which elevates the conversation strategically because you’re defining someone on the program and making the audience laugh. Such was the case when Ray and Karen, The Morning Misfits on MIX 94.9, Cincinnati, talked about Karen not attending Ray’s weekend birthday party recently.
How fun would it be to find a cute sounding kid and have him or her read the ingredients of typical Halloween candy to the audience with the first listener to guess the candy being described winning a prize (and maybe a bag of the candy)?
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One of our absolute favorite Halloween bits was done by Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa, who decided to ask the mayor of St. Petersburg to read the Vincent Price poem at the end of the Michael Jackson song “Thriller”. Doing a homegrown version of this part of the song is unique, very topical, and fun. This break takes on the added dimension of unpredictability because of how they got the mayor to do it (unnecessary in the execution, but it certainly added to the drama of its presentation). Dave (who’s completely fearless) went to a town hall meeting and, asking to go last, requested that the mayor do this in front of an unsuspecting crowd. Everything about this break is perfect: how they presented the scenario, the airing of the audio with commentary, with the mayor’s final product at the end.
Easily the most despised Halloween treat is the dreaded, awful, horrible, disgusting candy corn. Open those phones and put together the voice of listeners who agree for The Candy Corn Haters Club.
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October is the month for Pumpkin Spice Lattes and pumpkin spice everything! Find a bunch of folks who’ve never had a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks and give them their virgin experience on your show in a bit called “Pop Your Pumpkin”. Thanks to Stacey K from HOT 101.7, Santa Rosa, CA for the catchy name to this idea.
There are few honors higher in a market than being asked to throw out the first pitch or sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at your local major league baseball park. Lisa and Ray, US 99.5, Chicago were invited to Wrigley Field to help with the seventh inning stretch for a recent Cubs game. “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” was something the iconic Harry Caray made fun when he did play-by-play for the Cubs. Nervous to do a great job in front of thousands of fans and a TV audience, Lisa and Ray decided to get tips from Harry’s widow, Dutchie. There are options for a show when something like this happens: just talk about it or find something to do with it that is unique and has a “first person” quality. Talking with Dutchie accomplishes the latter and makes the break and its content more memorable.
One struggle for many parents is amount of candy and sugar their kids eat. Sean Henry, from Sean and Michelle, B103, Rockford, IL has a young son. In efforts for Sean to connect with the female base of the program, he regularly talks to his kid, Declan. After a party for his sister, with tons of sugar, Declan had too much candy and went off on violent TV shows. The world from the perspective of a kid hopped up on sugar! What parent wouldn’t listen to this, hear real life, and bond with the cast? This connection point is the start of building a relationship with the audience where the personalities are the draw into the program.
