Archive for month: February, 2016

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to own an Academy Award?  Is it heavy?  Does everyone want to hold and touch it?  Are there rules and regulations from the Academy to ownership?  The answer to all three is yes.  John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego were curious about all these questions (curiosity is so critical to be a successful radio personality) and then they found out that Chris Turner, the longtime (and excellent) promotions director at the radio station, has an Oscar, and not for the reason you’d think.  So they put him on to tell his story and get answers to all the questions they wondered about.  Bringing people inside a topic, from any angle, is always good radio if it leads to a fascinating story with humor.

Let’s create some discomfort!  Kyle and Rachel, Radio NOW, Indianapolis, invited B-Lord’s father in last Father’s Day.  Bryan’s dad is a principal at a local elementary school.  Under the thesis that principals know all, his father was tasked with giving listeners life advice.  On paper, this is kind of monochromatic.  But not in execution as you’ll hear, considering how the team created that discomfort.  The team starts the break with a slew of profanity (knowing you don’t curse in front of a principal) followed by a listener call asking a risque question about a first date, knowing a fun and uncomfortable reaction would follow suit.  The show took what could have been boring and put 220-volts of electricity in it in how they designed the break.

Politics is a dicey topic for any morning.  Generally because the tendency is to take a stand, alienating a portion of your audience.  If we remember that the goal is to always create fun from the chosen topic, it gets easier.  Dawn McClain’s mom loves Donald Trump (a Hot List topic for weeks).  The co-host of McClain and Chris, 92.9 The Beat, Springfield, MO is a self-described charter member of the liberal media.  So there’s our conflict.  Dawn’s mom wants her to vote for Trump.  So…without doing politics, they get her on to let her make her pitch.  Because the goal is to have fun (and Dawn’s mother is a character), we define her and fuel how fun the show is).  Political humor is threading a needle on a morning show.  The show does is effortlessly here, without putting off any segment of their fan base.