Moose and Breezy, 98PXY, Rochester, NY with Letting Interviews Breathe

When conducting any interview, my radar is up for who talks more, you or the person you’re interviewing.  It should be the latter, as they are the focus of the story telling.  Terrific interviews are done when you have a deep interest in the story about to be told.  Your inquisitiveness to draw out the subject and get them to dig deeper in their story and its emotions determines how impactful the interview is for listeners.  That requires great prep, an ability to listen instead of focusing on your next question, and allowing the interview to breath (silence is a very powerful tool, especially in a serious interview, to give listeners the space to absorb what’s been said).  Moose and Breezy, 98PXY, Rochester, NY show a picture-perfect example of this in a conversation they had with a listener about suicide prevention.

Chris and Dina, WMAS-FM, Springfield, MA with The Great Lego Walk

One pain every parent knows is when you unexpectedly step on an errant Lego left on the floor by their kid.  A relatable known to everyone, but especially Chris and Dina, WMAS-FM, Springfield, MA.  Dina set up the story line on the show, challenging Chris to remove his shoes and take a long walk over a sea of Legos.  A fun idea that’d vibe with any parent.  And listeners who related felt great empathy for Chris, who had endured the same pain, too.  Plus, it was quite funny to make Chris do this.  Stunts like this build characters and force a sense of compassion by the audience.  Here’s the final break from the show of the walk.  Doing a social media video helps extend the fun and presence of the idea to accrue images.

Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston with 1000 Days of Playing Catch

When the driving force of your show is to be kind and highlight the positives of the audience, you position yourself as the opposite of the negativity most people see every day.  Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston are about real life, always looking for the good their listeners put in the universe.  Their Good Vibe Tribe feature was developed to do just that.  In this installment, Karson’s pastor comes on with the story of his commitment to play catch with one of his kids.  Started years ago, he’s here to celebrate 1000 consecutive days of doing just that.  Both the feature and feeling they want listeners to experience when they hear the show are your takeaways here.

Anna and Raven, Star 99.9, Bridgeport, CT with the Courtroom Sketch Artist

What do you know?  What do you wonder?  Two critical questions in the prep process that define who you are and create your connection to a topic.  It’s much harder to do a great radio show if you don’t have any curiosity to the topics of the day.  In their prep, Anna and Raven, Star 99.9, Bridgeport, CT (and syndicated) knew they had to be all over the Diddy trial – it’s a Hot Topic and requires addressing.  How to do that, though?  It’s salacious testimony, but you can’t rely on just that.  As they jumped down the rabbit hole, they saw lots of pictures from the trial as done by a courtroom sketch artist.  They wondered what that was like.  So they found one and he shared some insight, making for a fascinating conversation around a big topic as done from their curiosity.

The Morning Wolfpack, KKWF, Seattle with Getting Right to the Content

First let’s talk about the content.  Story-based, lots of drama, and multiple points-of-view.  Gabe on the Morning Wolfpack with Matt McAllister, Gabe, and Captain Ron, KKWF, Seattle posted a Tik Tok video that pissed off her boyfriend’s father.  It’s a pretty simple story to tell and mine for gold.  Here are two segments of the drama on the show.  There are a couple of things I want to note before you listen to them.  First – in radio we often have a story and then the cast member in it tells everyone’s side.  That’s pretty one-dimensional and deprives you of first hand extra voices with perspectives.  The show invites on Gabe’s boyfriend in the first break, and then her father to tell their side of things.  Both those people add much more to the story,  The other item to note – the song ends and the content (story telling) starts.  They spend zero seconds up front with nonsense.  They get right to the content!

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego with Winning an “ACM”

A running theme on John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego is that they always get nominated for awards, but never win them.  They’re the Susan Lucci of local radio!  As a tenured show, the rules are different.  They can mock themselves and treat sardonically not winning an award.  This is a connection point with their audience, as their fans don’t win any awards, too.  Because they are so well-defined after 10+ years on-the-air, it’s okay to do this.  They were up for an ACM (Academy of Country Music) award this year, but didn’t win again.  So they did the next best thing the morning the ACM show was on TV.  They broadcast live from ACM Auto Body and Paint in San Diego.  The client was smart and gave them their ACM.  Here’s a video they put on social to continue that story line.

Elizabeth and Radar, 99.1 The MIX, Milwaukee with Pope or Nope

Being creative to grab listeners doesn’t take much sometimes.  It could be a simple twist that rockets a break from passive to active.  As proven by Elizabeth and Radar, 99.1 The MIX, Milwaukee.  A new Pope emerges and he’s from America!  We have a new rabbit hole of information everywhere.  Many shows will just read stuff online and discuss it on-air.  But here’s a simple twist, turning that information into a vicarious game played with a listener called Pope or Nope.  Sometimes it isn’t too tough to create a fresh treatment to this very relevant topic.  Elizabeth has a bunch of facts and she engages Radar and caller on each, thus creating humor around something that’s very topical.  At times we default to just conversation.  But a little creative push can sometimes make the difference to earn the right images to impress and engage your fans.

Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston with Kennedy’s Thailand Fail

What’s the length of a good break?  It depends on the quality of the content.  And how much drama there is in telling it.  The more conflict, tension, and drama you have, the longer the story can go.  Case in point is the story told on Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston after Kennedy came back from a vacation overseas.  Kennedy’s trip to Thailand, specifically a dinner she attended, went horribly wrong for many reasons.  Twist and turns and lots of speed bumps coupled with a self-deprecating sense of humor compel the audience to want to hear the story to conclusion.  Breaks with those elements feel shorter than they really are, if the break is structured right.  Go watch a reality show and see that they change the camera angle or scene every few seconds.  They do that to keep your attention.  Just like this break.

Sue and Kendra, Magic 106.7, Boston with Story Calls

Phones drive lots of morning shows. They should.  Inviting listeners to tell their stories is a time-tested treatment to many content choices that helps you form a connection with fans.  But not all questions work for phone topics.  Ask a question with only a yes/no answer (or an A/B choice) works against you.  Role play this – if you propose the question to someone in prep and they have an either/or choice and your only response is “why”, you have a dead end topic.  We are storytellers and that’s what you want in phones.  Case in point is Sue and Kendra, Magic 106.7, Boston who used the passing of actor Richard Chamberlain to launch a topic about unmissable TV shows when we were kids.  You might think this will be nothing more than listeners naming TV programs.  But as you’ll hear, the hosts and callers tell stories, which is where the win appears.  Nostalgia works and stories around that make this score a solid A for the topic and treatment of the content.

Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston with One Star Uber Reviews

Character development is when you define yourself to the audience.  When you do that, a connection forms and the audience gets to know you, which is central to radio’s greatest strength – the intimate bond between the listener and the talent.  Often, it’s you telling a story about your life the audience sees themselves in or when you’re talking about a topic and being honest in your opinion.  I will always reward new ways to define you to fans.  Here is a unique idea I’d never consider.  Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston figured out how to see how many one-star reviews they’ve received in their Uber app.  They each looked in theirs and had the audience guess who had the most.  Fun and clever.  And now, all yours!