Betcha there were people in your life who told you that you’d never make it. We call them The Haters. Here’s a great spot to root for the audience with a new feature called Hi to the Haters. Let listeners come on, give the first name of someone who told them they’d never amount to anything, then celebrate their win. Thanks to Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston for this idea.
If you’re looking for a new, occasional feature for your show, how about What Did You Have For Breakfast? Get a quirky jingle, then open the phones and ask listeners as they’re driving to work what they had for breakfast that morning. You’ll get everything from two eggs and bacon to a bag of potato chips.
Have you ever been behind a truck that has a sign on its back, “Not Responsible For Broken Windshields”? I’ve long wondered if a rock falls from that truck and breaks your windshield, if the sign is enough to absolve them of actual responsibility. Find a lawyer and ask them on-the-air if that’s true!
With everything opening up, talk to one listener each week through the summer who’s going on vacation with their family. Ask them to bring you back something from the gift shop where they’re going as a gift and that you will reimburse them. Then tell them you have a weekly $5 budget and they cannot go over it. Collect the gift when they return and then, at the end of the summer, give out all the gifts you received to another listener.
Go grab some play-by-play audio from YouTube of a sporting event for a new game called He Shoots, He Scores. You play the audio just until the ball is released. The caller then has to guess if the player scored. Then go back to the audio to finish the play-by-play to see if they guessed right.
Ask mothers to call the show. Then have one male cast member tell them that, for Mother’s Day, his instincts are to buy his mom a kitchen appliance. Ask the callers (all moms) to tell him why he’s wrong!
Need a new feature? How about Today’s Big Decision? Ask listeners to call to tell you the biggest decision they will need to make that day. It could be anything from whether or not to take a new job to deciding what to have for lunch. Every call will be different and the best part is on the more consequential decisions, you can do a follow-up the next day to see how things turned out.
The Academy Awards are Sunday! Challenge every member of the morning show to find someone this week who’s won an Oscar and get them on the show this Friday. It doesn’t have to be a Brad Pitt or Meryl Street. It can be someone who won one years ago for editing or costume design who has a great story to tell around it. After airing all the interviews on Friday, open the phones and ask the audience to vote on social media who brought the biggest name to the show.
An evergreen for your bag of ideas is called Make Us Never Forget You. Ask the audience to call and tell you a story about something that happened to them once that is so bold, you will never forget them!
Need a simple, silly new game to give stuff out? Play Name That Accent. Listeners born elsewhere call the show and chat with you. The team then huddles together to try and guess where that caller is from!