Back several years ago, average Americans would get raises on January 1. That hasn’t happened to lots of folks for years. Despite that, there’s no reason the morning show can’t help kids in this regard. Huh? Take calls from kids who feel like they deserve a raise in their weekly allowance. Then, conference call the kid with their parents and barter (negotiate) the kid getting more allowance, in return for doing more chores.
Every show has its regular, quirky callers. For Karlson & McKenzie at WZLX, Boston, his name is Kenny, who calls almost daily. Considering it’s Christmas time, Kenny phoned because he wanted to talk to Mrs. Claus. The show happily obliged in this fun and unpredictable conversation.
Less than two weeks away from Christmas, there are a group of people dreading the time as it winds down to the holiday: people who hate buying Christmas gifts or blow the chore off by grabbing a Whitman Sampler for those closest to them. Do a “Giftervention”. Have the offended party tell you a little about how bad a gift-buyer the person is, then call them to say so on-the-air! Then, have a personal shopping expert on the other line to help the confronted person buy a more appropriate gift!
With the biggest stories of the day, people want to be brought inside. They can get the facts anywhere on the internet, but inside stuff is intriguing and entertaining. Scotty Davis from The Scotty Show at Radio Now, Indianapolis is a golf freak. He knows lots of golfers who know lots about Tiger Woods. Here’s a member of the LPGA telling her story (voice disguised to protect her identity) about what she knows about how bad a boy Tiger actually is!
“Did They Make It” is a simple, relationships-oriented game you can play. Listeners come on and tell you a brief (one or two sentence story) about something that once happened in a relationship they had (i.e. “my guy sat me down after we’d been together for three months and admitted that he once did jail time for drugs.”) and the show has to figure out if the relationship survived the story.
Games are good for morning shows, especially if other listeners can vicariously play along wherever they are. That’s the concept behind “Wheel of Fortune”. Viewers getting the puzzles while on their sofas before the contestants make it fun for everyone. That said, how about “Triple True or False”? Get a boatload of trivia questions and load up the phones. The winner is the first person who gets three correct in a row. Make them true/false so there’s a 50/50 chance they’ll get it right. You never repeat a question so if caller one gets only two right, the next caller gets new questions.
Here’s a terrific interview Karson & Kennedy at MIX 104.1, Boston did with Suze Orman. It’s great because the opening question (“what’s the one mistake people make when spending money at the holidays”) sets Suze up to be…Suze! She is a great story-teller, very authentic, and captures you with her honesty and perspective. One great twist was when Karson asked Suze about a letter he’d received in the mail from a past creditor asking for money. In this shift, Suze taught us something we didn’t know, the content stayed very relevant, and we learned about the talent, too.
CBS-TV is running a PSA this holiday season encouraging men to buy the gift Santa can’t get their wives this holiday season, a Pap smear. So, Kevin Karlson at WZLX, Boston decided to call his wife what he was getting her this year. This break is excellent for a few reasons: first, it’s very funny. Second, listen to what he gets done in the first 30 seconds – he builds anticipation to hook you, and then introduces other audio elements (the PSA, his wife) to bring some dimension into the break. Finally, overall, we get the essence of his relationship with his wife, which sounds completely dysfunctional, and is the plot of our show!