Gary Coleman
Short work week
Oil Spill
Dennis Hopper
Shrek
Graduations
Celine Dion
Kevin Eubanks
Fleet Week
Lee DeWyze
Sex and the City 2
50 Cent
Summer travel
June weddings
Lindsay Lohan
Jesse James
Prince of Persia
Venus Williams
NBA playoffs
Rand Paul
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Sarah Ferguson
Kelly Preston
World Cup
This one’s being borrowed from Karson and Kennedy at MIX 104.1, Boston. Ever have anyone tell you that you’re no good at something, then go on to excel at it? This irregular feature is called “How Do You Like Me Now?” It works because it’s a bunch of triumphant stories about little guys (your listeners)!
Each Monday, “Gene and Julie” at KVIL, Dallas do a strategic feature called “The Relationship Report Card”. We look for every opportunity to build their characters and remind the audience they’re married. In this very fun Monday morning feature, each gives the other a letter grade on how they were as a spouse in the previous week. This is a highly relatable feature and gives both a chance to share their lives with listeners, thus bonding to build loyalty. In this particular installment, Gene gets an F-minus, leading to lots of laughter!
There are over 120,000 apps now available in Apple’s App Store. A quick, fun game is called “There’s An App for That”. Find some of the quirkier apps available in the store and make up some. Tell the listener the name of the app and what it does. They have to determine if it’s a real app. Three of five right and you have a winner. For instance: “Stachtastic” is an app that’ll put a mustache on any picture in your iPhone. Is that a real app?
One of the “it” girls right now is singer Katy Perry. Appearing on MIX 104.1, Boston’s “Karson & Kennedy” to promote her new CD, the show does anything but focus on the selling of her music. Instead, they know listeners are most interested in her marriage to comedian Russell Brand, which is what they have fun with for almost the entire interview. That’s a very smart strategy – play in areas listeners love instead of spend time selling them something.
While this feature isn’t necessarily fun, it will resonate with many audiences. With so many people sensing so many bad things are happening in the world, do “Good News”. Syndicated country show Tony & Kris out of Nashville do this a couple times a week and it helps them connect with the audience and communicate they share the same values as the listeners. They take a couple of calls from listeners who tell them about something good going on in their life. There might be moments for humor, but celebrating good things going on in listeners’ lives helps position the show as wanting to raise up the little guy.
With “Iron Man 2” opening, syndicated country show Tony & Kris out of Nashville came up with a very simple game asking a listener to identify the super hero certain actors played in the movies. This is a simple, vicarious game that works. Sometimes, though, you have to make lemonade when things go south. Listen here as they guys make what could’ve been a tough game (the listener barely knew any answers) into something fun to listen to.
As American Idol winds down, here’s a fun game you can play for its last few weeks called “Can They Sing or Will They Suck?” As played by The Scotty Show at Radio NOW in Indianapolis, go grab four callers. Caller one must guess, after a little Q&A with each of the other three, if they can sing or if they’ll suck. Give each of the three others a simple song everyone knows (i.e. Happy Birthday, The Sound of Music, Somewhere Over the Rainbow) so they’re not stumped coming up with a tune. If your contestant gets two of three right, they win something. It’s the show cast who determines if the prediction was right or wrong!