Instead of doing a standard Q&A on interviews, Cledus, Dave, and Veronica at WQYK, Tampa do something different and fun. They let listeners guess what the interviewee had for breakfast, then make that a part of their conversation. This part humanizes the person being interviewed and is silly and fun, thus drawing listeners in to the interview because it’s different. Here’s an interview they did using this approach with one of their local mayors.
The very beginning of an interview is the critical moment listeners decide if it’ll be meaningful and entertaining. If you open in a broad, accessible way, there’s a greater chance listeners will stay through it. Which is why, at the beginning of every interview you could do something quirky. Like let listeners guess what the celebrity ate for breakfast that morning, then make that your very first question when the interview starts.
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The next time you have concert tickets to give out, do this fun thing Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA did. It’s called “Sing the Mystery Song”. You guys place a hit record in a sealed envelope done by the artist. Don’t tell listeners what it is. Tell them to call and the moment you answer, they must start singing any song recorded by the artist. If the song they’re singing is the one you chose and is in the envelope, they win the tickets.
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The very best, most entertaining phone topics satisfy two criteria. First they must originate from an experience a member of the show has. That’s the justification to do it (verses it being perceived as a generic, prep service topic). The second is that what you ask for must be stories. Inside stories, there’s rich detail and twist and turns that will keep listeners hooked because the show has something to mine for gold. A member of Fernando and Greg, NOW 99.7, San Francisco, went to a wedding which was ruined by an invited guest. Here are the fun phones they did around it.
In Mitt Romney’s speech at the RNC a few weeks ago, he said his father left a rose every morning for his mother on the nightstand. Here’s a week long narrative arc designed to make the guys on your show more romantic. They tell the audience they want to leave a love letter for their wife/girlfriend each morning before they leave for work. Each day, listeners help them write a letter which is left the next morning before they leave for the station. At the anointed time, you call the female to get her reaction and then write the next day’s note with listener’s help. At the end of the week, the wife/girlfriend grades the week and determines if her guy has become more romantic.
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The very best morning radio is personal and vulnerable. Which is why the feature “Truth or Pair” works. J and Julian, B96, Chicago’s number one show had tickets to give out to see Pink perform at the station. Instead of taking caller ten (ugh!) they challenged listeners to call them with a highly personal question. If they answered it (truth), the listener got nothing. But if the question was too personal, they could take a pass and the listener got the pair of tickets to see Pink.
One of the summer’s big hits was “Magic Mike”. One of the fun features on Fernando and Greg, NOW 99.7, San Francisco’s morning show is when they talk to Greg’s mom, a conservative woman who lives in Texas. They married the opposites of old school views on sex and a naked Channing Tatum. Here’s Greg’s mom “review” of the movie.