The Crappy Candy House
For us, as kids, it was always the home of the Axelrods, five doors down. For Halloween, they gave out those small bags of potato chips you get with sandwiches at restaurants. Not too far from them, a dentist gave us floss. We were ten-years old and we wanted…candy. The Crappy Candy House allows you reminisce about the home in your neighborhood that gave out the non-Halloween treats. Bonus points if kids talk about the home in their neighborhood that will give out bad treats Thursday night and you have some sort of intervention to fix that for them.
Radio is one of the best mediums to tell a story because we can paint pictures with words, tone, and emotion. Want to truly understand the value of telling a story? Tell one well to listeners and stop halfway. They’ll ask that you finish it. They won’t if you cough out facts, figures, metrics, and lists. That’s the power of stories. In this segment on MOJO in the Morning, Channel 95.5, Detroit, Rachel tells a story about waiting on line at a retail establishment. Her story has wonderful twists and turns, totally defines her, and is exceptionally captivating. Mojo also finds way to involve listeners in the process, making this short break have multiple dimensions to keep those just tuning in completely engaged.
One thing to learn when interviewing a top celebrity is to prep, but also be prepared to organically go where the interview leads you. A few weeks ago, Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa talked to Luke Bryan, who was coming on to sell concert tickets. Early in the interview, they played for him Veronica doing a hip hop version of a Luke song used in another feature. Luke was so mesmerized by the creative that he took the interview to other places. Instead of being married to their list of questions, they willingly followed Luke. What ensued was a silly, fun interview which highlighted not only our team, but Luke’s sense of humor. A win all the way around – very entertaining for the audience and, as a result, Luke probably sold more concert tickets!
This week we’re going to talk about preserving the natural reaction. Oftentimes, you don’t want to share too much with your team off the air out of fear the best and most natural reaction will come in that conversation and it will be difficult to recreate. These are almost always gut calls the others involved will react better if they don’t know where the story is going. This takes chemistry and a trust that the people you’re telling will not only have a reaction, but will have a good one.