A show I work with was recently mentioning on the air the lack of pens to write with in the studio. So, a listener sent them a pen from her workplace. A quirky, odd idea might be called “Pen of the Day”. Encourage listeners to send you a pen from work; preferably one with their company information on it. Each day for a few weeks, with a fun production value, highlight the office by reading the information on the pen to the audience.
It’s important to be where the listeners are psychologically. With recent bad weather in the nation’s capital, The Pablo Show, WPGC, Washington, DC decided to talk with listeners who didn’t want to go into work because of it. They chose one of the listeners and got their boss on the other line to request the day off for them. Be on the most important topics of the day for your market (on this day, it was the weather for DC) and do something with them that not only is fun, but cannot be replicated by anyone across the street because you thought to do it.
With this the final week of the Sochi Games, do “The Winter Sex Olympics” all week. Once or twice each morning, open the phones, taking calls from people who had sex the night before. Get the nationality of each person who admits to it, accumulating totals throughout the week. Then next Monday (after you do a final tally of sex through the weekend), raise the flag and play the National Anthem of the “winning” country, who wins gold!
Two critical steps for any show to be successful is having a finite content plots and interesting, defined characters. At The J Show, B96, Chicago, one of the ways w eco this is by the parent of a cast member coming on and offering two stories about their kid. One is right, the other is fake. The audience has to figure out which one is true to win. In the process, we hear a great story and the cast member is further defined.
The winter has been especially brutal in many parts of the country. When you have as much rain and snow as some markets have had, cars get really dirty very quickly. A fun morning show idea would be to ask some Chippendale’s Dancers, personal trainers, firemen, or male models to come wash cars with you one upcoming Saturday morning. Listeners can donate a small amount which you can give to a local charity. Call it “Good Looking Guys Cleaning Really Ugly Cars”. Make sure to send out press releases so TV cameras show up.
Listeners love to be let in on the relationships cast members have with each other and their families. In fact, making them feel like they are a part of your family is critical in developing loyalty from them. That loyalty equals huge levels of cume and TSL. Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA understand this. Which is why, back when Christmas season was in full force, Joss’s dad hung her Christmas lights. Except she had to make a confession to him. So she called him on the air to handle things. This is making listeners a part of the family.