Want, Need, Wear, Read
Something bouncing around on the web challenges parents to let their kids have four Christmas gifts this year. Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. For those who are parents of Santa-believers on your show, have them get their kids to call Santa to decide one thing in each of those four categories. They call St. Nick with the parent out of the room. You then grab the audio of the call to Santa to play for your listeners, with the parent attempting to predict the item the kid will choose in each category before you air it to see how well they know their children.
Once around the holidays, it’s an unspoken truth that people at work show up just to show up. They just don’t care about work. John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego tested this theory last week, believing that many of the sales people at the station had really stopped working the previous week. In this fun break, they talked to sales folks to gauge their interest for work, disguised their voices, then brought their very fun sales manager in to hear the audio. Great, memorable radio is about connecting with the audience and entertaining them with something your competitors didn’t think to do. This audio is a terrific example of that.
Relationships are the most universal topic choice a show can make. Tell a story to the audience about relationships and they’ll tend to lean forward, especially if there is conflict and humor in the story. Jody, Rebekah, and David, KLUV, Dallas talked about things bosses should never say to their employees. This topic is even more universal because it’s about one of those people listeners love to hate, their employer. Here’s a simple, yet very fun and effective break, with listeners telling the absurd things their bosses said to them.
A few weeks ago when the midterm elections were topic #1, Stacey K and Jonah, HOT 101.7, Santa Rosa, CA added their twist to the topic when each did a negative ad on the other. They figured out how to take the boring, polarizing topic of politics and the election and make it fun. In this break, we not only get a feel for Jonah’s sense of humor in his ad about Stacey, but he was smart and preserved the first airing of it as the first time Stacey would hear it, too, allowing for a natural reaction. This is terrific character development for both, as we learn about Stacey and get a vibe for their chemistry.
There’s the adage that the only interviews which don’t work on the radio are the ones that suck. Last week were midterm elections and listeners had no desire to hear talking points about boring issues from candidates. Until you get to Karlson and McKenzie, WZLX, Boston, who interviewed a candidate for governor (who won). Listen to the questions they ask. They are neither political (where do you stand on…) nor standard (boxer or briefs…). They ask questions which let us get to know the candidate as a person yet are exceptionally off-kilter to elicit from the candidate both his humanity and laughter.