WRAL, Raleigh Bryan Tells His Mom He’s Engaged
Every content choice on your show must be done for a strategic reason. Two Men and a Mom, on MIX 101.5, Raleigh, is a new show for the audience so we focus a lot on character content to define the talent and humanize them. Bryan just got engaged to his longtime girlfriend. He decided to tell his mother last of everyone, opting to tell her on-the-air. His mom, Bekkie, is always great on the show so they knew her reaction would be very revealing, highly emotional, funny, and make Bryan her son perceptually in the process. The show calls Bekkie in this segment and we all get to hear Bryan tell the story to his mom and hear her natural reaction as she shares with the audience how she feels about the news and what it’s like to be in their family. This is very personal and vulnerable and is an excellent example of how to do story-based character content in a way that perfectly defines a member of a show. It’s sticky because it’s real, a story, and has emotion attached to all of it.
There’s this general sense, especially in PPM, that interviews don’t work. This isn’t true. Bad interviews don’t work. Good ones do. When interviewing a celebrity, remember that there are two agendas at play – theirs (to sell something) and yours (to entertain the audience). Great interviews get their subject to tell a compelling story and/or reveal themselves in human ways. That’s what draws listeners in and honors your agenda first (always sell the website/tickets/CD/book on the back end of the interview). Here’s Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA who talk with country star Chris Young who’s coming on to sell concert tickets. What they cover around that: what it’s like for him to be at a Garth Brooks concert as a fan (reveal), how he helped a disadvantaged kid in their audience (story), and they played a fun game with him. Don’t interview someone solely around their agenda (silly vicarious game). The audience will bore and sniff out if you’re trying to sell them something and push back because of it. Figure out how to accomplish your agenda, as these guys did, before doing any of that.