Archive for month: September, 2017

Benchmarks are a critical element of every show for several very important reasons:  they define the show’s sense of humor if done well, they activate another occasion in PPM if done regularly, and they create talk for a program.  Each Thursday, The TJ Show, AMP 103.3, Boston does Therapy with Judah.  Judah is TJ’s young nephew who is quite older than his actual age.  TJ Skypes with the kid and just talks about something in life, looking for natural reactions from him.  The audience adores Judah – in LABs, you can see their positive body language and hear them almost gush over how fun this weekly feature is to hear.  Benchmarks must be grounded in fun and be one-of-a-kind.  That this could never be done by anyone else in the market makes it iconic to TJ’s show, which helps fuel the strategic objectives noted above.  TJ and his team excel at coming up with things other shows can’t because they are so inventive.  For these reasons, TJ has separated this show from everything else in the market, which starts an ascent in ratings.

Everyone does trivia.  The question alone won’t cut through unless it has a frame with an edge. As you look at TV game shows, they’re all trivia-based, but each is presented differently (Jeopardy is much different from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire).  The frame and presentation lends a stickiness that draws listeners in even deeper.  The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati, does Chelsie’s “Not As Naughty as It Sounds” trivia question as a benchmark each morning at 8:40.  It’s a standard question, but because of the frame, they force the listener to actually think of something dirty because they told the audience it isn’t.  Once presented, her two male co-hosts, Dave and Statt, offer up the most obvious answers to take them off the table, then they open the phones.  Here’s a twist I love:  they come back for only one set of phone calls.  If someone gets it, they get the prize.  If no one gets it, they give the answer so the audience that gave them a few extra minutes of listening gets resolution (there is no dragging this out over thirty minutes).  Kinda smart.

You know how the ratings always go up when a TV personality is pregnant or getting married and the viewers know it?  The same can happen for you, if you enroll the audience in the big things in your life.  At The TJ Show, AMP 103.3 Boston, Loren was about get married.  From the moment of the engagement with her boyfriend, until the ceremony, it was a running narrative on the show.  This not only defined Loren, it helped the audience connect with her.  One of your goals is to get the audience to care about you. This did that for her.  On their last day before the wedding, the team sent her off with a break of genuine love and affection.  Listeners are also attracted to your chemistry, which is why they say they feel like they know you.  Here’s the break the team did before the ceremony, with TJ and Producer Matt sharing their genuine feelings for her, in anticipation of the big day which showed that compassion.