The Work Jerk
Be honest, is there someone at work you think is an idiot? That co-worker who always seems to get in the way, who makes meetings longer, who clicks “reply all” on every email? Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix developed a feature called The Work Jerk where listeners come on and out that person in their office on the show. We’re careful because all we really want is the story and the raw emotion of what the person does because it’s so relatable. So we only allow callers to give the initials of the person before launching into their tirade!
A first threshold by which listeners determine if an interview will be worth their time is if they know and like the person being interviewed. For any country audience, Scotty McCreery is on that list – he’s a star to them. Having the number one song in the format at the time of the interview increases the interview’s relevance. His interview with The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati, is a textbook example of how to do an interview for the two groups of people listening: those who like and know Scotty and those who don’t. Instead of a typical interview where the person would come on and be asked about their inspiration for their current project (no one cares), they quickly congratulate him on being number one, note why he wrote the song (because his grandfather passed – they knew this from research) and then talked with Scotty about getting married, the new American Idol, and ran him through a fun quiz to see what he remembered about his time winning the show’s tenth season. All around, this was well thought out and done to make a very accessible five minute interview that was entertaining and engaging for all.