With parents and kids on vacation now, ask the kids of co-workers who are out to leave you a voicemail each night before they go to bed listing the things they did that day with their families. With some editing and a production value, this might make for a fun summer feature on the show.
Phone topics are regular content choices on every morning show. They work because their intent, generally, is to tell stories around a relatable subject. But how do you launch the topic in a way where it doesn’t feel rote or come off as though it came from a prep service? Stacey and Jonah, WIL, St. Louis pay extra attention to how they position even what could be perceived as the most generic of topics. This one is about best concert experiences. Could be ho-hum, but listen to how they debut this to the audience. Here are the attributes of this week’s audio: coming out of a song, they start with content. There is no filler or nonsense – they immediately tell a story – and that story is audio of a kid who got a guitar from Dierks Bentley at a concert. The exchange is short and fun. I am immediately hooked and have context. Next is the solicit, followed by banter between the two to reference their best experience – inside getting their chemistry and playfulness (again more fun), followed by the phone number. All done in under 75 seconds. They connect with us, made us laugh, gave us a frame point, and then made the solicit. What could have been positioned as a standard phone topic was wonderfully executed.
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There’s always been this unwritten rule that you shouldn’t friend your boss on Facebook. But how would you react if a cast member’s mother friended you? That’s the question on The Josie Dye Show, Indie 88, Toronto when Josie’s mom friended her cast mates, Matt and Carlin. They have no desire to let Josie’s mom see that side of their lives. That tension is necessary in this character development idea – will or won’t they accept her friend request? Josie did the most obvious thing, she got her mom on the phone with the entire show to discuss it, with the payoff being a decision on what will happen. Great character ideas are rooted in a story. That narrative must have a twist or turn which sets up the dilemma for a payoff so the audience stays through it until the end to hear how it will be resolved. This works on all those levels and is sticky as a result.
Looking for something to do with all the weekend festivals in town? How about “Food Porn” where you get audio of an attendee eating a fair food and then you (or them) giving listeners three risque clues as to what it is, with the first correct guess winning something.
