KSLZ, Phoenix Who Was Fonzie’s Girlfriend?
There are ways of doing political content without doing politics. You just have to figure out how to insert pop culture into it. Vice President Mike Pence was coming to town to do a few speeches and fundraise. Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix decided to test listeners’ knowledge by answering the phones (these were recorded) and asking if the caller knew the VP’s name. No one did. Then, to take things a step further, they asked callers a different set of questions – like “who was Fonzie’s girlfriend on Happy Days” (all things from our childhood we’ve held on to forever). As you would guess, the listeners knocked every one of those questions out of the park. They openly say on the show they do not do politics. But here’s one way they did – by diverting the audience’s attention into pop culture to help create the humor. Here are the two breaks where they did both.
A simple technique to create some fun is to marry the opposite of a topic to create some humorous tension. It seems like everyone is into Game of Thrones (its final season premieres on HBO in April). It’s quite easy to convince yourself that everyone watches and loves the show, which is untrue. When you look at the actual numbers, close to 98% of America doesn’t watch it. The threshold for content choice is if the audience is aware of it, and this topic passes that test. Now marry the opposite of that conventional wisdom and you have a relatable break done in a fun way. John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego approached people who know about the show, but do watch it, and asked them to describe the program, using their limited knowledge of its plot and characters. They then aired the most fun replies and talked around it with cast members on their show who know all and are deeply passionate about the program.
No doubt an emphasis at every radio show is social media engagement. This requires us to not only share certain audio segments of the show on our social channels, but to develop unique content there, too. The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati do fun videos, generally centered around something local, that engage the audience. They recently saw a news report about a local guy who spray painted orange circles around potholes so approaching motorists could steer clear of them. They went out with the guy and helped him. Local, fun, and highly relatable after the Cincinnati winter. They wrap the video up with info where people can report potholes to have them fixed. While they did use some of this audio on their show to push people to Facebook, the content mostly lived on social media and has been viewed over 14,000 times so listeners who engage them there leave the video understanding that they live in town and their sense of humor. View the Pothole Tagging video