Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX Phoenix, Holiday Heart Attacks
The question is almost always: what did you do with your content choice that defines the show, proves its sense of humor, and provides a payoff or destination no one else can. Oftentimes, shows find lists or statistics they think will keep the audience engaged. Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix found one such statistic about holiday heart attacks – and the prime time around Christmas that most happen. As is, it’s a tad boring, even leaning to the morose to note this to listeners this time of year. Sharing this with the audience, opening the phones, or even doing a serious interview around the topic doesn’t fit our goal of creating humor. But, they did. We pick our moments to do parodies on this show – they did one here by choosing an iconic Christmas carol, doing a re-lyric to have some fun, kept it short and efficient, and effectively used what was a small stat and walked the audience to laugh about the topic.
Oftentimes, we hear from talent that length of break equals its value. In other words, the longer the break, the more they got done. This is wrong many times. A shorter break plays to listeners’ attention spans, which compels all of us to prep harder to earn images and strategic wins. Here’s a new feature from Two Men and a Mom, WRAL-FM, Raleigh called Know This or Sing the Chorus. Great new features sometimes come from quirky names. Bryan Lord’s wife is a teacher at an area school and he went to their yearly talent show. Finding both a willing and fun fellow attendee, Bryan played around with him to do this version of the feature. Listen to this break below and see if you don’t agree that the show accomplished the following seven items in this break: it was topical (the trivia question was about a Christmas tree); it was local (Bryan talked about where his wife is a teacher); there was character development (I learned Bryan is married); it was music-based (listeners tend to evaluate having fun around the music higher); it was a different way to present content (so the show is perceived as fresh and new); it was fun; it was short (everything accomplished here was done in under three minutes).
We’re entering the season where radio stations and shows do their annual community service projects to rally the listeners to give back. One of the most unique is what we do on The Josie Dye Show with Matt and Carlin, Indie 88, Toronto. Each year, there are 5000 homeless people on the streets of Toronto. What do the shelters need? Socks so the homeless don’t get frostbite. In two years time, the show has rallied its listeners to donate over 320,000 pair of socks which are turned over to the shelters. To kick things off this year, the station put on an event called Heroes for the Homeless, where we honored those workers who’ve dedicated their lives to help these less fortunate people. This last week, they gathered the group for dinner and some speeches. Here is a break from their show the day after, with a story told by someone who was once homeless, but now lives every day to help others who have no where to sleep at night. Listen as this gentleman tells his most powerful story to move the room, and spur the audience to jump start this year’s campaign. Make me feel for the cause and listeners will step up to help – our name for anyone who helps this year (Heroes for the Homeless) is aspirational and positive.