With President Trump boasting that he got all 35 questions right on a cognitive test, it’s time to put the show to the test. Have someone come in and administer the same cognitive test to the entire program. Then reveal the test results to the audience from worst to first! Trump took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (find it here).
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The most entertaining guests on the show sometimes live on the fringe. When they are family of cast members, they also provide character development. Letterman taught us the importance of finding the colorful people around the show and figure out how to get them on so their oddities can capture the audience’s attention. John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego have some very fun family members. John’s daughter, Abby, just became a a vegan. This lifestyle is distant from the typical country partisan. So, John decided to interview his daughter to find out what that was like, and, loaded up with things to say, Abby judged the audience and created both fun and character development for her father in the process. Bottom line: look for the fun, odd people around you and introduce them to the audience to create some electric content. Here’s the break to hear how it’s done.
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Often in personality radio, we don’t believe we can get the guest at the center of the story. So, we end up not trying as a default from this belief and put full weight on the cast to deliver the goods. Compare doing the break this way, and then imagine a deeper, fuller conversation with the person who can more authentically talk to your topic because they are its focus. Southwest Airlines is based on Dallas, as you probably know. What changes is that airline making with Covid-19? A fair question considering they are one of the country’s major airlines, they have a hub in the market, and many listeners will be using them for summer vacations. Instead of a break of speculation or reading about it online, Hawkeye in the Morning with Katelyn, KSCS, Dallas, put in for an interview with Southwest CEO, Gary Kelly. The effort was low for a big payoff, because Gary said yes. Hear this break, then imagine its opposite – the team just talking about it – and ask yourself: which is a better break to engage listeners, create talk, and is more memorable?
With all the video now around women acting like “Karen”, let’s gather it and present it in a new feature called The Karen Korner. A collection of all the latest audio of people acting inappropriately.
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A critical element to create great content is conflict – be it real or manufactured for fun. Content segments without that push and pull of tension do little to grab the audience emotionally, which is the one thing that will both intrigue them to hear it (hence, a powerful set-up or hook at the very beginning of the break) and provide a resolution to that dramatic thesis at its end. For Father’s Day last month, Lexi and Banks, K-BULL 93, Salt Lake City had the typical giveaway packages from the promotions folks. Not content to play a silly game or take caller X, they fished through social media looking for listeners who had borrowed money from their fathers and not paid it back. That was the thesis of real life drama they would use to tell a story, tie into Father’s Day, and get dad and and their kid on to give something out. Mining the story from both perspectives, as you will hear below, is appropriate and relatable. But at the end, they asked the father to forgive the “loan” in return for the prize package, thus providing resolution. All around, this is very well conceived and executed by the team!
With social distancing still the rule and most people continuing to not go out, how about partnering with your local comedy club and give away a ten-minute set where a local comedian goes to a neighborhood and does part of his or her act for the residents? Call it The Comedian in the Cul-de-sac.
