Need a new feature? How about Today’s Big Decision? Ask listeners to call to tell you the biggest decision they will need to make that day. It could be anything from whether or not to take a new job to deciding what to have for lunch. Every call will be different and the best part is on the more consequential decisions, you can do a follow-up the next day to see how things turned out.
Silly fun, no bits! What you want driving your program are strategic content decisions, the chemistry of the room, and your natural sense of humor. A running theme on The Josie Dye Show with Matt and Carlin, Indie 88, Toronto is that Carlin is looking to buy a house with his girlfriend. The housing market is tough and this is Carlin’s first home. The audience has been let in on all the drama so that we can define Carlin through this narrative. After months of searching, he finally found a house, which was cause for celebration on the show. Carlin is moving to a new area of Toronto, so this means we get a fresh level of the storyline. Here’s silly fun when the team decided to call businesses in Leslieville to tell them that a big celebrity (tongue-in-cheek) is moving to that side of town. No bits – listen to this strategic character content with the chemistry taking over as the calls are made. This is sticky because of the organic, natural fun they create telling the story.
Bold, aggressive characters help you put the car on the freeway and floor the vehicle immediately to 85 miles per hour. That’s what Karson’s wife, Lana, does on Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston, every time she’s on. Lana has a sweet southern accent (which stands out in Boston, Massachusetts and is an immediate asset in a break). But what Lana does even better when she’s introduced to the audience, is that she immediately goes on the offensive with her content. There is no ramp up to get there. The team introduces her after paraphrasing the dilemma about to be discussed, and she goes on the attack, which draws listeners in. This is a story about Lana going away for the weekend, forgetting her wedding ring, and then being hit on by two guys at the airport – great relationships stuff. Karson says there’s a double-standard at play, and Lana defends all of this. It’s fun, relatable, and self-deprecating. And because how it’s designed (the content happens immediately – listen to how much they get done in the first thirty seconds), listeners hang on for the wild ride to resolution.
The Academy Awards are Sunday! Challenge every member of the morning show to find someone this week who’s won an Oscar and get them on the show this Friday. It doesn’t have to be a Brad Pitt or Meryl Street. It can be someone who won one years ago for editing or costume design who has a great story to tell around it. After airing all the interviews on Friday, open the phones and ask the audience to vote on social media who brought the biggest name to the show.
An evergreen for your bag of ideas is called Make Us Never Forget You. Ask the audience to call and tell you a story about something that happened to them once that is so bold, you will never forget them!
Never underestimate the power of a simple break that communicates who you are. Character development is a critical element of any show. Whether you’re on-the-air for one month or ten years, you’re always defining yourself to connect with the audience. To find “your people” if you will. And sometimes, we make these bigger deals than they need to be. The telling of a big story with our opening the phones at the end. That tends to be a good path, because the focus shifts from your story to the audiences, effectively making them the stars of the show. Consider this simple break from Christine and Salt, WTIC-FM, Hartford. During the show, Christine got an email from the school nurse about her son. She shares it with the audience, becomes self-deprecating about what a bad mother she is, and the chemistry of the room then takes over. It’s not long, but very relatable. And it effectively allows Christine to bond with “her people”. Other mothers are probably laughing and nodding their heads up and down sayid “Yup, that’s me.” When it comes to character development, simple breaks like this work, too.
You know where I’m going once I get my second Covid shot? To Staples to have my card laminated for free. You know how I know to do that? Staples is smart. They placed themselves in the topic and then every radio show I listened to told me.
Staples isn’t dumb. They know people will go in for their free lamination and buy something else.
Once done at Staples, I’ll probably head to Krispy Kreme, show my laminated vaccination card, and get my free donut. Who goes to Krispy Kreme for one donut? Anyone with even a marginal pulse buys a dozen. Sold! They did the same thing – put themselves in the story to create talk. Every radio show I listened to told me that, too.
When are we going to create talk for ourselves? It’s easy to come up with phone topic after phone topic as content for a show. The harder part, and the thing I work with shows overtime on, is knowing what’s going on and placing ourselves in the middle of it so we become the story.
I work with Sander Hoogendoorn, the morning guy on 3FM in the Netherlands. I love Sander. He’s very creative and brought to one of our Skypes the idea on the right. Unless you know Dutch, that long hashtag in the picture says #showyourshot. Once listeners get their vaccine, we’ll give them one of those bandages on his arm and ask them to send us a picture of themselves showing us their shot. It’s our way of inserting ourselves into the story to create buzz through images which will all be placed on our social media channels to positively influence people to get their vaccines. They’ll talk about us!
Two shows I work with the US decided to do this campaign. I’m proud of Lexi and Banks at K-BULL 93 in Salt Lake City. Along with PD Travis Moon and operations manager Chris Hoffman, we’ve launched the campaign with our goal being the same as Staples and Krispy Kreme – be in the moment in a unique way that’ll cause talk for the show and station.
Another show doing this is Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah at MIX 101.5 (WRAL-FM), Raleigh. We have a dedicated website and have already gathered pictures of people who are doing it. Visit the site here. It also owns all our social media channels so more people know about it so we get credit.
As you start scrolling, you’ll see images of folks you don’t know. Those are all local celebrities we approached weeks ago, asking if they’d endorse our campaign because we have the serious mission of being the most local show in the market. Listener’s pictures are all over our social media channels. Bravo to PD Sammy Simpson and Brian Maloney, the market manager, for helping figure out how to do it big.
This idea has sales implications, too. Ways to monetize it with clients that help serve their needs. We did that, of course, because we also work hard for the sales department.
The only sustainable advantage you’ll ever have over your competitors is to out-innovate them. That’s the challenge I bring every show I work with because I wish to create ideas that will cause talk for the talent so more people tune in.
Great ideas don’t always cost money (#showyourshot cost just a couple hundred dollars for the few bandages we needed to create the images to launch it on social media). Great ideas take an innovative spirit and the bandwidth to make it all happen.
No bean counter at Staples said no because of “all the millions it’ll cost us in laminations.” No lawyer at Krispy Kreme said everyone getting their free donut had to sign a release holding them harmless from a lawsuit in case they got a stomachache. Both companies simply saw opportunity to get a little free marketing from people like us in radio – a chance to become the story.
That’s what I am working on with every show I’m lucky enough to coach.
If we get back to doing this in radio, fans will need to be around us every day out of a fear of missing something.
And we all know what that does to ratings and revenue.
Need a simple, silly new game to give stuff out? Play Name That Accent. Listeners born elsewhere call the show and chat with you. The team then huddles together to try and guess where that caller is from!
Would you, could you do a break like this, as heard on John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego? John’s dad had been in failing health for some time. This is a show that keeps no secrets from its listeners. They are intimately aware that when you move the audience to care about you (and in turn you care about them), the show becomes important. Radio is the most intimate form of mass communication there is. Thousands of listeners at any one time based on numbers from Nielsen. But in reality, we all know our strength is that it’s really just that one person experiencing it when they listen. The audience traveled the journey with John and his father over the many years this show has been on in San Diego. The countless times John would have his father on for many reasons, they were quite aware of the bond between the two, even when John was making fun of him. So it was appropriate that John include listeners on his last days, too. Here is a break of John talking about his father a few days after he lost him. The description of his last few minutes are incredibly powerful and could only be done by a talent experienced and seasoned and one comfortable to do so. This is emotional, balanced, and radio at its most powerful. Do you have this kind of relationship with your audience? You’ll win bigger if you do.