Logan and Sadie, WINK-FM, Ft. Myers, FL The Relationships Report Card

A novel character development feature we have on Logan and Sadie, WINK-FM, Ft. Myers, FL each Monday is called the Relationships Report Card.  We spend so much of our time in radio talking about our families.  This is important to do to not only define you to the audience, but to force more real life content into the program.  This is essential storytelling to create a bond with listeners and remind them that they are just like you.  Add in that the most natural humor for a show comes when you’re telling the truth.  The Relationships Report Card was added to define Logan to the audience.  His wife comes on each Monday morning to “grade” him as a husband over the weekend.  She cites things he did (or didn’t do) and assess to him a letter grade.  It’s empowering to women to have that forum and she speaks for all as she playfully calls Logan out on how he was as a spouse.

What Did You Have For Breakfast?

If you’re looking for a new, occasional feature for your show, how about What Did You Have For Breakfast?  Get a quirky jingle, then open the phones and ask listeners as they’re driving to work what they had for breakfast that morning.  You’ll get everything from two eggs and bacon to a bag of potato chips.

Not Responsible For Broken Windshields

Have you ever been behind a truck that has a sign on its back, “Not Responsible For Broken Windshields”?  I’ve long wondered if a rock falls from that truck and breaks your windshield, if the sign is enough to absolve them of actual responsibility.  Find a lawyer and ask them on-the-air if that’s true!

40 Secrets of Successful Shows – The Final Ten

Do your talent have EPIC in them? Are they high performers, always seeking that next level, welcoming the challenge for growth? Are they confident to not be the smartest, bestest, funniest, or most strategic in the room?

For each of the last three weeks in the month of May, I’ve shared ten ways to tell if your talent have that capacity to become icons. This is the list of the 40 Secrets of Successful Shows.

I’ve encouraged managers who read this to evaluate their high-profile programs based on this list. And also suggested personalities do it, too. Because positive relationships are at the foundation of a great culture of support, I also recommend that managers and their talent get together to compare notes and then set a path for EPIC. Working on those things from these lists will help make the show and station even more relevant to your win.

Week one’s list of ten is here. Week two can be found here. Week three is here.

May Week Four, the final ten:

  1. The cast never loses touch with its constituency, meeting the audience wherever they are in life for content.
  2. The show is constantly innovating, coming up with ideas for the brand which communicate the show’s plot, reflects pop culture, or reinforces their character.
  3. They have a social media strategy to engage the audience on those platforms that is marriage to what their show is about.
  4. They are highly motivated to win and never lose their work ethic.
  5. The show is predictable so the audience is comfortable with them, but not so predictable they become vulnerable to something fresh across the street.
  6. Each cast member replies to listener emails, voicemails, texts, and social media posts so fans know they’re being heard.
  7. Each understands the personal and professional goals of the others in the room and work hard to help them achieve those goals.
  8. They love and welcome discomfort knowing there’s growth in that path.
  9. They evolve as people over time and can bring the audience along for the ride, sometimes doing narrative story arcs that force additional occasions to the show.
  10. They care about and give back to their communities and communicate that pride to the audience.

These are the things I’ve found the high performers do regularly which make them so valuable to the success of their brands.

Click here for all 40 Secrets of Successful shows in one handout.

Your talent are your roadmap to EPIC. Invest in them and you’ll always win.

40 Secrets of Successful Shows – The Third Ten

Spend time as I have over these many years coaching and observing great talent and you’ll start seeing why they excel.

Why do some programs become ratings behemoths in their markets, for their stations, earning their companies millions? Why do some personalities scream through the speakers, becoming icons that listeners have to be around each day? What do they do that the others don’t?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve shared twenty secrets (of the forty) of the great ones. How have your talent fared? How would they evaluate themselves? These attributes, with the right coaching and investment, can be learned. They create EPIC talent who set you apart.

The first ten are here. The second ten are here.

May Week Three, the third ten:

  1. They have significant daily benchmarks/features on the show which define their sense of humor and cause habitual listening.
  2. The egos in the room are healthy enough to drive stardom but not so great to cause division.
  3. They let others associated with the show know how valuable they are to the success of the team.
  4. They know what’s going on locally and see the value of that as content.
  5. They belong to local civics groups and organizations so they become multi-dimensional through those outside interests.
  6. On-air, they don’t forget the value of the basics, like giving the weather and time and promoting the rest of the radio station, its personalities and promotions.
  7. They have a strong interest in “retail politics”, knowing that meeting listeners will get them to use the show more.
  8. They don’t say no to something because there isn’t a talent fee attached.
  9. Each cast member holds a distinct point-of view on every topic.
  10. They can create conflict and drama with their content to hook listeners.

Next Monday, our final ten qualities of successful personalities, rounding out the forty.

Your talent are your roadmap to EPIC. Invest in them and you’ll always win.

MIX 104.1, Boston Karson and Kennedy, Barrett Calls a Family Meeting

Nostalgia is in and I bet you remember all those family meetings you had when you were a kid.  Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston decided to air one.  Karson’s young son, Barrett, recently called a family meeting at the dinner table to discuss a few things that were bothering him.  This is awesome character development for Karson because we’re getting to know him as a dad.  That’s the core of character development – am I getting to know something about you that makes you relatable to me?  What’s fun about this is the interaction between Barrett and his parents.  Also listen for its execution.  Karson didn’t just record the table conversation and air it in its entirety.  He edited it and they talked around parts of it so the team could keep their in-studio chemistry and commentary at the forefront.  Great radio is doing relatable content in a unique way that allows for natural humor and humaneness.  This ticks those boxes.

The $5 Gift

With everything opening up, talk to one listener each week through the summer who’s going on vacation with their family.  Ask them to bring you back something from the gift shop where they’re going as a gift and that you will reimburse them.  Then tell them you have a weekly $5 budget and they cannot go over it.  Collect the gift when they return and then, at the end of the summer, give out all the gifts you received to another listener.

40 Secrets of Successful Shows – The Second Ten

As a talent coach who’s been lucky enough to touch the success of hundreds of shows in North America and Europe over these years, there are consistent things the great ones do.

I’ve put a list together of the top 40 things winning programs and personalities do that help them grab that brass ring.

Last week’s First Ten can be found here.  Our second installment is below.

It’s always interesting to see if talent see their show the same way a manager does.  Share these lists with your people and ask them to grade themselves on each of the items. You, do, too.  Then get together to compare answers.  I bet you end up with a healthy strategic conversation that will help everyone grow.

May Week Two, the second ten:

  1. They rely less and less on canned prep services because they can create their own unique and original content.
  2. They understand that “facts tell and stories sell”. They are spectacular story-tellers.
  3. They are highly inquisitive about the world around them and that drives content development.
  4. They’re confident enough in what they don’t know and love to be challenged by people smarter than them.
  5. They take smart, strategic chances and are not afraid to “fail up”.
  6. They have mechanisms in place to resolve internal conflict in the team when it appears.
  7. They care about each other as people and can move the audience to care about them.
  8. They have a positive relationship with the managers and don’t see them as adversaries.
  9. In prep they develop more than they need so they can truly do the A-level ideas and be graded as such by listeners.
  10. They’re innovative and their ideas turn P2s into P1s.

Next Monday, ten more qualities of successful talent.

The only way to be EPIC is to challenge everyone to think differently.

Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix Reflecting Values

At the end of the day, its the display of your values as a human being on-air that listeners are drawn to.  If they get the sense you are just like them, they’ll give you a fair shot at a relationship.  We are all in search of “our people” (people just like us) in life.  Regardless of your format, there’s great pressure to be contemporary in your content choices.  Every listener, despite their age, wants to be connected to the topics of the day.  Enter Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix, who decided to talk about Demi Lovato on their show.  Their classic rock audience might have heard of Demi, but not her music.  This is a function of Demi being in the news a lot.  What I want you to hear is how they talked about her in the presentation of their values.  Consider how they say all of this and further, how it connects with their mostly male audience.  An adult male is probably shaking their head yes at their comments (that’s connection) while being all about what is going on right now.

He Shoots, He Scores

Go grab some play-by-play audio from YouTube of a sporting event for a new game called He Shoots, He Scores.  You play the audio just until the ball is released.  The caller then has to guess if the player scored.  Then go back to the audio to finish the play-by-play to see if they guessed right.