Hope You Had a Nice Vacation…I Really Don’t Care
There’s a show out west I don’t know but like as a listener. I’ve never met the people doing the program. As fate would have it, the anchor pinged me on Facebook wanting to set up a Zoom to say hello.
As a fan of their program and student of personality radio, this was an easy yes.
When we connected, I wished the anchor a happy birthday. He asked how I knew and we both said in unison, “Facebook!” I had listened to part of their show that morning to prepare for the call. I asked, quite sardonically, if he’d talked about his birthday on the show that day. Hoping for one particular answer, he looked in the camera and said emphatically, “No.” When I asked why, hoping again for a particular answer, he said, “Because no one gives a shit.”
We both went two-for-two.
I’ve talked in Planet Reynolds before about celebrity or local birthdays and how the audience, at best, shrugs at this as content. Same thing for your birthday. The audience just doesn’t give a rip. Unless something spectacular happened, like your spouse got Chris Martin from Coldplay to call your cell to surprise you and you have that audio.
Ditto your summer vacation. Unless something drama-filled happened while you were away, and the story is off-the-charts engaging, the audience doesn’t want to hear about it because it isn’t about them, it’s about you.
As co-workers come back to the building, imagine this: you’re walking down the hall and Karl from engineering passes by. You ask Karl how his vacation was (courtesy question, right?). Karl stops to tell you where he went and what he did with the family while at Disney. Say it lasts four-minutes (the length of a typical break). There are zero drama-filled stories to keep your interest. You might stand there and nod, but what are you thinking? Quietly inside you’re impatient, wondering when this will be over as you have important things to do. Because it’s not about you nor is it entertaining. All you want is to escape the conversation with Karl the engineer.
If that’s how you’d feel in that scenario, wouldn’t the audience feel the same?
The audience comes to the show for content – the win comes when you make your show about them. Talking about yourself is good because you must reveal who you are for character development. But, the listener must be able to relate to or see themselves in that story – that’s how you connect. Not everything that happens in your life is strategic character development.
Any topic on the show can start from your perspective to define who you are, but we have a very small window to connect and entertain because there is so much choice. Unlike your chat with Karl where you’re trapped for those four minutes, the audience can just hit a button and find something that works for them.
There is a truth that has stood the test of time. If I am around you and focus all of my time getting you to talk about you, I’ll leave a more important person in your mind. We must treat the listeners like that, too, so they keep returning.
I left the Zoom with the show out west respecting them more because they think like listeners.
Let’s make strategic content decisions that ultimately elevates our audience, because our content makes them the focus. They’ll then carry us to the win.
Go be epic and you’ll make more fans.
I’m regularly asked two questions: when do you know a story should be told on the air and how long should a break go. To the first, a story should be told if it has a central theme and lots of elements with twists and turns and unexpected moments that will keep me on the edge of my seat. When the story defines you, makes me feel something for you, and gets me to experience some kind of emotion is when you know you might have gold. How long should a break go? Well, that’s like porn – I know it when I hear (see) it. A great story with all the attributes listed above can take as much time as it needs to breath and be expressed and not a moment longer. Here’s Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston with a story about Karson’s really bad day-before. From his car breaking down on a major Boston street, to issues with the insurance company and tow truck, followed by no power in his house for several hours. Sometimes it all goes to shit and that was what Karson dealt with. Tell the story around the central theme and let the chemistry of the room take over for however long it needs.
Two certain things that will resonate with any audience and make your break special: first, regardless of format, you must be on whatever relevant topics are happening on any given day. Contemporizing your show makes you be in the moment and any move you make away from being a generic, evergreen show is important. The other item is having destinations and surprises built into some of your breaks. Yes, conversation is critical in this day of “real talk”. But we still need to surprise the audience with payoffs which will make your break more fun and memorable. Enter Mark and NeaderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix, who execute this break perfectly. KSLX plays classic rock and targets a mostly older male audience. The rules don’t change there. During Pride Month, they still tackle former American Idol contestant David Archuleta’s coming out and then offer a surprise jingle at the end to remember all the letters of the alphabet when referencing that community.
There is an immense value in all things nostalgia right now. The formats doing well are those that play older, well-known music. Brands with very high equity and are well-known have an advantage. We have a daily feature on David, Sue, and Kendra, MAGIC 106.7, Boston called the Throwback Live. I love this feature because it has many elements that could hook listeners: it has throwback audio clips from decades past that will be great nostalgia for listeners, it’s presented as a game that’s a friendly competition between two cast members so the audience can root for someone, and it’s vicarious so those in cars can play along as they travel to work. Research has proven many times that games resonate and are evaluated well by the audience. In large part because they’re easy to follow and are fun. That this has the added elements of throwback audio and the competition between two cast members, who’ll get defined in the process, are a bonus.
What do you do when your church going 80-year mother, a Chicago Bears fan for life, detests Aaron Rodgers and he’s hosting Jeopardy that night? You charge up your phone to get commentary about what she thinks. So did John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego weeks ago as Jeopardy continued to offer up guest hosts with the death of Alex Trebek. Bring me there. That’s the message of this post. Make me feel like I am in the room with you. John knows his mother would be opinionated and fun with topic. So the show had options: recount the story themselves, get Bonnie on the phone after-the-fact, or record her in real time as she drips with emotion. It’s option “C” every time because that’s a higher level of drama for the audience to glum on to. That she’s older and works at a church is a wonderful setup. Remember…when in the middle of emotion, record it. These work parts will help you better tell the story and you will make the audience hearing it feel like they were there with you.