Steve Uses the “C-Word”

Four score and seven years ago, I was interviewing for a job at a classic rock station in Washington, DC owned by Westinghouse (now you know why I said “four score and seven years ago”).

During the interview, the program director said he was going to throw out some topics and wanted me to say whatever came to mind.  The entire list was comprised of things going on in the news/pop culture at that time.

I didn’t get the job but have never forgotten the exercise because it was so fascinating.  In my follow-up with the PD, he shared that he wanted to see how informed I was about each topic (they were both serious and silly) to assess if I had a perspective that would be interesting on-the-air.  He said if I could be interesting in his office, I could do it on a show, too.

Time for the C-word.  It was a test of my curiosity.

Having a wonderment about the world around you and a curiosity about the topics of the day is a quality that separates the good from the great talent.  A natural curiosity leads you down new paths and makes you not only interesting to listen to, but more creative, too.  The talent I work with who perform at the highest levels are all naturally curious people, who are always acting on that by discovering new things about whatever is going on.  That makes them interesting to listen to.  Because they are always exploring the topics to learn more.

I use the exercise above with every applicant I interview for a job – I want to get a sense of their wonder outside of their circle.

If I’ve ever done a call with your morning show, you know I use a version of the interview technique above at the start of each conversation.  I casually ask the show what they think of a current topic or I share mine to see what happens.  True, I am making conversation to reconnect with all, but I am also looking for organic content.  I want to see if the room lights up.

Which leads me to Bill Cosby!

I had my weekly call with John and Tammy at KSON, San Diego the day we were shocked that he was being released from prison.  Many shows default to “we can’t talk about that” (which is rooted in a fear of the topic because they don’t know what to do with it).  The KSON show gave us natural, organic content around the Cosby story, all instigated by their curiosity.

John and Tammy were outraged and had a zillion questions about how that could happen.  Click John and Tammy’s logo to the right to hear what they did.  The topic was top shelf and they got all their questions answered from someone who could, which is excellent content for any radio show.

My friend Bruce St. James, who does mornings at WLS, Chicago, is incredibly smart (a good talent trait), but also quite curious (that’s what makes him smart!).  I happened upon this tweet the day the Cosby story broke, which said it all.  Bruce was also curious about how Cosby could be let out, so that fueled his breaks.  And the audience naturally took the trip with him.

I once worked with a talent who sat around all day watching Netflix.  He was incurious about everything and didn’t last long on the show.  The audience made its mind up on him quickly.

If I’m curious, it’s because of my mother.  Lillian was an exceptionally restless person, always wanting to know more, more, more about everything.  She made me watch TV shows that would make me think, compelled me to read magazines and newspapers to form an opinion, and to gravitate to people who were entirely different from me because that would provide a world in technicolor which might make me a more curious person.

Do you have curious talent doing your show?  People fascinated with everything going on and a desire to explore all of it?  How can you make them more curious?  It’s what we work on with every show I am lucky to touch.  My goal is talent who are bold, daring, and interesting so they stand out as one-of-a-kind.  We must access each of those traits because curious people lead to more creative, unique shows.

I’ve long wondered if curiosity is nature or nurture.  Maybe it’s a little of both.

Come to think of it, I guess I’m curious about curiosity.  Maybe I should explore that…

Go foster with your talent a more curious environment about everything.  Then you’ll be epic.

Trivia in Japanese

With the Olympics on now in Tokyo, why not convert the questions in a trivia-based feature on the show to all Japanese (easily done with Google Translate).  Include just enough English words in the question to give the listener a fair shot at guessing it.

Logan and Sadie, WINK-FM, Ft. Myers The Umbrella Story

Let’s gather around the campfire and talk a little bit about character development.  Often, talent think anything they talk about defines them.  There are certain criteria all of this must pass to be effective:  you have to affirm a core character trait a typical listener can identify with, you must be honest, and it must come in story-form because we are a story-telling medium.  Then there’s this:  tell me about something that is happening in your life right now.  That real life content is the most authentic.  And it will be delivered much differently.  A story from years ago is minus the emotion you felt then (it’s a story being told from your head).  A story happening now lives in technicolor because I will feel it as you tell it.  Here’s a simple story as told on Logan and Sadie, WINK-FM, Ft. Myers.  Sadie getting a new umbrella is really an open for the meat of the break, Logan talking about his kid going off to college (the topics are tied together as you will hear).  This is simple, but you will leave feeling Logan and, if you’re a parent, connecting with his exasperation because you’ve lived it, too.  Because it’s happening now.

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego, The Bill Cosby Update

One of the required attributes to be a truly great personality is having a natural curiosity about the world around you.  An almost insatiable interest in whatever is going on in the world.  As I’ve done this work, the million-dollar players I’ve worked with have this quality.  That curiosity drives better topics.  The conventional wisdom when Bill Cosby was released from prison a few weeks ago was that morning radio should not touch it.  Why?  It’s a big topic and if you want me, as a listener, to bond to you, you’ll share your thoughts.  The day the story broke, I had my weekly call with John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego.  They were outraged this happened and had a zillion questions on how it came to be.  We leveraged their genuine interest in the topic to create a break that was relevant, interesting, and memorable by inviting on a lawyer who could answer their questions.  All because the cast wondered why.  What is your curiosity about the topics of the day?  Are you forever reading about whatever is going on, looking for angles and stimulation to activate your interest so you can bring it to the audience?  If you do, you’ll excel.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

With more and more people traveling for their summer vacation, ask the kids of co-workers to leave you a voicemail each night before they go to bed, detailing all the things they did while on vacation with their family that day.  You’ll wake up to a bunch of audio you can edit into a feature each day through the summer as you rotate through families heading out.

Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh Love Him or List Him

Want to win big with women?  Do lots of relationships content.  A new signature feature for us on Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh is called Love Him or List Him. Purposely playing off the HGTV show Love It or List It, this one works great as America re-opens and listeners get back to dating.  The simple thesis of this weekly feature is that a female listener comes on who’s had a date or two with a new person. The quirk is that she saw something or an odd thing happened which makes her wonder if she should continue seeing him (Love Him) or move on to the next person (List Him).  This is simple story-telling with a hook that is relatable and intriguing to other female listeners.  She comes on, lays out her challenge, and then you take calls, asking the audience what they would do in that instance.  The big win is that those calling with opinions probably have lived through it so you’ll get a lot of first-hand advice and stories.  Once you field a few calls, get that gal back on and tell her what the audience thinks she should do.  Here’s a version with a twist!

The Regular Person Olympics

The Olympics are two weeks away.  We really have no idea just how good Olympics athletes are.  That’s because we’re always comparing them to other Olympic athletes.  Enter the Regular Person Olympics.  Choose enough Olympic events to match the number of people on your show (make them the easy events).  Assign one person per event – they have to go do it, get audio doing if for the show and video for social media.  Want to see just how good a swimmer or runner is?  Compare them against the person on your program doing the same event.  Thanks to The Josie Dye Show with Matt and Carlin, Indie 88, Toronto for this great idea.

Dave and Mahoney, ALT 107.5, Las Vegas Fast Food Freak Outs

We all do well in radio using available audio of things that happen in the world.  I’ve covered on this page the value of available audio to help make your break sparkle and give listeners some context in what you’re talking about.  Dave and Mahoney, ALT 107.5, Las Vegas did something with audio that was so simple, yet so smart.  There was a video circulating a few weeks ago of a woman who went crazy at a McDonalds.  They got two other audio clips of people losing their shit at a fast food establishment.  Theming it under the banner of Fast Food Freak Outs, Dave played the audio, then gave his team three options on what fast food restaurant it happened at.  The brilliance of this move is that, as a listener, it drew me in, too.  I wanted to hear the audio so I could guess from the fast food chains he offered at the end of each clip.  There are passive breaks where the audience really has no role – you talk and they listen.  Then there are active breaks where it’s designed to get into listeners’ heads and draws them in vicariously to participate.

How Cold Is It There?

Are you suffering through the heatwave in your market?  Play “How Cold Is It There?”  It’s summer here, but winter below the equator.  One listener guesses the temperature in a city in the southern hemisphere.  Then call a hotel in a big city there and ask how cold it is.  If the listener comes within 5-degrees, they win!