We’re Gonna Need Better Prizes

I worked with a show many years ago that was, to put it politely, “ratings-challenged”.  The program director and I knew the issues were rooted in relevance of content, not being local enough, and a lack of unique treatment of those content choices to stand out.  But what we do is people management so we’d regularly enroll the show’s principle players in finding a solution that would improve things.

We’d ask the talent what fixes the larger ratings issues so they could take ownership of the right path forward.  And each time we would get back the same answer:  we need better prizes.

The show didn’t last much longer.

Our long-term wins come strategically.  Where the show thought that manipulating listenership and getting contest players to come back to the program was the answer, developing images is always the smarter choice.

Have we identified the right content is the first question.  Then how we do that content to endear ourselves to the audience is the key that unlocks the door for increased engagement with fans.

This show consistently played to the two percent of game or contest players when being much more concerned with the perceptions of the other 98% just tuning in, looking to be entertained, was more important.  Where we’d preach that how we gave out whatever prize we had was the smarter putt, they stayed hyper-focused on the quality of the prize.

Who’s Wheel of Fortune really doing the show for?  Those three contestants spinning the wheel with Pat and Vanna?  Or those of us sitting on the sofa trying to figure out the puzzle, looking to win nothing?  It’s always about us, the larger group they want watching.  Go time the opening of Wheel.  From the moment the show starts until the first letter of the first puzzle is revealed (that’s when the show is about the viewer), it’s less than thirty seconds.

Think of those 98% when doing your content (contests, games, or not).  What messages are listeners walking away with about your show?  A concept I consistently talk with talent about is doing their content for the person least interested.  If those fans leave knowing how real you are; identifying with the story you just told; vicariously playing along with the game you have the prize for; understanding how different and relevant you are; laughing and having fun, then you’ll find your win.

There are tactical things every show can and should do to extend listenership.  But the truly long-lasting wins come strategically.

“We’re gonna need better prizes” solves nothing.  Coach your show to process how those you will never hear from, the other 98%, are reacting to what you’re doing.

Advocating for their win advances all efforts for your win to becoming an epic brand.

Wicker and Wilde, MIX 98.1, Richmond Finding Atlas the Dog

There’s this old adage in radio that small market stations want to sound big and big market stations want to sound small.  In the latter, “small” means homey.  All radio should sound personal.  If you’re a person of a certain age reading this post, you’ll remember when hometown stations would let listeners get on-the-air and ask the audience for help in finding their lost dogs.  That’s exactly what Wicker and Wilde, MIX 98.1, Richmond did recently.  A listener lost his dog Atlas and he asked for the audience’s help in finding him.  Which resulted in this narrative theme over one show where listeners called with Atlas sightings and the resolution at the end of the program where the dog and owner were reunited.  So homey and touching – with anyone listening that day wondering if there was a happy ending.  This is wonderfully touching radio and super local.

I Need to Tap Out

Everyone is exhausted from everything. So many people want to “tap out” from something going on in their life. Great radio has an emotional connection. Maybe take Covid and bad traffic off the list so you don’t get repeated calls on those topics. Then ask listeners what in their life they want to tap out on.

The Twos of 2/22/22

This Tuesday is an anomaly:  2/22/22.  That will never happen again.  Celebrate number twos all morning long.  If you have a sports team in town, who is the assistant coach (they’re a number two)?  Who’s second in command of your local government (the “assistant mayor”)?  Who is the backup to the person who runs your biggest building?  Celebrating twos, all morning long on 2/22/22.

Gregg, Freddy, and Danielle, MIX 104.1, Boston with Gram’s Jams

Anytime you come up with an idea centered around the music you play, it scores well with the audience and ties you back to the overall brand images of the radio station.  Gregg, Freddy, and Danielle, MIX 104.1, Boston afternoons, wanted to play the often-used simple game of reading a song lyric to the audience and having the listener give back the artist and title to win a prize.  That’s been done a million times, right?  Add in a cast member’s grandmother, who’s reading the racy lyric, and you do both character development and earn an image of being fun, and you shift the feature from being a pure promotional giveaway to the earning of images with the entire audience.  Especially important for those not trying to win the prize, but still wishing to be entertained by what they hear.

Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix Dirty Pics to the Pastor

The origin of your breaks communicate your relevance.  Using a Hot List topic to generate your break connects both you and the audience to whatever is going on in life right now.  Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix used the story of Patriots Coach Bill Belichick getting in trouble for sending a text to talk with the audience about the texts they’ve sent that weren’t proper.  As some things go, this became about the inappropriate nude pictures sent to others.  Here’s a fun story told by a female listener to the guys about naked pictures she accidentally sent to a group text, which included her pastor.  The start is the Belichick story, but the end has the focus on a listener, making her the star of their program.  Note her nice compliment to the show at the end of the call.  She shared that personal story because she feels like she knows the people on the show, key to her calling.

 

The Word of Wordle

What would it be like if you gave the Wordle out each morning at 8:00?  The twist is that when you actually say the word, you play a beep.

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego The Jimmie Allen Interview

Here’s another example of an interview that hits the sweet spot to sell tickets and entertain the audience.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts on this page, most people who ask for interview time on a show do so for one reason – they want to sell something.  Our goal is to always entertain the audience with laughter and storytelling.  Listeners want to get to know the celebrity you’re talking to.  Enter John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego with their conversation with country artist Jimmie Allen, who’s on to sell tickets to his upcoming show.  If you’re not aware, Jimmie is African-American and very funny.  John and Tammy absolutely have a game plan for this interview.  But, they’re comfortable enough to let the chemistry drive it.  They’re great listeners and allow Jimmie to be Jimmie.  Here are two segments.  After all the laughter and our getting to know Jimmie better, don’t you think they helped him sell more tickets?  Which means he’ll come on the show again.  Artists remember great experiences.  So do listeners.  This ticks all those boxes.

Super Bowl Star Spangled Banner

Tons of people have done the National Anthem at the Super Bowl over the years.  Go find videos of all of them and do a compilation Star Spangled Banner featuring a bunch of them.  Play that compilation version each day this week and give listeners a shot to figure out who all the artists are.