A Pivot Point for Top Talent

Imagine a total stranger walking up to you on the street and baring their soul.  Telling you a story of great weakness and vulnerability in their life.  That would be odd, right?

But that’s exactly the kind of relationship we want with our audience. They’re total strangers to us, yet we aren’t to them.  Which is one of the key elements that makes a personality successful.

A pivot point for top talent happens incrementally as you nurture that relationship with listeners.  How?  By building trust and showing your humanity.  Trust is built with them the same way you build it with your close friends and family.  Through honesty and vulnerability.  Trust is a product of vulnerability over time.

Which brings me to the school shootings in Uvalde, Texas.  I am no longer under the belief that we can ignore these events.  They are happening in our listeners’ lives, and we must acknowledge this fact rather than run from or fear them.  But what you do solely rests on the kind of relationship you have with the audience.

Encouraged by their great managers (Brian Maloney and Sammy Simpson), Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh, have worked tirelessly to have this kind of relationship with their audience.  From an on-air discussion about what happened in Uvalde, they received that unexpected call from a total stranger – a local woman who was in the Columbine school shootings several years prior.  She was encouraged by her kid in the back seat to call the show as they were listening to share her experience given the on-air conversation.  More humanity and compassion.  A story that resonated with the team and proves how comfortable that total stranger was to honor her relationship with those guys by baring her soul.

Hear that call here and feel the emotional connection this show is building with its fans.

Don’t believe me?  Here’s an unsolicited text the show got from yet another listener (another stranger) that says it all:

I’m sure it’s not lost on you, but just in case, I wanted to mention this.  You three (and the station) have created such a positive/fun environment that she was able to not only listen with her kids on a regular basis but felt safe and heard enough to call in and have an open conversation without any solicitation after what she went through in ’99.  I hope you all remember that that’s a testament to the foundation you all have built over the years.

That pivot point, groomed over the long term, is one of the reasons this show has been number one in every demo for nine consecutive months.

What kind of relationship does your show have with its audience?  Is it part of your strategy to win?  How are you working on that every day?

My favorite part of coaching is watching talent epically connect the dots like this and level up.

Makes me proud to be in radio.

Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh A Pivot Point for Top Talent

We can no longer avoid those serious topics that galvanize the audience.  In some fashion, if the biggest news story of the day is another school shooting, we must acknowledge it in the show, by reflecting back to listeners how they feel.  One of our goals should also be to have developed over time an emotional connection with those tuning in where they feel like they know us so well they’re comfortable calling to share their stories of hardship, too.  This is central to our strategic content strategy with Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh who held that mirror to the audience with the school shootings in Uvalde, Texas.  Our mission is to have such a deep bond that a perfect stranger would call to participate in the show, which happened here.  The team was talking about the shootings when a local woman who was critically injured at Columbine in 1999 was listening.  Encouraged by her kid in the backseat to call and share her story, this listener called to add a first person perspective.  This is the kind of relationship you want with your audience.  That’s how you build trust and a base of loyal listeners who’ll tune in every day.

Hey Dad, I’m In Jail

Father’s Day is just a few weeks away.  Just for fun that week, find a couple of listeners and conference them with their dads on the other line.  The purpose of the call?  To tell their proud papa that they’re in jail.  See how the dads react, then tell them it’s a total goof with a Happy Father’s Day message from all.

The Josie Dye Show with Carlin and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto The Jewelry Store’s Been Robbed

There is content everywhere you look – if you see it, the richness it brings your show can be immeasurable if you capitalize on it.  In an off-air conversation with the midday gal, Josie, Carlin, and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto found out that she’d been in a local mall the day before and witnessed a robbery at a jewelry store.  It’s excellent content as it’s a story listeners will want to hear.  That it happened the day before means the emotions and details are fresh so the story will be well told.  The first decision is an easy one – the team had the midday gal on so she could tell her story (they didn’t tell the story for her).  All they had to do was get the details from her in conversation.  Then the pivot, which is so necessary to advance the story line to keep the audience hooked.  They asked for stories from listeners of when they witnessed (or were part of) a crime.  Here’s the break of callers telling their stories.  A bold one to grab the audience at first, then something silly at the end.  Both real life, which is great content for the audience.  Keep your ears open.  There is content all around you.  Just hear the good stuff like this and bring it to your show!

Yearbook Memories

May and June are the months for high school graduations. Do some character development by finding the high school yearbooks of all the cast members on your show. Get your boss to read something written in one of them and then the caller must guess whose yearbook it’s from. Then you can reminisce about that person who wrote it and have some fun.

Josie, Carlin, and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto Goofiness at Comic Con

We are entering the season of fairs, festivals, and conventions in every market.  What’s the list of those happening in your city and how will you tap into them (past promoting them) that can make you more local?  They just had a Comic Con and Josie, Carlin, and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto decided to go.  When you go to these things, you talk about them differently on the show because you’re in the middle of it and can feel it.  And always, target getting audio from those attending.  Because people are at their peak emotion, jazzed to be there.  You might think Comic Con attendees are perfect for messing with…and you’d be right.  The show put together silly and absurd questions to ask those there.  With some editing, this is a perfect break that highlights the show’s personality and features a great exchange that made the 99.9% of the audience not going to Comic Con feeling like they were there while accruing images of being local, fun, and authentic.

What Happened to the V-Person?

With graduations happening in the month of May, let’s get caught up on whatever happened to the person in your graduating class who was valedictorian.  Using the internet, try to find them and invite them on your show.  As the smartest person in your class, did they grow to become the most successful person they were expected to be?

London and Engleman, KWST, Los Angeles My Kid Was In a Car Accident

This week’s audio is forty years old!  Cruising around YouTube to reminisce on some of my favorite shows as a kid, I happened upon London and Engleman, KWST (K-West), Los Angeles and this gem from 1982.  I remember these guys as having unbelievable chemistry and showmanship.  What also made them stand out to me back in the day was their high level of sarcasm. While this radio station didn’t last very long, I always remembered this team because of those attributes.  In this vintage retro clip, Engleman’s kid had been in a car accident the evening before and they decided to discuss it.  Even then radio shows understood the power of going personal.  Sharing your life defines you and establishes that bond radio excels at developing with loyal listeners.  Make sure you’re always doing that – and in ways listeners can relate to.  They tacked on the end of the break an equally sarcastic call from a listener.  I still can’t figure out if the call was real.  Regardless, enjoy this clip of high sarcasm, comedy, and real life.

Being a Mom Sometimes Is a Drag

If you can swing pulling off a promotion with Sunday being Mother’s Day, consider Being a Mom Sometimes Is a Drag.  Everyone celebrates Mother’s Day the same way.  Qualify moms all week long and honor them in a way no other program would:  by taking them to a local drag show.