George, Mo and Erik, KILT-FM (The Bull), Houston Lee Brice Price Is Right.

Here’s a reminder from George, Mo, and Erik, The Morning Bullpen, KILT-FM, Houston that when artists come on, they want to sell something.  Last week, country singer Lee Brice needed to sell some concert tickets, which is one of the reasons he did the interview with them.  Knowing that very few in their audience would buy tickets, the mission in talking with Lee was to create some fun.  It’s wonderful that Lee’s last name (Brice) rhymes with “price” so they did Lee Brice Price is Right.  This treatment has been done many times by all of us in morning radio.  Why this works better is because they chose quirky items related to Lee of things for sale they found on the internet.  Lee had to guess the price of items associated with him, which upped the fun factor.

The WXXX Holiday Concert

I’m getting bullish on ideas that involve the entire air staff on your show.  Find a music teacher at an area high school and ask them to assign each staff member an instrument and teach all of you to play one holiday song.  Live that narrative on your show as you coordinate things.  Then just after the Thanksgiving holiday in November, the whole air staff assembles on your show to play one holiday song for the audience.

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego She Took Apart a Washing Machine

A great resource for your show, as you well know, is your listeners.  They have stories and experiences you don’t and can help grow the entertainment quotient of your program every time you focus on them.  Back when Covid and being quarantined was a thing, John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego did the very simple break asking listeners what they taught themselves while holed up at home with nothing else to do.  Not enough shows take advantage of grooming their audience to being full participants in their shows.  From listeners, you get great storytelling based on real life stuff.  Once you tell the audience your story, pivot and always ask the listeners for theirs.  They are your best resource to creating a show about the audience, which bounces back to you tenfold as once you make them a star, they’ll return the favor.

Mr. or Mrs. High Maintenance

Your Monday Morning Free Idea editor read over the weekend that the new King of England is quite high maintenance.  King Charles has one of his butlers squeeze exactly one inch of toothpaste onto his toothbrush each morning, which is waiting for him when he gets into the bathroom.  Which leads to the simple phone topic:  give us the initials of the most high maintenance person you know at work or in life, then tell us why you chose them.

Ty, Kelly, and Chuck NASH FM’s Ten Minute Tune

This week’s audio proves several things:  first, the importance of being about the moment.  Great shows are about whatever is going on right now.  Second, taking advantage of your surroundings – there’s gold for content and characters all around you – just see it.  And presenting your content in a way where you own it.  The NFL season starts this week.  It’s a big topic for any market, whether you have a team or not, because listeners’ lifestyles are impacted.  Back in the day when I was working with Ty, Kelly, and Chuck, NASH FM’s syndicated country show from Nashville, we added a feature that took advantage of all the artists you’ll find all over that town, looking for their big break, called the Ten Minute Tune.  We partnered with a few who wrote well and had a sense of humor.  Each morning, we’d take calls from listeners suggesting a topic and the singer had ten minutes to come up with a song around that topic.  Here’s what happened with the the NFL draft, when it was a big topic after the season that year.

The Teacher’s Lounge Halloween Payoff

Let’s combine back-to-school with Halloween.  The first couple of weeks of October, get teachers to send you a picture of their teacher’s lounge at school.  There are great memories as a student wondering what went on behind that closed door.  Post the pictures online and let the voting begin.  The teacher’s lounge getting the most votes wins a year’s supply of Halloween candy!

The French Fry Challenge

A friend just told me he thought Chick-Fil-A’s waffle fries were inferior to the fries of other fast food restaurants.  Time to have the French Fry Challenge.  Grab fries from any local restaurant that wants in on the competition.  Then find three great chefs in town and do a blind taste test to crown your winner.

 

Zach and Brittney, WBYT, South Bend, IN Mother Mary Does the Laundry

When a major controversy comes up in the studio like who does the laundry at home better, it’s best to bring in an expert.  Look for people at the station who can have occasional roles complimenting and elevating the content on your show because they can be a foil.  Mother Mary is one of them for Zach and Brittney, WBYT, South Bend, IN.  The show got into a deep conversation about doing laundry recently.  So they each did their laundry, brought it in, and had a co-worker, who they named Mother Mary (because she sounds very motherly), critique who did it better.  We’re at our best when we’re being silly and relatable.  This one accomplished both because it was so frivolous.  What Mother Mary added made it even more fun.