Archive for month: October, 2022

Powerball pushes a billion dollar payout this week and we all know that it owns media turf when the number is that high.  That’s your first threshold to determine if a topic is good for your show.  Is the topic near-everywhere?  Then the big question:  how do we align ourselves with the topic in a way that expresses our take and sense of humor?  That treatment of the topic makes it distinctively yours.  That’s a must if you’re going to stand out in the cluttered marketplace of radio shows and choices for entertainment.  Our Monday Morning Free Idea this week is My Ex Made Me a Billionaire.  A divorced couple comes on and each chooses half the numbers and then you buy that ticket and give it to them.  It gives you a chance to explore what happened in the relationship, which is the big win.  Here’s John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego doing it when the lottery was at a similar height.

Here’s another terrific example of getting right to your substantive content on the show.  Intern Anthony’s eye has hurt for a couple days.  Karen, Johnny, and Intern Anthony, WNEW-FM, New York have at it big time.  This is the kind of simple, very relatable content that will help you connect with the audience – how men “suffer” differently when they’re sick.  Karen, who mothers the two boys on the show, had had enough.  So they opened the phones to let other female listeners have at Anthony, too.  They asked the audience to mother or smother him.  The thing to listen for is how quickly the show gets to the substantive storytelling in this break.  Within ten seconds, the topic is set and they are already talking to a caller.  The energy level and playful tension remain high throughout.  In many instances, we’d feel the need to ramp up the topic with a big backstory with all the details after we ID the station, give the weather, and tell everyone about the big promotion coming up.  That just delays serving the true needs of the audience for content.  Don’t waste listeners time!  Here’s a great example of a break on a show that doesn’t.

I post this every year around Halloween because it’s truly one of the most innovative breaks a show I’ve worked with has done.  When I worked with Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa, we hatched an idea one October to get the mayor of St. Pete to do his version of Vincent Price’s poem at the end of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.  Dave was fearless.  He went to a town hall meeting the mayor was having with constituents and told the moderators he wanted to go last with his question.  Once engaged with the mayor, he asked in front of everyone if he would read the poem.  The mayor had no idea what was going on, but played along (it was not a set-up).  It’s dangerous and fun.  And at the time unique and topical.  Here’s the terrific audio of Dave doing it.  Dave passed away years ago.  I miss that guy.

Because caller fourteen is boring!  I’ll long be fascinated with shows that take caller X to give out anything.  Even more shocked when the winning caller is aired.  Because there’s no strategic, image-based win for everyone else not calling to win your prize.  I’ve sat in many a focus group where we play caller X audio and listeners sit there and shrug their shoulders because it’s not them winning.  We’re beefing up our giveaway games with Gregg, Freddy, and Danielle, MIX 104.1, Boston.  Why?  Because we want to give everything out in a way that is vicarious to engage listeners in cars playing along.  If we do, we win a style point with those people – and there are way more of them.  Here’s Triple True or False.  Three true/false trivia questions associated with the prize.  If caller fourteen gets them all right, they win.  If they get one wrong, the prize goes to caller fifteen.

We recently added a new character to Josie, Carlin, and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto.  Brent’s character is the young, single guy who lives in a 700-square foot apartment in the heart of downtown.  He has a ton of friends and spends his weekends having a good time.  This is a nice contrast to the others on the show who are in longer-term relationships and more settled.  We are focusing a lot of time defining Brent’s character and creating that contrast in the room.  Brent recently got an interview with Fred VanFleet, who plays for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.  Besides doing the usual Q&A, Brent also asked Fred to review his online dating profile to make commentary.  This is a unique way to both showcase the player’s personality and define Brent.