Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh with The Cookie Tank

Girl Scout Cookies are on sale in almost every market of the country, making them a Hot List topic you should have fun with.  The folks at Coleman Insights talk about the 3 T’s of Content:  Topic, Treatment, and Tone.  Are you on the best topics?  What is your treatment of those topics?  And the tone is how you make the audience feel.  Treatments are things you do with the great content chosen that make its execution all yours.  Not in a wacky, cheesy way, but in a style that fits your brand.  Last year, Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh decided from a brainstorm session that they wanted to marry girl scout cookie sales with the popularity of the TV show Shark Tank.  What came from that was putting on cute girl scouts selling their cookies and them being the sharks.  This is a creative treatment to the topic and called The Cookie Tank.

The Weekend’s Dumbest Argument

Monday content tends to be easy because you have all that real life stuff from the weekend.  If you’re up for a new Monday feature, do The Weekend’s Dumbest Argument where you take calls from listeners, auditioning for who had the dumbest argument with anyone.

Five Brand Takeaways from Sometimes When We Touch

This blog was originally written for and appeared on the Coleman Insights website.  Visit them here.

I love love songs. Let me control the music when we’re together, and it’s likely the ride will be with the Carpenters, Barry Manilow, Dan Fogelberg, Bread, and Ambrosia. Younger Steve might have been embarrassed to admit this. Today’s Steve owns it and will show you all the kitschy music he sings along with in the car. Which brings me to a call I had with the show I work with at WINK-FM in Fort Myers, FL.

Logan, the morning co-host, was sharing that he remained in the good graces of his wife because he had just taken her to another Air Supply show. They both adore the group. This led to a discussion of Soft Rock, which Logan knows I enjoy. Logan recommended I watch “Sometimes When We Touch”, a documentary about the history of Soft Rock and how it morphed into another of my musical passions, Yacht Rock (of which many know I am highly opinionated), on Paramount+. I watched it that night.

“Sometimes When We Touch” is shown in three parts: the reign, ruin, and resurrection of Soft Rock. It was completely engaging, fun, and a great escape.

Here’s what rang true as I smiled and sang throughout all three parts and how they pertain to radio:

  • BE THE CANDY, NOT THE ENTRÉE. The entrée is serious. Candy is fun. It’s lighthearted. It’s a guilty diversion. “Sometimes When We Touch” is total candy with zero “nutritional value.” It’s not designed to make you think too hard. It’s meant to be a diversion. When I saw the Eagles recently on their MeHotel California tour, Don Henley tells the audience they’ll give us a three- hour vacation from the stresses of the real world with hit after hit we can sing along with. That’s exactly what they did. No one left in a bad mood. Be the candy, not the entrée. If you’re a music station, unless you’re compelled to cover something that dictates being serious, handle everything else with humor, mischievousness, curiosity, and fun. Be the candy. That’s the X factor of radio.
  • DON’T ABANDON YOUR POSITION. Everything is cyclical. Something that may go out of fashion comes back. It inevitably happens to every brand. You may be the shiny new object one day and then competitors try and take your position. One of the best pieces of advice I got from Jon Coleman in the early years of my company was to know my position in the marketplace and to not bend wit the winds. Abandon your position and it may never come back to you. Turns out soft rock had more staying power than anyone expected, but the brand was always true to itself.
  • AUTHENTICITY IS POWERFUL. Speaking of being true to oneself, there’s the enduring power of authenticity. Dan Hill tells the story in the show of how he wrote “Sometimes When We Touch”. He was dating an older woman who rejected him, and he wrote her this immensely honest love song to express his feelings. He told her his truth through his song. She said he was too sensitive. It became by far his biggest hit. After it topped the charts she wanted him back, but it was too late. Always, always, always tell the audience the truth. Great brands and talent do, and the audience knows if you aren’t.
  • PROTECT YOUR IP. I knew we’d eventually get to Yacht Rock and it happened. That was the greatest point of curiosity for me. Who came up with the term? How? And why the hell didn’t they trademark it so they could become zillionaires?? J.D. Ryzer and Hunter Stair created the term “Yacht Rock” with their YouTube series of the same name. They’d surely be rich…had they trademarked it. But they didn’t, which is heartbreakingly detailed in the series. Thinking about how to protect your brand is so important. We come up with ideas that turn into morning show features or community service programs, for example. One of my processes at that point is asking, “Have we secured a service mark for it? Do we have the YouTube channel? Maybe bought the website domain?” Because if not, someone could steal our intellectual property. If you develop something unique to your brand, own it not only in execution, but own it legally.
  • EARN YOUR LISTENERS’ TRUST. I posted about “Sometimes When We Touch” on Facebook because I am passionate about the music and its evolution. I wanted to share my find with my people. Jay Nachlis from Coleman and other friends in my network watched it because they trust my opinion, much like I trusted Logan’s. And then they tell their friends, who tell their friends. Isn’t that how you find new streaming TV shows? Aren’t you more apt to trust a friend’s recommendation than an ad? In radio, we worry so much about engaging with listeners tactically – but if they trust you, you have them for so much more than a promotion. Talent builds trust with the audience so when they’re endorsing a product, talking about the radio station, or doing content in their unique way, listeners who trust them will endorse you to their network of friends (aka “future listeners”). Talent = Trust. Work hard on that part of your brand.

Great brands make you feel something. Tap into “Sometimes When We Touch” for some Soft Rock inspiration.

Now, who’s ready to set sail with Captain Steve? The SS Reynolds leaves the dock promptly at 7:00pm. On board entertainment is Christopher Cross and Seals and Crofts! Night two? Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins!

Flex On Your Ex

Time for a new feature for the show.  This one’s called Flex Your Ex where listeners come on and say something nice about their ex.  That gives you a shot to explore their relationship and why it didn’t work out.

Chris and the Crew, WPST, Trenton, NJ Joe’s Pizza Easter Egg

You know what’s wonderful?  When a show preps so hard that breaks are mapped out.  Conversation on a show, especially around real life content, is good.  But chit chat without a purpose or destination can backfire on any show, accruing them a “talks too much” image.  Chris and the Crew, WPST, Trenton, NJ know the value of game plans.  Joe on the show bought a pizza for lunch and accidentally dropped it on floor at the radio station.  Did he pick it up and eat it?  That was the hook to get you through this week’s posted audio.  Listen to the design of this simple break.  They grab me with the question if Joe still ate the pizza.  There’s a caller quickly inside the break to stimulate that question.  They then place an Easter egg in the break (an unexpected moment) to add to the humor.  Before they engage people through their app and reveal what Joe did.  All the way around, this is an A+ break for content and execution.

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego The Prince Harry Lookalike

Great radio shows are about the moment.  Much in the same way the nightly talk shows are having fun with the topics of the day.  Which brings us to Prince Harry.  He’s everywhere you turn.  Which means we must be on it as content.  What’s your take on all of this?  Conversation plus appropriate audio (because he seems to be on every media outlet) will define your character.  Then, we must have fun with it.  Knowing they’d never get the actual Prince Harry, John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego did the work to find a Prince Harry lookalike in Great Britain who gets tons of work as his doppelgänger .  The guy won a contest years ago and decided to turn it into a business venture.  The show asks him to bring us inside with all the right questions.  It’s an interesting conversation, associated with a Hot Topic, because the show was curious and poked around to find a unique angle.

The Super Bowl Super Anthem

The Super Bowl is less than one month away (February 13).  Here’s an early idea as it has some production time necessary to make it sparkle.  Get on YouTube and grab a ton of famous people singing the National Anthem.  Make a super cut of it (each line done by a different person).  Play it the entire week leading up to the game.  The first listener to identify all the singers in order wins a nice prize.

The Josie Dye Show with Carlin and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto Your Most Famous Helps With Our Socks

Our yearly community service project on the Josie Dye Show with Carlin and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto is collecting socks for the homeless of that city.  This past year, our seventh doing it, the show raised its millionth pair of socks.  It’s a community service event designed to be very different from all the others you’ve heard.  We are always looking to present our ask of the audience in unique ways.  We acknowledge that our request needs to be framed as a story and as content to impact the images of the show by the larger group of fans who’ll never give us socks.  So this year, something different.  We asked each person on the show to call the most famous person in their phone’s contact list on-the-air to ask for their support and help collecting socks.  Josie’s most famous person is Eric Lindross, who played hockey in Canada.  To them, he’s a superstar, as is evidenced by Carlin and Brent’s reactions just talking with him.  Always be different in what you do.  Look for ways to be innovative so the break everyone hears is its most memorable.

I Think It’s On Netflix

Because it’s the most popular streaming service, when someone tells you about a show you should watch, the default is always – it’s on Netflix!  Then you go searching for it because it might be on one of the others.  Go grab a bunch of shows for this fun new game called I Think It’s On Netflix.  The listener has to guess if the streaming show you give them is actually on Netflix or one of the others.

A New Year, A New Tier

Memorandum

 

TO:  Radio’s Great Personalities (You!)

FR:  Steve Reynolds, Talent Coach (Me!)

DT:  January 1, 2023

RE:  A New Year, A New Tier

 

Welcome back to the grind.  I hope your break was relaxing and you had great time off to decompress, recharge, and not think even once about radio.  For those of you who keep the early hours (my fellow morning folks), I hope you slept in past 6:00am.

Radio stations and personality-driven shows, like the one you do, are living, breathing organisms.  We must adapt and evolve to stay relevant.  I have five challenges for things that could markedly change you and your show:

  1. Do something for your team. Reset and review your show strategy.  What’s your show about?  What’s its plot?  Review character development traits.  Redesign how you’ll prep to get even better story-based, real life content from everyone.  Where is the best content?  How can you be more local?  What are the important images to earn?  You’ll never go wrong engaging everyone on your team, including the key people at the radio station, on your show strategy.  The strategy is what makes you win.  It’s never a bad thing to communicate the core strategy to the key people you need help from to succeed.
  2. Do something for your ratings. While none of us can directly manipulate the ratings, review everything to see what could be refreshed.  The content you do and how you do it is in your control.  What ideas or features are old and tired?  What new things can you bring fans where they won’t take you for granted?  Nix all content that can be done by any show at any time. Where are the upgrades in your features and content so the audience doesn’t cheat on you by checking out another show?  Generic and evergreen content end up being lame and indistinct.  What new things can you bring your show and digital assets to deepen your relationship with listeners when they engage you there?  Become more relevant by doing content that is more personal, more pop culture, or more local.
  3. Do something for your community. My last blog was about knowing your show’s cause (Be the Beacon).  If you know yours, plan on doing something big around it in the first quarter.  We don’t do many big things in radio any longer.  Remind listeners, remind co-workers, and, most importantly, remind yourself the power you have to move the audience to do something big to help people in your hometown.  If you can’t find time to give back to your community, then it isn’t your community.
  4. Do something for your station. Reaffirm your attitude of gratitude.  Say thank you to those you work with all over the station.  Scare the shit out them by showing appreciation for not only what they do for the cluster, but for what they do for you and your show.  This is a leadership move.  Elevate your leadership.  It’s always a good move acknowledging the hard work and contributions they make helping the radio station succeed.  Don’t do this via text or email (decent, but low effort).  Don’t do it in person (they’ll think you’re from Mars and feel pressure to return the compliment, and that’s not the reason you’re doing it).  Write a short note, put it in an envelope, and leave it on their desk.  Why this way?  Well, no one writes notes any longer, so you’ll stand out.  Second, a handwritten note says you mean it.  Those you write will beam with pride for themselves, the station, and especially you.  I bet the next time you’re skittish on a sales promotion or need some piece of equipment fixed in the studio, it’ll be easier.  It’s also a bad ass leadership move.  Get some inexpensive notecards from Amazon, commit to writing them over the next few weeks, and go be a bad ass.
  5. Do something for yourself. Our brains need nourishment.  Because of the intensity of this industry, we need balance in our life so we don’t burnout.  What non-radio thing intrigues or interests you?  Go explore it.  Feed your brain by taking a course on it at a local university or community college.  That’ll make you a more interesting person to be around.  Not to get a degree, but because the balance will serve and invigorate you.  I work with a talent who always wanted to become an auctioneer.  Guess what he did last year?  He took classes and became one.  He’s an even better talent today because he fed his brain.  If no topic comes readily to mind, take a course in marketing to see if best practices can help your show or career.  Or a course in psychiatry or leadership to learn how to form more positive teams and communicate better with people.  I live in Raleigh, NC.  Within thirty minutes of my house lives North Carolina State University, Duke, and UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as a ton of smaller schools.  I regularly ask myself why I’m not enrolled in a class or two around a subject that’ll feed my brain.  This is the year I do it – do me a favor and stay on me so I remain honest to this one?

Don’t fear change or growth – go get uncomfortable to do that.  Embrace that journey.

What we don’t have enough of in life is people who’ll root for us.  I’m rooting for you.  Even if I compete against you at another station in your market or I’ve never met you.  I’m hoping you grow as a person and radio professional because I hope that you would do that for me.  Because, despite its faults, radio continues to be good to me and a good way to make a living and change communities by the power of personalities like you.

If no one’s told you lately, you bring value to what we do in this industry.  It’s a new year so go move up a tier.  There’s no better time than now to move to epic with the suggestions above.

Be in touch and let me know how they work out for you.