Archive for month: April, 2023

Narrative arcs are stories that last longer than one break on the show, intended to hook the audience to listen longer (or come back the next day).  Chapter one sets the stage – this is the break of drama (the reason for the break’s being) and establishes the characters.  You must then know your conclusion – if this were a book, what’s its last chapter where you wrap up the story line?  Then, chapters in between that substantively advance the story from start to end.  You can spread these out over days (at the same time to get another occasion, as long as you tell the audience what happens in the next day’s chapter so they come back) or across a few quarter hours to try and extend listening.  Johnny Minge got banned from a deli and we told the audience all about it on Karen Carson in the Morning, WNEW-FM, New York City.  Our chapters are in order below.  Chapter one is the team setting the stage of drama, chapter two is listener calls telling Johnny where they’ve been banned (two breaks).  Chapter three is the show calling Johnny’s parents to find out if they know.  Chapter four (conclusion) is Karen calling the deli, trying to get Johnny un-banned.  This is wonderful and creative character development and very sticky content.

You get efficient character development when you pit two cast members against each other.  A terrific example of this happened two weeks ago on Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston.  We wanted to do a parody of March Madness’s use of a grid to get a winner.  Karson loves music from the 90s.  Producer Dan loves music from the 2000s.  The central theme, pitting songs from the 90s against songs from the 2000s, ties the show back to the music format of the station (always smart).  Listeners voted it down to one song from each decade with the loser having to shave his beard.  The finale pit Chumbawumba’s “Tub Thumping” against Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA”, with Miley losing so Dan had to shave his beard.  Here’s a fun chapter in the narrative where the show called Dan’s mom and Karson’s wife to get their take on all of it.

One of your primary jobs is to make the audience care about you.  That’s why great character development is rooted in honesty and vulnerability.  You care about people you know and that’s why you reveal who you are to the audience.  To bring them closer.  There seems to be a mass shooting every week in America.  You may opt in on talking about one, but not another.  The bank shootings in Louisville last week were especially personal for George, Mo, and Erik, KILT-FM Houston.  Instead of this becoming about gun control or mental health, listen to how it’s personalized by George, who couldn’t get a hold of his son when the story broke.  His kid worked one block away and was on lock down.  It’s one thing to talk about a topic as serious as this.  It’s another to personalize it so humanly as is done here.  You leave knowing George better and caring about him.  Do that with your topics.

Shows need benchmarks – these are appointments you set with listeners that they time their morning by.  These features help insert you into the routine of your fans, which helps bring images to the show and higher ratings.  Looking for a new benchmark, Lou and Shannon, WJLK, The Jersey Shore know that the best benchmarks are easy to follow along, fun, and have a vicarious quality to them – in other words, listeners are playing along in the car as they tune in.  Add the need for it to be sustainable – meaning you must have enough content available so it could be on your show for years.  Here’s the Celebrity Name Game (terrific name for a feature because it rhymes).  It’s simple – they describe a celebrity and the caller has to name them – yet very effective because of the content and how it’s done.