Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston with What Are You Doing This Weekend?

Sometimes, we make radio much harder than it should be.  I always preach to shows that something that aids your win is when you are more interested on the audience than you want them to be on you.  Focusing on your fan’s lives or their stories (after you share yours) is storytelling that other listeners are engaged by.  Case-in-point is what Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston do each Friday.  They ask the audience what they’re doing this weekend (a question we all ask our co-workers and friends on Fridays).  Through some phone screening, the best ones are aired and a few people, doing really interesting things, are brought back on Monday to hear how it went.  Don’t make this so hard – Friday shows can be gimmes if you focus on your fans.

Justin Timber-Fake

With Justin Timberlake all over the news for his DUI arrest, get a bunch of people to sing their favorite JT song.  Play them for a caller who has to identify two out of three to win.  Call it Justin Timber-Fake.

Chris and the Crew, WPST, Trenton, NJ with the Carrot Snap Controversy

The moral of this story is that silly and frivolous wins.  In a world of seemingly always weighty topics, the sillier you are, the more the topic is retained sometimes.  Enter Chris and the Crew, WPST, Trenton, NJ.  Have you ever been to a grocery store and broken off part of a package of things because you didn’t need all of it?  Some stores let you do that.  Here’s the dumbest.  A person who can’t afford a full carrot in the produce aisle, so they break it in half.  Is that okay to do?  Chris, Gianna, and Joe chat about it with wildly opposing opinions (good) and then ask the audience to chime in (very good).  Here’s the set-up break along with phone calls.

Nachos Supreme Court

With the US Supreme Court announcing all their big cases over the next week, find five people who love Nachos Supreme from Taco Bell and have them vote on silly dilemmas you come up with by making them your Nachos Supreme Court.

Christine and Salt, WTIC-FM, Hartford with Christine’s Dental Visit

How personally deep can you go with listeners?  What are you willing to share to move the audience to care about you?  When we care about something, we think more deeply about it and want to be around it.  On Christine and Salt, WTIC-FM, Hartford, the audience has been part of a conversation about Christine’s cancer over the years.  Christine has been deep and open about her medical challenges and struggles and draws strength from those listeners rooting for her.  Her cancer is back.  It was found by her dental hygienist during a regular oral cleaning.  In this segment, she visited her hygienist to share the news and recorded all of it so we felt like we were in the dentist’s lobby as it was discussed.  This is immensely personal and powerful on so many levels.  Would you be open to doing this?

The Vacation Gift Shop

With summer vacations about to kick in, talk to a listener each Friday who’s about to head out on vacation.  Give them a $5 budget and ask them to buy you something in the hotel gift shop.  Then, at the end of the summer, give out everything you have.

Coaching and Communicating with Content Creators

It’s not an easy job being on-the-air.  Lots of spinning plates and the wearing of many hats.  You can’t win today without having multiple skillsets.  When you factor in the stress that comes with being in today’s version of radio, it falls upon each of us as leaders and managers to get the best out of our content creators – our talent who bring us brand value.

A regular topic of conversation with the high-profile talent I coach, is how we lead each other to success.

Many ask when I start coaching a show if I think we’ll win and when that will happen.  My answer is always the same:  if you believe in your people and believe in the strategy, then be patient, because it’ll happen.

Here is some wisdom on managing the artisans who make great radio by other successful professionals and me.  Many thanks to those noted below for reminding each of us what’s important to get to the win:

Pick your battles.  Trust that you’ve hired a talented team.  They need you focused on the big things.

Patti Marshall, Q102, Cincinnati Program Director, Hubbard OM

Spend time together outside of work, with each other’s families.  You’ll appreciate and respect each other more when you are closer off air.  Listeners can sense that bond.

Steve Reynolds, The Reynolds Group

Let fun win on and off the air.  Let yourself be the butt of the jokes.  If you’re willing to allow for those moments of vulnerability, you will endear yourself to the audience and the team.

Jeff Thomas, Jeff and Jenn, Q102, Cincinnati

Be the show’s biggest fan.  When you are, you can coach the show on what needs to be fixed, because they know you believe in them.

Tony Travatto, Channel 95.5, Detroit Program Director

Own your shit.  Take responsibility for whatever happens, then work through it.  That way, no drama enters the room and throws off the chemistry of the team and show.

Jenn Jordan, Jeff and Jenn, Q102, Cincinnati

Let other people on the show shine.  Shows fail when each person doesn’t let the other cast members have the spotlight.

Mojo, Mojo in the Morning, Channel 95.5, Detroit

Trust is a product of vulnerability over time.  The more time you spend with your people, and the more open you are about your own life with them, they will reciprocate.  That’s the foundation of a relationship built on trust.

Steve Reynolds, The Reynolds Group

Each of us, regardless of our position, is charged with leading others.  Tack this up and, in the race to the goal, re-read it on occasion as a reminder that we get there not just for what we know, but because of the culture we build and how we manage our teams and our people.

Foxx and Annie, CBS-FM, New York City with Wishing Myself a Happy Birthday

The more intimate and personable vibe your show has, the greater chance you have connecting with the audience and moving them to a primary goal – feeling like they know you.  Such is one of our objectives with Foxx and Annie, CBS-FM, New York City.  The show is relatively new, having taken over when the iconic Scott Shannon retired several months ago.  I normally hate the reading of birthdays on-air.  I think it’s irrelevant content no one else cares about.  But this one was different.  It’s a listener calling to wish himself a happy birthday.  In the process, it’s quite apparent he knows and loves the show.  Plus he’s fun and reveals himself, heightening that intimacy, which is an image transferred to the show.

Daddy’s First Drag Show

With this being Pride Month, find a local drag show and create a promotion where listeners, whose fathers have never been to one, attend with you.  It’s Daddy’s First Drag Show!

The Power Person, the Delayed Flight, and the Lesson Learned

Early one morning last week, a radio friend texted that he’d just boarded a United flight in Traverse City, MI headed to New York through Chicago.  He boasted that the flight would not be delayed because he was sitting in seat 27C and the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, was in seat 27E.  I congratulated him on his good fortune.

A half hour later I got another text.  The flight was delayed.  An hour after that, another text that the plane was pushing back.  My friend told me he’d make his connection.  But not so good for Mayor Pete.  He’d miss his flight and needed to find a seat on the next plane to DC.

What does this have to do with radio?  It’s the lesson learned.  How could the Transportation Secretary ever move to fix our air travel issues if he doesn’t live it like we do?  I applaud Buttigieg because he had our experience:  a window seat in coach, a delayed flight, a missed connection, and he was on United Airlines (something everyone should get combat pay for).

If you’re a talent, when was the last time you had the user experience?  When did you last review a break or two of your show to hear what the audience hears?  It would be easy to forget a show after it’s over, but regular reviews (putting ourselves in coach on a delayed flight) we can most easily learn how to be better, so we stay relevant for our fans.

To brand managers – I know you’re incredibly busy, but when was the last time you reviewed audio with your talent, so they grow?  And what exactly are you listening for?

Did we affirm our show’s plot?  Did we reinforce an image of relevancy, humor, or authenticity?  Did we accrue an image that would help us build our brand?  How did we do connecting with the audience?

Athletes do it.  Actors do it.  Those who give speeches do it.  Folks who do Ted Talks do it.

If we don’t do this, we stand a greater chance listeners will choose one of their other dozens of choices if we’re off strategy.  With one push of a button, they have another radio station, they can scroll social media, consume music elsewhere without interruption, listen to a podcast, etc.  So, let’s get better by having their experience and elevating our game.

I know it’s scary and most talent tend to hate it for what it brings up.  I did when I was on-the-air.  But there’s no better way to improve the experience than honing our art by listening to what we offer up as entertainment.

If you’re a talent and your manager is too busy to do this, I will if I’m not competing against you in the market (be in touch here).  We must help each other compete more effectively against all the other choices listeners have.

Our future relevancy is heightened by doing what Mayor Pete did by flying like we regular folks, so he experiences air travel like us.  If he feels our pain, he can fix our pain.

A simple, but epic decision so we can make things better for those who choose us.