The Daly Migs Show, 99.9 KISW, Seattle with Mice in Minneapolis

Our audio this week brings several points important to make.  First, we are storytellers.  First, always, and forever.  Stories are what make us interesting to other people.  But we can only tell our stories, not the stories of others.  If a story exists and it isn’t yours, get that person on to tell it.  It’ll be much more emotional and authentic.  Second, stories must have compelling drama and the more you have, as it pushes to resolution, the more riveting it is to hear.  Finally, stories don’t work unless you, as show hosts, have curiosity to bring the story out and focus on the emotion.  A local Seattle woman was caught in the vortex of the Delta issues a week ago.  She joined the Daly Migs Show, 99.9 KISW to tell of her experience (which includes finding mice in the Minneapolis airport).  This first person account of the happened is highly engaging.

The Medal Update – In French

With the Paris Olympics the big topic for the next two weeks, have one cast member of the show (or a fellow employee if you are not part of a team) do a daily medal count update at 8am each morning.  The only hitch is they have to do it in French!

How Wheel of Fortune Solved Instant Boredom Syndrome (You Can, Too!!)

We all have a dreaded disease Big Pharma has yet to bombard our TV with ads.  IBS is Instant Boredom Syndrome.  We get bored quickly with everything.

The most critical part of a content break is its start.  In its first few seconds, listeners are making conscious and unconscious decisions:  is this topic interesting to me?  Do I care about it?  Is it entertaining?  Yes, and they stay for a few.  No and we lose them in some fashion.  Each of us do, too, when consuming content.  Which brings me to Wheel of Fortune.

It’s the most popular game on television whose ratings have not eroded over the years.  This, in part, was due to the affable Pat and Vanna but also because of its design.

It’s highly familiar, which plays in its favor.  It’s mind-candy, too (not very taxing after a long day at work).  But over the years, it’s evolved.  Because we have changed as viewers.

I talked about this in the blog I Learned How to Do Radio From Pat Sajak and Porn.  In it, I note how Wheel re-designed the beginning of the game years ago to hook us more quickly because we all have IBS.  Once the letters start appearing on Vanna’s board, that’s when we’re in as viewers.

Need proof?  Here are two video clips.  The first is an early Wheel when they started the program by showcasing the prizes to win (not the prizes I couldn’t win as a viewer, of course), then an intro of Pat and Vanna, then the worst part, the interview with the contestants.  Watch this and see they don’t make this about us (we want the puzzles, the puzzles!!) until 3:01.  I don’t care about any of this as a viewer.  They’re giving me many reasons to depart.  All of it delays my win, which is guessing the puzzle before the three contestants.  Then watch the newer show after the redesign.  The first letter in the first puzzle appears at :31.

Here’s Wheel of Fortune from yesteryear with a whole lot of This Doesn’t Matter to Me.  IBS is killer.  Take note of when your Instant Boredom Syndrome kicks in.

Now here’s Wheel of Fortune today, with a much faster start and hook for those of us watching.

Some radio shows continue to put listeners through process and promotional stuff at the beginning of breaks, delaying the actual content (whether a story or game or interview or other substantive content), eroding listeners’ interest and inviting them to stop paying attention.

Listeners come for content so let’s engage them there almost immediately, before their IBS kicks in.  In your prep, spend the most amount of time figuring out how to engage the audience the quickest so what you do in your first twenty seconds makes them want to hear the twenty seconds after that.

When airchecking shows, I sometimes play “The 20 Second Game”.  We listen to just the first twenty seconds of a content break and for one purpose.  Is enough done to hold on to the listener for another twenty seconds?  Don’t be version #1 of Wheel above.  Be version #2.  Your fans will renew their interest for more of that content and stick around.

Show these videos to your talent to help them get to it quickly so fans don’t mentally drift.  We are given precious few seconds to grab the audience.  Let’s not disrespect that lest their IBS appear and they move on to another available choice for connection, content, and entertainment.

The Josie Dye Show, Indie 88, Toronto with Delayed, Cancelled, or On Time

With vacations in full swing, we’re hearing that airports are packed.  Here’s audio from The Josie Dye Show, Indie 88, Toronto that taps into all that air travel.  The fun game is called Delayed, Cancelled, or On Time.  Grab a flight from your airport and call that airline’s 800-number to record the flight status.  Bank the audio and have your caller guess which of the three that flight will be – delayed, cancelled, or on time.  Then play the call to see if they win the prize.  A tip – find online a flight out of your airport that leaves for a vacation destination (like Orlando because of Disney) within a few hours and is either delayed or cancelled as that’ll be funnier when you do it on-air.  Here’s audio as an example.

The Wall of Vacation Selfies

Everyone’s headed out on vacation in the next month.  Do a weekly phone topic asking listeners where they’re headed for vacation.  Then ask them to send you a selfie from vacation.  Print all the pictures you get and put them on a wall in the studio you will name The Wall of Vacation Selfies.

The Trump Story and Your Monday Show

The hardest and the easiest shows are the ones where there is a central topic everyone knows about and is being talked about.

What happened to former President Trump at his Pennsylvania rally Saturday night applies.  I believe great, relevant shows are about what’s happening right now.  So, let’s touch on how to handle this charged topic:

Understand that listeners are looking for connection and humanity around their content.  This story is very top-of-mind so share updates of current information.  Work to know what’s new before you take to the air.  Because you are not used for news, finding someone with news credentials to deliver this information in a conversational way, it might be appropriate.

Don’t ask listeners how they feel about this and definitely don’t take phone calls.  Listeners could very easily make this about politics, which is a no-win.  Don’t let them take you there.  Ditto any commentary from you.  You want to be careful listeners don’t misconstrue any of that.

A safe spot to be in is to reflect on the volatility many people are experiencing on social media.  Anyone seeing anything even remotely partisan is repulsed.  That’s not a bad place to be.  Using your power to dial down the temperature is easily rewarded by almost everyone in your audience.

Remember that you control how people feel when they listen to your show.  There’s fear and anger – play into that and you accentuate those emotions.  But if you are the trusted talent and calm people, that builds you and your show more.

Some guests that might make sense:  a child psychologist to talk about how you have this conversation with kids.  Another show I respect is finding a former Secret Service agent to talk about the training they go through for just these situations.

You might only need to prepare a half of a show and rerun (or re-do) those segments later.  Listeners come to us for very little time so don’t feel the pressure to do several hours of original content around the topic.

It’s very important you know your stuff.  Sometimes it’s easy to take what’s read on social media as gospel.  Be prepared and know what you’re sharing is accurate.  Because having a plan will make doing the show much easier.

Humanity is where radio shines.

Anna and Raven, Star 99.9, Bridgeport, CT with the Biden-Trump Debate Bets

With politics now ramping up as a potential Hot List topic, you can consider using it as a foundation for content for the show.  The threading of this needle needs to be precise so it’s not commentary or you advocating for a candidate (so it isn’t polarizing).  Plus, it’s important to maintain the goal – entertaining the audience.  With the Trump-Biden debate a few weeks ago, Anna and Raven, Star 99.9, Bridgeport, CT took on the challenge of crafting unique content around the topic without touching that third rail.  In a brainstorm, we realized that people like to bet and there were probably weird bets happening that night on the debate, too.  Here’s an interview with a betting parlor owner on just that angle.  It wasn’t about politics, but was about something attached to the debate that created the relevance.

Amazon Prime Days Bonanza

With Amazon Prime Days this week, set someone from the show up at a computer and signed into their account.  Their goal over the course of the program, is to load their cart up with so much stuff it equals $1,000,000.  The hitch?  They can’t buy any more than two items of the same thing.  Put live video of it on social media as you keep looking at the cart!  Would be fun to see what happens.

Launching a New Show Is a Strategic Adventure

Some stations launch new shows and get themselves into trouble from Day One.

The show or management believe the show needs to start with a big giveaway and trumpets blowing announcing that a new show is in town, and they immediately set themselves up to fail.

You start a new show like it’s a new restaurant in town – soft launches with no attention allow everyone to get comfortable, develop chemistry, and not highlight there’s a change.  Listeners don’t like change – that disruption in their expectations and routine should be done with lots of handholding to help listeners through the newness.  A managed opening strategy and patience work in your favor short- and long-term to hold on to the audience.

My phone tends to ring in only two scenarios:  there’s a new show about to launch and it must be started strategically.  Or the show is in the latter stages of its life cycle, and it needs to be re-invigorated.  Let’s talk in this Planet Reynolds how to do the former.

Your primary goal upon launch is to endear yourself to the cume already there.  Losing them is expensive to get back.  Here are nine guidelines as part of a strategic plan I share with new teams just starting on the station:

  1. Topics (and music) should be familiar because the talent isn’t. Nothing unfamiliar for content. Topics come from:  local (if you are a live and local show), pop (popular) culture, stories from your life that prove you’re just like them, and music/artist-based content.  We all wake up and want to be around what we know.  Because you aren’t familiar, drive that through your topics. If not, the audience will have to put in effort and that rarely works out.
  2. Affirm and earn images that you’re fun, genuine, friendly, and authentic in every break. They know if you’re faking it.
  3. Character development is very important. Here’s where all your connection points are.  Introduce yourself by being honest and sharing the parts of your life that help you connect.  Letting them get to know you helps form that connection which leads to becoming familiar.  Can the audience relate to the story you’re telling because they’ve had a similar experience?  We like to be around people just like us.  Feed that desire.
  4. Be interested in them so they’re interested in you. Lots of phones, lots of storytelling. But land on putting the focus on the audience.  You will never lose being more interested in their story than you hoping they’ll be interested in yours.
  5. Avoid the point-of-fatigue that happens in breaks by under-staying the welcome. Shorter breaks lead them to wanting more. Longer breaks test the patience of those there, heightening the chance they’ll bail.  This is worse with breaks that are just chatter and have no destination or payoff.
  6. Music is your friend right now. Lots of music holds their hand through the transition. It also folds you into the brand of the radio station.
  7. Be careful how you do your strategic content, so listeners don’t think, “They’re trying too hard to impress me.” Ever see someone at a party trying to prove how funny or interesting they are?  Don’t be that guy.
  8. Respect the past. What expectations did listeners have of the previous show and what fits given that? Meet those in every break.
  9. No promotion of the show just yet (on or off the air) because promoting something heightens expectations by users. This is a soft, quiet launch. Elevate expectations by telling listeners how great/funny you are, and the audience will say, “Not as good as they tell me they are.”  Lower expectations and there’s a much better chance they’ll warm up to you faster.

We often want to call attention to change.  But when we add in the hype machine in a world where consumers are skeptical of all that, we set ourselves at a deficit.

While there are exceptions to the above, the game plan for me on stuff like this is to start quietly so we tee the show up for longer term image building and success.

George, Mo, and Eric, 100.3 The Bull, Houston with Mo Knows Country

Something very easily missed (and sometimes dismissed) is you integrating your show into the radio station’s music brand.  Some shows rarely even mention the music.  I’ve always thought that that’s a bad move.  So a challenge with this week’s audio.  What can you do to improve on that? When you do, you send important signals to the audience that you’re a part of a larger product than just your show.  It could be as simple as mentioning the artists and titles of songs you play.  Or it could be doing content centered around the music.  George, Mo, and Eric, 100.3 The Bull, Houston have a daily feature called Mo Knows Country.  It’s like the trivia feature many shows play, but the questions bring the show into the music brand of the station.  A very smart move.