Cyber Monday is days away with zillions of us buying our holiday gifts online. Let’s test the world’s biggest online department store with The Amazon Million. See if you can get a webcam to hover over a cast member (so listeners can watch) who must keep adding things to their Amazon shopping cart until it totals $1,000,000 with of goods. Set a limit of only a quantity of ten of any one item. Can it be done? Let’s see!
With the election now over, plan on doing the No Politics Pledge as Thanksgiving approaches. Write up a silly “repeat after me” pledge and have listeners take it, committing to not talk politics at the Thanksgiving table when the family gathers!
Every once in a while you get a content break that ticks multiple boxes. This one earns these images: it’s local, it’s character development, it’s unique in its execution, and it’s fun. John Moug from Moug and Karla Mornings, B96, Chicago is a new dad (character development). He’s also worried about his weight and new to town. He signed up to run in the Hot Chocolate 5K (local) and it’s been a story arc on the show. To help get him prepared, the team put him on the office gym treadmill, asking trivia questions about Chicago he should know living there for almost a year (local). For every question he gets wrong, they increase the speed (fun). This one earns multiple images. Also note that about halfway through, they re-set things for those in the audience that turned them on in the previous few minutes who missed the setup.
How did your show do last week with the US election? Many avoided it because it was so charged. Not a bad move for many shows. But…if you can handle it comedically, it potentially opens the door to tackle it as a topic. Enter Joanne, Jason, and Ben, WOMC, Detroit who imagined a debate at the North Pole, with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as a candidate and Santa as moderator. Throw in a quirky angle like this to a tough topic, leave the audience laughing, and you may never get dinged for doing politics. This is super clever and creative. It also makes the show relevant around the treatment of the big topic no one else will do.
Do you guys play Christmas music? When will you start? We all know that Christmas really doesn’t begin until Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” airs. Why not make a big deal over it? Complete with a countdown clock on the website and the airing each hour as to exactly how many minutes away the audience is from you playing it
Nothing could be more endearing than putting a parent on the show. It’s also quite efficient character development because you go from being a radio host to being someone’s kid for those few minutes. While brainstorming content for Halloween, Chris and Dina, WMAS-FM, Springfield, MA realized they had very similar experiences with their mothers and costumes when kids. Option A is to tell the audience about it and then get listener’s stories. Option B is is to get their moms on to participate in the telling of the story. This shifted the break from being a monologue (I tell you a story vs. we tell you a story) to a dialogue. Option B is much more robust and entertaining because the human dynamic appears in a conversation.
Let’s bring two topics together – Halloween and the election. Have kids explain the election to you in their own words. Like their description? Give them some discounted Halloween candy!
I ponder lots about how the hell I got here. Radio’s had its ups and downs for each of us, but on balance the industry’s been good to me. I’ve found my place. It’s been quite rewarding to help talent grow. My favorite part comes when shows I work with have breakthrough moments that change the trajectory of their careers.
Catching up with my friend Greg Strassell from Hubbard the other day, he referenced a gentleman we both know who was having a milestone birthday. When I met Jay Williams, he was a manager of a station in Boston and the consultant in Springfield, MA where I had my first morning show. Jay laid the foundation for my love of personality radio. Jay pushed me a lot. But that built resilience as he compelled me to reach levels I didn’t know I had by making me uncomfortable. I knew deep inside he liked and respected me. That vibe compelled his honesty. Most of his critiques were tough. I still have all of them, in boxes downstairs, forty years later.
Steve Reynolds, as an original, doesn’t really exist. He’s a Frankenstein. Over the years, I’ve been lucky to meet some of the smartest people in radio. What I am is a little of him and some of her. So many people have influenced how I look at radio and all have accelerated my belief in talent. It was Jon Coleman (founder of Coleman Insights), knowing had I not gone into radio that I’d have been a school teacher, who first saw the opportunity for my company with consolidation happening. When it’s time to wrap all this up, it’ll be Jon I have the most to thank. Of my Frankenstein composite, I’m more Jon than anyone else. But lots of folks are on that list.
I bet you’re like that, too.
As Thanksgiving approaches, I’d like to suggest something to each of us, but especially talent. Who are those people who are always there for you? Who have believed in you along the way? The ones who return your messages when you need a friendly voice. Those who freely gave of themselves when you needed advice or direction, asking for nothing in return? Who, in the face of the industry’s flux, has always been honest, even when it’s been tough to hear? Who was there in the beginning?
There is so much we don’t control about the industry’s future. It’s all being figured out at a pay grade higher than most of us. As the holidays approach, I’d like to suggest you reach out to those few who you know you can always count on and thank them. Those who helped you at the start of your career. And do it old school. No texts or emails. Get their home address and write them a note, and send it in the mail. It’ll blow them away and make you feel good you did it. You’ll feel like a kid again by putting that positivity out there.
Yea, I know you’re super busy. But I guarantee you’ll do nothing more important than this as we close out the year. You’ll change their day when they get it. Maybe, more importantly, you’ll change yours when you send it.
Besides Jay and Jon, I have an exceptionally long list. I won’t bore you with it lest the walk off music start from the Academy Awards.
But I’ve got my note cards, addresses, and stamps, and plan on thanking those who’ve given me what I have – those who’ve made me a Frankenstein.
Because I wouldn’t be here, if they hadn’t been there.