Who’s the Celebrity Ho?

With the use of AI, have it replicate a very famous person saying “ho, ho, ho” like Santa.  The audience then must guess who’s the celebrity ho?  Make sure to also have AI record that identification in the celebrity’s voice once someone guesses it.

The Daly/Migs Show, 99.9 KISW, Seattle with Fun With the Mall Santa

It’s not just the topic you choose that makes the break relatable and memorable.  It’s what you do with the topic that accomplishes that.  To help make breaks sticky, think about what you could do with your chosen topics that would give the audience a unique, fun experience no other show in town would.  Enter the Daly/Migs Show, 99.9 KISW, Seattle.  Anything Christmas works now because….well, you know why.  But these guys?  Well, they went to a Seattle mall to interview a mall Santa.  Great topic, excellent execution.  And to heighten things further, in another break for the show, they had the mall Santa play their signature trivia game Beat Migs.  Glorious all the way around.

Trans (Your State) Orchestra

Who doesn’t love the Trans Siberian Orchestra?  Put together a group of co-workers who play instruments and/or can sing and do Trans (Your State) Orchestra where they come on one day next week and entertain the audience with a Christmas song.  Build it through the week so you have a story line that travels for the five days, with the performance on Friday.

Kira and Logan, WOKQ, Portsmouth, NH with The Tribe

Every show has an issue with phones.  Listeners aren’t calling to participate in phone topics or games like they used to.  The reason is obvious:  they can interact with their favorite shows in other ways (texting, social media) and they’re simply too busy to phone in.  When we talk about using listeners to help a break sparkle, there are other ways to do this past opening the phones.  Kira and Logan, WOKQ, Portsmouth, NH have assembled The Tribe.  These are the opinionated and fun co-workers in their building.  They’ve figured out all the ways they will need other voices to elevate a content break early in the week.  Then assemble The Tribe in a studio and ask them to participate.  Here’s an example of them doing this.  Airing something like this actually makes the phones ring more.  It’s a simple way to make content more than just the team talking with one another so those not calling in are entertained.

Steve’s Pet Peeves: Volume 1

Just before the holiday break, on a morning when I had some extra time, I decided to check out some shows I’ve been hearing about.  One placed, in a prominent content slot, celebrity birthdays.  Not that I think this could work anywhere, I felt it was time, as we conclude the year, for a list of pet peeves – the things I hear some shows do that I believe ding them.

Great personality radio is about Conquering Content and Creating Connection.  Check out our first installment of Steve’s Pet Peeves (Volume 1).  These are the little things I hear some shows do that I think are minor mistakes that, when added up, could impact their perceptions (and yes, if you’re wondering, there will be other installments!).

The things some shows do that bug me:

  1. Taking the first break of the show and telling the audience what’s coming up on the show that day (doing a rundown of that day’s content). It’s 6:05.  I’m not coming back because you have tickets to give out at 7:20 or are doing that phone topic at 7:50 or have an email from a listener with relationships drama at 8:15.  I’m here now, connect with and entertain me now.
  2. Lists and surveys and National Theme Days. There are lower forms of content, but this is prep service-driven lazy radio.
  3. Birthdays and This Date in History. Now, that’s the lowest form of content.  My goal in radio is to rid every show still doing this, who believe the audience cares.  They don’t.  We can be better.
  4. Talent who answer the phones on-the-air, “Hi, who’s this?” You don’t answer your phone that way when you pick up, right?  It sounds immensely impersonal.  Get their name and then introduce them to the audience.  It’s much more warm and human.
  5. Tie breakers in trivia games. All that does it make the break longer without making it more entertaining.
  6. “What station just made you a winner?”  You know who asks questions like that?  DJs do.  You’re a real person, not a DJ.
  7. Happy Hump Day. See #6.
  8. Social media posts where talent show how wonderful their life is. The perfect meal, the excellent seat at the game, the most wonderful vacation, a first-class seat, your new 65″ flat panel TV.  Your listeners aren’t leading that kind of life, so doing this is a disconnect.
  9. Talking about any TV show is always perilous (most of your audience doesn’t watch that show you’re talking about). But doing it and not running any audio so I have context to your comments puts listeners not watching that show you’re so excited about at a disadvantage.
  10. Breaks where someone makes a simple mistake (like slipping up on a word or accidentally saying it’s 9:13 when it’s really 7:13) and then that mistake becoming the next sixty seconds of the break. Listeners aren’t hanging on your mistake so just move on and get to the real content.

If you do one or two of the above, not fixing them won’t make your ratings go down.  Fixing them won’t make the ratings go up.  But in our quest for excellence, every second counts with the audience.

You got a pet peeve for a future installment?  Email it to me here.

The Tree Is Me/The Tree is Thee

Once the entire air staff has their trees up and decorated, put a picture of everyone’s online.  The audience has to match the tree with the talent.  It’s a simple but effective way to get online engagement from the audience around a relevant topic.