With the weather turning nice, lots of husbands or boyfriends will work honey-do lists of things that need to be handled around the house. For guys who do those, bring their wife/girlfriend on each Monday to grade his job and offer up a Certificate of Manchievement.
What’s the length of a good break? It depends on the quality of the content. And how much drama there is in telling it. The more conflict, tension, and drama you have, the longer the story can go. Case in point is the story told on Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston after Kennedy came back from a vacation overseas. Kennedy’s trip to Thailand, specifically a dinner she attended, went horribly wrong for many reasons. Twist and turns and lots of speed bumps coupled with a self-deprecating sense of humor compel the audience to want to hear the story to conclusion. Breaks with those elements feel shorter than they really are, if the break is structured right. Go watch a reality show and see that they change the camera angle or scene every few seconds. They do that to keep your attention. Just like this break.
The next time you get on a plane, glance to your left before walking down the aisle to your seat. Those two pilots, whether young or grizzled veterans, have one thing in common with every other pilot on every plane you’ll ever be on.
They have a flight plan to get you from here to there. They know what time they’ll push back from the gate; when they’ll take the runway; the speed at which they’ll take off and if they will bank to the left or right; and the altitude the plane will fly. Ditto on the landing. Not much is left to chance because they have a plan.
Can we talk about prep? I still run into shows that don’t do it. In a world where listeners are choice choked, too many options exist. If what you’re doing isn’t working, they could tune out.
Hard to believe that the “we don’t need to prep because we just make the magic happen” crowd still exists. Winging it is not a game plan and it will backfire on you. When I ask some shows to explain their prep process, I sometimes get, “Oh, we’re texting each other all day.” That sound you heard was Uncle Steve’s eyebrows going up in cynical enjoyment of an excuse I know isn’t true (and if true, isn’t effective).
Here are the six things every great show does that helps make your plane (every content break) get from here to there. Six Step Show Prep:
We don’t have much room left to fail in radio. We’re around too many shiny objects that want our fans’ attention (podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, other shows, et al). Not having a flight plan is a perilous decision. So my tough love is let’s get at this so those tuning in don’t drift.
Before I jump, know that this blog was originally titled Twelve Step Show Prep. But in a nod to shorter content breaks, I deleted half of them hoping the remaining six would mean more to you.
Now seat belts fastened, tray tables up, and prepare for arrival.
Go get it.
Phones drive lots of morning shows. They should. Inviting listeners to tell their stories is a time-tested treatment to many content choices that helps you form a connection with fans. But not all questions work for phone topics. Ask a question with only a yes/no answer (or an A/B choice) works against you. Role play this – if you propose the question to someone in prep and they have an either/or choice and your only response is “why”, you have a dead end topic. We are storytellers and that’s what you want in phones. Case in point is Sue and Kendra, Magic 106.7, Boston who used the passing of actor Richard Chamberlain to launch a topic about unmissable TV shows when we were kids. You might think this will be nothing more than listeners naming TV programs. But as you’ll hear, the hosts and callers tell stories, which is where the win appears. Nostalgia works and stories around that make this score a solid A for the topic and treatment of the content.
Got a prize to give out for Mother’s Day (May 11)? How about The Mother of All Karaoke Performances? Invite in a bunch of moms to do karaoke on the show that week. Take votes online and from callers. The mother with the most votes wins the prize you have.
I love sports, but hate golf. Many of my friends play and I’ve never understood the appeal of a venture that so frustrates and angers people. That said, I adore The Masters and am glued to its final round every April. I cry tears of joy when someone wins their green jacket. It was no different when Rory McIlroy won.
A friend and very successful talent penned what’s below. He makes a terrific point I’ve noted in previous Planet Reynolds. Radio’s relevance has eroded over the years. Sometimes because of increased competition and at other times because of content choices. That’s the case in this one.
The writer wanted to remain anonymous so you could focus on his message. So, we’ll call him Gary the Golf Guy. Here’s Gary’s story about Rory McIlroy and relevance. It applies not just to spoken word radio, but for those in music radio, too.
Masters Monday: A Listener’s Journey
On my usual drive into the station, I flip on the local News/Talk to catch up on headlines, weather, and traffic. But not today. It was the Monday after The Masters. And if you’re like me, you know that that tournament hits differently. The tradition, the history, the Sunday drama—it was everything. Rory. DeChambeau. Rose. Jack, Arnie, and Tiger—oh my!
So naturally, I went all-in on Sports Talk radio. I was craving takes, analysis, emotion—anything to keep the Masters high alive. First stop: a national show diving deep into the front office moves of a third-tier NBA team. Click. Next: another national show, but this time…NFL talk. In April?
I get to the office, turn on the TV, and boom—local and national news both leading with Rory highlights every 15 minutes. Validation! I wasn’t crazy. This was the sports story of the day.
Surely the ride for about 20 minutes during lunch would bring redemption, right? First local show: five minutes on whether people even care about The Masters (uh, what?)…then back to the NFL Draft. Again, in April?
So…do people care? I saw the ratings—20 million at the peak. That’s 2006 American Idol territory. Yeah, people cared.
Next local show: they’re breaking down a former NFL player’s new (much younger) girlfriend. Entertaining? Sure. But that’s not what I came for. Finally, I land on a fifth (local) show on my way home in the afternoon and there it was: all Rory, all the time. Rory is a choke-artist takes. Golfers are soft debates. Callers chiming in. Laughter, passion, back-and-forths about moving the pin on the 16th hole. LIV vs PGA. They delivered The Master’s meal I was hungry for and it was delicious.
Days like today should be enjoyed by on-air talent because you don’t have to do any heavy lifting! The content/drama was served to you by someone in a beautiful Green Jacket!
Two quick notes:
No, I didn’t listen to every minute of every show. Maybe the others hit on The Masters eventually. But in my 25-minute commute(s), only one show of the five nailed it. If you’re not on the big topic when listeners tune in for their few minutes, you get zero credit for being on it. Don’t make that mistake.
That fifth show? It’s been #1 in its time slot for over 15 years—and it shows. They crushed it by focusing on what their listeners were thinking about. And spoiler alert: it wasn’t the NFL. In April.
When a big story appears, they become shiny objects. We go towards them until the next shiny object appears. Rory was a shiny object. If we don’t feed that need in radio, we’ll just be another bland, boring, irrelevant choice for listeners that day on their journey for connection.
Character development is when you define yourself to the audience. When you do that, a connection forms and the audience gets to know you, which is central to radio’s greatest strength – the intimate bond between the listener and the talent. Often, it’s you telling a story about your life the audience sees themselves in or when you’re talking about a topic and being honest in your opinion. I will always reward new ways to define you to fans. Here is a unique idea I’d never consider. Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston figured out how to see how many one-star reviews they’ve received in their Uber app. They each looked in theirs and had the audience guess who had the most. Fun and clever. And now, all yours!
A fun twist on the acting out of a famous scene in a movie for Mother’s Day is Mama Drama Masterclip Theater. Go get those scripts from the internet and have two mothers you work with act it out (with a production value, of course, to dress it up) before listeners guess the movie. That makes doing this idea topical when the holiday comes up and gives you a shot to chat with the moms first!
Anytime you add nudity to an idea, it’ll work! Lots of folks will do some spring cleaning now that April is here. Engage in a competition amongst the show cast where the loser has to spring clean their home nude and provide one picture of them doing it for social media (of course any private parts are obscured).
Story lines that last a few days on the show and compel additional occasions of listening to get to a conclusion are a smart move to get your fans to tune in from one day to the next. Find one and think about like a book. The first chapter expresses the characters and drama and the final chapter concludes the story line with resolution. In between are chapters that move the narrative forward. Matt, Gabe, and Captain Ron, 100.7 The Wolf, Seattle launched one last week that was highly entertaining. Chapter One: Gabe is in a long distance relationship, just found out her boyfriend goes to Hooters a lot with his friends, and doesn’t like it. Make this come alive in the middle and ending chapters so listeners follow along and wonder what will happen. Here are the final two chapters. Matt getting on his wife, Vanessa, to get her thoughts (additional drama), and finally Gabe talking with her boyfriend to hear his decision on no longer doing it.