The Daly/Migs Show, 99.9, KISW, Seattle with Collusion on the Kiss Cam

When discussing a big topic with a show, I’m on the hunt for several “camera angles” on that topic, as provided by the show.  What about that topic intrigues each of them?  How can we shift the camera angle to tackle it from another point-of-curiosity?  Enter the Daly/Migs Show, 99.9, KISW, Seattle and the topic of the Coldplay couple.  Steve, Taryn, and Danny are super curious people.  They wondered, when brainstorming around the topic, what it was like to actually run a Kiss Cam at a stadium.  Was there collusion on who was chosen?  Did anything ever go sideways?  They found someone who’s done it to find out.  Here’s their break, along with the answers to both questions, and a very entertaining way to do the Coldplay topic…because of the camera angle.

I Know an HVAC Guy

It’s the middle of summer.  We’re living for air conditioning.  And there are listeners who’s HVAC units aren’t working.  Never more than now, they need the HVAC guy to show at the house to fix it.  Get that emotion on your show by talking to those folks.  Then, connect with an HVAC guy – they have a ton of great stories to tell, given they go to people’s homes!  Call it I Know an HVAC Guy.

The Phone Fast

What might be fun is to choose a cast member and send them on a weekend Phone Fast.  This is where they go old school – they give up their phone for an entire weekend to see what it’s like.  Choose the cast member on your Friday show and ask a couple of listeners to do it with them, too.  Then all gather Monday on the show to talk about what it was like to have a weekend without technology.

 

Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston with Kennedy’s Impossible Parody

Seizing the moment is the topic of this week’s Planet Reynolds.  It talks about joining any conversation that’s seemingly everywhere in a way that makes your own it.  Doing so creates big images of being inventive and moving your fans to fear they will miss out on something special if they don’t turn you on.  The couple caught cheating at the Coldplay concert was one such topic.  Out of nowhere last week, it became something.  That compels us to rework our content plan to accommodate the topic and innovate in ways that makes the audience stop to pay attention.  Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston own the ratings in this market because they do this a lot.  In Kennedy’s weekly feature, The Impossible Parody, she tackles the topic in the most fun way.  The video of the break is here and the audio right below.

Seizing the Scandal – The Coldplay Couple and Creative Relevance

Stephen Colbert, in a 2018 interview with Howard Stern said, “My show is about whatever the conversation is today.  We’re about what the audience is talking about right now.”

The big story last week was the couple that got caught cheating at the Coldplay concert.  I need to tell you no more because it was everywhere and you know it.  Your audience does, too.  We are in the engagement business, and we win when we own the moment.  So, I wondered what radio shows did with that topic as it lived at the center of the pop culture universe.  How did they seize the moment?

There have been two phases of radio to me.  Pre- and post-deregulation.  I have affectionately referred to the days before big companies could own everything as the wild, wild west.  We’d come up with an idea today based on something in the news and it’d be on-air-tomorrow.  And often, it was loud and outrageous and captured the imagination of the audience, which was very good.  It created talk for us as FOMO set in which gave us an extra measure of listenership.

Much of today’s radio is filled with fear because every idea must be vetted thought multiple layers and, as I break out in a cold sweat…the lawyers (whose reflexive move is to tell us why we can’t do it).  We need to get back to what we were.  Not reckless, but imaginative.

Because the central theme to the Coldplay couple story is so universal (it was about relationships and cheating) and the topic was so pervasive, I asked my radio Facebook friends what they did to tie themselves into the story, so the audience stopped on them.  Here’s a sampling (with tons of kudos to each for compelling into their show Stephen Colbert’s vision for his – being about the moment):

  • Mojo in the Morning at Channel 95.5 Detroit did Cheat Away at Coldplay where they asked listeners to confess their affair on-air to win tickets to the group’s concert in Miami.
  • Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston did a custom song in Kennedy’s weekly feature The Impossible Parody heard here and seen here. Because this happened in Boston, they also gave away tickets to the concert with Karson’s Cold Plunge for Coldplay where the first listener to get him into the dunk tank won (a great video for social media).
  • Dave Wheeler at Townsquare’s Big Frog 104 in central New York got the station’s mascot in on the action with a social media image.
  • The great Paige Neinaber had some of his shows do pictures of talent hugging their HR directors in the same pose.
  • Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah at WRAL-FM, Raleigh are seemingly in a thruple in their social media post.
  • Christine and Salt, WTIC-FM, Hartford had an appearance planned with a local baseball team. They wanted to record a video for the jumbotron warning cheaters at the game what could happen.  The team nixed it, but I absolutely love that they came up with the idea.
  • At KLOS, Los Angeles Nik Carter gave the 95th caller dinner for them and their sidepiece when he played a Coldplay song. Likewise, Otis at The O Show suggested giving away three-packs to something.  For you, your wife, and your mistress.
  • Heather Froglear at K-FROG, Riverside and Moug and Karla, B96 Chicago did social media images to go along with on-air content (here and here).
  • Producer Melissa Bunting from AMP Mornings with Katie and Ed in Calgary shared this break about the story. Great use of audio.
  • In a brainstorm with a show, we considered hiring divorce lawyers for the spouses of both people involved.
  • Everyone got in on this, including the Philadelphia Phillies, who did the Coldplay Kiss Cam.  This isn’t radio, but watch to the end because it’s hysterical.  We need to do this, too.

All great stuff that put each show in the story and in a way that made the audience stop to take notice.  Sample the above to get inspired.  Bravo to everyone noted here (and you if you did something, too) for changing their show the next day when this story took over the national conversation.  Note that not everything above required a prize – it just needed some innovation.

To continue to thrive, we need more mischief in radio.  We must seize moments when the big stories appear.  If we’re about right now in inventive ways that fit the show’s brand image, listeners will want to be around us.  Let’s create more FOMO like we used to.

Radio doesn’t have a listening problem.  We have a top-of-mind awareness problem.  And that’s on us to fix, just like the shows above did with the Coldplay couple story.  Radio wins when it’s about right now in clever, unique ways.

Matt, Gabe, and Captain Ron, 100.7 The Wolf, Seattle with Eff One

Clever, edgy, topical.  Character developing, listener participation, and funny.  These are six images I’d assign to this week’s audio from Matt, Gabe, and Captain Ron, 100.7 The Wolf, Seattle.  Brad Pitt’s F1 movie is doing well and part of pop culture.  It’s a great place to start for a break because it’s quite familiar.  Ron’s grandmother-in-law loves Brad Pitt, so they bring Grandma May on to talk about the movie and, more importantly, gush about Brad.  Then, female callers ring the show to play Eff One.  A bunch of celebs (one being Brad Pitt, of course) are mentioned and they can only Eff One.  You know that idea, right?  It’s edgy, memorable and topical, without violating brand fit.

Hey Can I Do a Belly Flop?

If you have a nice heatwave come across your market, do Hey Can I Do a Belly Flop?  Ask listeners who have pools to let one cast member come to their house during the show.  The cast member does a belly flop into the pool during the show to cool off.  It’s great audio for the show, super local, and will provide terrific visuals for a bunch of videos you can push out on your socials.  Thanks to Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh for the idea!

Hawkeye in the Morning, KSCS, Dallas with Missed Connections Comes to Life

Lots of shows have used the Missed Connections portion of Craigslist for content.  I tend to tell shows proposing it as a feature that it’s played out and very old school.  Mostly because all shows generally do is read the racier ones.  Enter Hawkeye in the Morning, KSCS, Dallas who always adds his twist to ideas like this.  He got a call from a listener who posted a missed connection and wanted help.  The listener read his post and, shockingly, the woman referenced called the show.  Hawkeye then sent them on a date to a Rangers baseball game and had them on after to talk about how things went and if they’d go out again.  That we got this one story, start to finish, is what makes it unique.  All three segments are in this one audio file below.

Tales of the TSA

Ask any seasoned traveling and they’ll tell you that they hate airports in July.  Mainly because it’s when families, who have little experience with the TSA, fly for vacation.  Find a bunch of TSA agents (or ex-TSA agents) in your market to school them.  TSA agents also have great stories from things they’ve seen.  All terrific content.

The Button Fans Wish They Could Hit

Have you ever watched the latest installment of a favorite Netflix show and not hit the “skip intro” button that appears on the screen?  We always hit that button.

TV shows living in the yesteryear had memorable, sing-along theme songs we can all still recall.  Who doesn’t know the name of the bar where everyone knows their name?  Or the familiar guitar twangs of the Seinfeld intro?  Both are iconic music markers signaling fun was about to happen with characters we know and love.

But, no more.

Increasingly, streaming services give us the chance to opt out of a show’s intro.  Know why?  Because it’s fluff that delays what we came for:  content.  Let the storytelling begin.  And to delay the reason we’re there heightens chances we might leave or feel unsatisfied.  The story, the drama, and the humor of characters interacting around the plot is why we show up everywhere.

Yet, in radio, we still do these BIG LONG SETUPS on almost every break.  Our version of a theme song wasting valuable seconds that delay what listeners crave:  content.

If we could put a “skip intro” button on the radio, it’s a guarantee the audience would do what we do – hit it.

So, take this one-day challenge:  on every single break, when the song ends, and the break is about to start, begin with the first sentence of your story or content, indicating its drama and hook, to get the audience to lean in and pay attention.  Lest they grow restless and seize the chance to change the channel because intros delay what fans really want – entertaining and engaging content.

It’ll be uncomfortable in your headsets, but when you nix the prelude, you’ll see engagement in the break go up.  Then do it every day, every break.

Because listeners don’t have a “skip intro” button is even more reason to do it when you prep your content.  Great shows conquer content and create connection – this is a puzzle piece that will help.

Snuff the fluff, and just give them the good stuff.