Every show needs evergreen, silly ideas to freshen things up. Here comes one called What’s My Dog Eating. Feed something crunchy to your dog – a celery stalk, potato chip, or an apple slice – record the audio and play it for the audience. The first person to identify what your dog is eating wins!
Shows I work with keep weekend journals. It’s a common (and very smart) exercise to identify real life content that helps you tell stories about yourself that positions you as being just like the audience. Everything is fair game in these journals. We never know what you’ll experience that could become great on-air content. Enter Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix. When they were on, these guys did some of the best journals because they are quite observant. Mark was out with his wife one weekend and saw a nun. He commented in his journal that you rarely see this any longer. So we created a new feature for the show called Nun Sightings. We asked the audience to call the show when they saw a nun. They had to note the time and place and, our running joke was that it really didn’t happen unless you send a picture. Which we used, of course, on social media to get more Nun Sightings! You’ll enjoy the production value, which makes it even more entertaining.
Any time you elevate and celebrate your listeners is good for your show. Most listeners don’t think anyone is rooting for them. That’s where you can step in. There are several versions of features that celebrate the women in your audience. I like Lady Boss, as done by Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM in Raleigh, because you’re forming an exclusive club. Your interest in them and hearing their story allows your show to connect with other listeners. Building a community of lady bosses in your audience is supportive of your female listeners and gives you opportunities down the road to create promotions around this group.
Didja hear that Dolly Parton died a couple of weeks ago? Of course you did. Everyone did. Her family released the news and it owned pop culture for several days.
I enjoyed the back-and-forth between people believing radio did a good job with it and those who feel we missed the mark. From my listening, we mostly did good. But I’m not hearing everyone. One show I heard played “9 to 5” at 7:20, came on after, and told me what I already knew. Yikes.
Can we pause for an unsponsored Steve Story® that starts with my least favorite phrase “back when I was on the air”?
Back when I was on the air, a big story broke the night before. We had an intense general manager who was just coming out of a sales meeting (bonus tension there). He stopped by the desk of my partner and me and asked what we did with that topic that morning. I said, “We talked about it at 6:50.” He said, “Well, I didn’t get up until 7:00.” Then I said, “Well, get up fu$#ing earlier.”
No, I didn’t say that. But I did think it. Because I was a cocky know-it-all morning guy.
The super-smart GM then reminded us how listeners use radio. They all come at a time that works for them and only stay for a short while. His point was that we do a series of 15-20 minute shows and those who weren’t there from 6:50-6:54 had no idea we had a take on the big story of the day.
I have never forgotten that encounter and remind shows I work with who use this excuse to try and convince me they “were on it!” that I can’t give them relevance credit for what I don’t hear them do.
Same for Dolly. Great shows were on it a lot over a few days. Her unexpected passing was everywhere and near everyone felt emotionally connected to her, compelling us to find many treatments of that highly relevant topic.
Here’s my point: when you have an all-consuming topic (like Dolly or the 25th anniversary of 9/11), we must, as content creators, come up with things to do that fit your brand and reflect your take.
The riveting things I saw and heard around 9/11 were all new. It’s easy to do “where were you when” or relive that day. But that’s lazy and we must be better than that in the Attention Economy to hold fans through the content.
It’s on us to come up with tons of camera angles so it’s not simply conveying information. And that begins and ends with you. The rabbit hole appeared on Dolly. Know how I knew? Besides it being all over social media feeds because of the algorithm, Apple Music and Spotify shared that people streaming her music was up 2840%. That ain’t a typo and indicates to us the topic is huge and we must come up with many ways to align with it.
Great breaks start at your curiosity. What do you know and what do you wonder about that big topic? Did you fall down the rabbit hole and read all that you can to stimulate your imagination?
Here are five things I came up with that would have created more Dolly-centric content:
How’d I do? If you thought on any of them, “Damn, I wish I’d have done that,” then my point resonates with you. Spend more time on prep or, if you do, change how you to it to come up with more camera angles.
I’m also open to that every one of those ideas could suck to you. It’s very possible I went 0-5. Then I’d ask, give the enormity of that topic two weeks ago and the subsequent conversation about whether radio did well or not, what are your ideas?
I wonder so that your show isn’t just a break or two and your fans don’t miss all that relevance.
Radio’s strength is to emotionally connect with whatever is going on right now. But understanding how we’re used – as a series of 15-20 minute shows when a big topic appears – is critical to securing an image that you’re relevant. You’ll then be more efficient meeting listeners where they are when that happens and when they tune in.
Dolly’s probably done as a topic. Ditto the anniversary of 9/11. But something else will appear soon that will be everywhere and own the news cycle. To do one or two content breaks when that happens is a mistake. What will your game plan be so you can do lots of breaks and be in the rabbit hole just like your listeners so your creativity and curiosity fuels your content?
The Monday Morning Free Idea page might help you here.
Pumpkin spice dog food? Yup. I’ve seen it. It’s mid-September and everything is pumpkin spice because it sells more. How about putting together a bunch of people (listeners or co-workers) who you deputize to call the show after they’ve grocery shopped to tell you about the items they saw that have pumpkin spice. Call them the Pumpkin Spice Squad.
Some of the funniest morning show meetings I’ve sat in were with The Rickey Smiley Morning Show (syndicated) by Urban One. Rickey is crazy in a very good way and exceptionally funny. We often talk about how listeners require engagement very, very quickly. They have little time for set-ups and process. The quicker we escalate the drama and keep that at a fever pitch, the greater chance we’ll have of holding on to the listeners’ attention. Doing this in small, incremental doses sets us up to not just earn positive images, but not let fans become complacent with the break, get bored, and fatigue leaving us for the next hit of dopamine. Here’s one of Rickey’s Prank Calls. Listen to how quickly this escalates and stays there.
It’s common knowledge that many HOAs remind us of Nazi Germany. Go buy a huge Halloween inflatable from Home Depot or Lowes. Find a listener (or co-worker) who is in a neighborhood with an HOA. On October 1, inflate that bad boy on their front law then check in with them once per day to see if they’ve heard yet from the HOA, saying they’re in violation.