Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston with The Good Vibe Tribe

Over the last few months, I’ve touted the value of doing a positive news feature on your show.  Tacking in the opposite direction of what everyone feels creates an image for you and your show.  Proving that there is, indeed, good news in the world and in your market is a powerful perception to create evangelists for your show.  Some shows do this and look for good stories from anywhere.  Crafting this feature around listeners who are having positive experiences in your town brings additional images to the feature.  Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston do The Good Vibe Tribe.  Someone calls with good news and they’re brought into the good vibe tribe, which is another win because they’re creating a club of listeners who share positivity.

Christine and Salt, 96.5 TIC-FM, Hartford with Lauren Saves Jackson

Sometimes running in the opposite direction is a smart strategic move.  Seems like there’s negative news no matter where you turn.  It’s Trump this, Biden that.  So if you become the show that shares positive, uplifting news, you’ll gain an image not as the escape from all that, but as a respite.  This week’s audio proves that, and a few other things.  Before heading off for high school one morning, Tolland, CT resident Lauren Lews saw her 140-pound Great Dane, Jackson, fall through the ice of a pond in her backyard.  The dog started to struggle so Lauren did what any of us would do, she risked her life to save her dog’s.  In this on-air conversation she had with Christine and Salt, 96.5 TIC-FM, Hartford, Lauren tells her story.  You will never miss if you get the people in stories to tell their version of it to you audience.  Images received here:  it’s a story that fills you with pride, it’s local, and it’s very human, reinforcing that there is good in the world.

Logan and Sadie, WINK-FM, Ft. Myers, FL Sadie Loses Rascal

Can you cry in front of listeners?  Can you be that vulnerable to show your true emotions around a sad experience?  It’s true that much of what we should do in radio is be fun.  High on the list of what listeners are looking for is humor and a good time when they turn you on.  No show wins without that image.  But you’re a human being and there are many sides to you.  My question is are you capable of showing all of them to prove it?  Logan and Sadie, WINK-FM, Ft. Myers, FL are deep and different people.  And quite comfortable to show all of it to the audience.  All of that forms a bond which is almost unbreakable to moving people from being listeners to being fans of a program.  Sadie recently lost her dog, Rascal, after a long illness.  He was a rescue and she wanted to bring listeners into that experience.  Can you do that with those who come to you for connection each day?

Carlin and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto The Stolen Amazon Package

One of the most efficient things you can do is ask the audience a question.  Do that and those paying attention are grabbed emotionally.  In this relatable break about stolen Amazon packages, Carlin and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto do this.  “Would you confront someone you saw stealing an Amazon package from a neighbor’s porch?”  Any listener would answer in their head and pay closer attention.  That’s what they do here.  One other thing to point out in this week’s audio is how little time they spend on the initial scenario about Carlin’s sister.  A typical show would talk around that story for several minutes without advancing the narrative.  In this break, they make that crucial pivot early from talking about their story to a listener telling theirs.  Two major takeaways:  questions grab listeners and make them more vicarious to your content and make sure you put that pivot in early to keep their attention.

Karen, Johnny, and Anthony, WNEW-FM, New York with Hey Dad, We Need Toys

There’s this concept of doing your break for the person least interested.  If you can craft a break around a topic and a listener who doesn’t care about that topic is entertained, you win big.  Karen Carson in the Morning with Johnny Minge and Intern Anthony, WNEW-FM, New York raised toys for disadvantaged kids over the holidays.  In our effort to stand out and engage those in the audience who don’t have the resources or would not send a toy for any reason, we needed to grab them emotionally, too.  So each of the cast members called their fathers on-air to ask them to donate some toys.  Which got us a “can you top the last dad” vibe.  Listen to these two breaks through the lens of not caring about what they’re doing.  If you are engaged by what the show did to promote the toy drive, the show won.

Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston 8 Bit Hits

Effective games do two things:  they’re fun to hear and they have a play-along factor.  Enter 8 Bit Hits, played by Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston, when promotions gives them prizes.  They have a website that will convert any song into an 8 bit hit.  Meaning the song becomes cheesy, sounding like it belongs in a 1980s computer game.  One of the things that’s helped this show rise to #1 women in the market is they’ve increased their arsenal of things done on the show that are entertaining to hear when people are in cars.  8 Bit Hits is one of their many ideas that helps them win images with those who truly matter to their success, people driving to work who tune in to have a good time.  Here’s their Christmas version of this fun game.

Dave Coombs, WLZX, Springfield, MA/WKLH, Milwaukee Fun with AI

My friend Dave Coombs, WLZX, Springfield, MA and WKLH, Milwaukee is an innovative spirit.  Dave has this wonderful ability to both identify the big topics around him (those things most of his audience is aware of) and match them with his sense of humor, to create a break no one else could do.  The way you stand out is by choosing familiar topics for your show, then doing something with those topics no one else thinks of.  Dave knows use of AI is everywhere.  So he got AI to replicate the voices of celebrities to create this fun break that made for lots of laughter in the room.  The only sustainable advantage you’ll ever have over your competitor is to out-innovate them.  This isn’t a typical radio “bit” because it came Dave’s quirky sense of humor.

Logan and Sadie, WINK-FM, Ft. Myers, FL with Santa Paws

So many of you are off doing a community service project with the holidays here.  Good on you!  There are a few different levels of projects like these.  One is the actual raising of the item or money you’re asking listeners to donate.  This is important, although it impacts a very small percentage of your audience.  What moves them to give is first-person accounts of the cause you’re working on.  Which is why it’s so important to talk with those affected by the cause, who most benefit from what you’re doing.  Facts tell, stories sell.  Those folks have stories and they can help you accomplish two important goals:  move more listeners to give and show your humanity to those who don’t.  Logan and Sadie, WINK-FM, Ft. Myers, FL are doing their annual Santa Paws where they ask listeners to donate a dog toy that will be given to animals at a local shelter.  Here they are talking with the gal who runs the animal shelter, helping them do both items noted above.

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego with Show Us Your Cans

Many shows will do their big community service project before the end of the year.  It’s important to remember that you’re talking with two distinct groups of people when you do this:  those who will give and those who won’t.  The latter group is much bigger.  Your goal is to impact the images of those listeners by showing them your heart and humanity.  A yearly project for John and Tammy, KSON San Diego is their annual Food Fund where they ask listeners to donate canned goods to the local food bank.  It’s a tenured and very successful project for them.  Their fans always step up to help them reach their goal.  But with a nod to the latter group of those who won’t or can’t give and with the objective of impacting how those folks view the show, John did a goofy song this year called Show Us Your Cans.  It brought humor to the effort and helped the fundraiser operate on multiple levels emotionally.  The song and full break are below.

The AD Rowntree Show, KSHE, St. Louis with Politics At Thanksgiving Dinner

If you talk about topics and make observations the typical listener might think, “How does he know what goes on in my house?” you are in a good spot to be tagged positively as relatable to the audience.  This is why each show I work with plays in the sandbox of what the average listener might be doing right now when prepping.  The AD Rowntree Show, KSHE, St. Louis knows that politics will somehow make its way to the Thanksgiving dinner.  So that was the topic.  They asked the audience who’ll first bring up politics, alienating everyone.  When you are in the zone of relatabilty, that’s when most listeners will have fun.  Here’s one call they received on the topic where a listener disguised his voice out of a fear of being heard by the person he was convinced would be the violator!