John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego Emma Knows Her Halloween Candy

With Halloween a few short weeks away, this is one of my all-time favorite breaks.  Halloween is a kid’s holiday, right?  And it’s all about candy!  Which is why John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego grabbed a cute kid of a co-worker (Emma) and had her read the ingredients of popular Halloween candy.  They played the audio for a listener who had to guess which Halloween candy Emma was describing.  You can hear audio of the execution of this fun idea below.  If you do this idea, two keys to its success are finding the right kid.  Also, don’t let them pre-read the ingredients before you record them.  Hearing the kid stumble over the big words adds to its cuteness.  If you find the right kid, record a bunch so you can do it a few times leading up to October 31.

Brian and Chrissy, WGNA, Albany Where You Should Be With a Big Local Story

Great shows place themselves in the middle of big stories.  If Taylor Swift dating an NFL player is a huge topical story, I’ll always ask what are you doing with it.  Your listeners want to be connected to the stories of the day from your perspective – that helps character development and will always improve your images of being relevant.  Brian and Chrissy, WGNA, Albany have very deep market familiarity.  They’ve been there a long time, know lots of people, and perfectly reflect the vibe of the community.  When a young local girl was kidnapped, they were all over the story.  When she was rescued, they inserted themselves in the story by finding her aunt and having her on so she could answer the questions they were curious about.  Where other shows in town might have chatted about it, run TV audio, or (worse) done something more evergreen, these guys did the hard work of finding a relative who was impacted by the all of it and getting her on to tell the story.  This so resonated, it was part of the story on ABC World News Tonight.  If you’re a local show, be a local show like this!

Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh Humble Pie Is Closing For Good

With all the syndication in radio, it’s an asset if you’re local.  But, what is being local?  It’s certainly not giving out the temperature in various cities or referencing major thoroughfares when you do the traffic.  Being local is knowing the stories driving your market at any given time or being involved in things that happen in town and using them as content to entertain your audience.  Being local is only an advantage if you’re substantive with local topics and do them in a way that helps you connect with the audience.  Humble Pie is an iconic Raleigh restaurant that, after thirty years, shocked its fans by closing.  A significant part of the content strategy for Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh is to be local.  That’s why this is such a terrific break.  A few things to hear:  listen to how quickly they get into it.  Within 30 seconds you know the drama and the connection happens.  Then, Sarah (who worked there) tells first-person stories about the place.  If you don’t understand this break, they were exceptionally local.  To earn images of being local, especially up against syndicated shows in the market, this one’s an A+.

Sarah and Jessie, MIX 96.5, Houston with Positively Pepper

Good news features work.  In a world of drama and negativity, doing a feature that is the opposite is a really good idea.  It accrues an image that is very important.  Almost everyone does this.  Positioning it is important so you own in.  “Good News” is a bland and boring name.  In Houston, Sarah Pepper and Jessie Watt, MIX 96.5, Houston just added a feature called Positively Pepper.  Naming a feature after a cast member defines that cast member.  If done right, it resonates with the audience.  Our core emphasis for this feature, besides defining Sarah, is to make sure the audience shares their good news so we can tell them how much we’re rooting for them.  It ends with Sarah’s daughter, Parker, offering an affirmation.  This is another unique thing about the feature so it’s all ours.

Karen Carson with Johnny Minge and Intern Anthony, WNEW-FM, New York City with Will Aaron Rogers Come To My Wedding.

How do you meld two topics together that fuse character development with pop culture?  Ask Karen Carson in the Morning with Johnny Minge and Intern Anthony, WNEW-FM, New York.  Intern Anthony was to get married.  We told the audience one of his high school friends dropped out of the reception because of Covid so there were two seats available at Table 8 with his cousins.  The show decided to invite Aaron Rogers, who’s now playing for the NY Jets.  To get listeners involved, they told them Anthony put a question in the invitation only Aaron would know and asked them to guess it.  They said if Aaron didn’t accept, from those who guessed the right question (fish or meat?), one would take his place if his fiance said yes.  Here’s a break of guesses and Anthony’s fiance saying no!

Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix Dogs in Strollers

See what listeners don’t.  Jerry Seinfeld made a career creating comedy from the small things he saw in life and then made us laugh around it.  Did the gal on your first date move around everything in her salad on the plate before she picked up some of it with her fork?  That’s observational humor.  From observational humor, we get real life content, which helps you connect with the audience and prove you’re just like them.  Which leads to Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix.  These guys excelled at seeing small stuff and making it big content when they were on the radio station.  In this week’s segment, they go off on dogs in strollers, which leads to Mark telling a story about seeing at a restaurant a different kind of animal, also in a stroller.

George, Mo, and Erik, KILT-FM, Houston Charlie’s First Day at School

This week it’s all about character development.  You’re in radio and can’t bring your kid to school on her first day in third grade.  What to do?  You could talk about it and listeners will relate to your struggles.  Or, you can put your humanity on full display by calling your kid.  On George, Mo, and Erik, KILT-FM, Houston, Erik has never taken his young daughter to school because he’s always been on-the-air.  So they got Charlie on so Erik could talk with her as she heads off for day one.  None of this content is revolutionary.  But it is strategic.  At the end of the break, what do you learn about how Erik is as a father?  Listen to the very human interaction between them (and later when his wife comes on the show).  You peek into their relationship and get a true sense of who Erik is as a person, dad, and husband.  His humanity is on full display.  There’s your big win in character development.  It’s all about connection.

Logan and Sadie, WINK-FM, Ft. Myers, FL My All-Time Favorite Teacher

Our Monday Morning Free Idea this week is a simple one!  With school going back in session everywhere over the next few weeks, reminisce on your favorite teachers.  Who did you have while in school who had a lasting impact on how you turned out as an adult?  With all the negativity in the world, this one is so easy.  Grab that teacher, have them on, and tell them why they have stayed with you all these years.  It’s positive content that will resonate with your fans.  In the process, listeners will get to know you (great character development) and the teacher will tell fun stories about how you were as a student.  Then flip things and let listeners tell you similar stories from their past.  A great example of this comes from Logan and Sadie, WINK-FM, Ft. Myers, FL.

Hawkeye in the Morning, KSCS, Dallas Celebrates 35 Years

I’ve never been a big fan of talent sharing milestones on the air because I don’t think the audience cares.  The one I hear a lot is “today’s my birthday!”.  Think about how you react when a co-worker says that.  You usually space out because it’s not about you.  So I wonder why talent do that.  There are exceptions to that rule if you focus on the audience.  That’s when your milestone is huge (you might be a beloved talent) or if there is a true listener win.  Such is the case with my friend, Hawkeye in the Morning, KSCS, Dallas, who just celebrated being on the station for 35 years.  This is a milestone that works because he’s adored by the audience.  Knowing there should be a listener win, too, his team created a story line to celebrate him by making a statue of Hawkeye they wanted to put outside the building.  The problem is the building is owned by Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks.  Here’s your listener benefit:  they get Mark Cuban on to seek permission.  They also get Dallas Cowboys icon Troy Aikman to call the show, too.  Listen to both breaks as Hawkeye focuses on Cuban and Aikman who, in return, congratulate him.  This is smart, listener-focused radio.

 

Kira and Logan, WOKQ, Portsmouth, NH Let Me Tell My Story.

I’ve talked previously about breaks highlighting where shows heard great stories of something magical someone did and then recanting that person’s story on their show.  This might be good content for you to share with your fans what you read, but telling someone else’s story is a B-minus treatment of that content.  You will certainly be able to convey the facts well of that story, but it will miss any emotional impact because you didn’t live it.  That’s why, when you tell someone else’s story, it’s best to get them to tell it.  Then all you have to do is be inquisitive for them to give you the details.  This week’s example of great execution of this concept belongs to Kira and Logan, WOKQ, Portsmouth, NH where they talked to a local gal who saved someone’s life on the beach.  Listen and feel this because of how they did it.