The Josie Dye Show with Carlin and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto Dani Still Has It

One of the challenges of a three-person show is that you have two talent of the same gender and need to focus on separating them perceptually.  Such is the exercise with The Josie Dye Show with Carlin and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto.  Brent’s single and Carlin is getting married is one trait that separates these two male voices to the audience.  This breaks does that.  We do lots of content talking about Carlin’s fiance and the stories they generate.  That’s all on purpose to reach the goal of separating Carlin and Brent’s on-air personas.  Carlin went to bed early one night and his fiance, Dani, went out with friends.  When she got home, she woke him to boast that she’d been hit on multiple times at the bar.  Carlin said that Dani still has “it”.  Two things to listen for in this break – a great story that moves Carlin away from Brent’s singleness and the language used in the telling of the story to stand out.  Plus, to make the break even better, Dani is included at just the right moment for an additional level of storytelling to keep the audience hooked and the energy level high.

Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix How Much Do You Make?

Here’s a feature I thought would be a total dud that completely surprised me.  We decided to take for a test ride How Much Do You Make on Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix.  A listener calls and tells you their profession.  The cast then asks all the obvious follow-up questions to gather information about the person and his or her job.  They then get to guess at that person’s salary.  The caller then reveals it.  Parade Magazine has an annual issue where they share what people in certain professions make.  This is our version and we were surprised at the number of listeners who felt comfortable participating.  It works because you’re getting to know a listener, delving into their life, and asking questions that make it vicarious where other listeners driving into their workplaces are trying to figure out the salary, too.

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego My Ex Made Me a Billionaire

Powerball pushes a billion dollar payout this week and we all know that it owns media turf when the number is that high.  That’s your first threshold to determine if a topic is good for your show.  Is the topic near-everywhere?  Then the big question:  how do we align ourselves with the topic in a way that expresses our take and sense of humor?  That treatment of the topic makes it distinctively yours.  That’s a must if you’re going to stand out in the cluttered marketplace of radio shows and choices for entertainment.  Our Monday Morning Free Idea this week is My Ex Made Me a Billionaire.  A divorced couple comes on and each chooses half the numbers and then you buy that ticket and give it to them.  It gives you a chance to explore what happened in the relationship, which is the big win.  Here’s John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego doing it when the lottery was at a similar height.

Karen, Johnny, and Intern Anthony, WNEW-FM, New York Mother or Smother Anthony

Here’s another terrific example of getting right to your substantive content on the show.  Intern Anthony’s eye has hurt for a couple days.  Karen, Johnny, and Intern Anthony, WNEW-FM, New York have at it big time.  This is the kind of simple, very relatable content that will help you connect with the audience – how men “suffer” differently when they’re sick.  Karen, who mothers the two boys on the show, had had enough.  So they opened the phones to let other female listeners have at Anthony, too.  They asked the audience to mother or smother him.  The thing to listen for is how quickly the show gets to the substantive storytelling in this break.  Within ten seconds, the topic is set and they are already talking to a caller.  The energy level and playful tension remain high throughout.  In many instances, we’d feel the need to ramp up the topic with a big backstory with all the details after we ID the station, give the weather, and tell everyone about the big promotion coming up.  That just delays serving the true needs of the audience for content.  Don’t waste listeners time!  Here’s a great example of a break on a show that doesn’t.

 

Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa The Mayor Does Thriller

I post this every year around Halloween because it’s truly one of the most innovative breaks a show I’ve worked with has done.  When I worked with Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa, we hatched an idea one October to get the mayor of St. Pete to do his version of Vincent Price’s poem at the end of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.  Dave was fearless.  He went to a town hall meeting the mayor was having with constituents and told the moderators he wanted to go last with his question.  Once engaged with the mayor, he asked in front of everyone if he would read the poem.  The mayor had no idea what was going on, but played along (it was not a set-up).  It’s dangerous and fun.  And at the time unique and topical.  Here’s the terrific audio of Dave doing it.  Dave passed away years ago.  I miss that guy.

Gregg, Freddy, and Danielle MIX 104.1, Boston Triple True or False

Because caller fourteen is boring!  I’ll long be fascinated with shows that take caller X to give out anything.  Even more shocked when the winning caller is aired.  Because there’s no strategic, image-based win for everyone else not calling to win your prize.  I’ve sat in many a focus group where we play caller X audio and listeners sit there and shrug their shoulders because it’s not them winning.  We’re beefing up our giveaway games with Gregg, Freddy, and Danielle, MIX 104.1, Boston.  Why?  Because we want to give everything out in a way that is vicarious to engage listeners in cars playing along.  If we do, we win a style point with those people – and there are way more of them.  Here’s Triple True or False.  Three true/false trivia questions associated with the prize.  If caller fourteen gets them all right, they win.  If they get one wrong, the prize goes to caller fifteen.

Josie, Carlin, and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto The Raptor Rates Brent’s Dating Profile

We recently added a new character to Josie, Carlin, and Brent, Indie 88, Toronto.  Brent’s character is the young, single guy who lives in a 700-square foot apartment in the heart of downtown.  He has a ton of friends and spends his weekends having a good time.  This is a nice contrast to the others on the show who are in longer-term relationships and more settled.  We are focusing a lot of time defining Brent’s character and creating that contrast in the room.  Brent recently got an interview with Fred VanFleet, who plays for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.  Besides doing the usual Q&A, Brent also asked Fred to review his online dating profile to make commentary.  This is a unique way to both showcase the player’s personality and define Brent.

George, Mo and Erik, KILT-FM (The Bull), Houston Lee Brice Price Is Right.

Here’s a reminder from George, Mo, and Erik, The Morning Bullpen, KILT-FM, Houston that when artists come on, they want to sell something.  Last week, country singer Lee Brice needed to sell some concert tickets, which is one of the reasons he did the interview with them.  Knowing that very few in their audience would buy tickets, the mission in talking with Lee was to create some fun.  It’s wonderful that Lee’s last name (Brice) rhymes with “price” so they did Lee Brice Price is Right.  This treatment has been done many times by all of us in morning radio.  Why this works better is because they chose quirky items related to Lee of things for sale they found on the internet.  Lee had to guess the price of items associated with him, which upped the fun factor.

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego She Took Apart a Washing Machine

A great resource for your show, as you well know, is your listeners.  They have stories and experiences you don’t and can help grow the entertainment quotient of your program every time you focus on them.  Back when Covid and being quarantined was a thing, John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego did the very simple break asking listeners what they taught themselves while holed up at home with nothing else to do.  Not enough shows take advantage of grooming their audience to being full participants in their shows.  From listeners, you get great storytelling based on real life stuff.  Once you tell the audience your story, pivot and always ask the listeners for theirs.  They are your best resource to creating a show about the audience, which bounces back to you tenfold as once you make them a star, they’ll return the favor.

Ty, Kelly, and Chuck NASH FM’s Ten Minute Tune

This week’s audio proves several things:  first, the importance of being about the moment.  Great shows are about whatever is going on right now.  Second, taking advantage of your surroundings – there’s gold for content and characters all around you – just see it.  And presenting your content in a way where you own it.  The NFL season starts this week.  It’s a big topic for any market, whether you have a team or not, because listeners’ lifestyles are impacted.  Back in the day when I was working with Ty, Kelly, and Chuck, NASH FM’s syndicated country show from Nashville, we added a feature that took advantage of all the artists you’ll find all over that town, looking for their big break, called the Ten Minute Tune.  We partnered with a few who wrote well and had a sense of humor.  Each morning, we’d take calls from listeners suggesting a topic and the singer had ten minutes to come up with a song around that topic.  Here’s what happened with the the NFL draft, when it was a big topic after the season that year.