Lexi and Banks, KUBL, Salt Lake City Facebook Owes Me $20,000,000
One of radio’s many super powers is to tap into whatever is going on in the world. Being about the moment heightens our relevance and helps connect our listeners to the world. Facebook decides to change its name to Meta. What would happen if you already owned a tech company named Meta? What David vs. Goliath battle would come from that? Lexi and Banks, KUBL, Salt Lake City got right in the middle of this story by talking with a guy who is in just such a situation. Here’s a gentleman who built a company and trademarked its name Meta and now Facebook wants it. What we learn is that he’s in talks with Facebook to sell the name to them for $20,000,000. Relevance is one of our key images. Setting yourself in the middle of a story, in a most unique way like hearing how this gentleman is impacted by that move, creates distinct, different radio.
Sometimes a simple update to an old idea makes it new again. Everyone’s pitted awful Halloween candy against itself to get calls. That one has been around since Marconi invented radio. How do you update this so it’s different and fresh? Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh figured out a fix. First, they tied it into the World Series, making it double-topical. The World Series of Worst Halloween Candies. Great name. Then, they wrote parody scripts as though the candies were in a WWE contest to present the matchups to the audience so they voted on-air and on their social media channels. The over-the-top scripts, voiced by a Joe Buck parody, isn’t meant to fool the audience – it’s just there to elevate the idea. Their social media engagement was through the roof because of these elements. Here are two examples of what they used this week.
This is one of my all-time favorite breaks, done by the great Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa several years ago. Dave was absolutely fearless and both had work ethics out the door. There was no idea we came up with that scared them, if they heard it in their head. With Halloween approaching, we wondered what it would be like to get local dignitaries to do their version of Vincent Price’s poem at the end of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Knowing that there was a town hall meeting coming up in his building with the mayor of St. Pete, Dave decided to show up and ask the mayor to do it in front of a room full of people. The room had a righteous what-the-hell-is-going-on-here reaction when Dave took the mic. The mayor was confused, too. But he played along in this impressive break that no one else thought to do. The St. Pete mayor does Thriller. Go be different around the big topics. Think about the talk this one break caused for the show. Enjoy!
What’s the audience looking for when they turn you on? Yes, humor and companionship. They’re also looking to connect with people just like them. That is one of the foundational images that jettisons you to success. “They are just like me,” is one of the most powerful things an audience can say about its favorite morning show. Like all their fans, Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston is having issues when they order stuff online. Everywhere they turn, they can’t get what they want due to “supply chain issues”. Sometimes the best breaks are the easiest. A quick conversation to communicate they know what the audience is experiencing. Followed by phone calls of passionate (sometimes upset) listeners who cannot get the simplest things ordered in their life. Great radio is “me, too”. That’s when the audience hears the content and is entertained by it because it speaks for them, as well.
Topic + Treatment + Tone. The 3 T’s of Content as espoused by the folks at Coleman Insights. Are you on the very best topics of the day? What will your treatment be of those topics? The tone is the emotion you want listeners to feel. Some of the best content comes from the lives of the cast, as shown here by The Josie Dye Show with Matt and Carlin, Indie 88, Toronto. Josie has kids and regularly checks books out of her local library. Being forgetful (that’s character development), she sometimes misses bringing the books back to the library. That’s why Matt and Carlin regular make her call the library to see if “the books” have been returned. As you’ll hear in this week’s audio, the guys on the show make up fake book names, all quite embarrassing and racy, just to hear Josie say it and to see if the librarian has a reaction. The topic and tone are great here. The treatment is what sets it apart.
It’s not a revolutionary observation to note the true power of social media. I post something clever, fun, personal, or heartwarming. You like or comment on it. I keep checking on reactions. And feel like a super star as it grows in popularity. Rinse and repeat! Radio is the same way. We spent last week at many of the shows I coach elevating listeners for what they do for their communities. Our mission, in the face of 9/11, the worst thing that happened to America in our lifetime, was to show the best in people. We actively searched for regular listeners who have causes important to them and profile them on the show. Our week wasn’t necessarily dedicated to first responders. And we didn’t want to do all the low-hanging fruit asking listeners where they were when 9/11 hit (all of it twenty year old content). Our mission was to be about now and to control how listeners felt about our show by highlighting regular listeners who make the community better (local content!). Elevating these people made them more popular, which happened to us, too. Here are Tony and Kris, WIVK, Knoxille, with one conversation they had which accomplished all of those strategic goals with our 9/11 content.