AMP 103.3, Boston Tommy Tales
It’s September, the NFL season is back, and that means there is no bigger topic in Boston than the New England Patriots. Specifically, there is no bigger star in that city than Tom Brady, the Patriots quarterback. Let’s prove to you the power of story-telling. The TJ Show, AMP 103.3, Boston, on the eve of the team’s home opener, did a new feature called Tommy Tales. Producer Matt on the show had met Tom Brady and told his story (he is a huge Brady fan so you feel his passion) to kick things off. The team then opened the phones all morning for listeners to tell their stories about meeting Tom Brady, too. Stories are how we connect as human beings (you tell yours, I tell mine, and we connect). Great stories have beginnings and endings (payoffs) with delightful details in the middle that make those hearing them lean in. Here is a compilation of great Tommy Tales that TJ and his great team aired throughout the morning. Hear not only the energy of those telling them (it’s as though they all happened yesterday to these people because they were so memorable), but also make note of how you lean in to hear all the twists and turns, as well. Tell stories to win and you will win big.
Break structure is so important in show prep. With listeners decreasing attention spans, they evaluate a break’s worth in just a few seconds. They come for content. So, the longer you take to get to that, the greater peril you face in losing them mentally or worse, to another entertainment choice. Relating to the content is critical, too, as are designed moments in each breaks execution to re-grap the attention of fans who might lose interest. Hawkeye and Connected K, KSCS, Dallas did a break about technology – quite relatable to anyone. Listen to the break below and pay close attention to not just the content material, but how this break was designed. Hawkeye starts the break without all the pablum many do (call letters, weather, telling the audience about an appearance or promotion – all items which delay the content). He starts in the first few seconds with a question to Connected K. He’s actually asking the audience the same question so they are engaged. After that brief conversation, he pivots to talking about technology and throughout the break, uses audio throughout to prevent those who might get less interested from leaving the show. This is, at its core, a break about technology designed to be a conversation between the two hosts (good). It was done in a way to keep those vibing with the conversation leaning in and is well done as a result of that prep.
There are simple ways to take the topic of sports and broaden it out to make it become a topic about relationships with a sports theme. With our entering football season, you might find natural team allegiances are split in relationships. Look for those inside a marriage and do a Spousal Sports Bet. This is where he supports one team and she supports another (and hopefully his rival). On the eve of that game, get both people in the relationship on and get them to make an odd bet (he wins: he doesn’t have to clean the kitchen for a week after dinner, she wins: he gives her two spa treatments). Focusing on the relationship allows you to talk about the game not from a position of X’s and O’s, but from how it impacts their relationship, which is quite relatable to everyone in your audience. And yes, if you want to do this with your relationship it would be character development, but make sure you choose fun listeners, too, which will give you more to play with. We did this at Koz and Jen, WTMX (101.9 The Mix), Chicago so you can hear the fun here.
There are some standard features most shows do that target female listeners (i.e. Teacher of the Week, etc.). Two Men and a Mom, WRAL-FM, Raleigh developed something different – a feature that celebrates the average listener and the challenges she has in her quest to get stuff done in her life. Each of us has the vibe of just trying to make it through each day. In the feature Lady Boss, the show seeks to do nothing more than highlight and celebrate regular female listeners who quietly accomplish successfully tackling their lives. There is nothing here that’s heroic or out of the ordinary (like most features of this nature). In this version posted below, they celebrate a female listener who figures out how to successfully be a mom to seven kids, We get relatable stories for other mothers to connect with and the show leverages their natural curiosity to poke around this listener’s story to prop her up as a Lady Boss.
When introducing a new cast member to the audience, it’s always most efficient and effective to do so with a regular feature the new person does – this will quickly define that talent and set their sense of humor for the audience. It should not be their only contribution to the show, but highlighting this one thing will help them. We recently added a new member to the team at The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati. Wanting to cover off the younger end of the demo, we chose Ashley, who’d been working in the sales department, who electrified the halls. One of the ways in which we were not doing content was having fun with listeners on the streets. So we added Out With Ashley as the feature that could both give us content in that style, and showcase Ashley’s very quick laugh and sense of humor. She heads out on the streets (think Leno) to talk with Cincinnati residents about a variety of silly topics in a feature we’re calling Out With Ashley. In the episode below, Ashley is talking to a few hair stylists she knows in something we’re calling Salon Confidential, where they trade fun stories about clients.
There is fun all around you. Often, we lean on phone calls to play games – yet, we are getting fewer of them because less people are inclined to call and listeners are more engaged to interact with their favorite radio stations and shows via social media and texting. So, use the fun people you work with to help pull things off. Stacey and Jonah, 106.5 The Arch, St. Louis wanted to give a patriotism quiz to their audience around July Fourth. The idea took off when two big decisions were made: first, we were fearful listeners would not only not call to take it because they’d be reticent to prove how little they know. So, we decided to give the quiz to three fun co-workers, who’d be more inclined to step up. The other big decision was making it a competition amongst these co-workers spanning three days at the same time to generate additional occasions of listening. To add spice to the idea, Stacey and Jonah found a middle school teacher on summer break to help administer the quiz, giving them more to play with, The goal is relevant fun, and the listeners don’t really care if that laughter comes from other listeners or people in the building. Here are the three episodes of the narrative, all airing close to the holiday last month.
The conventional wisdom is that a topic as polarizing as Robert Meuller’s testimony to Congress this past week can’t be touched. It’s too volatile to do. I challenge you to develop some idea around it to test your creativity for an idea that has nothing to do with politics, but still ties you in. One show I work with complained that their regular shows on the networks were cancelled because of it. That led to them acknowledging that One Life To Live wasn’t on that day and they acted out a scene from it for the audience. Then there’s Daybreak with Drew Steele, 92.5 FOX News, Ft. Myers, FL who noted how many times Meuller passed on a question. He then strung the answers together and put together the No No Song. Be of the moment, go there humorously, and give the audience something they cannot get elsewhere. That’s a very smart strategy to creating a very huge fan base.