Archive for category: Audio

We’ve all done the same half dozen Mother’s Day ideas for years, right?  Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston developed a new idea this year called Iron Mom.  It’s the pretty simple bit where listeners call a voicemail line to tell them about what makes their mom special – what elevates this idea is the frame (they are creating a club of Iron Moms, which is powerful) and what they are asking listeners to share when they call.  The brilliance of this break is how they debuted the feature.  Where many shows would just promote the number, keeping the idea in listeners’ heads as they explained what they wanted, the team left their own mock voicemails for themselves and then played them for the audience.  As you will hear, the examples both defined the show’s cast for character development but also gave those inclined to call what they are looking for.  Each was both touching and funny and they moved the audience to feel the idea so listeners knew what to leave on the voicemail line for airing – which is smart.

A challenge for every show, regardless of market size, is getting phone calls early in the program. We all have smaller audiences then and listeners are less inclined to call a show and participate in any game or phone topic you might have.  What could help is focusing the phones on a specific type of listeners.  Two Men and a Mom, WRAL-FM, Raleigh know that, while most of the audience is getting up and ready for work or school (when in session) at that early hour, they are not inclined to call.  But an audience on the road and more ripe to participate in a radio show is truckers.  So they direct this occasional phone topic at them, asking truckers to call to tell them what they’re hauling.  It’s a simple way to generate some content early in the show on the phones – the win comes in the conversation, then the payoff of finding out what’s in their truck and where they’re bringing it.

Doing things in real time is always powerful.  Beloved local weatherman Scott Haney went missing from his TV station in Hartford, CT.  Scott’s the guy you have in your market who’s known and beloved by all.  Christine and Salt, 96.5 TIC-FM, Hartford know Scott, too.  He’s been on their show and helped them with content many times.  Calling Scott offline, they found out that Scott and his doctors feared he was infected with the coronavirus.  Scott was doing the weather from his home, so viewers knew what was going on with him, too (the power of character development and vulnerability – the audience caring about you is amazing).  Scott consented, once the results came in, to reveal them to Christine and Salt’s audience, as well.  A powerful moment and payoff to a narrative that resonated with them.  Hear the reveal below – then find stories happening in real time for your show and bring the audience in, too.

To truly resonate with the audience, we must understand where they are emotionally.  We need to really connect with where their lives are in the middle of the coronoavirus crisis.  In many respects, that’s easy if you have a life like them.  Worlds get smaller when there is something like this.  One of our jobs is to communicate to the audience who won’t call (98% of the them) that they are not alone in their experiences.  Lots of phone calls do that.  Let regular listeners come on to talk about what’s going on with them – their wins and frustrations – and that will talk to everyone else.  This is a simple, but very powerful break from John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego, who let listeners come on who are over being stuck inside with their kids.  Hear the raw emotion in the callers voices as they tell their stories and how John and Tammy connect with them to tell theirs – all leading to fun conversations that say to the audience, “we’re all in this together.”

Here’s a break I bet you can’t do.  When there is a topic as large as the coronavirus leaning on shows, it’s more important now than ever to remember two things:  how listeners use us (the average P1 comes in twice per week for no longer than fifteen minutes) so they hear relatively little of your show.  And that listeners are drawn to us, in large part, for relevance so you must do lots of it to affirm that image.  We must avoid breaks right now with topics that are evergreen hold no space in the listeners’ lives.  Christine from Christine and Salt, 965, TIC-FM, Hartford, speaks fluent Italian.  So, they called Italy to check on how things are with the coronoavirus with the entire country on lock down.  This ends up being a fun break around the biggest topic of the day that listeners would lean into, because it’s different and highlights an attribute of a cast member.