Froggy 92.9 Singing the School Lunch Menu
This one falls in the category of “please don’t tell me you can’t be local and you can’t be fun in under 2:30”!! Oftentimes shows believe the more time they have in the break, the better it’ll be. Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA prove otherwise. As a yearly feature at the beginning of the school year in each September, Rob chooses one daily school district’s lunch offering and sings the menu for the audience. With a game plan on how we’ll entertain, you can structure a break efficiently so you don’t waste listeners’ time and can get to the payoff quickly (listeners require payoffs). We do this as a seasonal feature each year on the show and bounce it around the clock so all the audiences hear at least one. What’s important is to connect with the audience in the content you choose, create entertainment from it so those who don’t care are having a good time, and do it quickly to score the most points. This does that.
Talent get endorsement fees and radio stations charge a higher rate for live spots because personalities have credibility. The big question on live reads, though, is do you deliver the live read like a commercial or is it conversational and presented as content? Here is a very unique live read from Bud and Broadway, WIL, St. Louis which elevates one endorsement spot. They recorded a live read for The Good Feet Store. Only problem was that Broadway hit the wrong button and it slowed the audio down just enough for them to sound drunk. Instead of re-recording it, they aired it. A few things happen here: they make fun of themselves (very good) and, because the read is so funny, the commercial message for the client cuts through even more. Not every client would let you do this, but presenting a spot for a client the way they did effectively turned it into fun content.
What to do when your two-year old has constant meltdowns and you are still a fairly new show to the market and need to do some positive character development? If you’re The TJ Show, AMP 103.3, Boston, you do “Tantrum Tuesday”. Each Tuesday, TJ (whose character includes being the father of a young child) airs the audio of his daughter having a tantrum. Women connect with and have empathy for these kinds of characters on a show. What’s critical to the win in this break is how TJ handles things. With a quirky production value so it stands out, TJ tries to reason with his kid as an adult. You laugh as you eavesdrop on this conversation between father and daughter and walk away with two important strategic messages about the program: that TJ is just like you if you have kids and the show can create fun with real life stuff as it positions the competition as old(er).
Proving that absolutely no one knows who the vice presidential candidates are, The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati set out to have some fun with a street game called “TV or VP?” Dave was armed with a list of men who’ve served as vice presidents for our great country, and another list of famous TV characters. You have to love this intersection of politics and pop culture. It’s an easy way to do political humor without every being political and polarizing. What aides the fun factor of this audio is that Dave recorded all of these at a local concert, just before the show. The benefit in doing this is that everyone he talked to was in a good mood because of the concert, thus guaranteeing he’d have usable audio for the show.
The challenge in breaks is to reach certain benchmarks: are we in the cycle for pop culture (because we live in this very clickable world), are we being honest and real with the audience (because they can smell a phony a mile away), are we having fun (listeners want to have a good time). Back during the GOP convention when everyone was talking about Melania Trump, Michele Obama, and Hillary Clinton, The Cruz Show, Power 106, Los Angeles, played the game “F, Marry, Kill” where Cruz went around the room asking each cast member who of that trio they’d sleep with, get hitched to, or off. Everyone assigned something different to each person (conflict = comedy). What hooks the audience is the edgy question – they not only are getting to know the cast by how they answer, they’re answering it in their heads, too.
What’s it like for a mother to leave her kid for the very first time, and leave the kid with the father? Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston explored the topic. Karson’s wife, Lana, was going out of town for the very first time for a girls weekend after their young son, Barrett, was born. How would Karson “perform” as a father, alone, for the very first time? Lana puts Karson on notice in several areas: how the kid will be dressed, getting him a haircut, having a poker night at the house around their son. Radio is really easy – tell me a story (Lana leaves town for the first time), then make it come alive in the details so conflict appears, producing a highly relatable dialogue affording the best chance for natural humor. No bit, just real life talk. The bonus and what makes this sparkle, is getting Lana on to add perspective as the mom and instigate more conflict so this really shines, keeping the attention of listeners throughout.
With the passing this week of my very good friend, Dave McKay, from Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa, I wanted to honor him with our weekly audio post of an all-time favorite. I loved Dave because he had the biggest heart and always (!) put everyone of us in the team over himself. Dave was an immensely hard worker, very creative, and never adverse to getting stuff done. The number of contacts he had in his cell always astounded me – we’d come up with an idea for a local celebrity and Dave would make the call to make it happen. There are a slew of segments I could post to celebrate Dave, but this is one of my all-time favorites. Not only for its creativity, but for the sheer balls it took to pull off. We hatched an idea to get a local mayor to do the Vincent Price poem at the end of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as a Halloween bit. Dave shows up unannounced at a Meet the Mayor Town Hall and convinces a handler to let him ask his question last. What happens is one of the most fun things we ever did – it’s edge of your seat silliness as listeners wait to hear how the mayor will react and if Dave will get thrown out. I’ve included other breaks Dave did which I believe are fun, innovative, and memorable so you can hear his genius and the talent of his team (Pen of the Day, interview with Garth Brooks,and his mom’s outgoing voicemail). Dave McKay had one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever known – to his listeners, coworkers, teammates, and his community. There was never a time after we stopped working together when we talked that he didn’t thank me for all I did for him. I always thanked him back, because he made me a better person and a better talent coach. I’ll miss that dude. Hope you enjoy these.
Here’s a fun new feature you can do on Mondays that plays off your weekend. Dana and Jayson, WBLI, Long Island, were recapping their weekend on a recent Monday show. Jayson took the position that he had an incredibly lame weekend and seemed disturbed by it. They were really smart by broadening it out to include listeners, trying to “out lame” Jayson with the simple question: Who had a more lame weekend than Jayson? Great radio shows work when they tell stories. Stories have details and twists-and-turns that capture the audience. Jayson is presented as a very regular guy to the audience in this conversation, also allowing both of them to showcase their senses of humor very authentically. The premise is fun (and atypical) as are hearing the audience tell stories, too, turning them into the stars of the program.
Playing on the heels of last week’s audio, here’s another music-based feature to entertain the audience. What happens when you fuse country lyrics with a hip hop (rap) style? Well, if you’re Ryno and Tracy, KYGO, Denver, you get “crap”. Here’s a fun game where Tracy does the lyrics of a hit country song in a hip hop style. First listener to guess artist and title wins. Games work because if done well, they’re vicarious. They win even bigger if those playing along in cars are laughing and having a good time. What’s really important is to not focus on what you have to give out, but figure out how to give the prize out in a way that includes those who want to call to win (the smaller group) and those who listen to play along (the way larger group). The big success happens when those playing along laugh.