MOJO Hi, This is Donald Trump…
Seizing the moment in pop culture extends past your content breaks so being about the topics of the day permeates everything you do. Detroit has a huge Muslim population. Mojo in the Morning, Channel 95.5, Detroit, excels at taking whatever is in the pop culture or news churn on any given day and owning it with their brand of innovation. The team had several liners cut by Eric Harthen, a great voice actor. Their audience knows it really isn’t Donald Trump voicing the lines – this is part of Mojo’s appeal – but they use Trump’s pronouncement to ban Muslims from entering the country to connect with and (important) entertain the audience with sweepers used to position the show as very contemporary and fun.
Despite our being just past the holidays, here’s a break from Lisa and Ray, US99.5, Chicago, that really excelled. Like many popular morning shows, the team was offered an interview with country legend Trace Adkins. Not content to just do a Q&A centered around his agenda, the team made the off-air ask and then wrote a Chicago version of the classic “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”. Trace consented and with his large, booming voice, read the poem in one of the breaks. We were uber local and affirmed our fun images. We always ask: what are we doing with this topic no one else thought to do? In doing so, we create an innovative moment which helps us bring the audience back again.
The parodies of Adele’s hit “Hello” seemed to be endless. Turn left, right, move forward or backward, and people were having fun with this song. Even Adele did, too. When silliness abounds, Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa are in as well. Here’s a break done using other songs with the word “hello” on their show. A break like this can be perceived as very cheesy if not presented properly. That’s not the case here as everyone in the room is in on the joke. Sometimes shows will miss having more fun with the shorter list of Hot Topics each day and grab a topic with less equity. Listeners gravitate to what’s familiar when they wake up. This is why it’s so critical to know the topics of the day (those with a very high level of familiarity) and come up with more things to do around them than wade into less-than topics which require the audience to use their brain to comprehend.
There is, somewhere in your market, a radio station that is an expert at giving their listeners the news. While most listeners wake up and want to know what’s going on in the world, the purpose of the newscast is less to inform people than it is to define who you are. The listeners want your take on the day’s topics (that honesty is character definition). You want them waking up wondering what you think about whatever is big that morning. This is why perspective is so critical when talking about a story. What’s yours? What work do you do to figure that out before the news story is done on your show? What also helps a newscast is, when applicable, a sense of humor is shown. If the audience cares about a story, they already know most, if not all, of what you’re about to tell them. Ryno and Tracy, KYGO, Denver newscaster Chuck Clark is here telling the audience what they already know the morning after – that the Broncos beat the Patriots. But listen to this very short clip how he created humor to make it sticky.
No matter where you go, there’s Adele. She seems to be on every single TV channel, on every website you click to, and screaming out of every speaker on every radio station. Everyone loves Adele. Or do they? Conflict creates entertainment. The TJ Show, AMP 103.3, Boston, ran into show friend, Jeffrey, who hates Adele. Jeffrey thinks everyone is being duped into buying Adele’s schtick of sadness and melancholy, all to the make the singer more rich and famous. Here’s a perspective on Adele yet to be expressed…and it’s very funny to hear as TJ and his team challenge Jeffrey’s cynicism. This is a 
Story-telling is the most powerful thing a show can do with its content. Charlie Sheen announces that he is HIV positive. What resulted is Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston hearing from a listener who is also HIV positive from her former boyfriend. Personalizing your content, telling immensely powerful, first-person stories, is great radio. We talk all the time with shows about not handling stories like this on the surface (sharing facts as you know them – which anyone can do), but digging very deep, sharing with listeners how this affects you and being honest enough with your fans on your take on the story is a terrific way to define your character. The listener in this audio clip emailed the show to share her story (resulting in her coming on the program) because she feels like she knows the cast and trusts them. When big stories happen, you want the audience to wonder your take, to tune in because you go miles deep to explore things, and because you’ll be vulnerable enough with them to connect in very personal ways.
Spinning around the dial the Monday after the Paris terrorist attacks, anxious to hear how talent connected with the audience, one of the gold awards goes to Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA, who worked their ass off the day after to find someone in the middle of it all. They found a local couple in Paris that evening on their honeymoon, who called a friend for dinner, who blew off a heavy metal concert he had a ticket to (yes, it’s that concert). They ended up having dinner close to the attacks. You can give facts or tell stories. You can regurgitate what you’ve read or do the work to bring me inside the story. They hit every button on this, even recording and editing the interview on Sunday and airing it in each hour on their Monday show. It was that powerful. This proves that work and prep does lead to unique, story-based radio the audience leaves talking about.
It’s the marriage of the high equity topic along with something creative that makes for a fun, memorable experience for those tuning in. That experience sets you up for another occasion of listening because you’ve earned the images of being innovative and fun (laughter), two things that make a positive impression on your fans. The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati, seizes on the Starbucks controversy by doing their parody of Toby Keith’s “Red Solo Cup” with “Red Starbucks Cup”. This is completely silly and the audience is giggling while listening, setting up for them to return the next day for more.
In a brainstorm a few weeks ago with The Cruz Show, Power 106, Los Angeles, we decided we wanted to do our version of Jimmy Kimmel’s excellent bit where parents tell their kids they ate their Halloween candy. So, we devised a scenario where Jeff Garcia, the show’s executive producer and father of two young boys, would tell them that Donald Trump had cancelled Halloween. The team added another layer or two into the idea and then Jeff executed our plan, recording his kids in the process. Everyone was talking about Halloween. But only one show in the market thought of this idea to entertain the audience and make them laugh. Which makes this highly relatable and memorable.
With the NFL and college football in full swing and the World Series about to wrap up, we married all the top shelf sports stories with one talent’s lack of knowledge of everything sports-oriented. Stacey K and Jonah, HOT 101.7, Santa Rosa, CA did “Stacey K Sorts Kinda Tries to Do a Sports Report”. Listeners do not tune in for sports scores any longer – this is all available on their smart phones. If they care about the score, they know it by the time they turn you on. Our goal is to create fun. So Stacey watched a game and then Jonah tried to get her to “report” what she saw. They used the topicality of the sports event with Stacey’s lack of sports knowledge to create some fun for everyone tuning in.