WNOU Bryan Sings Your Weekend
One of the easier days to do a show is Monday, mainly because you have weekend content. Things happen to you and your listeners which can be treasure troves of relatable, story-based content for the program. Here’s a great example of knowing the quirky people who work around you, who can contribute to your show. Kyle and Rachel, Radio NOW, Indianapolis, met Bryan in the promotions department, who’s musically inclined. Hence a new, semi-occasional Monday feature where the listeners tell Bryan what they did over the weekend in one sentence, and Bryan sets it to music, in his own style.
Two tenants of great talent are their ability to tell a story and a comfort enough with themselves to show their flaws. Listeners root for radio talent who aren’t perfect. Those who can put their mess out in the world and seemingly say, “I am just like you – things don’t work out for me sometimes.” That self-deprecation helps talent bond with listeners. If you look at David Letterman and Howard Stern, they built franchises around the “I’m just not good enough” vibe. Cindy from Cindy and Jimmy, Star 94, Atlanta shows this in our audio clip this week. She tells a story about how her youngest daughter accidentally gets her cell phone and butt dials an ex. The fun, imperfect part comes in how Cindy gets out of the call. They then launch phones for similar stories from listeners, which doubles the fun.
Kids on female targeted morning shows are always a hit. Sean and Michelle, B103, Rockford, IL know how to use kids so women fawn. A couple of weeks ago when it was St. Patrick’s Day, Sean talked with his kids, telling them that they get wishes because of leprechauns. The result in this back-and-forth is that you meet a few strategic goals: Sean positions himself at the doting dad who loves his kids thus reflecting values women reward with great loyalty. And it’s damn funny so they’re laughing!
Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa do something fun when they have concert tickets to give out. Knowing country listeners distaste for rap music, they marry the two genres to give them out. They take the lyrics of a popular country song and Veronica does them rap style. The listener has to guess the song to win. I especially like the jingle they use to stage the game, which has “we’re about to be silly” written all over it.
Games are best when they can also be played by listeners in their cars. John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego, do their version of The Pyramid called “The Friday Face Off”. Here’s one they take an extra step by using a category that completely fits the weekend The Grammys are on TV. This is topical, fun, shows the chemistry of the team, with listeners playing along. They want to have a good time when they wake up – this is a great example of that.
The best content ideas tend to come up when shows and I are just bullshitting on our weekly calls. A few weeks back, Stacey K and Jonah, HOT 101.7, Santa Rosa, CA were gabbing about how long the drive thru takes when getting coffee in the morning. So, we decided to test things by going to one and timing waiting in your car to order and pick up your coffee verses going in. This is relatable content being done in a very memorable way. It also has an element to it where listeners are glued to the radio to see how it ends, as they’ve considered it before, too.
It’s important to be where the listeners are psychologically. With recent bad weather in the nation’s capital, The Pablo Show, WPGC, Washington, DC decided to talk with listeners who didn’t want to go into work because of it. They chose one of the listeners and got their boss on the other line to request the day off for them. Be on the most important topics of the day for your market (on this day, it was the weather for DC) and do something with them that not only is fun, but cannot be replicated by anyone across the street because you thought to do it.
Two critical steps for any show to be successful is having a finite content plots and interesting, defined characters. At The J Show, B96, Chicago, one of the ways w eco this is by the parent of a cast member coming on and offering two stories about their kid. One is right, the other is fake. The audience has to figure out which one is true to win. In the process, we hear a great story and the cast member is further defined.