Games on morning shows work best if people in cars listening can play along (it’s why “Wheel of Fortune” is America’s most popular game). Ryno and Jackson, KYGO, Denver play “What Are They Talking About” where they bleep the topic from audio of a celebrity on TV. The listener has to guess what they’re talking about. It sounds naughty but isn’t, and you don’t have to have seen the TV show to play along.
One way to create entertainment is to marry opposites. Kim Kardashian is about to get married, let’s get advice for her from cute kids. Ta-dah! Here’s a break from Kyle and Rachel, Radio Now, Indianapolis, where opposites are married perfectly to make people laugh.
They say interviews in PPM don’t work, which is nonsense. Bad interviews don’t work but entertaining ones do. Dave and Veronica, WQYK, Tampa understand that when they do an interview, the person they’re talking to has an agenda – to sell something. Their agenda is to entertain the audience, which is what they do in this interview with Dave Heywood from Lady Antebellum.
Terrific radio is story-based. Tell yours, then ask the listeners to their theirs. Stories are relatable and have twists and turns and moments of unpredictability that draw listeners in. In this simple break of phones, Mojo in the Morning, Channel 95.5, Detroit asked listeners what they learned about a happy couple from a best man.
One of the smartest things a show can do is make stars of their family members. It’s rare that we get a new Pope. More rare when an anchor calls his mom to see how it’s playing at her local church. In this clip from John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego, John checks in with his mother to find out the scuttlebutt at her place of worship.
One way to bond with women is to talk about kids. An easy concept, right? Sean Henry, Lite Rock B103, Rockford, IL is the master. Sean’s son Declan just turned five. To celebrate, he played The Pyramid with his son. The category was things in fives. Way too cute. And women walk away loving Sean even more for being a great father.
We needed a simple, quick benchmark for an early hour of Ty Loves New York, on 92.3 NOW, New York City. Enter “Food Porn” where Bryan the Phone Screener and a listener talk very suggestively about an item they recently ate, attempting to make the other person laugh. It sounds dirty, but it isn’t.
You must love a morning show that thinks outside the proverbial box. Approaching Father’s Day in June, Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA had a grand idea. Luke Bryant is one of country’s biggest artists right now. With the holiday upcoming that week, they found his father who offered up a unique take on the star. This is radio genius because no one else in the market thought to do it.
Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston, did something different after their long July Fourth holiday. They each kept an audio diary of things they did throughout the weekend. The goal was to air a mish-mash of audio, all of it reflective of what listeners were doing, too. Here’s their compilation break, aired on their first show back, which is also character building.
A tactical move that works to move listeners from one quarter hour to the next (or compels them to wonder what they missed if they had to leave the show) is to craft a narrative arc that entertains and intrigues, pushing people to the next break. In this arc, as done by John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego, Tammy had a surprise the rest of the show did not know. In the three breaks below, you’ll hear how it was designed. In break one, Tammy offered up three potential secrets, asking the show and listeners to guess, based on knowing her. In break two, she reveals the actual secret (and yes, it is character building). In the final break, you get audience reaction to the reveal. This was perfectly executed to hook listeners.