WWFS Romantico
A true focus of the Jim and Kim Show on Fresh 102.7, New York is to be very local. That’s why when there was a big Italian festival in town, they were all over it. But not in a way that just promoted it. They did a fun thing called “Romantico or No Romantico”. With Italian being a romance language, they had someone from the festival on to talk Italian and they and the listeners had to guess if it was romance talk or if they were saying something much less touching. Here are a couple of breaks of its execution.
John and Tammy at KSON, San Diego, reflecting on kids going back to school last month, decided to test the honesty of teachers by playing “Plead the Fifth Grade”. They got a fifth grade teacher on and then asked a series of questions escalating in their level of discomfort, to see how honest he’d be with them and the audience. The teacher got one shot to “plead the fifth” and not answer the question.
The very best content comes from the hosts’ real life experiences. Producer Kal on Kyle and Rachel, Radio NOW, Indianapolis, stiffed a waitress on her tip after ordering chicken fingers and not liking her attitude. The morning team called him out and put Kal in the most uncomfortable spot when they “found” the waitress and had her talk to Kal on the show about why he did it.
Nothing is better than when a morning show does something fun and innovative that fits its brand image that the competitor wouldn’t think of doing. Alicia Keys is making the rounds to promote her new CD. Pablo and Free on WPGC, Washington not only did the standard Q&A, they had Alicia call a record store as a customer looking for a song she didn’t know the name of or the artist and that all she could do is sing the hook, which she does. Of course, it’s her song! The effort here is spectacular and created a break listeners walked away talking about!
A major shift we made on Karlson and McKenzie, WZLX, Boston’s very successful morning show a while back was to go more personal with the audience. This is why we have relatives of the cast members on all the time. Kevin Karlson’s in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, which is why he went around their party with a recorder asking people coming to celebrate how many times in September they had had sex. It’s uncomfortable, unpredictable, and very funny.
Instead of doing a standard Q&A on interviews, Cledus, Dave, and Veronica at WQYK, Tampa do something different and fun. They let listeners guess what the interviewee had for breakfast, then make that a part of their conversation. This part humanizes the person being interviewed and is silly and fun, thus drawing listeners in to the interview because it’s different. Here’s an interview they did using this approach with one of their local mayors.
The very best, most entertaining phone topics satisfy two criteria. First they must originate from an experience a member of the show has. That’s the justification to do it (verses it being perceived as a generic, prep service topic). The second is that what you ask for must be stories. Inside stories, there’s rich detail and twist and turns that will keep listeners hooked because the show has something to mine for gold. A member of Fernando and Greg, NOW 99.7, San Francisco, went to a wedding which was ruined by an invited guest. Here are the fun phones they did around it.
The very best morning radio is personal and vulnerable. Which is why the feature “Truth or Pair” works. J and Julian, B96, Chicago’s number one show had tickets to give out to see Pink perform at the station. Instead of taking caller ten (ugh!) they challenged listeners to call them with a highly personal question. If they answered it (truth), the listener got nothing. But if the question was too personal, they could take a pass and the listener got the pair of tickets to see Pink.