Late August means it’s time for back to school. All over the country, parents are rejoicing that their kids are getting out of the house and going back to class. Which is why Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA, put together this excellent production piece of elated parents and the Christmas time classic, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
The content plot for J and Julian, B96, Chicago is “multiculturalism”. Simply put, we have one of everything on this show, which is a direct reflection of P18-34 in a major city like Chicago. We leverage the ethnicity of the show to do different kind of content. So, the Olympics was an easy putt for us. Which is why we challenged each member of the team to learn the national anthem of the country of their heritage and sing it to the audience, as though they’d won gold. The audio below is a compilation of the breaks where we did it. Here is the cast of the show singing the national anthems of China, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Poland.
One thing many young people have done is to send a suggestive picture of themselves, via text, to their significant other. Kyle, from Kyle and Rachel, Radio NOW, Indianapolis’s most listened to morning show never has. So he made a test during the program and took a naked picture of himself and sent it to his girlfriend of one year, who was not expecting it. They then called to get her take.
Karlson and McKenzie on WZLX, Boston have spent the summer making Kevin Karlson’s mother-in-law’s dreams come true. First up was a trip to NYC to see “The View”. Here’s Patsy’s review and their conversation with her about the experience. Hear how personal and fun this exchange is – you get a true sense of Kevin’s relationship with her and, because it’s reflective of real life, it’s very sticky.
We’re in the silly business, right? Here’s a break from Cledus, Dave, and Veronica on WQYK, Tampa which perfectly fuses relatable content with innovation. Dave thought his mom’s outgoing voicemail made her sound like she worked for a 900-number. Listen to how he talks about it and, more importantly, what they do with it to make the audience laugh.
It was 100 degrees in town this week and Mojo in the Morning, Channel 95.5, Detroit talked about it. Here’s a storyline very well constructed to get listeners to hang on for resolution. They received a call from an air conditioning repairman who talked about how busy he’s been. He tells them this story about how, when fixing someone’s unit, a neighbor who can’t get hers fixed approaches him and offers him sex if he’ll take care of things. Instead of finding out if he accepted the offer after he tells his story, Mojo asks listeners what they thought he did, before the guy tells all. These two segments below were separated by a stop set and some music.
I love shows who make something from seemingly the smallest of things. Recently, Kim Berk, from Jim and Kim, Fresh 102.7, New York, broke the heel of her shoe. Challenged, her partner Jim Douglas and Producer Craig went to buy some cheap sandals to get her through the day. They took along a recorder and found a fun person in the shop to help. The moral of this story: always record what you’re doing so you can share the experience with the audience and make it come alive.
When a spouse goes out of town for work or to visit relatives for a short while, it’s natural to fill that time getting to know your neighbors or doing things with friends you haven’t seen in a while. But once that spouse returns, you must re-devote yourself to them. This was appropriately, if sardonically addressed by Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston, when Karson’s wife, Lana, returned from being away for a while. Karson called his new friend, Michael, on the air to “break up” with him after their brief, early summer bromance.
Are hairy chests back in vogue? Jim and Kim, Fresh 102.7, New York City saw this survey and, targeting women, believed it was a good topic to interact about with the audience. They also decided to talk with famous hairy chest celebrity Tom Selleck to get his take. They actually had an interview already scheduled with Selleck and realized they could’ve used that time to let him sell his TV show or have fun with him around a topic more appealing to the broader female audience. They chose the latter and put together this more entertaining content break.
Justin Bieber goes crazy on a photographer trying to take his picture and you have a tailor-made phone topic about public meltdowns. Fernando & Greg, 99.7 NOW San Francisco’s morning team, did just that in this easy, yet very well designed segment of radio. This highlights the value of telling stories. Listeners calling to tell about the time they lost it in public, with the team laughing along, mining the story for more gold. In PPM, these segments perform very well because they’re engaging and entertaining.