Dave Coombs, WKLH, Milwaukee with Fun with AI Joe

AI is a game-changer to create relevant fun content for your show.  Dave Coombs, WKLH, Milwaukee gets this on a level we all can learn from.  As Dave shows us here, you can have AI mimic any celebrity or famous person.  How can you use this to your advantage?  What big story with a famous person can you create humor around using AI?  Politics might be off the plate as a topic choice for your show, but not for Dave.  Before he left the presidential race, Dave had AI create fun stuff around Joe Biden.  He called it AI Joe so the audience knew it was a fake.  Here’s audio of how Dave did it, which opens up more topical and creative opportunities for doing unique things on your show.

The Daly Migs Show, 99.9 KISW, Seattle with Mice in Minneapolis

Our audio this week brings several points important to make.  First, we are storytellers.  First, always, and forever.  Stories are what make us interesting to other people.  But we can only tell our stories, not the stories of others.  If a story exists and it isn’t yours, get that person on to tell it.  It’ll be much more emotional and authentic.  Second, stories must have compelling drama and the more you have, as it pushes to resolution, the more riveting it is to hear.  Finally, stories don’t work unless you, as show hosts, have curiosity to bring the story out and focus on the emotion.  A local Seattle woman was caught in the vortex of the Delta issues a week ago.  She joined the Daly Migs Show, 99.9 KISW to tell of her experience (which includes finding mice in the Minneapolis airport).  This first person account of the happened is highly engaging.

The Josie Dye Show, Indie 88, Toronto with Delayed, Cancelled, or On Time

With vacations in full swing, we’re hearing that airports are packed.  Here’s audio from The Josie Dye Show, Indie 88, Toronto that taps into all that air travel.  The fun game is called Delayed, Cancelled, or On Time.  Grab a flight from your airport and call that airline’s 800-number to record the flight status.  Bank the audio and have your caller guess which of the three that flight will be – delayed, cancelled, or on time.  Then play the call to see if they win the prize.  A tip – find online a flight out of your airport that leaves for a vacation destination (like Orlando because of Disney) within a few hours and is either delayed or cancelled as that’ll be funnier when you do it on-air.  Here’s audio as an example.

Anna and Raven, Star 99.9, Bridgeport, CT with the Biden-Trump Debate Bets

With politics now ramping up as a potential Hot List topic, you can consider using it as a foundation for content for the show.  The threading of this needle needs to be precise so it’s not commentary or you advocating for a candidate (so it isn’t polarizing).  Plus, it’s important to maintain the goal – entertaining the audience.  With the Trump-Biden debate a few weeks ago, Anna and Raven, Star 99.9, Bridgeport, CT took on the challenge of crafting unique content around the topic without touching that third rail.  In a brainstorm, we realized that people like to bet and there were probably weird bets happening that night on the debate, too.  Here’s an interview with a betting parlor owner on just that angle.  It wasn’t about politics, but was about something attached to the debate that created the relevance.

George, Mo, and Eric, 100.3 The Bull, Houston with Mo Knows Country

Something very easily missed (and sometimes dismissed) is you integrating your show into the radio station’s music brand.  Some shows rarely even mention the music.  I’ve always thought that that’s a bad move.  So a challenge with this week’s audio.  What can you do to improve on that? When you do, you send important signals to the audience that you’re a part of a larger product than just your show.  It could be as simple as mentioning the artists and titles of songs you play.  Or it could be doing content centered around the music.  George, Mo, and Eric, 100.3 The Bull, Houston have a daily feature called Mo Knows Country.  It’s like the trivia feature many shows play, but the questions bring the show into the music brand of the station.  A very smart move.

Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston with What Are You Doing This Weekend?

Sometimes, we make radio much harder than it should be.  I always preach to shows that something that aids your win is when you are more interested on the audience than you want them to be on you.  Focusing on your fan’s lives or their stories (after you share yours) is storytelling that other listeners are engaged by.  Case-in-point is what Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston do each Friday.  They ask the audience what they’re doing this weekend (a question we all ask our co-workers and friends on Fridays).  Through some phone screening, the best ones are aired and a few people, doing really interesting things, are brought back on Monday to hear how it went.  Don’t make this so hard – Friday shows can be gimmes if you focus on your fans.

Chris and the Crew, WPST, Trenton, NJ with the Carrot Snap Controversy

The moral of this story is that silly and frivolous wins.  In a world of seemingly always weighty topics, the sillier you are, the more the topic is retained sometimes.  Enter Chris and the Crew, WPST, Trenton, NJ.  Have you ever been to a grocery store and broken off part of a package of things because you didn’t need all of it?  Some stores let you do that.  Here’s the dumbest.  A person who can’t afford a full carrot in the produce aisle, so they break it in half.  Is that okay to do?  Chris, Gianna, and Joe chat about it with wildly opposing opinions (good) and then ask the audience to chime in (very good).  Here’s the set-up break along with phone calls.

Christine and Salt, WTIC-FM, Hartford with Christine’s Dental Visit

How personally deep can you go with listeners?  What are you willing to share to move the audience to care about you?  When we care about something, we think more deeply about it and want to be around it.  On Christine and Salt, WTIC-FM, Hartford, the audience has been part of a conversation about Christine’s cancer over the years.  Christine has been deep and open about her medical challenges and struggles and draws strength from those listeners rooting for her.  Her cancer is back.  It was found by her dental hygienist during a regular oral cleaning.  In this segment, she visited her hygienist to share the news and recorded all of it so we felt like we were in the dentist’s lobby as it was discussed.  This is immensely personal and powerful on so many levels.  Would you be open to doing this?

Foxx and Annie, CBS-FM, New York City with Wishing Myself a Happy Birthday

The more intimate and personable vibe your show has, the greater chance you have connecting with the audience and moving them to a primary goal – feeling like they know you.  Such is one of our objectives with Foxx and Annie, CBS-FM, New York City.  The show is relatively new, having taken over when the iconic Scott Shannon retired several months ago.  I normally hate the reading of birthdays on-air.  I think it’s irrelevant content no one else cares about.  But this one was different.  It’s a listener calling to wish himself a happy birthday.  In the process, it’s quite apparent he knows and loves the show.  Plus he’s fun and reveals himself, heightening that intimacy, which is an image transferred to the show.

AD and Chris, KSHE, St. Louis with the Stray Rescue Recap

Get involved in life, and find stories for your show.  In the process, show your humanity to connect with the audience.  Such is the case with AD and Chris, KSHE, St. Louis.  AD was out of town with his wife two weeks ago.  While out on a walk from their Airbnb, they found a dog on the highway disheveled, thin, and scared.  Our cause on this show is pets.  AD took to the dog and brought him back to their rental.  He and his wife cleaned up the dog and brought him back to St. Louis and turned him over to one of the many animal shelters we partner with to do our Pet Projects.  This on-going narrative has been content for the show.  Here’s a conversation he had with the shelter to get an update on their efforts to find a forever home for the dog.  Human and real.  You leave with an absolute sense of what AD’s all about as a person.  Show that to your audience and you’ll win.