WWFS Use of Street Audio at Holiday Party
Here are three very simple examples on how the use of audio can help make a break come alive. Jim and Kim, FRESH 102.7, New York’s morning team, knew the CBS office holiday party was coming up. Instead of just talking about Christmas parties, they brought listeners there in these three very short examples below. In the first, they walked around the building asking CBS employees what not to do at a holiday party (they knew they’d get stories based on previous gatherings). In the next two, they went to the party, waited until a certain amount of alcohol was had, then went around and asked employees what they were worth. Always have something to record with wherever you go. Bringing listeners to the event (verses just talking about it) always works better.
Each year at this time, Karlson & McKenzie, WZLX, Boston, do “Scared Straight Santa”. They take calls from moms whose kids are acting up. Pete McKenzie then calls the kid back as Santa to check on them and then gets the kid to promise to his mom on the phone to behave until Christmas. The best things about this are that it’s not dirty and women fall in love with it.
J and Julian, mornings on B96 Chicago, recently got into an on-air conversation about how parents sometimes dash the dreams of their children. Julian said that he always wanted to be an MTV DJ but his mom discouraged it. Why? Take a listen to this audio of the morning show on with Julian’s mom. After she admits to the listeners why Julian wouldn’t make a good TV personality, know that listeners all feel something for Julian. This is great character development.
How hard is this? Kim Kardashian announces she wants a divorce after 72 days to Kris Humphries. So Kyle and Rachel, Radio Now, Indianapolis, ask cute eight year olds to give her some advice. Yes, some of this was fed to them, but the audience is probably laughing hearing it so, goal served!
Recently, Producer Blaire on the Tiffany and Michael Morning Show on B101 Philadelphia went grocery shopping. As she loaded her groceries into the car, she noticed that a shopper had accidentally left a case of water in the bottom of her cart. Instead of bringing it back into the store, she decided it was up for grabs, so she took it. Which lead to the moral dilemma “did Producer Blaire steal.” Unbeknownst to Blaire, amongst the calls we decided to take from listeners to comment, we set up a call from someone who’d claim that it was her water just to see how she’d react. The fun prank led to a great reaction when Blaire figured out it was a set up.
Boston is long known for it’s cynical, always complaining residents. Which is why we developed a new feature for Karson & Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston called “Enough Already”. This is where listeners come on to complain about the topic they’ve heard too much about lately, then exclaim “enough already”. We purposely screen out those calls about traffic (because that’s all we’d get) and end up with this fun!
Here is a break perfectly designed for PPM. In an on-air chat in September, John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego, were talking about helping their kids buy school supplies. John never really lived up to expectations, according to his wife. So she called into the show to comment. This is not only excellent character development, what they get done to entertain the audience in less than three minutes is amazing – John’s wife and listeners participating to create dimension around the topic to have fun.
For the record, I am not a big fan of Hollywood reports. I’ve just seen too many listeners comment on how the information is ripped off from TMZ or Perez Hilton’s website (whether it’s true or not, that’s their general perception). The goal of a show’s Hollywood report should not be to convey information (especially information any listener can now get on their smart phone), but to entertain the audience. Here’s Steve Kemble, America’s sassiest lifestyle guru on KVIL, Dallas’s Gene and Julie. Steve is a howl – it’s not the stories Steve covers, but how he covers them (total fun) that makes listeners want to come back the next day for more!