Back when the Arnold Schwarzenegger scandal broke, Jim and Kim, on Fresh 102.7, New York, gathered some notorious cheaters (Arnold, John Edwards, Jesse James, and Tiger Woods) and asked their listeners to list them from most to least egregious. One of the easiest things to do on a show to create some dimension inside breaks is get listeners to play along with you. In their novel idea called “Stack the Cheaters”, they did just that.
Nothing is better than when you take one of the hottest topics out there and create humor by doing something unique around it. Eddie and JoBo, on K-HITS, Chicago, are legends in the market. These guys are really funny and relevant. Here’s a call they made back when Prince William got married. They called another church in London as representatives, looking to change the venue due to too much media exposure. About halfway through, the woman at the church starts to get the joke.
Back when the Bruins were in the hunt for the Stanley Cup, Karson and Kennedy at MIX 104.1, Boston got an interview with their play-by-play announcer. Not uncommon, right? The goal of an interview is to do stuff inside it for the person least interested in the topic. In this one, the show gets him to bring them inside various aspects of the team, landing as him being authentic and real by revealing himself, too. This is a pretty good interview, geared at all their audiences – those who cared about the Cup and those who didn’t.
What happens when you’re grounded for the summer? The best radio is a reflection of real life. Nick is an 11-year old kid in Detroit who got grounded for the summer. Following the drama (something reality TV shows do quite well) is very memorable and fun. That’s why Mojo in the Morning on Channel 95.5, Detroit “adopted” Nick and is following his exploits.
A guy friend of newsman Bill Tafrow is being “domesticated” by his fiance. His buddy’s walls have been painted peach and he’s upset about that. Which is why Michael and Tiffany, B101, Philadelphia’s morning show, decided to have a “mantervention”. They called Bill’s friend so Bill could confront him about how he’s changed. The first break below is the “mantervention”. The second is the fiance calling to defend herself.
Here is a terrific break showing how to do character development. Karson, from Karson & Kennedy on MIX 104.1, Boston, had to call the cops because his daughter was getting harassed on Facebook. Character stories must have three elements: the ability for listeners to see themselves in the story, a bold point of conflict, and strong emotions connected with the story. This had all three.
A couple of weeks ago when Oprah was going off TV, Jimmy and Yvonne at DAVE-FM, Atlanta decided to find a guy listener who wanted to watch Oprah’s last show live instead of from his DVR later that evening. So they called the guy’s female boss to get him out of work early that do. Very quirky and creative.
Here’s a fun and dark way to involve listeners in the upcoming execution of an inmate that might work on a male-targeted morning show. It’s called the Death Row Inmate Game. Karslon & McKenzie at WZLX, Boston describe the inmate and give listeners a shot at guessing an item in his last meal to win a prize. The approach adds dimension and emotion to the conversation and builds anticipation to hear the actual meal he’s chosen as his last.
Facebook is being used by all demos now, which is why we got into a conversation about it on Tiffany & Michael’s morning show on B101, Philadelphia. Specifically, news guy Bill Tafrow was bothered by the fact that an ex-girlfriend had de-friended him on Facebook. So, the only course of action was to get her on the show to find out why she did that.
Last month on Karson & Kennedy on MIX 104.1, Boston, we did “The Race to 1K” where we challenged the two co-hosts to spend the month meeting listeners. The first to meet 1000 listeners won. This was another effort to get our team out in public and to generate lots of local content for the show through the audio they got during visits with listeners. Here’s one break which showed how much fun they had when they went out.