You know what might be cool? Get into the Labor Day Weekend talking with women who are expecting to have babies in the next few weeks. It could be a cool phone topic then maybe aggregate that entire list and, for those who actually give birth at local hospitals over the holiday weekend, read the entire list on your Tuesday show when back from the break
Do some research online of some old time diseases that no longer exist. Grab the symptoms, then share them with the audience. First to identify the now eradicated disease wins your prize.
Looking for a substantive early show break to engage the audience and create an appointment? Fresh Out of Bed Head to Head is a trivia game pitting two listeners against each other in a vicarious break to create tune in. Rod Ryan, 94.5 The Buzz, Houston does this each morning with great success – thanks for the idea.
It’s the middle of summer. We’re living for air conditioning. And there are listeners who’s HVAC units aren’t working. Never more than now, they need the HVAC guy to show at the house to fix it. Get that emotion on your show by talking to those folks. Then, connect with an HVAC guy – they have a ton of great stories to tell, given they go to people’s homes! Call it I Know an HVAC Guy.
What might be fun is to choose a cast member and send them on a weekend Phone Fast. This is where they go old school – they give up their phone for an entire weekend to see what it’s like. Choose the cast member on your Friday show and ask a couple of listeners to do it with them, too. Then all gather Monday on the show to talk about what it was like to have a weekend without technology.
If you have a nice heatwave come across your market, do Hey Can I Do a Belly Flop? Ask listeners who have pools to let one cast member come to their house during the show. The cast member does a belly flop into the pool during the show to cool off. It’s great audio for the show, super local, and will provide terrific visuals for a bunch of videos you can push out on your socials. Thanks to Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh for the idea!
Ask any seasoned traveling and they’ll tell you that they hate airports in July. Mainly because it’s when families, who have little experience with the TSA, fly for vacation. Find a bunch of TSA agents (or ex-TSA agents) in your market to school them. TSA agents also have great stories from things they’ve seen. All terrific content.
See if you can get your hands on a mannequin and some fireworks. Then, partner with a local fire department, strap those bad boys on the mannequin, and prove how dangerous fireworks can be for the July Fourth holiday. It’d make a great video for your socials.
Wanna do some deeper character development over the summer? Put some personal questions together and spin the big wheel to choose a cast member on the show. They pull three very personal questions out of the hat and sit in the Overshare Chair to reveal more of themselves to fans.
With kids off from school, let’s put them to work over the summer with the new feature Here Now the News. In place of a newscast, bring a cute kid on and have them explain a serious news item to you. What do they know? How would they frame it? Cast kid reporters then go tackle a serious news item.