The Number Two Lead Pencil

School is back in session soon and every mom is shopping for their kid.  As school supplies are being purchased, we beg the question:  What’s so special about the number two lead pencil?  If it’s so important to test-taking, why isn’t it the number one lead pencil?  These and many other questions can be asked if you track down the maker of the Number Two pencil and ask them – we bet listeners will enjoy the memory and resolution to why that is the only pencil that mattered when we were in school.

The Kids Have a Meltdown

Have moms you work with who have kids at home call to see what they’re doing.  Then the mother starts giving the kid chores to do that day before she returns from work.  Record all of this after the show in the production studio – listen as the kid has a meltdown the longer the list gets.

The Platform for Kids

How about you talk to kids and ask them to put together a platform for a political party they could support.  You might have to seed the answers, but I would be looking for:  instead of one, there will now be four Halloweens a year so I get more candy.  My mother has to legally serve me ice cream after every dinner.  It’s a felony for my sister to talk after 6pm.  There will be no homework once school starts.

Summer School

School supplies are already in stores to be bought by parents.  Let’s help kids get ready to head back to learning by putting them to work.  Find a few fun kids and ask one each night next week and the week after, when the GOP and Democratic Conventions are on, to watch an hour of it each evening and write a 50-word book report on what they saw then come on the show the next morning to read it to the audience.

The Poorest Eater

No doubt that people lose their diets in the summer.  Here’s a weekend challenge for every member of the show:  keep a food diary of everything you eat over the course of the same weekend.  Have a dietician in on Monday to hear each person’s food diary so they can determine who the show’s Poorest Eater is.

Olympics Mini Profiles

With the summer Rio Olympics only weeks away, put together Olympics-like profiles for each cast member of the show for character development.  These need to be over-the-top profiles (like they run for the athletes) highlighting some kind of inane adversity you suffered as a kid enroute to your career in broadcasting.

I’m Naked and Thinking of You

I wonder how a friend of yours would react if you called to check on them and said, at the top of the conversation, “I’m naked and thinking of you so I thought I’d call.”  Or if you called your folks and confided in your mother, “I’m not sure you know, but I tinkle when I laugh.”  Totally silly, and if you share with the audience what you’ll be telling the person you’re calling, they’ll lean in to hear the reaction.

The Short Term Memory Game

If you have a prize to give out and are looking for a fun thing to do that keeps listeners paying attention, play “The Short Term Memory Game”.  Conduct a break (say, an interview around a topic).  At the end of the break, launch the game and ask a question about something that was said.  The correct caller with the right answer wins your prize and proves they were listening closely to what you were doing.  Thanks to The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati for this idea.

Your Grandparents Have Talent

An 82-year old man was singing heavy metal on “America’s Got Talent” last week.  Why not have a talent competition amongst the grandparents of your listeners in the last week of the TV show, just as it’s crowning its new champion?

The Pool Report

Time to tap into the lifestyle that is neighborhoods and the summer in “The Pool Report”.  Find kids at neighborhood pools and get them to contribute to the show (comment on the day’s news stories, talk about the summer and time off from school, gossip about their neighbors, etc.).  Kids are always in good moods at pools so you’ll get all that energy and enthusiasm on your show.