So many people think they can multi-task. How often have you been texting someone when someone else is talking with you and you hear nothing? Put someone on the show to the test. Have them start texting their friends as you play a 60-second portion of an audio book (for all to hear). Once done, ask them about the part of the book you played to see what they retained while texting.
With Dos Equis retiring the Most Interesting Man in the World character, go find The Most Interesting Man in (Your City) as a promotion. Listeners call and have ten-seconds to convince you why it’s them (yes, it must be a man, not a woman). If they engage you in ten-seconds, learn more. At the end of the week, have your panel of judges crown your winner. Bring them in to award them a scepter and crown, as well as a year’s supply of Dos Equis.
With baseball’s spring training going on now, take the least athletic person on your show to a local batting cage to see how they do. Remember audio for the show and video for social media. Marrying the person who knows nothing about sports to the challenge is great conflict to create some topical humor.
On Monday morning you can roll down the list of winners at the Academy Awards (snoozefest – no one has heard of these movies) or you can play a fun game called “Oscar Impostor” where you give the listener the name of a blockbuster and they must tell you if it won an Oscar when it came out or if it’s an impostor.
Cue the reverb for a new feature: “A Two-Year Old Asks the World!” Know all the non-stop questioning that accompanies every two-year old? How much did they pay for the Death Star in Star Wars? Why is milk white? Where does gas come from? Find an inquisitive two-year old, and tape a slew of these questions. Then play one each time you do this feature, either opening the phones for answers or (better) get an expert on to answer it (like a scientist to tell everyone why milk is white).
Here’s a new Monday feature for the show which highlights the manly things some men do over the weekend. “Climbing Macho Mountain” is a phone-oriented idea soliciting stories from both male and female callers on the manly things guys did over the weekend which proves they have testosterone.
The Grammy Awards are on Monday, February 15. It’s always fun to bring opposites together. Gather the grandmothers of the cast as well as those of some listeners and pit them against each other in a fun contest to see which grammy knows the artists and groups who will be up for The Grammy’s.
Every iconic Super Bowl commercial for the last fifty years can be found online. Grab the biggest, most memorable ones and edit out the name of the product (if in the commercial). Through the week leading up to Sunday’s game, play one and see if your audience can remember what product it was for.
Listeners like to chime in on dilemmas that face the show. A cast member tells the audience that their spouse wants to have a Super Bowl party in a couple of weeks but that they don’t want to. The cast member then says that they told their partner they will but want to tell the invitees that it’ll be a half of a Super Bowl party. Basically telling those who come that they’ll need to leave at (or after) halftime. The audience can share if this is appropriate and you can even find an etiquette expert who can comment on it, too.
Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA, do a weekly feature that’s very strategic to developing the characters of their on-air cast called “Know the Show”. It’s an old feature that’s been done several different ways. They get one listener on and say one sentence that applies to a show member (i.e. this person graduated from Berkley, this person’s parents live in Canada, this character just got a dog). The listener must match up the sentence with the person. Do this feature and you’ll know how much the caller has retained about the personal stories you’ve told on-the-air.