Back several years ago, average Americans would get raises on January 1. That hasn’t happened to lots of folks for years. Despite that, there’s no reason the morning show can’t help kids in this regard. Huh? Take calls from kids who feel like they deserve a raise in their weekly allowance. Then, conference call the kid with their parents and barter (negotiate) the kid getting more allowance, in return for doing more chores.
Less than two weeks away from Christmas, there are a group of people dreading the time as it winds down to the holiday: people who hate buying Christmas gifts or blow the chore off by grabbing a Whitman Sampler for those closest to them. Do a “Giftervention”. Have the offended party tell you a little about how bad a gift-buyer the person is, then call them to say so on-the-air! Then, have a personal shopping expert on the other line to help the confronted person buy a more appropriate gift!
“Did They Make It” is a simple, relationships-oriented game you can play. Listeners come on and tell you a brief (one or two sentence story) about something that once happened in a relationship they had (i.e. “my guy sat me down after we’d been together for three months and admitted that he once did jail time for drugs.”) and the show has to figure out if the relationship survived the story.
Games are good for morning shows, especially if other listeners can vicariously play along wherever they are. That’s the concept behind “Wheel of Fortune”. Viewers getting the puzzles while on their sofas before the contestants make it fun for everyone. That said, how about “Triple True or False”? Get a boatload of trivia questions and load up the phones. The winner is the first person who gets three correct in a row. Make them true/false so there’s a 50/50 chance they’ll get it right. You never repeat a question so if caller one gets only two right, the next caller gets new questions.
With the holidays upon us, a simple, but very effective character building bit is for the male co-host of the show to put his wife on the air so she can detail his list of things that need to be done around the house for the holidays. From cleaning to fixing things to anything else that needs to be done to prepare for visitors, this easy bit will position your guy as a regular Joe, who gets the same marching orders from his wife that listeners do. This, then, can morph into calls from female listeners who’ll detail the list they have for their guy. And you can be bold – find the guy of a female caller and obligate him publicly to the list, even checking back in a few days to see how he’s done. It’s real, and it’s real fun to eavesdrop on this kind of idea.
Lots of people go to Halloween parties. And lots of people hook up at Halloween parties. Have listeners call who’ve been lucky enough to experience such a thing and they must tell you the “character” of the person they slept with. Mojo in the Morning in Detroit did this – one person had gone to bed with Barack Obama, another did it with an Oompa Loompa, and one lucky guy romanced Barbara Bush last year!
Here’s a great character development bit called “Confessions of your Ex’s”. Each show member finds a former partner – they come on and admit something on the air about the show member. It’s vulnerable, revealing, and story-telling in a way that’ll define each person on the show and make them memorable!
Mid-August means back to school. How about identifying the station’s three biggest zip codes. Then, solicit for one mom in each of the zip codes who’ll come on the air once a week until school starts to tell you about the great deals she found on back to school items for her kids! The key here is to find fun moms who’ll help connect with the audience and create fun while detailing the deals she’s found.
This one is edgy! It’s called “Perp For Poetry”. Seems like all relationship-building happens now online. The female of your show posts a personal ad in a room of another city than the one you’re in on Craigslist. The ad states that your female is bored in her relationship and is looking for something discreet and quiet on the side. But, she says she’s not looking for a quickie as she is a romantic. In fact, to woo her, she asks any guy who’s also interested to write her some poetry to prove it. Post the ad in an unidentified city (so you’re not ratted out by listeners) on a Monday. Then read all the poetry you get on Friday’s show as it gathers during the week.
Here’s a new, recurring feature called “Mani/Pedi Theater”. Shows like to play clips from movies where listeners must guess the flic to win. It’s simple and, in PPM, it works. But something which is more fun, is to grab the script online of a famous scene from a famous movie and have it acted out by two of the people who work at a nail salon. Then listeners have to guess. The fun comes in how they act out the scene and in the production value you place against it.