There are over 120,000 apps now available in Apple’s App Store. A quick, fun game is called “There’s An App for That”. Find some of the quirkier apps available in the store and make up some. Tell the listener the name of the app and what it does. They have to determine if it’s a real app. Three of five right and you have a winner. For instance: “Stachtastic” is an app that’ll put a mustache on any picture in your iPhone. Is that a real app?
While this feature isn’t necessarily fun, it will resonate with many audiences. With so many people sensing so many bad things are happening in the world, do “Good News”. Syndicated country show Tony & Kris out of Nashville do this a couple times a week and it helps them connect with the audience and communicate they share the same values as the listeners. They take a couple of calls from listeners who tell them about something good going on in their life. There might be moments for humor, but celebrating good things going on in listeners’ lives helps position the show as wanting to raise up the little guy.
As American Idol winds down, here’s a fun game you can play for its last few weeks called “Can They Sing or Will They Suck?” As played by The Scotty Show at Radio NOW in Indianapolis, go grab four callers. Caller one must guess, after a little Q&A with each of the other three, if they can sing or if they’ll suck. Give each of the three others a simple song everyone knows (i.e. Happy Birthday, The Sound of Music, Somewhere Over the Rainbow) so they’re not stumped coming up with a tune. If your contestant gets two of three right, they win something. It’s the show cast who determines if the prediction was right or wrong!
With Mother’s Day about a week away, you can never go wrong with kids. Go get some kids doing one of two things: either ask them to mimic their mother when she’s angry. Or, get kids to say typical motherly things (i.e. “if you go out in this cold, take a jacket,” or “just wait until your father comes home”). For starter audio of the “momilies” (kids saying things like their mothers), e-mail me here and I can send you an audio file with a dozen or so to start with!
With American Idol and GLEE being big buzz shows, form your own group to entertain the audience. It’s called “The Smoker’s Choir”. It’s as simple as it sounds. Find listeners who smoke and put together your own singing group. They can perform at show remotes, you can play your own version of “Name That Tune” with them, or any other idea that requires singing. This is one way to parody these big TV shows and find local listeners who can be characters on the program to create laughter around as well.
Everyone’s talking about KFC’s new Double Down (this is the bunless sandwich). Go grab four of them for each show member. The challenge? Each person on the show must finish their four within an hour. The last person to finish all their Double Downs must go to the closest KFC and buy the first 50 people who come by that sandwich. You can position this as though the losing show member must spend their own money even though the it comes out of promotions.
Gene and Julie in Dallas do a great feature called “Long Lost Loves”. Listeners of a certain age sometimes wonder whatever happened to someone from their past. Maybe an ex-boyfriend from college, a teacher who had an impact on them, or a boss they had when they were a kid. A listener comes on each Friday and talks about the person they’re wondering about. The show’s private eye then pokes around to find out how that person’s life has turned out. He returns on Monday’s show to tell the listener. This works with a great listener, solid memories of a person, and a private eye who has to be a terrific storyteller. It’s captivating radio.
If you record in-studio celebrity interviews after the show for air the next day (when they’re in town), here’s an easy idea that’ll help you push audience from one hour to the next. After you record the celebrity in the production studio, have them also cut a short phone call with you, too, to say they’re in town asking if they can stop by to say hello or that they’re headed in and to ask if you want them to stop and pick up some McDonalds. Then, schedule the interview in a later hour of the show, but air the recorded “call” earlier to push audience to hear it.
Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian just broke up – they say they’re staying friends. Invite listeners to call you up, name an ex, and tell you the story about why they broke up. You have to guess if today, they’re “Friends or Foes”.
How about finding a senior citizen and having them read all of those salacious, exceptionally inappropriate text messages Tiger Woods sent one of his mistresses? The marriage of opposites (a senior citizen and sex texts) works. If you can’t find a senior citizen (or that doesn’t work for you), find another “opposite” to do it to create the disparity for humor!