Archive for category: Planet Reynolds

An actual conversation recently had with a talent:

Steve Reynolds:  “To make that idea ever bigger, why don’t we invite the sports guy from channel 4 to do a humorous play-by-play?”

Talent:  “He can’t come in when we’re on because he isn’t awake.”

Steve Reynolds:  “You’re right, because you said ‘can’t’.”

 

Can’t.  Won’t.  C’mon man, where’s the innovative spirit to make things happen?  The mindset that we can do anything?

There was a great news story a few weeks ago about Danny Cashman, who for years had a weekly TV talk show in the state of Maine.  After 15 years, he decided to end the program.  He wondered who he could have on as a guest who could best relate to walking away from a show like that.

So, he sent off a letter to David Letterman inviting him on.  And Letterman said yes.  The story is here and here.  Letterman’s appearance is here (it’s tons of fun – watch the reaction of the audience as he surprises them).  Cashman’s appearance to talk about it on Howard Stern’s show is here.  There was no “can’t” or “won’t” in Cashman’s vocabulary.

There’s an old story I’d heard years ago about JohnJay and Rich on KISS in Phoenix who wanted Oprah on their show.  The easy putt was to say that’d never happen and move on.  Throw some innovative problem solving to get to the goal and the can’t and won’t never appeared.  They found Oprah’s dad, interviewed him, sent the audio to Oprah who loved it so much that (wait for it)…she came on their show.

When I moved to Raleigh years ago, my partner and I decided we wanted to get the governor on, considering we are in the state capital.  We were two yahoos from the north and could never make that happen, right?  Let’s abandon the thought and read celebrity birthdays instead.  Nope.  I wrote a letter every month to his wife, inviting her on our show to promote any cause important to her.

Two years and 24 letters later, the call finally came.  Her PR person said they’d received all my letters and wondered if Mrs. Martin could come on to promote a benefit she was involved with.  What we found out was that Mrs. Martin and I had the same sense of humor.  Three guesses what eventually came?  We ended up getting the private phone number into the residence of the governor’s mansion and a treasure trove of ideas came alive, many with the governor, for two reasons:  we built the relationship and because “can’t” and “won’t” weren’t how we put the show together.

For radio to thrive and survive, we must be imaginative again with our content.  For my wonderful talent, on whose shoulders rest our relevance and success, shoot high and never, ever, ever, ever believe it’s not possible to get anything done without perseverance and imaginative problem solving.

Drop the ‘t and watch what you can do.

PS – remind me to tell you how we got the legendary Coach K on our show to talk about how the music of Barry White helped his romantic relationship with his wife.  Tapes still exist of that…

The next time you get on a plane, glance to your left before walking down the aisle to your seat.  Those two pilots, whether young or grizzled veterans, have one thing in common with every other pilot on every plane you’ll ever be on.

They have a flight plan to get you from here to there.  They know what time they’ll push back from the gate; when they’ll take the runway; the speed at which they’ll take off and if they will bank to the left or right; and the altitude the plane will fly.  Ditto on the landing.  Not much is left to chance because they have a plan.

Can we talk about prep?  I still run into shows that don’t do it. In a world where listeners are choice choked, too many options exist.  If what you’re doing isn’t working, they could tune out.

Hard to believe that the “we don’t need to prep because we just make the magic happen” crowd still exists.  Winging it is not a game plan and it will backfire on you.  When I ask some shows to explain their prep process, I sometimes get, “Oh, we’re texting each other all day.”  That sound you heard was Uncle Steve’s eyebrows going up in cynical enjoyment of an excuse I know isn’t true (and if true, isn’t effective).

Here are the six things every great show does that helps make your plane (every content break) get from here to there.  Six Step Show Prep:

1. Fill those content buckets. Work with me and know I want my shows to be about right now.  Right now in popular culture, right now in your market, right now in your life, and right now in your format.  What are the right topics in each of those areas that will resonate with your demo because they’re relevant and familiar?  I bet, on any given day, you have about twenty to choose from.  What are they?
2. The Know-Wonder Exercise. Read and research every one of those topics.  Your take defines your character.  What do you know about each of those topics, and what do you wonder?  The more curious you are, the more creative you will be in developing treatments and ideas that make your show something that can’t be found anywhere else.  This is the hard (but fun) part and something I’ve always felt is a group endeavor.  What will you do with any of those topics that move the break into something fun and unique so you’re memorable?  You really can’t figure this out on your own.
3. Figure out your Three Act Play.  Every story has one.  How will you get into this break?  That context and hook up front will help the audience understand the topic and conflict and make them lean in.  What happens in the middle that keeps them glued to your content – where are you going with all of this?  And what is the payoff?  I’m not suggesting breaks should be scripted.  But you must know these items so you don’t waste listeners time.  That helps each break have a flight plan to get the audience from here to there.
4. Forming the show’s game (flight) plan for tomorrow. Fill out a run sheet for the entire program.  Every break must be filled.  Is there balance in the topics and their treatments?  Is there a structure to the plan that everyone on the show knows so they can help get each break to its destination?  You always reserve the right to change a break, as long as the new content and its treatment are an upgrade.
5. Tease Me, Please Me. Write teases for every break.  Writing teases is an art.  Read all about that in Are Your Teases Google Proof.  Effective teases should be written the day before, once the content breaks are decided (and not on the fade of a song during the show).
6. Plan Past Tomorrow. Decide what you will do that day to get involved in your community and live a life that will generate new content for the program.  Work on ideas for things coming up over the next few weeks.  As I write this in April, I’m already working with shows on Mother’s Day content for May and graduations in June.

We don’t have much room left to fail in radio.  We’re around too many shiny objects that want our fans’ attention (podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, other shows, et al).  Not having a flight plan is a perilous decision.  So my tough love is let’s get at this so those tuning in don’t drift.

Before I jump, know that this blog was originally titled Twelve Step Show Prep.  But in a nod to shorter content breaks, I deleted half of them hoping the remaining six would mean more to you.

Now seat belts fastened, tray tables up, and prepare for arrival.

Go get it.

Which brings me to Facebook and an exchange I had with a morning talent about relevance and appearing tone deaf to the audience.

I was listening to a show in another market getting nailed with bad weather.  With snow falling, here’s the show’s content that morning:  hacks on how to vacuum your house better, a phone topic on what listeners think of Trump’s desire to get rid of pennies, Apple’s new iPhone, and how the dress Meghan Markle wore at a movie premiere only cost $455.  No shit.  What does any of that have to do with what that market was experiencing that morning?

That market was being hit with bad weather, and that’s what the show should have been about.  I noted it on Facebook (without naming names).  A morning guy in another market, wanting to support the show I was listening to, suggested the overused excuse I swat down every time a big topic appears and is not covered:  we didn’t do it because we’re the escape.

Consumers are not rational thinkers – we interact with a brand because of how it makes us feel.

You can see the exchange here.  Out of respect to that morning talent who challenged me with the escape excuse, I have redacted his name and market.

I didn’t suggest what they do with it (that’s up to you).  Howard can go off on gun control because he is very well-defined.  You probably can’t.  But nowhere is it written you can’t discuss something like that and reflect to listeners the sadness and grief they feel knowing the story.

In the bad weather topic noted here, you have options.  You could default to giving out info.  That’s bland, boring, and everywhere.  Or do what only you can do.  Maybe talk to kids who have an unexpected day off from school, making them promise to clean the house.  Convince a cast member’s kid to shovel driveways for $20.  Or talk to snowplow drivers who are cleaning the streets.  You figure out what fits your brand and create treatments to that big topic that reflects who you are and your sense of humor (if applicable).  The escape is the fun you create.

As a talent coach and someone who wants personalities to be the reason listeners turn on the radio, I need your fans waking up each day wondering what you think about everything.

If great radio is about Conquering Content and Creating Connection, we should be on whatever is big right now.  And if one big topic appears on any given day, it’s paramount to do stuff with it that fits you.  Ignore it at your own peril.

Your fans will not tune in to hear a show completely disconnected to the market or world.  Listeners will search for a show that’s relevant.  Being tone deaf to the moment because “we’re the escape” is a poor excuse that powers the success of a competitor who is.

The BLUF (bottom line up front):  Radio doesn’t have a listening problem.  It has a top-of-mind-awareness problem.  For whatever reasons (and there are many – looking at you corporate lawyers, over-worked brand managers who might be scared to take a chance, and morning talent who enjoy their comfort zones) much of what we do is met with a shrug of the shoulders by listeners.  It shows in our TSL

Why It Matters:  we compete against a zillion other things and when we’re deemed boring by listeners, they go in search of something else to stimulate them and keep their attention.  News flash:  their boredom meter flashes much sooner than ever.

In 2024, I had initiatives at two major market shows.  Our goal was to create big, gigantic, bold, edgy, noticeable radio past the standard fare many programs do every day.  We did this by focusing these efforts in prep.  We inserted ourselves into the topics of the day, and whatever was going on locally.  We took what might have been a banal and boring phone topic and created some larger narrative story arcs that lasted several days and had a conclusion listeners would talk about.  We also designed odd and quirky community service projects so we didn’t always default to just asking listeners for money.  We endeavored to be different and noisier to create intrigue and occasions.  We wanted to be more mischievous and imaginative.  We wanted to become memorable.

In short, we wanted to do epic shit with the right topics to stay top-of-mind with our fans, so they came back for more.

When I did mornings in Raleigh years ago, only one show across the street ever concerned me.  Those guys came in, guns blazing, looking to create talk.  They were quite successful and had an impact.

What was the last thing your show did to create noise?  And no, doing a 5-4-3-2-1 for tickets to see PINK doesn’t count.  Because this is, and always will be, about content and how you do it (it’s really about how you do it).  It’s not about what prize you have to give out (unless how you give it out is highly entertaining to those not trying to win it).  The two shows noted above succeeded.  Both ended 2024 with much higher ratings than they started.  That’s because we did things that captured the imagination of the audience, so they didn’t stray to check out something else.  Our infusion of innovation (in ways that fit both brands) worked because our fans feared missing out on what came next.

This Planet Reynolds’s title is inspired by a blog written recently by Fred Jacobs called Hey Radio:  Go Big or Go Home.  A commenter, Clark Smidt, used the phrase be bold or get cold.  Both are right.  So much radio is exactly like so much radio.  Everything is expected and a lot of it is unmemorable.

In case you’re an “if only” person and are thinking “if only we had the money to do stuff like that”, I’m sad to report that every idea we came up with for these two shows cost us exactly $0.  What it did take was a focus on a new goal, a team with a can-do attitude ready to work differently, an innovative spirit, and a supportive manager who knew where we were going and was ready to be a full partner.  But mostly it was about creating new things that captured the audience so they stayed.

Can you replicate that at your show or station?  If you can, you’ll reap the reward, too.  But if all we do is the same old, same old, we’ll continue to be in trouble.

Because if we keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll keep getting what we got.  Ain’t you tired of getting the same results?

The only sustainable advantage you’ll ever have over your competition is to out-innovate them.  What’s your game plan to do that?

The BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):  If not tended to strategically, brands can become cluttered, busy, and listening can be less satisfying.  It’s on us to clean that mess up so our fans have a good experience when they tune in.

Why It Matters:  Radio is fighting for every quarter hour.  There’s so much competition for ears and eyes, that if we don’t offer up a clean listening experience, the audience could leave.  Think of it like the backseat of a car.  One where you might find empty water bottles, Cheerios on the floor, empty McDonalds bags, and the jumper cables you used last month.  If that’s yours, clean it up and friends will wanna ride somewhere with you.

Let’s clean things up so listeners have pleasant and easy listening experiences.  In our last Planet Reynolds, we touched on several areas to do that – your plot, character development, the content you choose, and your benchmarks.  Find that here.

Let’s move on with new areas for strategic clean up conversations:

Show Imaging, Teases, and Promos:

• Is it time to update your show’s imaging? What’s the theme or core message?  Does the production value feel very 1980s?  Or does it reflect the vibe of today’s audience who abhor hype and hyperbole?
• When was the last time you had a teasing exercise? Find a few stories and write teases.  Wanna extend listening or compel an image there’s something to miss? Elevate your writing skills.
• Do you run promos outside the show? What’s their focus?  An image?  Or your signature feature so you continue to build equity for it?

Show Prep:

• Evaluate your entire show prep process. How can it change to get better content and better treatments of that content?  Prep should happen the day before a show when you’re at your most creative and have access to resources.  That’s when you come up with your best stuff.
• What will you do tomorrow to keep your fans from straying? New treatments to high equity topics help keep your P1s engaged.

Digital Efforts:

• Look at the last week of social posts. How many are the reason people engage you there?  Hint:  they always, always, always come for content.  Never try to coerce listeners to leave social media and turn you on.  It doesn’t work and you’ll become newsfeed clutter.  You grab them with content.
• What unique feature(s) can you do on social to accrue images so when they’re in the car (where most radio listening is done), they think of you?
• Lori Lewis is my go-to on social media. She’s super smart and was just interviewed in Barrett Media.  It’s worth the three minutes.  Read it here.

On the Streets:

• We don’t get out much any longer, mostly because everyone in radio is doing fourteen jobs. But those that do have an edge.
• Can you develop a year-long campaign to meet people in your market, so they give you a shot? Can the campaign be monetized by sales (you’ll be a hero)?
• Finally, go to where there are tons of people. Shaking hands for 30 minutes at places where there a lot of potential listeners has a much higher ROI than sitting at a Jiffy Lube on Saturday for two hours (no disrespect to Jiffy Lube!).

Okay, I’m tired of typing so let’s leave it there.  Hope the last two Planet Reynolds have helped you advance your game.  I’ll leave you with a fresh exercise to hear your content as the audience does.

Aircheck Roulette:

Ask someone not associated with your show to choose one 15-minute segment from any show last week.  Listen to the content done in that quarter hour and honestly answer these ten questions:

Were we local?  Were we on a Hot Topic?  Did we share our honest perspective?  Did we share a story about our lives that connected us to the typical listener?  Did we do something with the topic besides just chatter about it?  Did we leave listeners wishing the break had gone on longer?  Did we provide in the first 15 seconds a hook, so they leaned in to hear the rest?  Was there drama in the break to keep listeners engaged?  Was audio available around the topic and did we use it?  Was it fun?

The more yeses you get to the ten questions above, the more I’ll admire you.  Tell me about it (better yet, send me the audio) so I can revel in your epic-ness!

Doing some or all of this puts you in a growth mindset.  It ends up being addition by subtraction.  Clean stuff up, have strategic conversations in all these areas, and when listeners turn you on, their experience will be so rewarding they won’t leave or if they do, they’ll come back for more.

Go get it.