Of Course I'm Going to Have A Great Show Monday: 20 Relatives Are Coming Over for Thanksgiving Dinner

It's going to be one of the most asked questions Monday: "How was your Thanksgiving?"

The majority of answers will be mundane - hardly show-worthy material. Yet there is a rich source of content that you can tap into simply by showing up for dinner.

A Pew Research Center Report from 2 years ago estimated that 89% of adults would be having dinner with family members present. 60% would have at least 10 family members at the table while a whopping 27% said there would be 20 or more relatives sharing the stuffing.

Get that many relatives in a room and with just a slight bit of exaggeration and embellishment you can expect to have more material than you can use. You simply have to be listening and watching for it.

That's the key.

A couple of years ago talent coach Tommy Kramer and I did one of those "50 ideas in 50 minutes" panels at the Conclave. Part of the presentation included video tips that some great talent around the country created for us.

One came from B96/Chicago's J & Julian who talked about the value of listening to each other as a way of finding content ideas.

That's good advice for family gatherings, too.

Thanksgiving leftovers can make Monday's show one of your best all year.

And we haven't gotten to Black Friday content yet.

For Better Content, Treat Ideas like Runners in Scoring Position

“Runners left in scoring position” is one of those “relative” baseball stats.

If a team scores a lot of runs and wins big, RLISP (runners who were on second or third base and in a position to score but did not) is an afterthought. But if the game is tight or the team loses by a couple of runs, the number of runners who had the potential to score but didn't takes on more significance.

At its core, RLISP is a measure of missed opportunities, of something that began with great promise but was not brought to its ultimate conclusion. 

A lot of shows stumble with their own version of RLISP: good ideas that don’t get sufficiently developed and simply remain “in scoring position.”

To more get more interesting, unique and fully developed content, try this 3-step, “brainstorm your brainstorming” technique. We did this last week with a room full of morning shows but you can absolutely do this by yourself with great results.

First, we brainstormed the big topics:  things we believed listeners are or were going to be doing or talking about, things that are now - or would in the near future be - impacting listeners' lives, and things the group had heard or experienced that they felt listeners would find interesting. We wrote all the ideas down without judging. The first round is about quantity not quality.

Next we choose one topic from our list that the teams felt had the best potential and did a second round of brainstorming, this time on all the different ways the topic could be approached. Again, we wrote down all the different perspectives, angles, or “takes.”

Here’s what we came up with for our big topic: “school reopens next week.”

Lastly from this list we chose the three approaches the teams believed would be the most fun/entertaining to listen to, that provided a showcase for each player on the show, that we could do stellar execution on, and that offered opportunities for listener engagement and participation.  Then we brainstormed how we’d execute each with the goal of presenting the big topic three times over the course of the show, but each time from a different angle.

“Schools reopen” put the idea on base. 

Brainstorming the treatments put the idea into “scoring position.” 

Brainstorming the execution drove the idea home.

Your content will be richer if you approach your good ideas as if they were simply in scoring position and it was up to you to keep batting (developing and enhancing) until you brought them all the way home.

A Cure for "Talking Without Saying Anything"

It’s all too common to hear shows or stretches of shows where the talent doesn’t say anything of consequence. 

Sure, they may tell me about a blood drive, where to go to sign up for a contest, or how to listen online (BTW, do I really need instructions for that?). But none of this is why I tuned in. In fact, from a non-musical standpoint, it's the opposite of why I tuned in.

I recall a blog from my partner Jaye that included this quote from the late Jay Trachman about the consequences of non-connective talk as a substitute for content: 

"Ultimately, a survey-taker comes along and asks people what they like least about the station, and they'll reply, "The DJs talk too much!" They don't talk too much - they don't say anything worth hearing!

Back in February when Albright &O'Malley presented Roadmap 2012 (our annual online perceptual study), we noted again the importance of the connection between the country audience and the talent. In fact, mood enhancement ("makes me feel good when I listen") and talent were second only to music quality in station appeal.

Jacobs Media’sTechsurvey8 found similar results for radio overall as well as for country fans.

So what's required of a skilled conversationalist? How about:

• Well-informed
• Sympathetic
• Interested in life
• Has a sense of the dramatic
• Moderate
• Can draw out the other person
• Attentive
• Always in good humour
• Has a sense of proportion
• Doesn't preach
• Doesn't take himself too seriously
• Not argumentative
• Original
• Broad-minded
• Charitable
• Unselfish
• Considerate
• Flexible
• Poised
• Enthusiastic
• A trifle whimsical

This isn't my list, it's Milton Wright's. He wrote this in “The Art of Conversation” ... in 1936.

We could argue over some of these of course, but for the most part, these comprise a pretty good skill set if your goal is connecting with listeners - or just being a good conversationalist. 

Try putting three of Milton's qualities together like "interested in life," "original" and "sense of the dramatic." Or "well-informed," "a sense of proportion" and "a trifle whimsical."

What an antidote for "talks too much while not saying anything."

  

Fall Rituals: Raking and Writing

Fresh, fun, topical imaging on your station stands out like a just-raked yard in fall. And this time of the year provides plenty of opportunities for writing (and raking).

What will you write for: Halloween, Election Day, the change from Daylight Savings Time, Veterans’ Day/Remembrance Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve/Day?

Plus weekend chores, 4th quarter movie releases, and likely a number of local events.

Put a stationality spin on your writing, have fun, attract attention. Sound real and listener-focused. Communicate core values. Be brief, sincere and creative.

Just don’t miss the opportunity.

Like THIS for Example

Sometimes a good example is the best way to make your point.

That was what Jon Robbins, Operations Manager/Adventure Radio Group/Savannah thought when he used a Mediabase monitor to issue a “What content do you have planned for Monday’s show?” challenge to his morning shows.

Jon told me, “I saw (the WMJI/Cleveland show highlights) on Mediabase and thought WOW, look at all this great ‘compelling’ content that this show covered in ONE morning. I wished that I had listened – this makes me want to listen – so I decided to share with my Morning guys and ask them what do they have planned for Monday? Cause this is what it will take to get to #1 like John Lanigan.”

Here’s the content Jon shared:

* A new study shows that one in 10 residents of New York City have bedbugs.

* Hosts discussed details of the recent news story about three Florida kids, ages 15, 13, and 11, who saved their babysitting money, bought airline tickets and flew Southwest Airlines to Nashville, Tennessee to visit Dollywood, which is actually in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

* A 27 year-old London man parked illegally and found his car “clamped” and was ordered by police to pay the fine and the towing fee, even though the car had not yet been towed. So, knowing they wouldn’t tow the car with a passenger in it, he sat inside the vehicle for the next 30 hours.

* LeBron James was on the cover of “GQ” magazine, and in the interview, spoke about a city rivalry between Akron and Cleveland.

* A couple who went on vacation is suing their realtor for using their house and their possessions while they were gone for “unauthorized sexual escapades,” resulting in stained sheets, furniture, carpets and other surfaces. Century 21 paid $7,000 in repairs, and the agent was fired.

* President Obama was scheduled to come to Columbus on monitor day to encourage voters “not to give in to fear.”

* Hosts discussed the latest round of political commercials, specifically, Ohio state politicians.

* The trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich had ended with the jury deadlocked on 23 counts. He was found guilty on one count of lying to the FBI. Blagojevich was planning to appeal the conviction and the state was planning to retry him on the other 23 counts.

* The West Wing of the White House is currently covered in a white tarp. Hosts wondered what was going on under there.

* President Obama’s approval rating has dropped to 44%, the lowest of his presidency so far.

* A twice-convicted murderer has been turned down for parole again, after letters surfaced that he had written to the family of the people he murdered, detailing how he would kill them too as soon as he was released.

* A listener poll was underway on the station’s web site. Listeners were asked to visit the site and answer this question: “Who would you rather see back in Cleveland first, Art Modell or LeBron James?” Hosts discussed each of the men.

* John read several listener emails, one from a Cleveland listener who moved to San Diego and now listens online. Other emails referenced topics of conversation from earlier in the current Morning Show.

* Hosts discussed several of the newer TV shows, such as “Hot In Cleveland,” and “Rubicon.”

* A bicyclist was seen, wearing nothing but a helmet. Police want to know his identity.

* Laurie read several listener emails regarding the Florida kids who flew to Nashville, with various responses.

* A “Newsweek” article, “The Best Countries in the World,” lists the Top 10 countries in which to live as: #1 Finland, #2 Switzerland, #3 Sweden, #4 Australia, #5 Luxembourg, #6 Norway, #7 Canada, #8 The Netherlands, #9 Japan, and #10 Denmark.

Mmmm...talk-abouts

Gotta give it to Ben and Jerry’s. They’ve turned one talk-about into two, and in so doing, made themselves the center of attention.

Ben and Jerry’s will introduce a special donut flavored ice cream in honor of the Simpson’s movie that premieres this month. But don’t look for it in your store. The company says it’s only going to be out for one day and will only be available in one town (Springfield, VT).

As a talk-about, this is brilliant. And apparently the effort and expense in capturing the moment – and reaping the resulting publicity – are worth it to the company.

How much easier it is for us to capture the moment! We don’t have to mobilize a workforce to re-tool a factory in order to produce our consumable product. We just have to imagine it and talk about it.

When we talk about what others are talking about in a unique, creative, fun, interesting and interactive way, we create a sense of community where we’re talked about, too.

Of course the Simpson’s movie won’t be everyone’s biggest talk-about (although donuts and ice cream in the summer have a pretty universal appeal).

Besides, the real value of talk-abouts may be less about being “in the moment” and more about creating, on a daily basis, opportunities for listeners to feel connected to us and to each other.

Opportunistic talent find solid talk-abouts every day – from big ones like the release of the final Harry Potter book to little ones like a hometown hero, road construction, unusual weather, or the first day of school.

Want more people talking about you? Add a pint of Carpe Diem to your show (as well as to your imaging and contesting) on a daily basis. Pass out spoons to listeners and let them dig in.

Mmmm…good radio.