Bill's Talk Radio Pet Peeves
Promoting Calls Coming Up
I never want to hear us going into a break saying, "Mike, Joyce and Ed hang in there, we'll get to your calls next". As a listener, I don't care that we'll hear from them; I want a reason to stay through the break. A more effective way to tease is promote what they want to talk about. For example; "More on how to get rid of Obama Care with your calls are coming up. Don't go away".
Opening The Show/Hour with Headlines
You should never open the show with news headlines because you are probably repeating what the listener just heard. Don't start with "The Senate is preparing to debate don't ask don't tell". Open with; "I want to talk about don't ask don't tell. As you just heard in the news update..." Give us your opinion, not a repeat of the headline.
Setting Benchmarks/Destination Programming
There is nothing more frustrating to a listener than having to guess when a guest, interview/feature/bit will be heard. Imagine CBS running a promo for the next episode for Survivor, but they don't tell you when it will be broadcast. Guess what, listeners don't want to and won't work that hard to figure out when something is on. We have to make it super easy for the listener.
Forward Promote
We should forward promote before going into every single break. No exceptions. Each tease should include a pay-off or benefit (I'm going to tell you exactly how Obama Care is going to ruin this country), a specific time when bringing on a guest (coming up in 20 minutes, Senator Bob Corker will join us to talk about what lays ahead for the GOP). And don't be afraid to script this out. It can be difficult in the middle of the show to come up with strong forward promote. You know the guest is already booked and is scheduled to come on the show. Write some teases before hand to refer to later.
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