Virtually all radio stations depend on a big morning show to set the pace for listening all day.  We coined this expression: “How goes the morning, so goes the day.”  In other words, hook them early with great content, and they’re more likely to stick around all day.  But creating morning show content is as tricky as making a Frappuccino.

Time restrictions require each word to be weighed. If the material doesn’t hit the core audience’s interests, it’s a sure miss.  If the talent isn’t interested in the content, it will usually fall short.  How do you sculpt the morning show’s content? 

Know Your Target

Your chances of scoring a big hit are best with material that targets your audience’s interests.  A Sports or Rock host can talk about chick flick movies but in a totally different way than an AC talent. Hip-hop likely escapes the understanding of adults who listen to Country or Classic Rock.  Carefully edit material from national show prep services.  Your audience doesn’t have to know where the story originates from.  Localize these stories for greater relatability. Choose stories that offer the greatest connective tissue with your local listener. 

Edit for Morning Radio

Think in seconds to make your point. The science is clear: The first eight seconds out of music will determine whether you continue to hold attention. Otherwise, listeners may tune out or fire up their blow dryer … and you lose.  After a catchy opening line, hit one or two salient facts and close the bit.  Save the longer time spans for those special moments that hit emotional buttons.

Placement for Audience Cycles

Some talents think listeners are with them for their entire show.  This is especially false in the morning, where each listening occasion is about ten to twenty minutes if you’re really good. Benchmarks and promotions need multiple mentions.  The morning show has several different tune-ins daily, supporting more frequent and effective teases.

Plan on one big benchmark an hour, and a great bit can be reused again an hour or two later in the show.  Study listener usage and work on the science of planning and executing a great show.

Show Prep Questions

These will help get your morning talent off to a good start in preparing for their show:

1. What local event will affect the most listeners?

2. What is everybody in town talking about?

3. What’s today’s big news story – “the big event”?

4. What kind of day is it? How will the weather affect the audience?

5. What is my audience doing right now?

6. What’s the hottest new movie?

7. What TV/streaming show or podcast is your audience most interested in?

8. What has a listener said to me recently?

Pic designed by VecStock for Freepik.com.

John Lund is President of the Lund Media Group, a radio programming consulting firm with specialists in all mainstream radio formats. Did you find this article useful?  You can leave a comment below or email John at John@Lundradio.com.