Morning show talent and programmers started arriving in San Diego last Wednesday for the 36th annual Morning Show Boot Camp, hosted by Talentmasters’ Don Anthony.
Thursday started off with Fred Jacobs presenting his findings of the Air Talent questionnaire and survey. This year’s questionnaire included information on AI, Tracking and compensation. This was followed up by 12 genius ways to use AI on your show. A panel including Phil Becker, Tracy Johnson and Andrew Scaglione agreed that if you embrace AI, it can enhance your show. Two of my favorite ideas from this panel are Claus and Effect Radio. In other words, Santa becomes a personality on your stations with unexpected and outrageous comments to otherwise innocent questions. Santas comments are generated by AI with a clever prompt. It’s a new take on how to compete with the big Christmas station in the market. The other idea that caught my ear was “Beat Chat GPT”. Think along the lines of bar trivia or Beat Shazam. Invite listeners to Beat Chat GPT.
After lunch, Iheart’s Dennis Clark went one on one with Bobby Bones. Bobby talked about the passion he had for the industry before his move to Nashville 10 years ago. He commented on how important it is to maintain that passion throughout your career. Bones said you need to find a solution to a problem and then offer that solution to others, kind of like Mason does with Liveline and Top 40 stations.
The day wrapped up with Battle of the Bits. Attendees submitted their best bits of the year and judges selected their favorites. Additionally, another 10 bits were submitted during the session by those in attendance. Those in attendance were able to cast a ballot for their favorite bit by using the Text Groove polling feature that is designed to give listeners the opportunity to vote on polls within your show. One that stood out to me for creativity on air and social was a bit called “Prison Hacks”. The talent shares ideas she has learned from people she knows that have spent time in jail and the station also accepts calls from people at the local prison listening to the station. The prison hack she shared last week was how to use tampons as hair curlers.
Friday was a busy day, starting with a marketing workshop on leveraging community engagement, social media and developing innovative strategies on a minimal budget to develop brand awareness.
The final session of the event was titled Managing Your Mental Wellbeing. Panelists offered their take on how to stay focused and make time for yourself. One panelist said he’s found 10 minutes of meditation, daily has been helpful. Another shared the trauma and PTSD he has dealt with for many years and offered suggestions on ways to change the way you handle stress. Suggestions included finding a new hobby or interest, getting outdoors more, meditation, yoga, improving sleep habits, making time for exercise, avoiding multi-tasking and developing a concentration workout.
For the second year in a row, Saturday morning found a large number of the women attending the Women’s Brunch, presented by the Alliance for Women in Media.
This year, all questions from the audience could be submitted to the panelists by texting a special Text Groove text line.
Overall, it was another successful MSBC. Can’t wait for next year!