Make Your Morning Show Great

Prep can make the morning show run smoothly and help it sound perfect on the air! Follow Lund’s tips to improve the morning show:

1. Embrace Vertical Teasing (promote the next quarter hour’s content) and Horizontal Teasing (promote the next show) each hour of the morning show.
2. Compile and utilize a panel of “experts” you can source for on-air interaction requiring their expertise, like a movie critic, foodie, Hollywood celebrity gossip, dating expert, concert booking agent, social media expert, fashion expert, etc.
3. Use audio from current newsmakers, TV shows, movies, YouTube, etc., to enhance content and teases.
4. Brand the morning show throughout the entire show; use clips from previous shows to reinforce the brand.
5. Produce an entertaining morning show promo to run every hour after the show ends.  Be sure to include the time when the show begins and the specific times when promoting a specific feature.  Avoid the generic or risk being “audio wallpaper.”
6. The station name and positioning statement are heard often throughout each hour. The name is used in conjunction with memorable bits or features and station promotions and is always attached to station features to take ownership. Constantly brand the morning show to gain listening for another morning; this adds to TSL.
7. Time checks and weather reports fit audience needs in morning drive. Weather can be as brief as the few words describing what will happen today, but always said in the language of the listener, not meteorologist wording. Tie your time checks to the listener’s lifestyle, like getting up, taking a shower, getting dressed, preparing/eating breakfast, taking the kids to school, driving to work, arriving at work, etc.
8. Teases and promos that air in the morning drive specifically sell the benefits of continued listening so the larger morning audience is “recycled” to other dayparts. Tease vertically (what’s coming up in the next 10 minutes) and horizontally (what’s coming up in the next morning show).
9. The morning show must sound so in tune with the market that it couldn’t be rebroadcast in another town or state. It is interesting and memorable, and it is mandatory listening every day.
10. Contestants and callers are handled in a positive, entertaining, and succinct fashion. Fun listener interactive bits are well-planned and executed on-air. Bits are archived and stockpiled for those occasional “nothing’s happening” days, and they always sound topical and current. If telephone interaction is tough between 5 and 7 AM with too few callers, record and edit later to use the following morning.
11. Each quarter-hour, give listeners a reason for coming back later in the hour, later in the day, and tomorrow.

Pic designed bykjekol for Envato Elements.

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.