When a radio group brings me in to work with its entire air staff, often I’ll teach them my method for defining their Unique Listening Proposition.
The goal isn’t necessarily to come up with blockbuster ideas. Rather, the air talents, producers and programmers identify “mundane” things that occur regularly on their program or station and generate original ideas — alternative methods of delivering that each particular element in a way that makes more of an impact on the listener.
A visit to Singapore’s SAFRA Radio resulted in dozens of original ideas, including the Traffic Excuse:
Each day, the traffic reporter offers a new, original new excuse for the day’s big traffic jam:
“Traffic isn’t moving at all on Highway 27 south of the Pass. A flock of homing polar bears has built a huge nest on the exit ramp….”
Okay, readers: Got some good excuses for today’s (or tomorrow’s) traffic tie-up?
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Monkeys running rampant on the 405 have stalled all motorist back to the 5.
Hey Dan. Do you realize that there are more cars in this picture than we have in the entire U.S. Virgin Islands?! It’s sunny…79 (at 7am), and light tradewinds on St. Croix. Who needs traffic? Have a great day!
Wow, Roger knows how to make some of us envious! Thank goodness my home and work is separated by about 1.5 miles!!! I think about those who are stuck in that traffic mess…
We used to do this at KYYX back in the eighties. It seemed like every other station had a traffic copter then, so we just made it up. Our demo didn’t really care about traffic as most of them weren’t awake yet, and those that were awake were most likely still drunk/high from clubbing the night before. So our reports went along the lines of…
…A giant bladder has wandered into the number one lane of the 520, backing up traffic all the way to midspan on the floating bridge. Road crews are attempting to shoo the bladder away by poking it with a sharp stick.”
or…
“…Traffic on the northbound 5 is backed up from downtown all the way to Spokane Street due to a scary old woman with a mole thingy on her nose in the left lane. We’re getting a lot of looky loos and they’re pretty ooked out by what they see.”