We plan and produce and exhaust ourselves in an effort to do something wonderful on-air…
…and then it’s the casual ad lib that our listeners rave to us about.
Years ago Jeff Kaiser shared with me a wonderfully silly radio idea that his station, KGBI, was doing:
A daily Surf Report.
KGBI is in Grand Island, Nebraska.
Which is at least 1,000 miles from any ocean. Here, see for yourself:
Grand Island, Nebraska
But Jeff would present the Missouri River Surf Report, using information reported in the local newspaper about the river’s daily depth, high water, currents, etc.
Using the theme music from Hawaii 5-0 underneath.
And the report was SPONSORED (by a local bar).
Now that’s radio.
Comments on this entry are closed.
One of my current morning jocks, on a whim with the mic open, said “time for a coffee break” took a slurp with the mic on and then told about some of the area events going on for the day. People ate it up. His hourly “coffee breaks” are now sponsored.
John Gardner was doing this on WEMP more than 15 years ago…
Those Coffee Break things sound like something I heard MOR deejays doing back in the 1960s. Yet they still work… isn’t that interesting!
Wasn’t trying to indicate that it hadn’t been done before. Was referring to something done on a whim that listeners latched on to…like the Surf Report in Nebraska
I worked in Grand Island and never herd of Jeff Kaiser
Guess I didn’t explain what I meant very well. I just find it interesting that for all this talk from consultants and “industry giants” about “Cutting Edge” ideas and being on the latest trends, that it seems that the old great ideas are still great and are still more relevant than these new ideas. Its all about connecting, and like Dan said, the simple ideas still work the best.
I like this line of reasoning. It may usher in a new era of “Personality Radio.” Was everything said by the legendary talents of the past ‘brilliant?’ Not really. Did people ‘connect’ with them? Absolutely.
Exactly
When I started in the late 70s there was a morning guy on WKHM in Jackson, Michigan that took a loud slurp of his coffee in the morning…. THAT’s what people remembered… and the fact that he was so locally connected and funny too! Great experience back then to learn so much, and have fun doing it!