Would You Like French Fries With That?

While we are in-the-zone during our daily shows, what we do when the show ends is as important as the preparation the day(s) before. What are you doing after your show?

Obviously, you need to unwind a little, maybe grab a bite or get outside to clear your head. You also need to replay the day's show in your head and figure out what worked, what didn't work and what almost worked. Not every show is perfect. Even the big, syndicated shows have bad days. I've heard it's not how good you are on a good day, it's how good you are on a bad day.

We all have those days when nothing seems to work no matter how hard we try. Don't try to fight it. As naturally as it came to be is how naturally it will disappear. Tomorrow is another day. Focus on today's show and all the good things that happened. Maybe you hit on a topic that everyone loved and tried to be a part of. What were the key elements that attracted your audience to it? What did you do or say that made them want to participate? Be honest with yourself and keep that in your memory bank for future shows. Also, share it with your show partners so they can learn from it as well.

During your time of reflection, take a look at your benchmarks, the features you do every day and ask yourself this.

Why do you do them? Where do you do them? If they were removed or rested would the show suffer? Is there something new and more relevant that you can introduce to the audience? Sometimes it's okay to rest a good feature. If it's something the audience relies on, they'll be quick to remind you how much it means to them and you can always bring it back fresh and new. If you're going to change a benchmark, fill the audience in. Let them be part of the change. When they are, they're less susceptible to complain about it or miss it as much. Sometimes you can use this opportunity to reinforce a benchmark on the show by talking about it going away then deciding to keep it because the audience said so. Remember New Coke? It reinforced the brand that was being attacked by Pepsi and other soft drinks at the time. The backlash was so incredible, it was dropped quickly giving the original Coke a new life.

Did your show play enough music? I know a lot of shows think music gets in the way but don't think of it like that. Think of it as something that gives the audience something they love and gives you and the rest of the morning show a chance to reset, refocus, grab a coffee, a quick bite, etc. Music is still the #1 reason people listen to the radio whether you agree or not. If you think your show is good enough to exist without music, ask the audience. They will tell you how important it is. If you didn't play music on your show, you might have less ratings than you do by playing music, especially if you're a music station. If your show doesn't play it, the audience will search elsewhere for it.

McDonald's doesn't put their french fries in their marketing campaigns but they would lose lots of business if they didn't sell them in their restaurants. The music on the morning show is your french fries. Make sure it never goes away.