Get Interactive

When I start coaching a show, talents often say:
“Nobody calls anymore.” Or: “Listeners in this market don’t call radio shows.”

My response is, “That’s interesting, because several of our shows get more calls than they need.”

The difference isn’t necessarily the market. It’s often how the show invites people into the conversation. 

Airing callers and text interaction gives your show several distinct advantages:

ENGAGEMENT

• Listeners become participants instead of passive consumers.
   
• “Will they read my text?” or “Will they put me on the air?” gives listeners a reason to continue listening or come back.
   
• Hearing other people makes the show feel like a conversation they’re part of, rather than a broadcast they’re listening to.

CONTENT GENERATION

• Callers and texters supply real, unscripted material, and hosts don’t have to create every piece of content.
   
• Local color and authentic reactions are hard to fake.
   
• Texts in particular give shows a quick pulse on what’s landing and what isn’t, in real time.

TEXTS OVER CALLS

• Callers require risk; texting doesn’t. People who’d never call in will text.
   
• No dead air risk, no screening awkwardness, no live caller going off the rails or rambling.
   
• Texts can be queued and paced to fit the show’s rhythm

CALLERS OVER TEXTS

• Hearing real people on air makes the show feel less like a broadcast and more like a shared experience.
   
• Creates companionship, like the caller is sitting in the studio with the hosts.
   
• Callers can add entertaining stories to your topic (“This happened to me too”).
   
• Callers can challenge the host and create opposition.
   
• Create genuine emotion versus a host reading a text.

You need callers and texts.

THE MAGIC IS IN THE REACTION
Too many hosts take a call or read the text and move on. They set you up to:
React…Follow up…Challenge it…Agree or disagree with it…Ask another question…Laugh…Show emotion…Tell your own story.

The biggest benefit of airing callers and interacting with texts is that it changes the show from something the audience listens to into something the audience participates in. That distinction matters a lot for personality radio.

There’s a new way to get texts and voices on your show to increase audience interaction…See the App of the Week below.

Photo by Gilles Lambert on Unsplash