Show Opens: Yes or No?
by Randy Lane
Most great radio and TV shows have opening theme music, songs or stagers that become familiar to listeners or viewers as a signal that the show is starting. It’s an opportunity to brand your show and engage the audience. Several approaches can work.
Consider these points in your show open:
Keep them short. Even signature songs like a good parody work best when they are 60 seconds or less.
Use great clips from your show to give listeners an idea of your content and/or characters. Jeff and Jer on KyXy/San Diego use a funny clip from the day before. Ace & TJ, Channel 96.1/Charlotte, Syndicated start their show with one of the best clips from the previous day, or they replay “part one” from a bit the day before and tease “part two” that’s coming up on today’s show.
We also like the idea of playing a characterizing and entertaining clip of each show player. The clip could be from the day before or any previous show. It’s important to keep them fresh. Pop culture drops can be used sparingly, yet not in lieu of clips from your show since they are not part of your brand.
The opening talk break ideally contains a big topical story or three buzz-worthy stories for people just waking up. Engaging personal conversations can work too. Aimless chit-chat just to get you warmed up does not work because there’s nothing in it for listeners. Have the host introduce each show player to set up the show so the listeners not as familiar with the show can follow who is talking. This technique is similar to the way TV shows open by listing and showing the characters.
End your first break with an enticing 80-20 tease of content that’s coming up in the next segment. Create enough mystery in your tease that compels listeners to stay with your show to hear it. Avoid laundry listing everything that’s coming up in your show because it’s early and that’s too much information for people’s brains to process. The exception of hitting more than one tease would be for something huge coming up later in the show like a big guest or money giveaway.
Since only a small percentage of your audience is going to hear the show open at 5:30am or 6am, and people start listening to the show throughout the whole morning, consider having a “show open” every hour where the lead host introduces everyone on the show and teases or resets the content.
Photo credit: Schoshie on Flickr via Creative Commons
