Radio Tips: Phone Topics

I had the joy of meeting a great radio presenter the other day. Whilst chewing the fat he made a comment on what he hated hearing on the radio.

“Why do I hear so many awful phone topics like ‘what’s your favourite condiment? Call in now and tell us’”?

We had a good ten minute rant about that. We thought that type of radio was lazy, repetitive and just dull to hear.

However I shouldn’t just sit and moan about things. It’s better to offer solutions. So here are my…

Tips for doing phone topics

(By phone topics I mean any time you put a question out to the audience and are looking for a response by phone, text or social media.)

1. Ask why are you doing it?
If your answer is ‘because we always do a phone topic at that time’ or ‘we want to be interactive’ think carefully. Either give up now or go back and answer the question again.

The answer should be around the impact the bit will have on your listeners. It could be about getting funny or interesting stories from the audience on the air. Maybe it is to start a debate that people can’t help having an opinion on. Perhaps you want people to keep listening to hear the resolution.

Once you know the impact you want to make on audience the rest becomes a lot clearer.

2. It has to come from somewhere
There is little worse than just hearing “today’s text topic is what song did you have for the first dance at your wedding” come out of nowhere. It’s unnatural and is normally delivered on radio autopilot. You wouldn’t sit in a pub and just blurt out “today I’m asking if you’ve ever found a large sum of money somewhere”.

Your question has to come from somewhere. If the inspiration has come from the day’s news, it’s better than sounding as if you’ve plucked it from the ether. Even better if it comes from something that’s happened in your life (see point 3).

3. Give it your own spin
There’s a story in the papers about a woman who insisted on having Ding Dong The Witch is Dead played at her funeral. You can bet your less talented competitors will be asking for “other inappropriate songs for funerals”.

Put your own spin on it. Find some way of making it your own and making it different from what every one else will do.

For example: which song sums up your life? Which song from the Wizard of Oz do you think I want played at my funeral? Stories about songs played at inappropriate moments.

4. Give it a target
Just stop for a minute and consider how dull this would be to a listener:

You ask people to get in touch and say what is the one thing that’s always in their fridge. The next link is a list of things people have in their fridges. Even if you do manage to get some entertaining things that people have in their fridges are people really going to stick around to hear what will be a list of things others have in their fridges?

Now consider you’d given it a target. What bizarre things do you always have in your fridge? Who listening has the most unexpected list of things in your fridge? What do you have in your fridge that most people won’t have? By giving it a bit of a target it already feels more appealing to listen to.

There are other ways to use this technique.

“We’re looking for the most bizarre place someone has been trapped” is much more appealing than “where have you ever been trapped?”

“Lets settle the argument right now, the most convincing case made will win this one — do you put salt first or vinegar first on your chips” is much much better than “today: do you put the salt or the vinegar on chips first”

As a bonus this sets the audience up to only get in touch if they have a quality response.

5. Remember this is all about what the audience hears, not those that take part
I’ve seen some dimwits get excited about the number of texts they’ve had to a particular topic. They have no thought about what it sounds like. Yes response rate can be an indicator that you’ve pressed the right button. If what the audience heard was dull and limp then you’ve failed.

Rule number one is tell the audience what they can expect from the pay off. Be really explicit. Talk to the people listening, not those taking part. Far too often I hear a topic set up and it’s all about getting people to interact. No promise for the person listening. Once you’ve asked the question let them know what to expect from the pay off. Promise them the funniest stories, the strangest answer, the luckiest person, the freakiest coincidence. Show them you’re asking the question to make an entertaining listen.

Don’t give them the impression that a) you’re just asking a question, there is no pay off or b) you’ll have no quality control and you may well just hear a bog standard list of responses.

Rule number two is don’t feel obliged to read out every bit of interaction you get. Be incredibly selective, have massively high standards. Only let the audience hear the best of the best.

6. Give it some emotion
Working with emotions is so much better than working with reason. The responses will be much more evocative. So if you’re prompting for opinions ask how your subject makes people feel.

How do you feel about someone who orders a Big Mac then doesn’t eat any of the bread?

How do you feel about the proposal to name streets on a new estate after Madonna songs?

7. Prime the pump
Ask your question on social media before you do it on air. Not only will you be able to judge if the subject has legs, you’ll also have some response to throw into your set up link too. Most of the time the set up link isn’t going to be full of Sony Award winning entertainment.

Putting it all together you can change this

“In the papers today they’re saying that the average person has six remote controls in their house, how many do you have? That’s today’s phone topic. How many remotes in your house. Call in now and tell us”

Which, as I hope you can see, is awful, to:

“I read this morning that the average house has six remote controls.

In our house remotes cause huge disagreements because I call it a remote. My wife insists on calling it the doofer. I feel that doofer is a stupid name for anything, let alone a bit of essential technology.

What do you call it in your house? Can anyone top doofer?

On Facebook Angela says her dad calls it the channel clunker. Can you beat that?Call in now and in five minutes you’ll hear the answer to the question: Is there a more stupid name for a remote control than a doofer? “

How does all that make you feel? Leave a note on the side and I’ll read the best ones out after Taylor Swift.

Got a comment? It’s @euanmcmorrow on Twitter

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