Listeners Top 10 Criticisms of Morning Shows

What are the Top 10 things listeners don’t like about Morning / Breakfast shows?

I’m sure we could all come up with a pretty decent list of our own, but the good news is we don’t have to! Last week I was invited to attend the ‘Lokalrundfunktage’ 2011 in Nuremberg. It’s a gathering of the great and good of German radio, particularly hosted for the radio industry in the state of Bavaria, which has around 12.5 Million inhabitants.

The conference is a fantastic opportunity to get under the skin of what’s happening in German radio, and there’s loads going on... including the exciting launch of national DAB+ multiplexes.

There were the requisite speeches from politicians and industry leaders, and of course a sprinkling of interesting sessions.

One which caught my eye was a session on ‘personality radio’, and the importance of it / what it means to the German market etc. The session was kicked off with a great contextual presentation from Christoph Pöschl, from the German media research and consulting company, Brand Support. They’ve done lots of analysis of Morning Shows, and have a great research perspective on what works and what doesn’t.

So, here’s the Listeners Top 10 Criticisms of Morning Shows in Germany. (I’ve added some thoughts below each one)

1. Uninteresting Topics

Nothing annoys listeners more than topics and themes that are just plain boring! If you’re going to do topic, please make it interesting for the listener!!

2. Uninteresting Conversations

We’ve all heard those ‘talky bits’ that don’t go anywhere, and the hosts are just chatting for the sake of it. Feel free to do them, but the listeners are going to go elsewhere!

3. Hosts that talk too much

We all can think of hosts that can’t ‘put a sock in it’ from time to time. Give the listeners a break. Don’t keep going on and on, and on and on....

4. Promotions and competition that aren’t entertaining

Next time you’re sitting in that S&P meeting and the idea seems a bit dull, don’t agree to it. Give it another 10 minutes of creativity. If your competition is boring and flat, listeners will tune away.

5. Too many commercials

Not a problem in public radio, but in commercial radio PD’s need to just keep an eye on the total durations of ads. Different markets have different tolerance levels, but we all know when we’ve reached “too many”!

6. Too much self-promotion

Promoting your own station is fine, but don’t do too much of it so it starts to annoy your listeners, particularly in the morning show. The primary job there is to entertain listeners, not to continuously cross-promote all your other stuff.

7. Non-relevant content that doesn’t touch the listener

We know that creating relevant content that really connects emotionally with listeners is the most powerful way of getting people to listen. Audiences can quickly detect when something is there just for the sake of it. Do stuff that matters to you, and matters to your listeners, and that they can connect with.

8. Too little music variety

Listeners continuously tell us they like a bit of variety in the morning. If you have the right personality on the air, it’s probably the one place you can push the boat out a bit. Don’t be afraid... listeners like variety!!

9. Too little music

I always think that more time, money, resources and effort have gone into producing a brilliant 3 minute pop song, than have gone into producing any link... so don’t skimp on the music. Listeners love the songs. Some hosts think they “get in the way of the content”. Wrong. They’re part of the content of the show.

10. Too much repetition of the same songs

Morning shows are probably the most habitual listen for any radio consumer. So ensuring that the rotations are correct, and that the ‘mix’ is right in the morning is vital.

So there we have it... Listeners Top 10 Criticisms of Morning Shows in Germany. But I think it’s a pretty universal list, and is shows listeners around the world are remarkably similar. The same issues crop up in every market I have worked in.

The good news is we can do something about it. If we know what listeners don’t like, we try to ensure that we do the opposite... right?

If you work in radio station, think of your own morning show. Does it do any of these things on the list? Once you know what listeners don’t like, it’s far easier to do stuff they do like!

**Thanks to Christoph Pöschl from Brand Support for sharing his presentation. If you want more info from him direct, I’m sure he’d be happy to talk to you.

Josh Sings Kanye

Morning shows thrive on creative and fun ideas. Here’s one that’s been done, not by a morning show... but by a US late night comedy talk-show. But this could easily have been done by a creative morning show team.

A neat idea... executed well... and topped off with a celeb performer make for a fantastic bit of TV.

"Wake up... It's a Beautiful Morning..."

Tomorrow morning at 07:00, there will be a new dawn in Breakfast Show radio in the UK. The Chris Evans Breakfast Show will debut on BBC Radio 2.

Chris’s road to 'rehabilitation' has been well documented and there’s no doubt he feels blessed to be at the top of the tree once again, this time on BBC Radio 2.

Fans of morning shows... and more importantly fans of well structured, entertaining and engaging morning shows would be well advised to tune in at some point over the new next few months and take a good listen to how it’s done. (I say ‘few months’ as it’s always tempting judge a show by its first outing, which is dreadfully unfair. Give it a few weeks to bed in!)

I’ve always been a fan of Chris from when I used to listen to his BBC Radio1 Breakfast Show. And later when I then got the chance to work with him at Virgin Radio from 1999 onwards I became even more appreciative of what he actually did and what he brought to the programme.

The thing is, Chris makes something look so easy, when the truth is it's devilishly difficult and very few people can carry it off. Having worked alongside him for those years, here’s what I think Chris brings to a Breakfast Show:

Great Ideas
There’s a creative mind at the heart of every great Breakfast Show and turning up each day with loads of ideas to try on the radio is at the core of that.

Preparation
Usually the most spontaneous sounding shows are the most prepared. Tight running orders, thorough preparation and always having a good reason to open the microphone are essential elements. A strong production team behind you helps, and having a Producer who’s ‘married to the job’ is worth their weight in gold. (The Exec Producer for the new show is Helen Thomas, who is a fantastic talent. During the Radio 1 days it was Dan McGrath, who again was the backbone of 'making things happen')

Originality
Looking at new and different angles to topics is a sure fire way of getting engaging content. What’s the angle? How do you get into a topic? What will amke the way you do it different to way everyone else does it?

Energy
There’s no point in anyone presenting a breakfast show if they don’t really turn up each morning with 100% energy and 100% commitment. Yes it can be tough doing morning radio (especially when it’s dark and Minus 10 when you open your front door), but having ‘the love of doing the job’ is something that comes from ‘deep within’.

BBC Radio 2 have produced a great video documenting the behind the scenes moments at the recording of the full pilot. It’s a lovely insight into how the show is put together and a brief taster for what we have in store staring tomorrow morning.

Good luck Chris, and good luck to the whole team. I’m certain that the show will be a fantastic listen, and we’ll be talking about it on this blog on frequent occasions!

Light My Fire

How committed is your morning show? How far would they go to entertain their listeners? Would they, for example, set themselves on fire? Hats off to Jacob Wilson from client station Radio 100FM, who's a host on their morning show ‘Morgenhyrderne’ who did just that! Take a look...

And if that wasn’t enough, a week later he tested a new summer remedy for bee stings and subjected himself to a being stung by some sort of killer bee, on purpose, just to test it for listeners... twice! Ouch!!

Radio hosts that are committed to entertain the audience by ‘going the extra mile’ are the kind of guys you want on your team. Nice work don’t you think?

Having a ‘liberal’ Health and Safety policy at your station also helps!!