Radio stations love to encourage appointment listening through benchmark features — signature bits that the hosts become known for over time. For as long as anyone can remember, morning shows have grown their audiences with the help of features like “Phone Scams,” “The Elevator from Hell,” and “Second Date Update.” But these types of bits are not exclusive to morning shows; DJs on other dayparts often host countdowns, cash-it-or-trash-it music competitions, or “this day in history” lessons. Television broadcasters use benchmark features, too: Seth Meyer’s “A Closer Look,” James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke,” and Jimmy Fallon’s classroom instruments performances, for example.
These have become popular because people not only saw them in the original broadcast shows, but also on other platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Today, taking a signature bit and making it available for audiences to consume elsewhere has become par for the course in television. This should be true in radio, too. When developing new signature bits or even in reviewing your existing ones, think about how they can be repurposed for different mediums. Can they be turned into short videos or audiograms?
In radio, we tend to invest all of our time into show prep before the show, but do little to nothing with it after the fact. When the show ends, we’re already thinking about the next one. Podcasters, on the other hand, know that when they publish an episode, there’s still a lot more work to be done promoting the show. Radio DJs can learn from podcasters here: Just because the show’s over, that doesn’t mean you’re done with it.
Develop a post-show routine in which you take recorded snippets of your show — especially your benchmark features — and turn them into snackable content can be shared on social media. Make this a regular habit. Over time, you’ll build up a bank of bite-sized content. If some of it is evergreen, feel free to reshare it multiple times weeks or even months down the line.
Turn your signature bits into multi-platform bits.
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