(By Randy Lane) Contributors, experts, and friends of your show can significantly enhance its quality, appeal, and success. Expanding your cast creates a bigger, more dynamic sound for any show. The good news is most will do it for free!
Local experts help make the show sound more connected to the market and the exposure boosts their brand and business. The value of contributors include:
Expertise
Contributors bring specialized expertise from politics, business, health, and money to deepen content. This is particularly true for Spoken Word formats.
Diverse perspectives
They provide new information on topics to balance and add comprehension to discussions. Contributors can interact with callers to answer their questions and engage in dialogue. The syndicated DeDe in the Morning Show has a financial expert on weekly.
Credibility and image
Contributors help provide credibility and brand depth to News and Talk formats, much like network TV.
Networking and collaboration
Most contributors have their own following. They provide an opportunity for your show to cross-promote and expand its reach.
Solo hosts
Radio shows with solo hosts increase much-needed interaction and dynamics with the addition of contributors like movie critics. Several shows have attorneys who offer listeners free legal advice.
Here is a list of potential experts to discuss topics in their fields:
- Movie & TV critics
- Doctors
- Lawyers
- Politicians
- Relationship therapists
- Sex therapists
- Marriage/family counselors
- Social media influencers
- Technology experts
- Sports
- Academics
- Health and fitness
- Personal Finance
- Consumer advocates
- Food/restaurant/chef
The Wrap
The key to successful contributors is to get experts who are also engaging personalities who can interact well with the show players and speak in everyday terms about their field.
Another way to expand your cast is to add recurring entertaining callers and quirky characters in the community. In LA, K-Rock’s Kevin and Bean had Rockin’ Fig’ the surfer dude deliver their surf report.
Randy Lane is the owner of the Randy Lane Company, which coaches and brands radio and television personalities, business professionals, sports personalities, entrepreneurs, and pop culture artists, helping them master communication skills to have an impact on their audiences. Read Randy’s Radio Ink archives here.
