(By Jeff McHugh) You often hear radio features named Trending Now or Trending Topics with a mix of breaking news, entertainment updates, fads, weird news, and so forth. A trending story benchmark can make your show topical. It can also open floodgates for a rush of weak content and stories that your audience already saw two hours ago on Instagram.
It has become our regular practice to find out what time our client’s competitors air What’s Trending, and we sometimes get ratings results counter-programming it with killer content.
You can make your trending topics feature a strength instead of a weakness. Here are guidelines to consider for content, execution, and infusing your character through the segment:
Choose universal stories that work regardless of celebrity. There are more “who-cares” stars than ever. A news story about robbers stealing two dogs would still be A+ if the dogs belonged to Snoop Dogg, AOC, or an average person in your town.
Audio is non-optional. Computers and the internet make adding a clip to any mention of a movie, TV show, or performer quick and easy. Use sound effects, too. Audio is worth a thousand words and serves as a pattern disruption to reengage attention.
Insert a focused point of view. Listeners enjoy brief host banter expressing emotions and observations around the stories. Your stories should be so strong that the banter is the icing and not the cake – otherwise, why air those stories in the first place?
Choose stories, not announcements. An announcement is, “Country singer Kacey Musgraves is recording her new album.” “Country singer Kacey Musgraves bought her grandmother’s old house and painted it pink,” is a story.
Be flexible and improvise. Some days you have too much content, other days not enough. Some days your trending feature is one minute and another day it runs four. Some days you might skip the feature altogether. The one thing that you are never flexible on is keeping your content filter high. Maybe your audience wants trending content occasionally, not hourly.
Consider super-short bulletins. Audiences have a strong interest in local news, but the stories often do not need much airtime to tell well. We worked with a Victoria, BC show that aired News In 140 Characters hourly. Three headlines in 17 seconds – with production and sound clips – and it was great!
A trending topics feature can be good for your show if you take all the steps to make it entertaining, emotional, and relevant.
Jeff McHugh is known for developing remarkable talent for both morning and afternoon drive. He brings an uncommon mix of positivity, creativity, and strategy to the shows that he coaches. He is a member of the team at the Randy Lane Company. Reach Jeff at [email protected] and read his Radio Ink archives here.
