Does Your Morning Show Have Character(s)?

One opportunity for most morning shows to improve resides in creating better and more differentiated character roles.

By character, I don't mean "the guy who does voices." And for roles, I'm not talking about who runs the board and who reads the weather.

One of the major elements common to all great forms of entertainment is proper role and character definition.

Ever seen a successful movie in which all the actors played the same role? Of course not. Is everyone at the circus a clown? No, someone gets to walk the tightrope and someone is the master of ceremonies.

And how many hits would a band have if everyone played guitar? Did everyone in Seinfeld act just like Jerry?

Defined characters generate creative tension, and they give the listener more diverse attitudes and comments by which to be entertained.

Let's take for example two morning shows talking about the Pokemon craze from a few years back:

Show A:

Talent #1: "Seems like all my kids do lately is play Pokemon."
Talent #2: "Mine, too.
Female Newsperson: I've taken my daughter to Burger King every Tuesday since I can remember."

This show has done a good thing: reflected something all parents know about.

Show B:

Talent #1: "Seems like all my kids do lately is play Pokemon."
Talent #2: "So what, all my girlfriend does lately is play Poke-men."
Female newsperson: "Yeah, well the way you treat her it's no wonder."
Producer: "Don't complain...all I ever played with when I was a kid was explosives."

Pretty easy example, but pretty clear. Show B did much more than Show A. There was married/dating differentiation, male/female, and father/irresponsible kid. Which one was more fun?

Character definition is both an individual and a group function. For the individual, the questions to think about are: Who am I? What do I care about? What's my point of view? How am I different from other people in the show?

Once the individuals have each answered those questions (for themselves and the group), the group (i.e., the cast, plus the PD and producer) has to ask: Does this collection of answers work well together? Do they represent most of our target audience's likely attitudes? Are they different enough to be entertaining?

Remember, opposites not only attract...they entertain (think "Odd Couple").

If the collection of individuals, each "playing" him or herself, will be entertaining enough, fine. But that's usually not the case. Usually those characters need to be magnified or modified to build an ensemble. It's time to go to work on role definition.

Some morning talent refuse to adopt a character role. "That's not me. It's fake." If your morning talent resists defining and refining his or her on-air character, here are a few things to think about:

1. Are you a journalist or an entertainer? If you're a journalist, truth and facts are the guide. If you're an entertainer, entertainment should be paramount.

2. If you were an actor, and the producer of "ER" called you and said he had a role for you on his show, would you say: "But I'm not a doctor?" You might if you were, say, Anthony Hopkins and everyone already knew you were one of the greatest actors in the world. But you wouldn't if you were trying to build a career.

Is your morning talent Anthony Hopkins or still in the building mode? If they're extremely successful, don't mess with them. If not, work on character.

3. Whatever role you or your talent adopt needs to be reasonably similar to real-life. Don't ask a 38 year-old guy with a wife and three kids to act like a wild single guy -- unless mentally, he really is.

But if the show is discussing a movie (or any other issue) and everybody likes it (or agrees), somebody needs to take an alternate viewpoint.

In our book Morning Radio: A Guide to Developing On-Air Superstars, Tracy Johnson and I described a great way to help define characters on the show and help identify personality traits that can be exaggerated for maximum impact.

This exercise happens to be a lot of fun, allows the characters developed to stay close to the talent's reality, and can go a long way toward helping the show bond.

Here it is: Gather the talent, PD, producer and anyone else who knows the talent well (including wives, close friends, etc.) in a room. Make a complete list of all the attributes of each person on the show, one person at a time.

Write everything down. Is he/she: honest? A good cook? Afraid of spiders? Keep digging for more information.

When you've exhausted the list for each person, take a careful look at all of them. You'll find tons of opportunities to create character depth. For example, did one person grow up in a small town and another in a big city? Maybe you have your own "Green Acres."

Is one a hypochondriac, and the other the daughter of a doctor (this actually occurred at a station)? That's another natural dynamic to accentuate. Keep looking for characteristics, attitudes, behaviors, history and beliefs that can be fun if exaggerated and promoted, or played against the traits of others on the show.

Select those traits that are the most fun, and different, and which will be the most entertaining to your target -- and which your talent is most enthusiastic about.

Get everyone's agreement as to what their character role is. Write it down. It then becomes their job to stay consistent and true to that persona, and your job to help them.

It also helps to assign someone, usually the producer, the task of being the show's watchdog. Their job is to never let members of the show drift out of character.