Shane “Rover” French started his radio career when he got hired for a hybrid position as a part-time air talent and webmaster for Alternative KXTE/Las Vegas better known as X-treme Radio. Today, a hybrid position that splits time between online and on-air isn’t uncommon. It was in 1996 though when station websites were still a new thing, and most people were still on dial-up for their home internet.
Since then, his career has included stops in Knoxville, Denver, and Seattle before landing in Cleveland 23 years ago. He has delivered giant ratings on the air ever since. Talking to him about the sustained success, his observations primarily focus on a few key elements: loyalty, curiosity, and technology.
Loyalty
It all starts with Cleveland. While the show is syndicated, the home base is incredibly important because of the makeup of the area. “It’s a working class city that is incredibly proud,” Rover says. “And, almost to a fault, if you show loyalty to this city the people here will be loyal to you.” That helps give him a clear goal every morning. “We just want to serve them something great on their way to work every day.”
In return, the show has built up an extremely loyal and active fanbase. While that is, for the most part, a great thing, it can be challenging having people that are so engaged. “Even the people who hate me are very vocal.”
The theme of loyalty also extends to his team. Several have been together for most of the 23 year run. The group includes co-hosts Duji and Jeffrey, Video Director Anthony Snitzer, Sound FX maven Charlie and Phone Screener Krystle. They have a purposely diverse set of views which gives him the latitude to take on all sorts of topics.
“You need those different points of view because even if you aren’t talking about politics a lot of things get filtered through that lens of us versus them or conservative versus liberal,” he explained.
On the topic of loyalty, he credits one other group that has contributed to the show’s success: the iHeartRadio team. He admits to having some initial trepidation about joining the company but is grateful he did. He’s found everyone to be incredibly supportive. “The partnership we have has provided me and the team the luxury of weathering recessions, pandemics, and everything else that’s gone on. That’s something I’m very appreciative of.”
Curiosity
Another part of what has made the show in Cleveland so successful are the stops Rover made at other stations along the way. By the time he got to Cleveland Rover had worked in multiple cities and various dayparts. He was a self-proclaimed radio rat, listening to a lot of other morning shows. But this time his approach was different. “It’s the first time I really found my own voice and had the comfort level not to regurgitate what I’d heard other people doing,” Rover says. “I decided to talk about things that I’m interested in. Whether it works or not it would be something I believe in.”
In many ways that distinct voice is driven by his curiosity about the world. “News and current events genuinely interest me so it’s not a chore to keep up to date,” says. “Whether we talk about it on the show or not I’ve read about it.” And that appetite feeds into preparing for the show.
Every day when he or the cast see things in the news, online or in their personal lives that might make good content they drop ideas into an online system that Rover curates. He then carefully slots topics into the show, something he admits he can get obsessive about. “We will consider what we talked about at a certain time, say 7:15, and be sure to slot something different there the next day,” he explains. “Not just a different topic but not even the same tone. If it was something weightier at that time we’ll be sure to do something ridiculous there the next day.”
What content makes the show has changed a lot over the years. Early on, he says, everything on the show would have been labeled as “shock jock” material. And while some things never change, “fart jokes still make me laugh,” other things have. “The show has evolved because I have matured a little bit. But I do think the audience has also matured some as we’ve grown up together.”
For example, in the early days having the staff do crazy stunts — including a weekly feature called Dare Dieter where co-host Dieter would literally take dares from the audience — was a major part of the show. But now, with Rover’s “maturity” and Dieter recently leaving the show there are still stunts, just not as often. “A little bit of that goes a long way,” he says. “We can sprinkle that in and get a lot of mileage without having to be trying to literally light people on fire every day to stand out.”
In turn he’s more apt to take on weightier topics alongside some juvenile fun. There is a secret to their approach though, the center of the show is always Rover and the crew. “I always tell the team to make it about us because the audience has invested twenty years in us and what’s happening in our lives.” He adds that it’s important to remember they are talking about things going on in the news. However, they are not a news show. “We have spirited debates. I hope they are entertaining but it’s important to ask how that relates to me,” Rover says. “That’s what makes the connection to the audience. You have to be relatable as people.”
Technology
Another thing that sets Rover’s Morning Glory apart from other shows is the way they have embraced technology, often creating things in house that make the show unique. It started early on with the show’s website that had chat rooms and forums to help listeners engage. “That was more than 20 years ago before social media when not every audience had that access,” notes Rover.
Now a lot of that functionality is rolled up in the show’s mobile app, but Rover hasn’t stopped innovating. He’s preparing to roll out an update to their in-house text platform so that when people send in comments, he can press a button that sends back a note saying he’d like to talk with the person on the air.
“The audience is a very integral part of what we do every day,” he explains. But ever since Covid he’s found that the volume of actual calls has dropped off with people preferring to text. Not wanting to lose that element of the listener’s voice from the show, he developed this addition to the text platform hoping to bring callers back.
The new system will also enable people to create a profile by adding a name, and even a picture to their number so when they send a text Rover and the team can refer to them directly instead of generically. That information also feeds directly to the video producer handling RMG TV, the live streamed video simulcast of the morning show that launched in 2012.
So, when the show is talking about the comment, that person’s name and picture along with what they said can be pushed to the video feed and appear on screen for people watching. “I think that extra touch will help engagement and make people more likely to be repeat participants because they are being recognized on air and on the video feed.”
I asked if having a video simulcast of the show negatively impacts the show’s Nielsen ratings. Rover says with thirteen years of data he can unequivocally say no. It’s exactly the opposite. The video helps keep listeners engaged. “We see higher tune-in to the radio earlier in the morning. It really spikes from 6:30 to 7:30.” Then, he says, the RMG-TV metrics start to pick up around 8am as people get to work or whatever they are doing. “It’s actually complimentary.”
He says a lot of listeners can only tune in for a short period of time in the morning, but analytics show many fans turn on the video replay in the afternoon or evening to catch up on the rest of the show. “The lesson is to do what you can to keep those people in your orbit. Whether it’s the radio show, the app, the iHeartMedia podcast, or RMG-TV, that constant exposure is going to be good for your ratings.”
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