Our daytime hosts guide our listeners throughout the day with timely community interests, incredible music rotations and notes of interest to keep our listeners informed and entertained. The core of our daytime hosting is to “keep the listener free of worry” and “keep the vibes immaculate.” It’s also very important to remember that our listenership is incredibly general: it includes grandparents in Amherst, NS, studio’s in the Fine Arts building, kitchen radios in Woodpoint, online listeners in Mexico and Toronto and eveything in between.
Preparing for Your Show
All of our time slots are programmed ahead of time. This is the regular programming that would air if you didn’t attend your session. If you’re hosting in a time slot it’s very important for you to check your time slot and prep it. It’s expected that you will remove all the programmed Station ID’s, Promo’s, Local Announcements and other production. The exception would be the Tantramar Report in the 8, 9, 12 and 5 time slots. Those should very be removed. The others are elements that you’ll be calling out live as well as other segments that you will add yourself.
Music
The music is carefully picked, but you’re always welcome to select your own as long as it’s appropriate to the time of day. We have our daytime rotations in two segments: CHMA Morning and CHMA Afternoon. Pick from these, or preview them to get a feel for the vibe. When in doubt, ask another staff member. It’s very important to remember that our mandate is champion local, regional and national Canadian music of all kinds and to generally promote underrepresented music or, music not typically represented in mainstream culture. We put a lot of work into choosing the music in rotation, it’s very important to let the listener know what they’re listening to and give a little context for the music. Something as simple as “from Montreal” or “out of Halifax” can be very powerful, but it’s also nice to have a little more elaborate talk break about the artist “…and that was the track Honor Song from Jeremey Dutcher. Jeremy Dutcher is a Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) member of the Tobique First Nation in North-West New Brunswick, that’s globally recognized and celebrated as an incredible composer and performer.” Generally this can be collected on-the-fly with a quick internet search, even within the hour that your hosting. You can also check your hour playlist and research the music before your hour.
Segments
Host will generally have segments prepared before their show and know elements that the like to announce that they feel it engaging to our listenership. Weather, Time, News, CHMA News Headlines. We also have other suggestions in our Show Notes page. Hosts often like to prepare notes before the show, or open individal tabs on a browser to have qued and ready to read. If you’re hosting a News hour, a series of tab might be: Environment Canada Weather, CHMA Atlantic Update, and several individual events chosen from our the CHMA Community Calendar (hint: right click “open in new tab” on event titles). We also like to announce updates from the Municipalities Facebook Page: Tantramar NB. We don’t announce events if we’re not sure that everyone is invited to attend.
Some hosts have chosen to include other segments such as Mi’kmaq Word of the Day, Horoscopes, Today in Music History, etc. Feel free to use these or develop your own.
Guests
You are always welcome and encouraged to invite a guest to join you. This could be for the entire hour or just a segment. It’s good to announce ahead of time if your having a guest, but you can also promote the appearance in the On Demand section.
Talking Tone
Treat the audience with respect and remember that you are being informative and not educational. The difference in tone is that you’re just letting them know, not telling them something they don’t know. The difference in tone is important. If you’re playing a song, it’s because you want to hear it and know it, so let them know who the artist is.
CHMA Hosting extraordinary, Sailee, has put together this guide to help you shine on-air at CHMA:
Flow of a Daytime Show
STEP 1: Opening talk break
We always encourage opening the radio show with your quick introduction and announcing CHMA’s frequency (and the station in general). Here is a simple example:
“Hello listeners! I am Sailee and welcome to the Afternoon Show. You are listening to CHMA 106.9FM in Sackville, NB, and we are the Voice of the Marshes!“
Announce the time whenever you jump on air: “The time right now is 3:01pm, and you are tuned in to CHMA.“
At the start of the hour, tell our listeners about what the weather looks like for today, tomorrow and the week in general. We refer to Environment Canada’s website to get accurate and real-time weather updates. Don’t worry about mentioning everything that’s on the website! Talk about the current temperature, maximum and minimum temperatures for the day (or the coming days), and how the weather will unfold in general.
“The temperature is currently at 6 degrees and a quick window check shows a big blue sky. Environment Canada is calling for a high of 10 degrees, Tonight clear with a low of 5 degree. Tomorrow, Wednesday October 30th, should be mainly cloudy with the wind becoming south 20 km/h near noon with a high of 9. Tomorrow night show cloudy with a low of 4 degrees. For Thursday, October 31, the cloudiness continues with a high of 17 and for Thursday night clear, with a low of 7. This weekend shows that it could be a mix of sun and cloud on Saturday with a high of 14, low of minus 4 at night and the same on Sunday.”
Once you feel comfortable moving forward to playing some tunes, quickly introduce the upcoming song and the song that is to follow:
Up next we have Falling by Harry Styles, followed by New Light by John Mayer.
STEP 2: Talk break after songs have played
Usually, in day-time hosting, we encourage hosts to jump back on-air after 2 songs have played. Once that’s done, don’t forget to re-introduce the songs, do a quick station introduction and announce the time.
Hello dear listeners! The song that you just listened to was New Light by John Mayer, and even before that we heard one of my favourites, Falling by Harry Styles. The time is 3:50pm and you are all listening to CHMA 106.9 FM in Sackville, NB. Welcome back to the Afternoon Show!
A crucial component of daytime hosting is informing community members about the events coming up in the Tantramar region. They are not just limited to recreational events; these announcements also include important and pressing notices from Tantramar NB, upcoming events at CHMA, shout outs to local businesses, upcoming festivals and sign-up deadlines. It is our responsibility to keep the community engaged and informed. During your talk break, it’s good practice to announce about 2-3 events. CHMA’s community events page has all the information that you need. You can also check out Tantramar NB’s Facebook and instagram handles for up-to-date information.
After announcing a few events, you can then move on to playing some more tunes. Keep repeating STEP 2, till you reach your last talk break.
STEP 3: Ending your show (last talk break)
On your last talk break (about 10 minutes before the end of the hour), you can now start to slowly conclude your show. Feel free to share your preferred concluding statements and introduce the frequency once last time.
“Thank you very much listeners for tuning in to the Afternoon Show. I hope you all have a beautiful rest of your day. Stay safe and take care, and continue listening to CHMA 106.9FM, and we are the voice of the marshes.“
Extra daytime hosting tips
It can be really refreshing when hosts share their daily adventures. For example, discussing how their day started, the movies or TV shows they have been binge-watching, or talking about their travel experiences adds a personal touch. This approach makes the show more engaging and helps create a stronger connection with listeners on a human level.
If you can, consider inviting more guests to your show! This will energize the atmosphere and create opportunities for genuine, meaningful conversations. You will likely find yourself feeling more comfortable on the air as well!
Consider adding fun themes to your show! If you prefer, you can add “Quote of the week”, “National day today”, “Would you rather questions”, or “favorite movie so far”. Pick what makes you most comfortable.
