What Happens Next? Now join us from anywhere!
Saturday & Sunday 12pm
WLOY’s award-winning weekly children’s program What Happens Next?, founded in June of 2009, is going global! Our goal is simple: entertain children while helping them grow their imagination, reading, writing and communication skills. And now we’re taking the popular show from Baltimore to the world!
What Happens Next? begins with the simple premise that children love to tell stories. We provide the beginning of a story for the participants and they create their own endings. When they’re done we let them record them for this broadcast. Hundreds of children from 4-12 have participated in the program. The program is now available for free to any child anywhere.
We know so many folks are stuck at home (wisely so) and in need of some activities for their kids so we have made it possible for kids anywhere to call in to WLOY and leave their endings to the weekly story prompt. We’ll mix together all the endings and play them on the radio (and webstream) every Saturday and Sunday at 12:00pm EST (4:00pm UTC).
How To Participate: In order to participate in the What Happens Next? show you will need to check out each new story prompt posted on Monday mornings to our website. They’ll also be collected here for reference. Have your child read (or listen) to the prompt and spend 5-10 minutes pondering how it could end. Then have them write down their ending. We try to keep these to a reasonably short length of 1 page maximum. Your child is welcome to write as much as they want (once we had an 18 page ending!) but in order to let as many kids join in as possible, please only record a maximum of one page of your ending for the broadcast. Before you call in to record your child’s ending we strongly recommend they practice reading it out loud several times. This will reduce the chance of mistakes when they record it. When you are ready to record your child’s ending please call us at (410) 617-1222 and follow the voice mail prompt to record. Please have your child state their FIRST NAME only and their AGE their STATE or TOWN (Your choice) and that this is their ending for STORY NAME or NUMBER prior to reading their ending. When you have finished the recording you may hang up*. Shows will be produced and air 2 weeks following the initial posting of the prompt and children will have a full week to record endings. Once the new prompt is posted on Monday, please try not to record older stories. For clarification Story 1 will post Monday April 13 and be available for call-in recording until Sunday night April 19th at midnight. The finished episode of Story 1 will air on wloy.org and streaming platforms on April 26th and then be archived to the website so your children, friends and family can share it.
Listen in each week and if you have questions, please email wloykids@loyola.edu for more information. This is our first attempt at a fully remote recorded and produced program so please bear with us if we have problems. This program is created weekly by Loyola University students writing, recording and producing from home in many different states and we are tremendously grateful for their efforts!
A complete list of remote show story prompts can be found here – feel free to write for old stories as well as new.
Samples of past episodes can be found here
What Happens Next? is supported by Shananigans Toy Shop in Roland Park. For store hours and info on this fantastic (seriously, it’s awesome) local independent toy shop visit their website. Please tell them you heard about them on WLOY Loyola Radio!
Please watch our social media or the front page of our website for new show prompts each week. Visit the What Happens Next? archives for our new series of global shows. Keep an eye out for the What Happens Next? summer workbook coming soon!
* Please note that by leaving a recording you are consenting to its use for WLOY’s What Happens Next? program. If you do not wish to have your child’s voice on the program please feel free to have them listen, read and write at home using our prompts, but do not call and record. If your child wishes, they are welcome to make up a first name to use instead of their own. All recordings are the property of WLOY and Loyola University Maryland and may be used in the context of the What Happens Next? radio show and it’s promotions. The program is offered for free to all participating children. There is no compensation for participating other than friends and family listening from afar. WLOY reserves the right to edit recordings for inappropriate content or length and recording is not a guarantee of airplay.
