When the people who run CBC Windsor’s morning radio show The Early Shift decided they wanted to reshape the program in an attempt to broaden the audience, they turned to the expertise of an upper level marketing course in the Odette School of Business for some fresh ideas.

As part of a class assignment, the dozen or so students in professor Vincent Georgie’s advertising management course were told to listen to the full two-and-a-half hour program every morning for several weeks and come up with some suggestions for improvement.

Yesterday, they met with CBC Windsor managing editor Shawna Kelly, Early shift producer Robin Brown and Tony Doucette, the show’s host, who said he was encouraged by the session.

“It went very well,” he said. “It’s always nice to hear unvarnished views of what you’re doing. We told the students that our skin was thick and we asked them to be honest, and they gave us some very constructive criticism.”

Brown said the trio heard some very good suggestions.

“We’re going to meet with them again, and we’re going to implement some of the ideas we talked about,” she said.

“They’re super smart,” Kelly said of the students. “They seemed very excited about the assignment, and they definitely asked the kinds of questions I would expect future marketers would ask, especially around demographics and trends.”

You can hear The Early Shift from 6 to 8:30 a.m. on CBC Radio One at 97.5 FM.