Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

A primary strategic objective for every talent is to do content that moves the audience to care about them.  Think about the relationships you have in your real life.  The people you know, who you can just be yourself around.  Who you have fun with and affirm you.  Those are the people you want to spend time around.  We develop a relationship with listeners in exactly the same way.  By revealing ourselves so they feel like they know us, too.  Mojo from Mojo in the Morning, Channel 955, Detroit had open-heart surgery last week.  It was a procedure he’d known he needed for years and now was the time.  The listeners knew all because Mojo has this deep capacity to share all of this life with his fans (everyone on the show has this ability, which is why they are all so popular).  Here’s the break where Mojo talks about his family on the eve of the operation.  It’s exceptionally honest, authentic, and real where Mojo explores his fears, and chats about his therapist, his mom, his kids and wife, and the video he would leave for them if something went wrong.  Then wonderful dimension at the end when they aired callers wishing him well.  Pay close attention to the callers.  Listen to how they talk with him.  What they say and how they say it.  It’s quite apparent they care about him.  That’s the kind of relationship you should have with your listeners, too.  This is content only they can do, which makes them special.  Despite the length of this break (they’ve earned that), would you do a break like this?  Could you?  Email your thoughts to me here once you hear it.

One of my favorite new features in 2020 came from John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego.  All content must be relevant and the best content is fun (or done with the intent to make you laugh or feel better).  I always add major bonus points when something is developed so specific to that show, no one else can do it.  One of John’s daughters is a vegan.  When she comes to visit, his life changes dramatically because he has to buy different food for the house and try different things for meals.  That tension is what makes this a great feature when Abby arrives called Lifestyle Advice From a Vegan.  No other show can do this because it happens only to John and only when Abby arrives.  That’s what makes this very authentic and funny.  John writes the script so he can poke a lot at himself (he’s quite self-deprecating, which works here), asks Abby to read it as though she wrote it (he doesn’t allow her to pre-read the scripts so you hear her smiling or laughing as she says certain things), and then he adds an appropriate music bed.  All around, I am getting to know John (character development) and the bit allows the show to display it’s quite genuine sense of humor.  Here is the last installment of the feature from 2020.