Archive for month: November, 2013

If you’re telling a story on the show that has other people involved, instead of just giving the details of the story yourself, get them to participate so there is more to play with.  Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston, ventured into Karson’s relationship with his wife, Lana.  She’d purchased a massage for him that he never used and this caused friction in their relationship. Their great producer, Mike Morgan, told Lana to listen to the break they were about to do on-the-air.  He then had her leave a voicemail with her reaction (a novel approach).  This break is Lana going off, uninterrupted, on Karson.  It’s a terrific character building break because Lana is very real, very passionate, very opinionated, and very funny.

I am not a fan of lists – they’re easy content but not very personal.  Unless you do something with them that is uniquely yours.  Ryno and Tracy, KYGO, Denver, found the list of least sexiest American accents.  They could have just read it to the audience and commented, but they personalized it when Tracy, noting how hated a Midwestern accent is, called her husband and tried to seduce him with a Minnesota accent.  Lots of silly fun.

Sometimes a break happens on a Reynolds Group show that is perfection.  This is one of them. The Red Sox are on the cusp of another World Series title and Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston know this is top shelf, very relatable content to the market.  Listeners remember you not for the topics you choose, but for what you do with the topic.  They had Karson’s three-year old son, Barrett, say the names of the Red Sox players and an intern, who happens to hate baseball, had to decipher them.  Here are the strategic things accomplished in this break: character definition, deep authenticity, high relevance of topic, innovation because of what they did with the topic, and the chemistry of the room drove the humor.