Archive for month: July, 2018

Hooking the audience with a question almost always works to build intrigue to hear a story.  Brian Sherman, from Sherman and Tingle, WDRV, Chicago, had a lovely summer vacation, until he got home.  That’s when he discovered his air conditioning unit and furnace were completely, totally dead.  And that the cost to replace all of it would be $14,000.  Brian could have just told the story, which would have been good.  But he hooked them by asking the audience what happened that cost him $14,000 at the end of his vacation (there’s your hook and intrigue).  After a series of wrong guesses, someone got it right, which is when Brian then told the story.  This is brilliantly structured and executed to grab the audience to want to hear the story while including listeners.

There are very few markets where lobster news would be a part of a show’s information segment.  But considering it’s a local food in their market, Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston, highlight all news that is lobster-oriented.  Lobster ice cream might not make it as a FOX News Alert, but for these guys, it’s something that should be showcased and included in Kate Merrill’s hourly news segment!  The most important thing you can do as a show is cultivate an image of fun.  In this stressful world, being the respite from the seriousness of the world today, laughter is your best bet.  Just reporting the lobster news isn’t enough.  In this short part of the newscast, you’ll not only hear the lobster news, but also a silly Letterman-esque jingle that highlights it and makes it even more fun.  Go create laughter for the listener and you’ll be doing the one thing listeners want most – escape from the world we know today.