Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

Shows I work with keep weekend journals.  It’s a common (and very smart) exercise to identify real life content that helps you tell stories about yourself that positions you as being just like the audience.  Everything is fair game in these journals.  We never know what you’ll experience that could become great on-air content.  Enter Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix.  When they were on, these guys did some of the best journals because they are quite observant.  Mark was out with his wife one weekend and saw a nun.  He commented in his journal that you rarely see this any longer.  So we created a new feature for the show called Nun Sightings.  We asked the audience to call the show when they saw a nun.  They had to note the time and place and, our running joke was that it really didn’t happen unless you send  a picture.  Which we used, of course, on social media to get more Nun Sightings!  You’ll enjoy the production value, which makes it even more entertaining.

Some of the funniest morning show meetings I’ve sat in were with The Rickey Smiley Morning Show (syndicated) by Urban One.  Rickey is crazy in a very good way and exceptionally funny.  We often talk about how listeners require engagement very, very quickly.  They have little time for set-ups and process.  The quicker we escalate the drama and keep that at a fever pitch, the greater chance we’ll have of holding on to the listeners’ attention.  Doing this in small, incremental doses sets us up to not just earn positive images, but not let fans become complacent with the break, get bored, and fatigue leaving us for the next hit of dopamine.  Here’s one of Rickey’s Prank Calls.  Listen to how quickly this escalates and stays there.