Archive for category: Audio

No doubt everyone is looking for bright white lights in all the morass of the world. John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego excel at not only pointing out the positive, but being supportive of their listeners.  What do fans want more than people who will root for them, care about them, and make them the star of their show?  With all the wildfires in southern California, they heard about a listener (an ex-Marine) who’s dedicated to one mission:  saving the animals.  Here’s a break of total humanity, and a reminder that good does exist in the world.  This is exceptionally relevant given how big the fires are. The guy comes on, tells stories (in fact, he tells his stories), and moves John and Tammy as well as other listeners.  Go earn images, prop up your audience, and remind your fans that when they turn to you, the world isn’t such a bad place after all.

We are always going for images.  Being real, having fun, and doing something different with a big topic.  Here’s MIX Mornings with Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah on WRAL, Raleigh.  First, hear how they accrue all those images above.  Then, listen to this break and ponder how much work it took to put less than three-minutes of a very strategic break together.  The main topics they fuse are back-to-school and the Calm App everyone seems to have.  They had to conceive the idea, then write and record the payoff, then find a listener to tell a relatable story (breaks are always better when a listener is involved), then construct the entire break.  There’s much pressure on shows to get it done faster because listeners’ attention is scant.  That, in most instances, requires more prep, not less.  Unless you are a completely defined show, which takes many years, the days of turning on everyone’s microphones and talking around a topic until you think you’re done are not as effective to hold on to listeners, who have a ton of choices for content, connection, and entertainment when you’re on.

We all agree that real life is very important as content for your show.  Sometimes, it’s the very little things that become the biggest, and most memorable.  How many Tide Pods should be used when doing your laundry?  This was the real life content tackled by Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix last week.  Mark saw that his wife put two Tide Pods into the laundry.  Once she stepped away from the washing machine, he fished one out, believing it should only be one.  And he never told her.  This resulted in calls about the correct number of Tide Pods that should be used with a full load.  You might be interested to learn that, according to the company, it’s….two!  This is great content – Mark and Paul created this break beautifully around the topic by adding in a couple of phone calls (one at the very beginning to grab you) as well as a quick quiz with a co-worker to find out how many she uses in the laundry.  Overall, this is a small thing which will become a big thing.

How do you take a relatable as simple as wondering if people with low cell phone batteries are bothered with not having a full charge and turn it into bolder content?  Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX Phoenix show you with this week’s audio.  On a show call recently, Mark bemoaned that every time he looked at his wife’s cell phone, her battery was dangerously low.  That’s a simple enough character story to tell on the air and leave as-is or use as a phone topic.  But the show decided to add other elements to the content to elevate it.  Mark talked with three listeners at a station promotion and asked their names, what they did, and the current status of their cell phone charge (element #1).  Then he used that audio and asked NeanderPaul to guess what their battery level was, knowing that he would be funny with it (element #2).  They turned what could have been a standard break or phone topic into a game listeners vicariously played along with in the car.  Add elements like these on occasion to your breaks to present them differently to your audience so your content stays fresh and different for fans.

The most entertaining guests on the show sometimes live on the fringe.  When they are family of cast members, they also provide character development.  Letterman taught us the importance of finding the colorful people around the show and figure out how to get them on so their oddities can capture the audience’s attention.  John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego have some very fun family members.  John’s daughter, Abby, just became a a vegan.  This lifestyle is distant from the typical country partisan.  So, John decided to interview his daughter to find out what that was like, and, loaded up with things to say, Abby judged the audience and created both fun and character development for her father in the process.  Bottom line:  look for the fun, odd people around you and introduce them to the audience to create some electric content.  Here’s the break to hear how it’s done.