Matt McAllister, Gabe, and Captain Ron, The Wolf, Seattle with The Sister Massage

Tension creates great breaks.  Conflict and drama inside a story or opposing forces of an antagonist and protagonist working against each other is the reason you choose to tell a story on the show.  If you went to the mall to buy new underwear, it’s a story not worth telling.  But if, while there, you saw someone get arrested, then you tell it.  Weirdness and moral dilemmas work, too.  Take what happened on the Matt McAllister Show with Gabe and Captain Ron, The Wolf, Seattle.  Ron’s sister got her massage license.  He’s considering letting his sister give him a massage.  You feeling the weirdness?  They did, too, as it’s an odd thesis.  Time to ask the audience what they think.  This is memorable because it’s true and they ask the audience to decide.  Find that tension in your stories and then lean on that to make it memorable.

Kira and Logan, WOKQ, Portsmouth, NH with Liam Payne Passes

There’s this exercise I do when brainstorming with shows around a pop culture or local topic that helps them develop treatments which puts their authenticity front and center.  It’s called Know Wonder.  What do you know about the topic and also, what do you wonder?  Researching every topic stimulates one’s creativity.  That curiosity fuels interesting breaks because, if you’re fascinated by it in the presentation, your audience will be, too.  Liam Payne from One Direction dies unexpectedly.  Many shows would report what they know to the audience.  Add in some curiosity and it comes alive.  Kira and Logan, WOKQ, Portsmouth, NH wondered why people cry when a celebrity they’ve never met dies.  It led to fascinating calls from their fans.  Here’s what they did the day after Liam died.  This is compelling, relevant, topical radio.

Moug and Karla, B96, Chicago with Truth or Treat

A treatment of a topic rarely taken advantage of is street audio.  Getting outside voices on your show brings some color into the break. Much like when Jay Leno did Jaywalking or David Letterman interacted with people on the streets of New York.  Kudos to Moug and Karla, B96, Chicago for Truth or Treat.  Knowing you have to go to the crowds, they showed up to talk with Chicago Bears tailgaters.  Those folks are slightly loose and all in good moods.  So using them will bring that vibe to the show.  In this feature, they wrote tons of personal questions.  The tailgater had to choose one and answer it.  Note how they had the tailgater read the question.  That brought a fun dimension to the feature as we could hear their voice emotionally react to the personal thing they had to answer.

Steve Richards, MIX 96.5, Asheville, NC with Listener Jen and Hurricane Helene

What radio does better than any other medium is connection.  Making people feel like they aren’t alone.  The pictures and videos coming out of western North Carolina are horrific.  Loss of life.  Entire towns wiped away by Hurricane Helene.  While it shouldn’t take a natural disaster to connect listeners, we shouldn’t underestimate our power to do that, too.  It’s why many fans choose us each day.  Amongst the devastation, we make listeners feel like they’re not going through it by themselves.  My friend Steve Richards, MIX 96.5, Asheville, NC is one of the very best I know at this.  As that station powered back up, here’s a call from a listener on her experience.  It’s riveting story-telling with multiple connection points.  We need to know what’s below the service emotionally with our listeners, whether it’s a bad situation or not.  Connect there and we’ll always be important to them

Gregg, Freddie, and Andrea, MIX 104.1, Boston with Triple True or False

I like trivia a lot.  Especially when it’s easy.  Watch a trivia-based game on TV and it’s highly addictive.  You end up playing along with the game, as your listeners do in their cars.  There are so many creative, very engaging ways to do this.  Compile a list and, when you have things to give out, use them.  They are way better than caller 18 to earn images with those not contesting for the prize.  Gregg, Freddie, and Andrea, MIX 104.1, Boston play Triple True or False.  They have three true/false trivia questions.  If caller 14 gets all of them right, they win.  But if they don’t, caller 15 gets the prize.  The key to creating some drama is to first put both callers on the air so one is rooting against the other.  Here it is as an example.  Bet you play along.

The AD Show, KSHE, St. Louis with Everyone Rallies For Pot Smoking Patrick

One of the benefits of being a phone-driven show is that you have regular callers, many of whom are quirky characters.  Some shows don’t see the opportunity there.  The AD Show, KSHE, St. Louis does.  Oddball regular callers become part of the show and add much-needed color to many of them.  Think about how David Letterman made stars of the weird people on his staff.  AD and Chris have done the same, embracing every time these folks call the show.  Enter Pot Smoking Patrick.  As Patrick has called in, everyone has gotten to know him.  Then, a touch of humanity.  Patrick shares with the audience that he has cancer.  More stories, more real life.  Hear how the rest of the audience, none of whom know Patrick outside of his appearances on the show, rally around him.  Now, that’s great, memorable  radio.

George, Mo, and Erik, KILT-FM (The Bull), Houston with Tattoo Regrets

We are a story-telling medium.  That’s what we do best.  Stories are how we introduce ourselves to others.  Stories define us.  In any format, but especially in country.  Because every great country song tells a story.  Here’s George, Mo, and Erik, KILT-FM (The Bull), Houston with tattoo regret calls.  A few things to note:  first, the “why” is the most important part of anything we do.  Why is this content on the show?  Mo’s husband has a tattoo he doesn’t like.  Other items to highlight:  the setup from the show is super short.  The win of this for listeners is hearing a caller’s story.  They get to that in under twenty seconds.  Finally, there’s great character development at the end when Mo’s father calls to tell his story (it’s wild).  Know your why, be relatable, tell stories, involve listeners, and get to it quickly.  The recipe for a terrific content break.

Daly/Migs Show, 99.9 KISW, Seattle with Lily Hates Metallica

If you ever need to construct a break and get stumped at how to create conflict (a disparity or incompatibility in how something is viewed), just think “what’s the opposite of this”.  The big story last weekend in Seattle was two Metallica concerts after years of not being in the market.  This is a big deal to rock fans and the Daly/Migs Show, 99.9 KISW, Seattle needed to own it in content.  Yea, other rock shows had tickets, too.  But this is about what’s done with Metallica content that competitors won’t think to do.  The opposite of a metal head is to play some of their music for a kid.  Enter Danny V, who’s on the show and has a ten-year old, who’s never heard the group.  Listen to Lily’s reactions.  To extend the content, the rest of the show did it with their kids the next day at the same time.  All of it adorable, character defining, funny, and relevant.  This is great ideation on that relevant and local topic.

Brian and Chrissy, WGNA, Albany with Chrissy is a Giggle Box

You want the audience to rally around a cast member?  Air a caller who bashes one of them.  Then watch as people shift from like to love of that personality, wanting to defend them.  On Brian and Chrissy, WGNA, Albany, Chrissy has a unique laugh.  In a discussion on-air, Brian goes there, with a listener who calls Chrissy a “giggle box”.  Yikes.  Watch the phones go crazy as Chrissy fans come to her defense because they’d never want that said about them or someone they like.  Tactically placing things like this into the show on occasion, or taking advantage of them when they appear, is a smart move to keep the audience engaged.  Then watch the audience rise up to defend the talent and show.

Christine and Salt, WTIC-FM, Hartford, with Connecticut Etiquette

You need experts on your show.  People who have an expertise in some area who can add to your breaks when you do that kind of content.  Think Oprah, who understood the value of doing relationships-based content and went out and found Dr. Phil.  Her ratings were always higher when he was on her show (until she realized they could make more money if Dr. Phil had his own show).  Put a list together of experts who can add to your show’s content.  Then find people with wattage who can do just that.  Christine and Salt, WTIC-FM, Hartford, CT did just that.  They found a fun person who was an expert in living a proper life.  So they created the Connecticut Etiquette (love the name because it rhymes and is so memorable) who comes on whenever they’re talking about manners.