Karen, Johnny, and Anthony, WNEW-FM, New York with Hey Dad, We Need Toys
There’s this concept of doing your break for the person least interested. If you can craft a break around a topic and a listener who doesn’t care about that topic is entertained, you win big. Karen Carson in the Morning with Johnny Minge and Intern Anthony, WNEW-FM, New York raised toys for disadvantaged kids over the holidays. In our effort to stand out and engage those in the audience who don’t have the resources or would not send a toy for any reason, we needed to grab them emotionally, too. So each of the cast members called their fathers on-air to ask them to donate some toys. Which got us a “can you top the last dad” vibe. Listen to these two breaks through the lens of not caring about what they’re doing. If you are engaged by what the show did to promote the toy drive, the show won.