Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

With all the syndication in radio, it’s an asset if you’re local.  But, what is being local?  It’s certainly not giving out the temperature in various cities or referencing major thoroughfares when you do the traffic.  Being local is knowing the stories driving your market at any given time or being involved in things that happen in town and using them as content to entertain your audience.  Being local is only an advantage if you’re substantive with local topics and do them in a way that helps you connect with the audience.  Humble Pie is an iconic Raleigh restaurant that, after thirty years, shocked its fans by closing.  A significant part of the content strategy for Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh is to be local.  That’s why this is such a terrific break.  A few things to hear:  listen to how quickly they get into it.  Within 30 seconds you know the drama and the connection happens.  Then, Sarah (who worked there) tells first-person stories about the place.  If you don’t understand this break, they were exceptionally local.  To earn images of being local, especially up against syndicated shows in the market, this one’s an A+.

How do you meld two topics together that fuse character development with pop culture?  Ask Karen Carson in the Morning with Johnny Minge and Intern Anthony, WNEW-FM, New York.  Intern Anthony was to get married.  We told the audience one of his high school friends dropped out of the reception because of Covid so there were two seats available at Table 8 with his cousins.  The show decided to invite Aaron Rogers, who’s now playing for the NY Jets.  To get listeners involved, they told them Anthony put a question in the invitation only Aaron would know and asked them to guess it.  They said if Aaron didn’t accept, from those who guessed the right question (fish or meat?), one would take his place if his fiance said yes.  Here’s a break of guesses and Anthony’s fiance saying no!