Radio Show Content | Audio Breaks

Wicker and Wilde, MIX 98.1, Richmond Finding Atlas the Dog

February 27, 2022/in Audio /by Steve Reynolds

There’s this old adage in radio that small market stations want to sound big and big market stations want to sound small. In the latter, “small” means homey. All radio should sound personal. If you’re a person of a certain age reading this post, you’ll remember when hometown stations would let listeners get on-the-air and ask the audience for help in finding their lost dogs. That’s exactly what Wicker and Wilde, MIX 98.1, Richmond did recently. A listener lost his dog Atlas and he asked for the audience’s help in finding him. Which resulted in this narrative theme over one show where listeners called with Atlas sightings and the resolution at the end of the program where the dog and owner were reunited. So homey and touching – with anyone listening that day wondering if there was a happy ending. This is wonderfully touching radio and super local.

Gregg, Freddy, and Danielle, MIX 104.1, Boston with Gram’s Jams

February 20, 2022/in Audio /by Steve Reynolds

Anytime you come up with an idea centered around the music you play, it scores well with the audience and ties you back to the overall brand images of the radio station. Gregg, Freddy, and Danielle, MIX 104.1, Boston afternoons, wanted to play the often-used simple game of reading a song lyric to the audience and having the listener give back the artist and title to win a prize. That’s been done a million times, right? Add in a cast member’s grandmother, who’s reading the racy lyric, and you do both character development and earn an image of being fun, and you shift the feature from being a pure promotional giveaway to the earning of images with the entire audience. Especially important for those not trying to win the prize, but still wishing to be entertained by what they hear.

Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix Dirty Pics to the Pastor

February 13, 2022/in Audio /by Steve Reynolds

The origin of your breaks communicate your relevance. Using a Hot List topic to generate your break connects both you and the audience to whatever is going on in life right now. Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix used the story of Patriots Coach Bill Belichick getting in trouble for sending a text to talk with the audience about the texts they’ve sent that weren’t proper. As some things go, this became about the inappropriate nude pictures sent to others. Here’s a fun story told by a female listener to the guys about naked pictures she accidentally sent to a group text, which included her pastor. The start is the Belichick story, but the end has the focus on a listener, making her the star of their program. Note her nice compliment to the show at the end of the call. She shared that personal story because she feels like she knows the people on the show, key to her calling.

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego The Jimmie Allen Interview

February 6, 2022/in Audio /by Steve Reynolds

Here’s another example of an interview that hits the sweet spot to sell tickets and entertain the audience. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts on this page, most people who ask for interview time on a show do so for one reason – they want to sell something. Our goal is to always entertain the audience with laughter and storytelling. Listeners want to get to know the celebrity you’re talking to. Enter John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego with their conversation with country artist Jimmie Allen, who’s on to sell tickets to his upcoming show. If you’re not aware, Jimmie is African-American and very funny. John and Tammy absolutely have a game plan for this interview. But, they’re comfortable enough to let the chemistry drive it. They’re great listeners and allow Jimmie to be Jimmie. Here are two segments. After all the laughter and our getting to know Jimmie better, don’t you think they helped him sell more tickets? Which means he’ll come on the show again. Artists remember great experiences. So do listeners. This ticks all those boxes.

Brian and Chrissy, WGNA, Albany Be Where the Audience Is

January 30, 2022/in Audio /by Steve Reynolds

Great brands meet their customers wherever they are. Look around any big website. They tend to have, front and center, stories about (and links to) stuff around the Hot Topics of the day. Great personality shows instinctively know where the audience is emotionally and where they should be on an given day on a topic. Which brings us to Brian and Chrissy, WGNA, Albany. It’s their first show after their Buffalo Bills lose to the Kansas City Chiefs in what was the greatest weekend for football ever. There’s no need to say that so much of their audience was grieving over the loss. So, that’s where Brian and Chrissy were, too, with their content. Some of their benchmarks remained, but the rest of the show had Bills content and tapped into where their audience was emotionally. Here’s one break which proves that (note how they start the break with audio to hook the audience).

Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

Wicker and Wilde, MIX 98.1, Richmond Finding Atlas the Dog

Gregg, Freddy, and Danielle, MIX 104.1, Boston with Gram’s Jams

Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix Dirty Pics to the Pastor

John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego The Jimmie Allen Interview

Brian and Chrissy, WGNA, Albany Be Where the Audience Is

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