Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

Lots of shows covered International Women’s Day a few weeks ago.  Whether you target women or not, this was appropriate as the topic was high profile, placing it as a rare exception to my belief that doing national this-and-that days is irrelevant.  Our job in radio is to connect with the audience from whatever position we have on any known topic.  Where most shows probably asked the audience to name a woman in life important to them or to acknowledge some prominent women in the community, Gregg, Freddie, and Danielle, MIX 104.1, Boston did things one better.  They introduced to the audience the women in each of their lives important to them.  Making this topic personal and hearing their pride as they talked with who they chose defined them, leaving the audience with a sense of each as human beings.  That’s taking a relevant topic and creating great character development.  It’s no harder than that!

Relatabilty is an important image you must own to connect with the audience.  Communicating “we understand what’s important in your life” goes a long way to the audience wanting to be around you.  But you must also go deeper to connect with fans in emotional ways that makes that bond harder to break.  In a market like Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill that houses major universities, March Madness is a critically important topic as many are into it and everyone’s aware of it.  Kyle, Bryan, and Sarah, WRAL-FM, Raleigh know the images of each university.  As someone who also lives in the market and is a die hard NC State fan, I’ll share that they always figure out how to disappoint us.  The show knows the average Wolfpack fan is cynical about their team.  Listen to this call you probably won’t understand.  It’s an NC State fan who puts on full display that cynicism.  NC State fans listening to their show, and everyone else who’s lived in the market for longer than a minute, are connecting and laughing at this.  Bonus points (important):  hear to how local this break is!