Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

A critical element to create great content is conflict – be it real or manufactured for fun.  Content segments without that push and pull of tension do little to grab the audience emotionally, which is the one thing that will both intrigue them to hear it (hence, a powerful set-up or hook at the very beginning of the break) and provide a resolution to that dramatic thesis at its end.  For Father’s Day last month, Lexi and Banks, K-BULL 93, Salt Lake City had the typical giveaway packages from the promotions folks.  Not content to play a silly game or take caller X, they fished through social media looking for listeners who had borrowed money from their fathers and not paid it back.  That was the thesis of real life drama they would use to tell a story, tie into Father’s Day, and get dad and and their kid on to give something out.  Mining the story from both perspectives, as you will hear below, is appropriate and relatable.  But at the end, they asked the father to forgive the “loan” in return for the prize package, thus providing resolution.  All around, this is very well conceived and executed by the team!

You can tell someone else’s story, or get them to tell it themselves – which one is better to you?  Obviously, it’s the latter.  When you hear a great story, make the effort to get the person who experienced the story to come on your show and explore it with them.  Doing so brings you a deeper level of honest storytelling, you find out more details which makes the story come to life, and there’s much more emotion to it.  You might have seen the viral video of Chris Swanson, the Flint, MI cop who took off his riot gear to be with protestors.  Instead of just talking about it, John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego convinced him to come on the show to tell his story.  Hearing his voice made all the difference because he lived it and it ended up being pro-cop, a lost perspective with all the protests.  This changed the break from C-level to A-level.  We all must be better at this kind of prep.  Doing this makes the break much more memorable and gives you something around the topic to totally own.