Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

At our core, we’re storytellers.  Each break in which we do content, we convey who we are and what we’re all about by the sharing of stories.  We prove our relatability and entertain the audience by telling them.  Then the great shows turn the forum of storytelling over to the audience.  There are three components of all memorable stories:  the set up (this is the short synopsis of what the story is about at the very beginning, not unlike the opening paragraph of any written story).  The second part has all the wonderful details, drama, and tension that move the narrative of the story forward.  And the end is the payoff or destination.  With this week’s audio, I want to focus on the middle part, because it’s the drama and details that make a story come to life and entertain the audience.  Lexi and Banks, KUBL, Salt Lake City had just come back from their holiday break.  Lexi had a very bad motel experience as she drove with her boyfriend and dogs to see family.  A five-minute story is long, unless it contains lots of drama to keep the audience hooked to move through the narrative.  As she tells the motel story, count nine different pieces of drama that kept the listener’s interest.  If you have only one or two pieces of tension in an experience, reconsider telling it because there might not be enough there to entertain the audience.  This has all that and then some, which makes it memorable, relatable, and fun to hear.

Be strategic about your content messaging and be different from anything else out there and you stand your best chance things will cut through.  We were looking for a fresh way to do character development with David, Sue, and Kendra, Magic 106.7, Boston.  When doing a standard character development exercise recently, we happened upon some traits the entire team had that were odd (in a good way).  When doing character development, it’s always most efficient when listeners connect with a core attribute they have in common with you (i.e. being a spouse, having kids, liking sports, owning a pet).  But sometimes, it’s the quirkier things which are the stickiest.  Here’s “Getting to Know You”.  Kendra hoards receipts.  She never throws them out.  The audience is told this fact then callers are challenged to guess how many receipts she has in her pocketbook that morning before she reveals the awful total.  I love this take because, while letting the listeners into the lives of the cast (we do this with all three cast members), it’s not your standard tell a story, then ask for phone calls, that makes it work for me.