Radio Show Content | Audio Breaks

KNUC, Seattle Red Shops Drunk

January 20, 2019

One of my wishes for all of radio is that we dispense with boring, staged phone topics presented for use by prep services. The best phone topics come from stories the talent tell about their life, before they put the spotlight on the audience by asking them to tell similar stories about themselves. We talk about being relevant and strategic in radio. This approach to topics does a few important things: it defines the talent telling the story because it’s about them (must be relatable), then flips the script by allowing the audience to tell stories just like that to entertain the cast and other listeners. Tim, Claire, and Red, 98.9 The Bull, Seattle executed this perfectly in these two breaks below. Red tells a story about what she’s like shopping online when she is drunk (listen to the chemistry and natural laughter as her team pulls out all the details of the story). Then in the second clip, a listener calls to advance the narrative in their quest to do real life content that is fun to hear.

KSLX, Phoenix Neighborhood Nicknames

January 13, 2019

Who doesn’t live in a neighborhood where you have nicknames for those who live there? Mark and NeanderPaul, KSLX, Phoenix realized in an unplanned content break that everyone does this. Like the one resident of someone’s neighborhood who has been deemed, behind her back, as Amazon Woman. Not due to her size, but because UPS pulls up everyday and offloads several packages from Amazon to her home. This has become a weekly feature on their program where listeners call and share the nicknames of neighborhood residents, and then the reason they were given them. The very best content is real life stuff, culled not only from the experiences the cast and listeners have, but the kind of content the average listener might hear and say, “yea, me, too.” That’s content that is relatable and helps the show remind the audience that they are just like them.

WIL, St. Louis Kane Brown Will You Hug Me?

January 6, 2019

We all understand the value of story-telling to engage listeners. Stories are important to define the show and its cast and have elements inside that draw listeners in. What is a great song, if it isn’t a story, right? There was a local Kane Brown concert in St. Louis and something magical happened – a young girl held up a sign asking if he’d hug her. That’s when Kane Brown said yes and invited the gal on stage. Enter Mason and Remy, New Country 92.3 (WIL), St. Louis who elevated the story-telling by passing the chance to just tell it from what they read online (a pretty standard approach) to getting the young gal and her mother to come on to tell it themselves, heightening the break with truer emotion because the kid and her mom experienced it directly. The team took it one step further by having the mom video their end of the conversation for digital content for Facebook and other social media posts, thus extending this amazing content. The break is below. See the video here.

WTMX, Chicago Late to His Own Wedding

December 16, 2018

Phone calls from listeners are standard fare and an easy and effective way to tell stories and create fun, engaging, relatable content. Where do yours come from? Some shows pull their phone topics from prep sheets and then tie their stories into the generic, evergreen topic suggested. A better place, and one that provides terrific character development for you and your team, is from those real time experiences you’re having in your life. Enter Koz and Jen, WTMX (The MIX), Chicago. Jen hosted a baby shower for a relative at her home, where the relative being celebrated was almost two hours late. The twists and turns of this story are most authentic to define Jen. The team then offers up the appropriate topic: what were you (or someone you know) very late for? A listener called to share that he was late to his own wedding, because he was sitting in his car in the parking lot listening to the radio. You’ll never believe what made him stay in the car. Here’s the break – great story telling, terrific fun, with the most appropriate questions and comments from the team to connect with the audience.

B105, Cincinnati What Would Scarecrow Do – Dave’s Lost Keys

December 9, 2018

What happens when you marry something very relatable with something very odd? Memorable content! Big Dave from The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati, lost his keys. He spent days trying to find them in the house. Listeners attach themselves to the relatable things the talent does – this is why it’s so important to do content that positions you as just like the audience – they wish to be around people just like them. After several days of not being able to locate the keys, the team decided to ask their favorite listener, Scarecrow, what to do. Scarecrow comes on each week to solve listener’s problems. She’s odd (in a good way), fun, and you obviously feel the chemistry between her and the show. Marry the relatable with the quirkiness of this feature, and you have one more thing this show does that no one can steal, making it a true point of differentiation between them and the rest of the market (you should have many of these).

Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

KNUC, Seattle Red Shops Drunk

KSLX, Phoenix Neighborhood Nicknames

WIL, St. Louis Kane Brown Will You Hug Me?

WTMX, Chicago Late to His Own Wedding

B105, Cincinnati What Would Scarecrow Do – Dave’s Lost Keys

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