Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

Strategic benchmarks do a few very important things for any show:  they create an appointment at the time they’re done (necessary to gain another occasion from listeners).  They earn you images quicker if they are focused on having fun.  And, if centered around a cast member, they potentially build their character faster.  JJ and Tiny, KFDI, Wichita, KS put a benchmark on their show about a year ago that helps the program win in every category listed above.  Tiny is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to useless trivia.  So we built a feature around this attribute to define him to the audience.  Called “Can’t Top Tiny”, the listeners challenge him in who knows more around five inane trivial questions as chosen by JJ.  This is done every morning at 7:50 (there’s the appointment) and we pay it off with a couple of hit records so the audience, once entertained by this vicarious feature, gets some music.

Many shows over the years have played the “I Love You Game” where they try to get someone on the phone to reply back that they love them.  Sherman and Tingle, WDRV (The Drive), Chicago have added a few twists to this.  They do a character called Paul the Perv who calls three business of the same type, to see if he can make that happen.  Paul immediately makes things odd because the character is weird and creepy (without crossing the “ick” line).  They then call three of the same kinds of business to theme it each week.  The other element that works is the other cast members of the show have to guess, of the three calls, how many Paul will be successful with the payoff.  This final item forces a vicarious element into the breaks, compelling the listener to guess, too, then stay tuned to see if they are right.  These are fun and this weekly feature is perfectly designed to grab the audience’s attention and keep it throughout the break.  Here’s one of the breaks from a recent airing so you can get a sense of how all these elements work together.