Radio Show Content | Audio Breaks

WTMX (The Mix 101.9), Chicago Dale the Receptionist

June 9, 2019

One of the simple ways to easily grow the entertainment quotient of your show is to use the cast of characters around you at the radio station who are not on the show every day. Letterman taught us this simple approach, and every late night talk show host has done it since. Find people in the building who are bold, own a perspective or expertise in something, radiate wattage, and are fun (or you can have fun with), and bring them on the show from time-to-time. Koz and Jen at WTMX (101.9 The MIX), Chicago do this with Dale the Receptionist. It’s commonly believed that the station receptionist knows all. So when the show wanted to talk about outdated technology around the building, it was an easy decision to bring Dale on to note all of it and have fun. Real life characters add easy laughs for the show – you just gotta be on the lookout for them around the building.

B105, Cincinnati Luke or Dare

May 25, 2019

Two of the regular items that bear themselves out when you talk with listeners is that they want fast moving breaks, with multiple parts to keep their attention. And that the sweet spot for length is about three minutes with rare exceptions. Enter The Big Dave Show, B105, Cincinnati who prep their breaks accordingly. Here’s a nice, compact break with two major elements around the Luke Bryan tickets the show has for giveaway: Part One in Luke or Dare is the team offering a trivia question to a caller – if they answer it correctly they get the tickets. Or they have to accept the dare, which is Part Two. Listen to this break and note how quickly it moves – they never give the audience a chance to get lulled into restlessness because of its pacing – it was prepped for this. There is launch/set-up, execution, and payoff all within three minutes, leaving the audience wanting more verses fatiguing them by staying too long. Which leads to a third important point: if you have something to give out, spend more time figuring out how to give away the prize because how you do it is the win for those just tuning in, wanting to have a good time.

106.5 The Arch, St. Louis Becoming a Storyteller

May 19, 2019

What is a great song, but a story? Reality shows, even your favorite weekly sit-com, tells a story every week. Facts and figures only matter if they tell stories, which is how we connect as human beings and show our humanity. So this begs the big question – how do you do in telling stories on your show? What’s your story? The stories you find around your life and the Hot Topics frame your point-of-view and communicate your take. Stacey and Jonah, 106.5 The Arch, St. Louis heard that a gentleman and his family went to a Cardinals baseball game and, because he’d seen a picture, noticed that sitting close by was the family of the person who donated his heart in a transplant a few years prior. In a bold move, he introduced himself, believing this moment would never happen again. The show could have relayed the story on their own, but they elevated it by getting the man, the transplant recipient, on their show to tell them what happened. Awesome story-telling, very human, and quite memorable radio.

WRAL-FM, Raleigh Taking Advantage of the Moment

May 12, 2019

Our post last week was about being in the moment for pop culture – attaching yourself in a unique way to a Hot Topic. The most inviting content might be what’s going on in the world right now, because those topics are clickable (and postable on your social media platforms). But the treatment of that topic, as my friends at Coleman Insights have long advocated, is what is critical to making the break stand out. There was a huge controversy around the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, where the expected horse to win was disqualified and Country House declared the winner. Good conversation for the show just after the race, because people are aware of it (awareness is the main threshold for determining a topic for your show). Kyle from Two Men and a Mom, WRAL-FM, Raleigh found out something very cool. His father-in-law placed a bet on Country House, because he lives in a country house (it was one of those “on a whim” bets). His father-in-law’s $20 bet, at 65-1 odds, paid off $1300. So, they got him on and you got to hear his story, energy, and sense of humor around the topic. Giving their program one more break that could only be done by them to engage and entertain the audience. That he placed the bet and won big is a coincidence. That they took advantage of it as content for the show isn’t.

KSON, San Diego Being In The Moment

May 5, 2019

If I were to take an hour of today’s show and play it in two weeks, would it feel old and dated? If so, that’s a good sign that your content choices were “of the moment”. That you were so tapped into what’s going on right now, you reflected pop culture and were contemporary. Your audience wants not only a connection to you, they want to be connected to the topics of the day. That’s being radio’s version of click bait. In a brainstorm around the topic of James Holzhauer, the weird guy who keeps winning on Jeopardy, John and Tammy, KSON, San Diego wondered what it was like for the contestants who lose to him. Noting that each contestant and their city of residence are used in the introduction at the beginning of the show, they wrote down a few and used the Google Machine® to find one. Here’s an interview with the guy who came the closest – the contestant who lost to Holzhauer by just $18. In the moment, from a unique angle that fascinated them, and a few minutes of highly relevant pop culture radio their fans could not get from anyone else.

Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

WTMX (The Mix 101.9), Chicago Dale the Receptionist

B105, Cincinnati Luke or Dare

106.5 The Arch, St. Louis Becoming a Storyteller

WRAL-FM, Raleigh Taking Advantage of the Moment

KSON, San Diego Being In The Moment

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