Radio Show Content | Audio Breaks

AMP 103.3, Boston Corrine the Hot Mess Express

February 10, 2019

When you use ancillary characters on a show, naming them in a descriptive way helps the audience understand their purpose or position on your program. The TJ Show, AMP 103.3, Boston regularly uses the other air talent on the radio station as a way to reflect its youth and help promote the other shows. Corrine does middays and she is bold and in charge as an air talent – she has a presence very few miss. She also has a ton of drama in her life, which is great content for any show. So, when she’s used on TJ’s program, they refer to her as Corrine the Hot Mess Express. The descriptor helps the audience understand the kind of content and stories Corrine adds to the breaks when they talk with her. That it’s alliterative helps it being memorable, too. Ultimately, to build personality images, any show is judged based on the connectivity and entertainment value of its personalities and content. Corrine adds in a way that is very positive. That the show refers to her in this way helps, as well. You’ll leave this break remembering Corrine – which is the goal.

MIX 104.1, Boston Having Fun With the News

February 3, 2019

Karson & Kennedy What’s the purpose of doing a news feature on your show, and where are the wins? Somewhere in your market is a credible radio news source. Listeners do not come to you for news. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer an information segment – the wins come in your conversation around the news items of the day. That dialogue (your take and commentary) defines your character to the audience. Add in, where appropriate, your sense of humor, and now you’re earning an image critical to success. If you’re delivering news as a single monologue (“here’s the latest on what happened”), you’re missing an opportunity to get more done for your show, especially considering if listeners really wanted just information, they’d go to the news/talk station or turn on their TV before leaving the house. Here’s a terrific example of how news should be done on an entertainment-based show by Karson and Kennedy, MIX 104.1, Boston.

Magic 106.7, Boston Truth Be Told

January 27, 2019

Playing the occasional game on a show is a good thing. It’s even better when it has two elements: it’s vicarious (listeners can play along in the car as they’re driving to work) and it’s strategic (its purpose is to have fun, earn another critical image, and/or define the cast). There are many ways a cast can do character development, but the game Truth Be Told, as done by David, Sue, and Kendra, Magic 106.7, Boston, is the cleanest and most efficient we’ve heard. There are a few versions of this game (i.e. Two Lies and a Truth), but listen to how this team executes the game so fans driving (who just woke up and don’t have a great capacity to follow along with deep stories) can easy understand what they’re doing. Each cast member offers a one sentence story to the caller (one sentence is highly digestible), then the listener chooses which story is true (with people in cars doing the same). Then the fuller story is told – defining that cast member, earning the additional image of fun for listeners just tuning in to be put in a good mood.

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.

Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

AMP 103.3, Boston Corrine the Hot Mess Express

MIX 104.1, Boston Having Fun With the News

Magic 106.7, Boston Truth Be Told

KNUC, Seattle Red Shops Drunk

KSLX, Phoenix Neighborhood Nicknames

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