Kick-Ass Audio Breaks

We’ve long said that it’s not the topic you choose, but what you do with the topic that makes it stand out.  With this being Easter weekend, and a candy weekend for kids, here’s a candy break from John  and Tammy, KSON, San Diego.  Last October, around Halloween, they had a cute sounding kid read the ingredients of a popular Halloween candy and the listener had to guess which candy it was to win the prize.  Remember that 99.999% of your audience has no chance at that prize.  They tune in to have a good time.  Hearing the kid stumble through the big words in the ingredients is so cute that you cannot help but be engaged.  That this idea has a vicarious element to it (you’re guessing the candy in the car, too) is an added bonus to the bit.  The topic of Halloween candy at the end of October is a no-brainer.  Adding the element of a kid reading these ingredients in a game totally elevates it to a fun experience those tuning in will remember.

There’s this general sense, especially in PPM, that interviews don’t work.  This isn’t true.  Bad interviews don’t work.  Good ones do.  When interviewing a celebrity, remember that there are two agendas at play – theirs (to sell something) and yours (to entertain the audience).  Great interviews get their subject to tell a compelling story and/or reveal themselves in human ways.  That’s what draws listeners in and honors your agenda first (always sell the website/tickets/CD/book on the back end of the interview).  Here’s Rob and Joss, Froggy 92.9, Santa Rosa, CA who talk with country star Chris Young who’s coming on to sell concert tickets.  What they cover around that:  what it’s like for him to be at a Garth Brooks concert as a fan (reveal), how he helped a disadvantaged kid in their audience (story), and they played a fun game with him.  Don’t interview someone solely around their agenda (silly vicarious game).  The audience will bore and sniff out if you’re trying to sell them something and push back because of it.  Figure out how to accomplish your agenda, as these guys did, before doing any of that.