Meandering is a terrible thing for a radio host. It extends talk segments and is the most common cause of 3 minutes of content taking 7 minutes to present. But Purposeful Meandering is powerful. And that’s what happened in this segment from Careth And Ashton on Air1.
In a little over two minutes, the show connects with listeners in several ways:
- A heartfelt, character-defining story about Ashton’s childhood and how it impacted him as an adult.
- Careth relates a relevant story in the news about how folks in Poland are taking care of their Ukrainian neighbors.
- She then hits it out of the park with a thoughtful spiritual connection but does so without being preachy.
- An invitation for the audience to participate with their stories about being a good neighbor.
- And it’s punctuated with a funny personal anecdote that keeps the tone light and upbeat.
That’s a lot to cram into a two-minute break, but they do it without rushing. It’s comfortable and natural, and these unique elements all flow seamlessly to launch a topic they threaded throughout their show.
This is an amazing example of capturing the audience’s attention quickly (The 7 Second Challenge) and leading listeners to an otherwise ordinary topic.