The Art of the Tease

Teases are essential to building longer Time Spent Listening, but execution often falls short. Some talents forget what a tease is ... a "hook" to keep the listener tuned to your station. It's not a paragraph or even a sentence. The goal is to connect with a basic premise or attraction.

Here are two examples:

One of the most overused formatic elements is the music tease. "Daughtry, Leona Lewis and Green River Ordinance are coming up" makes the assumption that your listeners know these three groups by name and want to hear songs by them. Only Daughtry is a household "star name" in contemporary radio, and expecting listeners to know the other two acts and decide to listen will lead nowhere. The best teases are a single item that addresses something the listener is probably familiar with: "Daughtry is next with a song you'll hear on American Idol tonight" or "a new song from a Simon Cowell discovery is next..."

News teases only hit their mark with a specific offering. Saying "news is next" is like saying the sun is coming up. A specific news tease is short and offers a thought without the trappings of a complete sentence (skip the verbs in a tease). The goal is to reach the ears of the news user. "School bus road rage" is a good hook, and the only other thing needed may be the delivery detail if the newscast is some minutes away. That tease will stick to the ears of parents and students.