Tommy Kramer Tip #17 – Two more thoughts about “One Thought Per Break”

We’ve all heard “one thought per break” as the goal of great radio. (And if you haven’t heard it before, you have now.)

The reason for that is simple: It’s extremely difficult, maybe even impossible, to do more than thought in a break and have it work. Listeners don’t respond well to more than one thought. Two thoughts in the same break compete with and dilute each other, so the break is, at best, 50% successful. But take those two thoughts and put each of them in a separate break, and you can be 100% successful. Twice. It’s kind of like the old Saturday Night Live parody spot: “It’s a floor wax. No, it’s a dessert topping. No, it’s both!”

No, it’s neither.

But there’s more here than meets the eye, so let me give you two more guidelines.

One EXAMPLE per break. I don’t need a laundry list of examples. Just give me one good one.

And even deeper than that is something the great Bobby Ocean once said: One EMOTION per break.

Embrace these additional rules, and you’ll be amazed at the clarity it gives you. And clarity – simplicity by design – is what works best. (Think iPad. A 2-year old can use it, even though its inner workings are very complicated.)

And notice that I’m stopping there, because you only need one example to “get it.”