Have you ever noticed how people react to the unexpected?
I don't mean positive or negative reactions...not opinions or emotions.
Physically.
I'll give you an example:
You're in the city. It's a quiet afternoon with a few cars and buses passing by. Lots of people walking in and out of shops. The sun is shining and the atmosphere is cheery.
Next, in the distance, you hear the unmistakable sound of an ambulance siren.
It gets closer very quickly.
Everyone can hear it now.
What do they do?
The one thing they don't do is ignore it.
Most people will react by stopping, turning and looking. Even for just a moment.
Some might halt their conversation to watch it go by.
They react.
They react to the siren and they each have an opinion on it's existence based on a personal memory and/or perseption.
You can 'turn heads' on air by occasionally using a 'headline' as your siren at the start of a link. Something unexpected to grab the attention.
Not all the time, but when you feel the need.
There's clips all over YouTube of big US stations starting every link with a cart of FX, sometimes wind chimes, sometimes crowd noise...a good way to get some subtle sense of localness is to record a track of background noise from a local landmark or a pub etc and play that every time you open the mic. Very subtle accents and sounds that the audience will recognise. Very powerful.
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