Every forty seconds

People have a lot of options and boredom is the enemy…You’re constantly trying to introduce something new, introduce a reason to keep listening…Everybody who is super successful in audio, from Rush Limbaugh to Howard Stern to Ira Glass, they are all doing this. Go and listen to Howard Stern and listen to what he does. Every forty seconds, every minute and a half, he’s got something new. He’s got some new question…he’s trying to get a surprising moment, trying to get an emotional moment…

Something new has to happen. Music has to come in, there has to be a new voice. There has to be a new idea. There has to be a punchline. Something new should be happening every forty, fifty, sixty seconds.

—Alex Blumberg, on Creative Live