5 Tips To Make a Small Market Station Sound Big

June 27, 2011

by Kit Mann

When there were no such options such as Facebook, Pandora, Smart Phones, iPods and tablet apps, the small market listener would accept what was thrown at them by the two or three music stations that inhabited their markets. Stations were programmed by the owner or the owner?s son with very little attention paid to what was going on in the rest of the world.

Today, this approach to small market radio is akin to business suicide. Today?s small market listener has just as many options as their larger market comrades.  They will not simply support the local station because it is what they grew up listening to. They will just log on to their device and go elsewhere. Therefore it becomes the small market station?s responsibility to their advertisers to put out a quality product that can compete with what is available to the populace of their market.

Here are the five quickest ways to begin to build a station that sounds and performs like the other options available.

Local information, but don?t overdo it. Tight, focused news in morning drive with a locally driven content needs to be delivered in a large market, headline style. Focus on things that elicit loyalty; sports, local big stories and economic news. Any newscast that last longer than two or three minutes is a turn off. If the listeners want details, send them to your web portal for detailed stories. Get in, get out.Decide what you are, and be that.  Tight, smart play lists are the key. If you say that you are a rock station, stop playing old Motown songs just because the owner?s wife likes Motown. If you are Top 40, play the TOP 40 songs. Don?t pick and choose based on what you like personally. There are too many on demand options out there to steal your listeners when you stray from your format. Variety is ok; chaos will chase ?em away.Entertain and challenge with your morning show. Train and allow your morning show to elicit emotional responses. It is no longer good business for your morning show to be safe and beloved. It is perfectly ok?in fact desirable ? for your morning show to take chances and push buttons. Temper this with charitable events and make them part of the community. On the air though, they need to be trained to sound and act like the stars that you need them to be. Production counts. The number two biggest issue in small markets is the fact that commercial production is treated as a throw away. It is a full THIRD of your air sound, yet it is the first thing to be compromised. The spots need to sound like the station. Nothing sounds worse than a rock station playing cold voice commercials or spots with country music beds. Small markets have GOT to stop letting clients voice their own spots. Do they get to go into the local restaurant and cook their own food? Do they get to pull up to the local mechanic and fix their own cars? Train them to let the professionals do their job and then RAISE THE BAR on production values.Finally. IMAGING! The biggest difference between small market sound and big market sound is imaging. There are literally hundreds of voice guys looking for stations to image. One hundred dollars a month will go a long way to improving the presentation of your station. Go listen to a big market station online. Listen to what they say BETWEEN the songs. These things need a steady hand and a committed ownership, but do it right and there is no reason for small market stations to get trampled under the wheels of the big machine. Change is not coming, it is already here. We need to give our listeners a better product than they can get online and the loyalty will build.

Kit Mann is the morning host and program director of KBPY in Chadron, NE. A brand new signal that he built from the ground up this year. Or Facebook.com/kitmannrocks. Or on Twitter at kitmannrocks

(6/27/2011 5:05:55 PM)
Good stuff, Kit. And, if we're being honest, there are stations in some larger markets who could use your advice.
(6/27/2011 4:52:34 PM)
Imaging voice for $100 a month? You'll get what you pay for. Step up to at least $200 and you'll BEGIN to get someone good. The best people wil not even work for that.
(6/27/2011 4:15:07 PM)
This is great information for us small markets! Thanks Kit.

Add a Comment | View All Comments Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here