4-11-2014
Digital, Internet, terrestrial ? no matter what the platform may be for your programming, there is one rule that still applies: ?Local content is king.?
Live and local wins every time.
I?ve said this many times over the years: Music alone is not a strong enough benchmark to make and keep your station number one. I?m addressing the money demographics, the 30-plus adults, not the millennials of 12 to 30.
Millennials don?t care about radio, don?t care about television, and don?t care about long-form radio programming. They are after instant gratification and less clutter. If you are doing Classic Hits, Adult Top 40, any gold formats, the millennials will not be attracted to your station.
For example, the top 25-54 radio station in New York City is WCBS-FM. It sounds just like a well executed Top 40/Hot AC from 1975 to 1985. Great music, great on-air talent who actually have personalities and relate to the local area, a great morning show, and overall, it?s a lot of fun to listen to. Wow, what a concept!
WCBS-FM?s great talent and personalities keep bringing listeners back because they make their listeners want more. They also give out fun and interesting facts about the music, artists, and the local community that listeners can?t find on any other New York radio station.
Remember, you must have the air talent making ?appointments? with the listeners to come back at specific times throughout the hour, on that day and on other days. That will help increase your tune-ins per hour and per day. If you can increase your tune-ins by only one per day, you can see a big ratings increase for your station each survey period.
I call these ?vertical? and ?horizontal? promos. A vertical promo is done each quarter hour, telling the listeners about something of interest that will be coming up in the next 10 to 15 minutes, like contests, features, items of interest, etc.
A horizontal promo promotes a feature and tells the listeners they can hear it again tomorrow at the same time. Keep them coming back for more.
Radio still has star power; it?s still show biz to these 30-54 listeners. We in the business may have become callous about this very important fact, but it?s something that drives your money demos to your station. These listeners grew up with this kind of radio, and they still enjoy it.
The same is true in Los Angeles. KRTH (K-Earth 101) is a Classic Hits station that grabs a huge chunk of revenue and ratings in that 10 million-plus population market. It has the same attributes as WCBS: well formatted, great music, wonderful air talent that understands how to entertain the adult audience of Southern California, and contests that are fun and relevant.
Too many group programmers and consultants say that contests on the radio are useless talk and nobody really cares about them. To a certain extent, that may be true. Research has shown us for a long time that only 5 percent or less of listeners will ever participate in a radio station contest. But the research I have seen says that if a contest is well thought out and targeted properly to the specific audience you?re after, it can work perfectly.
Contests must have a fun element, something that makes the casual listener take notice. That gets down not only to what the prize is, but how the contest copy is written and presented in promos and by the jocks.
Does it sound ?bigger than life,? or is it just another element that can pass by unnoticed? If you don?t make the contest sound big and exciting, how do you expect the audience to get excited?
The key to doing a contest is not just taking caller number 10 to win a prize. There has to be more intrigue to it than that. Trivia works great, especially with that in-car listener. Great theater of the mind makes your listeners see something in their mind?s eye, feel something (sizzle and excitement), and want to play along.
They can play along vicariously, guessing the answer, and making the contest memorable and fun, or they can call in and give it a try. The contest also becomes a benchmark for your station for the diarykeepers as well as the PPM participants
If we are going to survive iTunes, Pandora, satellite radio, and other music-delivery systems, we must get back to ?what made us famous? with that 30-plus demographic who grew up with radio.
The three successful keys to any radio station are still:
? Music
? Mornings
? Marketing
Somewhere along the way we have forgotten about these simple basics. When we do them every day, 24/7, they work.
The dilemma these days among companies is ?Do we program to millennials or to baby boomers and Gen X?? The answer gets down to what your business plan is for your company. You can?t be all things to all people.
Live radio is still healthy and doing well. There are other options people can use for entertainment ? but radio will be around for a long time to come!
Tom Watson is president of A.C.C. Consulting & Marketing International, with clients in major U.S. markets as well as in Europe and Asia. Reach him at laxconsultant@gmail.com or 310.498.5990.
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