CONSULTANT TIPS

Gary Begin (Identity Programming)

Marry Your Listeners

Radio is an art form but also a business.  Producing great radio involves both commerce and art.  But more than art & business, successful radio stations are married to their listeners.  When we fail to satisfy our listeners' needs and desires, we don’t meet listener expectations or revenue goals.  As an industry we need to rejuvenate the creative spark in our radio product.  Radio’s underlying sameness from market to market has created a homogenization in sound across the country.  Our creativity has been stifled in the name of corporate profit.  This is a problem, especially in small to medium markets.

The key to solving any problem is knowing one exists.  In business, as in marriage, problems are defined by dissatisfaction.  It’s really that simple.  So ask yourself: Do I have listeners who are dissatisfied?  If you do, (and you do!), then you have a problem.

In my twenty-five years experience as a Program Director and Air Personality in Large, Medium and Small markets across the country, I’ve seen great radio stations succeed because they foster a strong creative environment coupled with strong leaders who act as mentors.  Station employees who tap into that well of creativity and apply it to their everyday craft, help build winning franchises.  Radio works best when it connects emotionally with its listeners; just like good marriages.  And satisfied listeners are good customers.

Here are a few examples of building that winning franchise and increasing TSL in your market:

BE LOCAL!

The more locally focused your presentation, the greater the opportunity to serve your community with excellence.  “Local” should become your new buzzword.  Great stations know one of the best ways to winning an audience is having an air staff that live, love, and play in the community.  Become tapped into what’s going on in your town or city, and then deliver the information in a useable and interesting form to your listeners. Communicate!

KNOW THE MARKET!

Chain stations are programmed from far away and while everyone likes the “hits”, not every market has the same interests, hobbies, spare-time activities, etc.  Do you and your staff understand what your target audience interests are?  Do you understand their needs and wants?  Are you listening to your audience or are you vulnerable to attack from the competition?  If you don’t know the answers to those questions, you are vulnerable.

“Ask yourself, as if you were the competition: “where are they the weakest? “  Fix that area ASAP.  Use research to benchmark your progress and determine if you’re cutting through the clutter, and how your target audience perceives your programming.  If research dollars are tight, perform listener panels, internet surveys/polls, and internet music tests.  You can even do live interviewing…ask waiters/waitresses, etc.  If Jay Leno & David Letterman can do it – so can you!

PUT YOUR WEBSITE TO WORK

If you don’t have a web site; for shame, get one!   Maintain a site where listeners can answer surveys and take part in special online-only contests.  Make it fun and involve the listener often, at least twice per day part.  And remember, stream, stream, stream your audio.  This will allow you to pick up listeners in un-conventional ways.  Do you really care where their listening as long as they’re listening?  Go where your listeners are going.  Today that often means the internet.

Work your website correctly and it can become your best marketing research tool.  This is especially important in small markets where dollars are tighter.

KISS (Keep It Simple…)

Great stations are simple stations.  We never confuse the listener.  This means not just playing the right songs, but playing them in the right order and giving your play list some expansion.  On music stations, 70% or more of any given hour is music. Make sure your air staff’s comments reflect the music and image of your station.

CONSISTENCY

More than just needing to be simple, we need to be consistent and stick with a well thought out game plan.  Worse than not sticking with your plan, is not having a plan to begin with.  Inconsistency is frequently caused by:

Boredom                                            

Impatience

Lack of commitment                                                 

Lack of confidence

Too many distractions

Today’s successful stations are not produced overnight. 

FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!

Don’t fail your listeners. If you are in a marriage worth saving, you go to counseling to see how to be successful again. Your radio station is no different.  How do we often fail?

Lack of research

Assumptive familiarity                                  

“Personal Favorite” of the PD or MD

To get the trip/concert/promotion

Rights Songs; Wrong Order

Someone called in a “requested song.”

START MENTORING

The encouragement of a strong creative environment begins with a mentoring program.  Successful stations are professional, forward-thinking organizations which hire and train the very best people, and find a way to keep them happy!  In the new millennium, it’s a much more difficult task to find a great air staff and productive sales people.  We need to bring “communications” back into the communications industry. 

Successful mentoring starts with:

Leadership: Delegate authority and encourage teamwork. Be different. Don’t follow conventional rules blindly.  Become passionate about your projects.  When management is excited and enthusiastic, a trickle down effect occurs. Communicate excitement.  If you don’t, how can you expect your staff to get worked up?

Involvement:  Don’t reject ideas out of hand because they seem wild, crazy, or unproven.  People who are involved in a decision making process participate much more enthusiastically than those who just carry out their Boss' orders.  Help them contribute and show them you value their opinions.  Listen to them and incorporate their ideas when it makes sense to do so.

Brainstorm:  Something normally thought of as a group activity, is also a great area for private problem-solving.  Do it away from the station.  Find a quiet place; a park, someone’s home, a friendly restaurant with private meeting rooms; any place where management and staff can feel mentally and physically comfortable to talk.  Play some games to get everyone warmed-up mentally.  Remember, the mind is a muscle that needs warming up.  Make an agenda of things you want to create ideas for.  Informally review the agenda, and then let people throw out ideas.  Include everyone.  This imparts a sense of ownership with the staff.  Include interns too, they haven’t been in the business long enough to be screwed up.  For them, any idea is a good idea, which is the basis of brain-storming. And be sure to take good notes, which include the originator of any ideas that will be used.

Incentives/Bonuses:  Showing your staff you appreciate their hard work and good ideas with bonuses or incentives helps create staff loyalty, making it difficult for competitors to lure your best people away.  And staff longevity can also promote loyal listeners and an excellent reputation for your station. 

Ford Motor Company claims “Quality is Job #1.”  We need to think of our radio product in the very same way!  My approach to getting and keeping listeners through “Identity Programming” is summarized by the phrase: Marry Your Listeners!  Most families have a family physician and dentist, an insurance agent and your favorite hair stylist.  Why can’t we also have a family favorite radio station?  Any radio station can become wed to it’s listeners for life.  You simply need to communicate with them and the desire to always keep them happy!

Congratulations! And may you both be happy and successful together for the rest of your lives.

ABOUT GARY BEGIN

Identity Programming is a multi-format consulting firm specializing in small & mid-size markets, specializing in adult formats (AC, Standards, Smooth Jazz, and Country).  Gary Begin, along with Identity partner Stephen Bianchi, possess over 50 years radio programming experience.  Begin’s programming and on-air experiences have included diverse markets such as Tampa, Sarasota, Providence and Saginaw to Hagerstown, MD and Waterville, ME. Reach Gary Begin at (731) 424-5025 or garybegin@charter.net.

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