twelvesuggestions

12 SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE YOUR RADIO STATION

Chris Byrnes

Recently a General Manager asked what I thought was wrong with his radio station, and why it was rating poorly? While I’d heard his station a little, I was not prepared to offer any off-the-cuff suggestions for obvious reasons.

I explained that identifying what ails a radio station is a similar process a doctor uses when he sees a sick patient. He will ask questions and may check the pulse, and blood pressure. Next he may take samples and have those tested and analyze the results, until he isolates the cause of the problem. Only then will a doctor suggest a cure.

When a consultant comes into a market, there are a number of basic things he should do before offering any suggestions to fix a product. Having made that point, I listed some broad areas he could look at as a way to identify the symptoms of a sick patient.

Listen To the Station: I average one to two station monitors per month, where a General Manager or owner wants an objective unbiased opinion of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to his/her radio station. You would be amazed at the things you learn from actually locking yourself in a hotel room, away from phones and interruptions, and actually listening to a complete day.

Play the Right Songs: On a music station 70% or more of any hour is music, but often little or no investment is made to ensure the station is actually spinning the right songs. Often as a product matures and staff tire of playing the hits, the product sounds confused and unfocused as the programmer mistakes quantity for quality as they strive to create variety. Remember, no one will ever complain that you play their favourite songs too often. It is also unfair to expect the PD or MD to magically know all the right songs, without access to research. Frankly if he or she were that good they’d be in Nashville or New York picking hits for the record companies.

Ask the Right People: Do you and your staff really know and understand who your target audience really is, and what their needs are? One way to get answers is to conduct some research. Once you have the answers you can then design or fine-tune your product to best serve that target audience. Doing research allows you to benchmark your progress and determine if you are cutting through, and how your target audience perceives your programming.

Be Local and Locked Into Your Community: Great radio stations know one of the keys to winning is to super serve their community. Having staff and especially air talent who live, love and play in your community is critical. You need to be tapped into what’s going on in the lives of your target audience and then deliver this information so that it’s usable and of interest to this audience. Ensure your staff stay plugged in, and don’t get too caught up in the activities and lifestyles of the microcosm of people who work within the radio station.

Getting Credit: So many radio stations miss a great opportunity to get ticks in a survey diary for all the great things they do on and off the air. (After all, we are also in the diary influencing business!) Simply attaching your name to all contests, features and events can make a huge difference, providing it’s done well with good production values, a good voice and hopefully some clever words. Your brand needs to be top of mind both on the air and in your market. Figure out how to get your logo at all the places your listeners frequent.

Mix With the Movers and Shakers: It’s sometimes difficult to think up fresh and exciting new ways to do the same thing. Smart radio people build a network of contacts, people who are prepared to share ideas and brain storm problems. E-mail is a great way to communicate and hundreds of great radio stations are just a click away as most return to streaming their audio. But too many good radio people become stale because they cannot see the forest for the trees. They need to take the time to go to a radio conference or drive to another market and listen around.

Be Aware of What’s Going On Around You: Unless you have the luxury of owning the market, or are the sole operator in your market, you need to keep an ear on the other guys. At times, consultants are also brought into a market and asked to specifically monitor a competitor to see what they are doing. Often a smart competitor will counter program your features or place their strongest songs where you are weakest, or beat you back to music. This can become a real chess game as you employ tactics to neutralize, minimize, or just play with your competition to drive them nuts.

Review and Improve: Nothing stays the same forever, and forces outside of your control may force you to review what you are doing and where your product is positioned. Formats evolve and music preferences change. A few years ago CHR and Country were king in many markets, and then Michael Bolton and Mariah Carey helped put A/C over the top. A/C was smart enough to evolve and eliminate the un-hip artists and is still doing well today. For example, in Toronto the top four FM stations are all A/C stations. The smart operators are always looking for ways to add value to their product, and sometimes one way to do this is to evolve the product and brand.

Building Loyalty For Your Product: Once you have a great product, you can increase your share of listening by building product loyalty. One low cost way to achieve this is via a Listener Club or a Listener database. Canada has one of the highest rates of internet usage in the world, and the number one reason for clicking on the net is to send and receive e-mail. Radio stations that send out regular e-mail HTML newsletters, giving their loyal listeners advance notice of events, contests or free stuff, know the benefits.

The Broken Glass Theory: It’s becoming harder to find great staff in the new millennium. As we all know it’s not about the money… it is benefits, the work environment, and the level of fun and games that all lead to job satisfaction. This is the key to retaining great staff, so when someone offers them a job they are less likely to even consider it. If your station can create that staff loyalty it makes it harder for existing or new competitors to come after you. They can copy your format, your imaging, and perhaps even out market you. What they cannot do is replicate an amazing staff. Howard Stern has failed in U.S. markets where smart radio stations have built equity in their morning show and therefore made them impenetrable to a networked or satellite offering.

Make Any Changes Long Before the Next Book: There could be lots of great reasons why you need to make changes to your sound, your lineup, or your product in general. But the longer you make even the smallest of changes before the start of the next ratings period, the less likely you are to cause major damage. It’s a know fact that people are uneasy with change, just look at Coke and their product change a few years ago! Anytime you make a change some of your current consumers will change brand, and it will take time to replace those with new customers. Therefore the worst time to make changes is just before or even worse, during a book.

Marketing: This suggestion is last on the list as it should only be considered after you have the product right. Spending money to promote and market a bad product simply accelerates the failure of that product. So get it right before you are tempted to spend lots of money to tell people about this product. If the marketing is good and can make enough noise, some will check you out. But if they don’t like the product or the service, you will never get them back.

Of course the above suggestions were only part of the total conversation, as I have not mentioned the station history, format trends or ratings analysis. If you think your stations may benefit from some outside assistance, pick up the phone and give our office a call at (905) 332-1331.

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