OVERLOOKING ASSETS... OR HOW TO MAKE BETTER USE OF YOUR WEBSITE Gord Marratto As broadcasters, we spend a great deal of time learning about and evolving with the new technologies of our industry. Hardware and software are developing so rapidly that we must keep up-to-date just to remain competitive. I believe that some of us apply ourselves to this at the expense of “peripheral” technologies, such as our websites.
It almost amazes me that so many radio stations either have no website or the one they have is drowning in a sea of neglect. I have visited station websites that proclaim to describe “contests”, only to have a “coming soon” notation at the end of the link or stale-dated news, irrelevant photos, no link to on-air music, no time and/or temperature or no graphics and animation. These “qualities” all depict an out-of-touch radio station and they leave a strongly negative impression. Your radio station should be able to proudly promote your website and your website should be the station’s best marketing tool. It should also constantly be bouncing visitors back to your radio station.
Over the years I have been in the radio business, one of the greatest challenges facing station management has been how to get mileage out of our outside marketing and promotion dollars. For many of us who came through days of meager budgets it was often an obstacle finding even the most modest allotments of promotion money. Now we have access to a medium that is not only a perfect fit for us but can be utilized with creativity rather than fists full of money.
We are at a point in time when your radio station NEEDS to have someone on staff who, as a secondary responsibility writes in HTML and who is creative at manipulating your website to its maximum potential. You should have your current news, sports and weather on the site, the local temperature, your day’s playlist taken from your music software, current photos of your staff, updated descriptions of how to participate in your contests and special news on anything unique you are doing in your market. Remember that in most communities, you are the closest thing to show business in town. If at all possible, stream your audio and go live to the world.
Folks, this is not a major expense. It’s the best bang you can possibly get for your promotion dollars and it can help you win listeners. You can attract visitors by partnering with other sites and by using other media, such as billboards, cable TV and newspaper. I urge you to make it a priority. I have included a list of all radio stations with websites in the U.S. You’ll quickly differentiate between the good and the bad. Use the good ones as an example for your web designer. The second list is Toronto area radio stations……….and the 3rd is our radio station in Woodstock, Ontario. We’re pretty proud of it and the website has all the necessary components to help us gain listeners. When we combine it with our Listener Tracker database program, we can compile a very detailed and intelligent list of our listeners, their addresses, ages, musical preferences etc. ByrnesMedia offers its clients assistance with website design and uses. If you could use help, please contact us by e-mail: gord@byrnesmedia.com or by phone: 1-866-332-1331 (toll free).
http://www.21best.com/21__best/FM_radio/links.html
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