Let’s just get to what younger demo audiences don’t like about radio so we can do something to fix it:
TOO MANY COMMERCIALS
- How to deal with stop sets that are too long, invite tune out and cause growing resentment in returning to the station as long as running stops sets 8 or 9 minutes long twice an hour continues.
- Two steps that can begin to reverse this negative within months without upsetting business.
- If you absolutely refuse to directly address the biggest objection audiences have about radio, at least curate the stop steps. We’re going to get into this technique at my Philly Conference in two weeks.
NOT ENOUGH MUSIC DISCOVERY
- The more passionate the music audience, the more they demand music discovery. But stations know if they repeat the same 30 songs (or less), their PPM ratings will go higher so they are reluctant to add additional new and less popular songs. Now there is a solution that everyone will love. How to do both.
- A way to have two-thirds of your music be new and one-third reliable hit songs without losing audience. In fact, you will gain listeners. I’m going to share a safe way to test this and see for yourself before committing the entire station to it.
- Radio is based on the assumption that if a listener likes a song, they’ve got that listener until the song ends. No longer true. New evidence that the basis for this assumption is wrong. What to do.
MORNING SHOWS THAT SUCK
- The one thing under 30’s would turn to a radio for is a local personality morning show that they like – the same kind that radio groups are watering down or replacing with syndication. First order of business: know what kind of personality they crave.
- You need traffic and transit. They don’t need it or want it even though you make money from airing these reports. They think morning traffic is uncool because they can get it on their iPhones and Galaxies. At my Philly event we will brainstorm together for a replacement to traffic and transit reports. Don’t worry, you don’t have to go home and do it, but you’ll want to when you see that you can also get a premium for something more desirable.
- Weather is still a “must have” element for mornings, right? No, the rules have changed.
STUPID CONTESTS AND PROMOTIONS
- No radio station offers anything that today’s listeners really want to win. Small stuff is not worth it. But there is one thing.
- A new age contest that will absolutely keep anyone under 50 listening to a radio station the way listeners used to listen for “Cash Call”. It has been done successfully. Picked up 700,000 cume in just three months. You want to be the first in your market to do it because the second in loses. You’re going to want to at least know what this contest is in case you have to defend against it.
- The one thing today’s listeners expect from a radio contest – even more important than the size of the prize.
TOO MUCH HYPE
- If a radio station is anything, it’s a hype machine. A throwback to the 50’s and 60’s. But new audiences hate hype. The more we say it’s the greatest, the more we tell audiences it is not believable. The new rules on talking on-air to listeners in the digital age.
- Cool is not being hot. Cool is never saying the word Facebook on the air. There is a better word you should use.
- How to replace on-air radio attitude with something younger demos love – authenticity.
The good news is that radio operators who care about local audiences can do something to change audience perceptions.
You just have to know what works and what doesn’t.
What to say and what not to.
What to do that excites.
What to rethink.
Here are the other issues at the March 26th meeting:
- Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into. We can’t do this by just changing formats. It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
- Master digital. Digital isn’t a product. It’s a technology. Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio. Let’s create some content. There are some dazzling possibilities out there. I will share.
- Create your own social media. If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them. There’s a better way. Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities. It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
- Reinvent radio. Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials. They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing. Interested in providing this content for younger money demos? It takes an open mind and some creativity.
- Video. Video. Video. We’re wasting valuable time. You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is. Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video. No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees. I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions. This is ingenious.
- The key to attracting Millennials. There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else. The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them. I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters. He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist. We can do this and here’s the plan.
- Time shift radio. Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content. Binge watching is the rage. Broadcasting is out. It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content. I’ll tell you everything I know about this.
A day of information and inspiration where we work together. I’m putting more time aside this year for questions.
This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person.
I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.
Down to 2½ weeks until conference day.
If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to check on room availability for our event.
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