Inside Music Media

Listeners have a lot of other options instead of radio.

Most stations can’t really deal with listener criticism because they think it requires changes they are unwilling or unable to make.

But that’s not so.

There are ways to minimize the things that drive listeners away and often they don’t cost a penny.

Take too many commercials, for example. For decades radio has heard this complaint. Cut the non-essential stuff in your stop sets and then accurately compute the percentage of fewer interruptions compared to “last month”, “last hour” or “ever before”. Then once an hour (and not before a commercial break) say, 15% fewer interruptions this hour and leave it at that. Lie about this and forget about it.
Promoting even a 5% reduction in interruptions is more believable than 50%. Authenticity pays great dividends.
Avoid saying “fewer commercials”, you’re advertisers pay for those so don’t insult them either. You want to be known for great commercials. Expensive ones that make a lot of money. Not ones that people don’t want to hear.
Live-reads are what young people crave. Start a commercial set with them and learn how not to make these live-reads sound like an advertiser has a gun to the head of the air personality. Give them some latitude to be real.
Got guts? Remove all promotional hype. I know, I know. I love them too, but today’s audiences don’t believe them. Try removing as much hype as you can for a day. An hour. Go slow if you want but you’ll see the difference and so will your audience. Hype is out and that’s all you ever hear on the radio. So radio is out.
Listeners can’t recall station call letters and often station branded names. If you have a popular morning show – and you’d better – make it the “Joe Blow and Mary Smith” station because that’s how money demo listeners identify radio today -- by the very personalities stupid operators are firing. Play it smart, sync your station with your top attraction.
Too much repetition of music has been and still is a common complaint about radio. Every program director knows that in a radio ratings world you have to repeat the hits constantly but after an hour and a half of rotation, say, “Here’s 3 new songs never played on the radio before in (your town)”. Play them once if you like but you’ll be gaining cred. And it is no more dangerous than an 8-minute stop set of endless crappy commercials.
At 12 midnight, stop everything and play three or more new songs just released. Very cool.
Albums are dead so avoid mentioning them. Our audiences live in a cherry-picking world. Their parents had to buy the albums at great expense to hear the one or two songs they liked.
Mentioning texting, Facebook and Twitter to show you’re connected will backfire. They are simply means of communicating not desirable programming elements. Believe me, younger audiences know how to find you on Twitter, Facebook and other social sites without constantly telling them. We don’t meet someone in person and constantly say, “follow me on Facebook and Twitter” do we? No need to be uncool on-air. They get it.
Instagram is the new Facebook – use it, it’s not your programming, just a social connection tool.