It’s Time to Get Creative

Raise your hand if you have not had a hard time hiring talent to move to your market. If you raised your hand, you are in the minority. Even large market radio stations/media groups are that are struggling to find talent that are willing to relocate. I guess, in part, we can thank COVID for that, too. We discovered that so much of what we do can be done anywhere with a good internet connection. 

 

I can hear the rumbling now. Just because it CAN be done doesn’t mean it should be done. Unless you work for a network, we want our talent to eat, sleep and breathe our local area. Localization is one of the few ways we can outshine the big dogs in our markets. However, just because your talent lives locally and talks about local things doesn’t mean they’re connecting with your audience. Local isn’t always better if local means mediocre or worse. And let’s not forget the great cost of training someone who knows nothing about how to be on the radio and the risk that even after a lengthy training process, they may not meet expectations.

 

We know, now more than ever, we are competing with a plethora of audio and video options for listener attention. A recent survey asked participants to list their favorite radio stations. Number one on the list – Spotify. Followed by YouTube. Number 3 was an actual terrestrial radio station. Listeners are not differentiating between streaming services and our radio stations anymore. Or maybe they never did. 

 

So, as the title reads, it’s time to get creative. What can we do to elevate the quality of our radio stations so that we can compete with everything that is now available? Many stations utilize voice-trackers or satellite services but that can limit the localization. 

One idea I’ve been tossing around is hiring someone who could do the show live from their location. Yes, it will cost more to set things up and pay someone to do a 4 or 5-hour show live instead of voice-tracked but not nearly as much as moving someone, paying a full-time salary, benefits, vacation time, taxes, etc. Imagine how you could elevate the sound of your radio station if you could hire a top-tier talent without having to pay them full-time with all that includes. And they can deliver content in real-time!

 

The biggest pushback I’ve gotten with this idea is “but we need boots on the ground”. We need people who can physically attend events and concerts. I have some ideas about that, too. 

1. Hire someone local to be a part of your promotions team. There is no cost to move them. They likely know the community already. They can be brought in at an entry level so the cost to the station is still below what it would cost to hire a top talent. 
2. Build into the remote host agreement that they will come in for fundraisers and a couple of major events a year. The station would pay the travel expenses, but the monthly retainer would include the pay for those visits to your market. By building it into the monthly retainer, you can spread the station cost over 12 months instead of having big budget expense at fundraiser time. Make sure you agree on the exact number of events and the dates early so calendars can be synced. 
3. Engage your diehard fans by making them a member of your promotions team. They volunteer to cover events and concerts in exchange for free concert tickets, meal vouchers, or a year-end party where they’re celebrated and given a fun gift. 

I’m sure there are more creative ideas but, hopefully, these will get you thinking. 

 

For an industry filled with creatives, we tend to lean on what we’ve always done instead of looking for new ways to get the job done. If you’ve seen the radio ratings lately, you know we cannot keep doing the same old, same old. We must get creative, or we will die. The overall number of radio listeners continues to decline due to all the other options available and more options will likely come along every year. 

 

The goal of this article is to get your creative juices flowing on how you can improve what you currently offer. Can we improve what we are doing by stepping outside of our carefully curated boxes and find ways to meet our listeners’ needs with content that connects with them and is not JUST local? Can we find non-traditional ways to bring greatly improved talent to our station without blowing our budgets?  

 

I believe radio still has a lot of life in it but we must stop with the “this is how we’ve always done it” attitude and get creative. Use your team to help come up with ideas, after all, they are creative, so they always have ideas. 

 

I would love to hear what you come up with, on how we can be what our listeners need us to be, even with limited budgets. Please, feel free to email me with your thoughts. Together, we can evolve and keep serving as God has called us. 

 

Therese Romano has over 40 years of radio experience. She’s worked for national radio networks and small stations alike. In her current role, Therese is programming 7 streaming formats. If you’d like to connect, email her at: thereseromano@gmail.com.  

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Atlantic Gateway Communications’ leadership, staff or board members.