So, it’s a fresh new year for you to engage with your audience. Our research over the last 5 years clearly points out that engaging personalities are more important than ever and are the primary key to building TSL, AQH Persons, Cume growth and stability! Some of this has been driven by the pandemic stimulating the need for more companionship. Many stations are not focusing on this to any significant degree or at all. Real talent coaching is not easy. It takes a great deal of time and years of experiential knowledge. Along with real talent coaching there are other opportunities in 2022 that you need to do:
- Invest a good amount of time coaching your talent. These people are your front-line and the immediate connection to your audience.
- Research your music using a statistically accurate methodology. This is simply the price of admission to be able to compete.
- Play only the strongest, consensus-appeal songs. This will be a small body of songs that will bring you to the top of the ratings.
- Take the time to actually listen to your radio station outside of your work environment. You can’t be objective about your station if you don’t really listen to it this way.
- Know that marketing will be more important this year than any other year. This is primarily because of the great opportunity that is now opened from the pandemic. Marketing is not a luxury it is a necessity! Marketing is your cume multiplier.
- Align all of your marketing to promote appointment-listening. This is the best way to secure TSL increases. You can’t always get people to listen longer per-occasion BUT you can get them to listen on more occasions.
- Know your competition better than ever before. Track them once every two weeks. Technology makes this easier than ever.
- Know that your biggest battles will NOT be with other radio stations but within the walls of your own. Learn to win these battles.
- Get to know your audience better by observing and talking with them more often. Don’t “Think” you know them from what you’ve read. Instead, know them from what you’ve seen and heard from them directly.
- Get involved with some type of “cause” marketing this year. Helping others is seen as a real virtue with your audience and creates a tighter relation with them.
- Clean up your audio chain for both your on-air signal and streaming. From market to market I hear inferior audio. Listeners hate this. They are not only comparing you to other radio stations but all other media forms. Yes…be as loud as you can, but within the good fidelity spectrum.
- Train your personalities to be highly interactive with their audience. This can be done through phone calls, emails, instant messaging, text messaging and even referencing conversations they have while on location. If you are not interactive you will not win.
- Spend more quality and refreshing time with your family. A clear and refreshed mind always functions better than one that is weighed down in one area.
- Inspire those who work with you. Say something positive and encouraging to your staff at least once per week. The people you work with thrive on this! A pat on the back is twice as powerful as a $100 in the pocket.
Brian Wright
brianw6187@aol.com