Strategies for ratings growth almost always center on building cume, which is a very legitimate plan. The problem is we spend far too little time converting the cume we already have to more TSL! We have done a good job eliminating tune-outs but very little time creating tune-ins. Converting cume into more TSL is not conceptually difficult it’s just that many don’t want to spend the time it takes to make it happen. It takes a relentless effort to create compelling content and getting the listener to remember who delivered this content and when! The relentless effort is the difficult part, not the techniques themselves.
Let’s start with a big picture illustration… When you push the button and turn up your microphone your mind is telling you that thousand of people are listening and somehow you have to have an impact on all of them. This is a daunting concept, so let’s make it much simpler. Think of it this way, your overall primary job is to convince just one person to listen on just three more occasions per week and then to write it down in their ratings diary! That’s it! When you do this in various different ways, it is multiplied thousand of times over creating a mathematical certainty that your ratings will go up exponentially.
When it comes to technique there are a few key things you need to do. First off you need to develop compelling and efficient content. There is no substitute for this. Next, you need to vastly improve your appointment-listening teases. They need to be compelling and time & topic specific. “More great music is coming up when we come back…” fits none of those descriptions. Never go into a commercial stopset without a powerful tease, it will hurt you badly. Those who leave will not come back anytime soon, when you give them nothing to listen for. Next, you need to remind the listener that they actually spend time with you. They have no idea how often or long they listen to your station. Eliminate phrases like, “thanks for hangin’ out with me this morning…” There’s no column for that in the listener’s Nielsen diary. Instead, always thank the listener for “spending time with you” throughout the hour. Then at your last break in the hour thank the listener for “spending the last hour with you” and then bridge them into the next hour, “coming up next hour, we want to personally invite you to go back stage to meet Lauren Daigle…it pays to spend time with…” Then, at the end of your show, thank the listener for “spending the last couple of hours with you.”
By using just these techniques all of the time and doing it well, your TSL will likely go up by 1 ½ to 2 hours for the week. This will lead to an extra share point or more as well! In radio, we must tell people what we are going to do, what we are doing and what we did in order for them to retain what we want them to retain!
Brian Wright
brianw6187@aol.com