ARE YOU IN TUNE WITH 2011 LISTENERS?

By Lee Logan

 

 

Consistently this year, three facets of radio have emerged as being very important to listeners of current, hit-based radio stations.

 

1)     Listeners want personalities. Live and local personalities. The one element attractive to even the most tech driven potential listener is an entertaining, community-focused, live, local personality. Important caveats:

 

a)     Be focused on the listener and what the listener thinks is entertaining, not your personal entertainment values.

b)     Be “the” resource for target listener community activity information.

 

2)     The news is a hit. No it doesn’t have to be long or detailed. Short, concise stories that speak to your target listener’s interests and concerns, especially about local news, delivered in a conversational manner, is more important to your morning shows than ever before!

 

Be sure the news on your station is specific to your target listener! One size doesn’t fit all stations!

 

3)     Perhaps the most important and easiest to execute: Music Discovery! What radio has done so well in the past is now a key to its future. If you don’t have a new music feature on your radio station, that lives on your website after it airs, it’s time to get it going now!

 

a)     “Hop It or Drop It,” “Sink or Swim,” “Oink or Boink” – whatever you call it, the feature that exposes a new song each day and allows people to vote on the song is the place to start.

b)     Once the song airs, it immediately becomes a Podcast on your website with additional chances to vote through the website.

c)      If the song has a video on YouTube or available from the label, use that in place of your podcast.

d)     The website music page is also where “songs of interest” should live instead of infecting the playlist of your radio station. Lady Gaga’s “Country Song,” Rascal Flatts singing with Justin Bieber, Rebecca Black’s “Friday” song, can all play on your website and brand your station as the place to go to discover new music.

 

Basic elements – are you doing them?

           

            Proper focus on your target listener?

            Engaging your target listener every time to give your target what they   want?