#Programming
- I believe in “No one man is greater than the operation.” The brand and team always comes first. As a programmer, there’s nothing better than having the ability to empower your team members. We should all do that! Why have only person to handle each duty when we could have the entire team understand what we’re trying to accomplish?
- Everything we say on-air should be ran through the target audience filter. If it seems like the demo might not care, we shouldn’t say it.
- We have to help each other understand how to say more by saying less. Listeners probably don’t need to hear you say the station name more than once and they probably don’t have enough patience for you to go on a tangent just to fill a song intro.
- Personalities should always be fun, funny, fresh, and focused. We have one chance to tell them something that will benefit them and should crack the mic with one main thought per break.
- New people discover you and the station everyday. First impressions are critical. You have to think about what you can say today that can’t be said tomorrow.
- Talent should NEVER be outrageous, shocking, mean, overly sexual, or dark.
- Don’t crazy with all these “extended” intros for talk breaks. Those get in the way of one of the more important pieces of a great sounding station, momentum. Get to the music, then keep it going.
- Program the music as if the station is jockless. It’ll be a much tighter product and one the listener (and PPM programmers) will benefit from.
- Music should be scheduled under the premise that a listener that loves a rock song, might not like a hip-hop song. Define your middle lane and schedule the music to weave in and out of it, never going from one extreme to the other.
- We all know new music doesn’t test well and we all believe no one is listening to that first song out of a stopset anyway so use THAT to your advantage! Give this a try…play the new music out of stopsets! It’s worth it to think about the person that will catch that first song out of spots. They just stuck by you for 6-7 minutes of commercials, they’re not going to tune out the second you start playing music. Use THAT as a place to grow unfamiliar music.
- It’s all about the “C’s” when it comes to social networking.
These 4 things must be top of mind. CLEANLINESS. CONTENT. CONSISTENTCY. CUSTOMER.
- Social media is all about CUSTOMER SERVICE. Listeners ask questions, give compliments, share content, and express concerns by tweeting or posting on our Facebook walls. It’s every team member’s responsibility to make sure ALL comments are addressed as needed. Even if a listener just comments, a simple “LIKE” or “RETWEET” are better than ignoring them.
- Think about the actual person that is carrying a meter in a PPM market. They know that they control the ratings and have invested interest in the stations in the market. There’s a HIGH probability that they have taken the extra step to LIKE the station’s Facebook. Based off this, EVERY post/tweet could be a positive impact on ratings.
- Before social networking, we had listeners call us. For the first time ever, we can call them! This makes setting appointments via Facebook/Twitter a much larger priority.
- On Twitter, FOLLOW BACK! For one, you’ll make that listeners day. Secondly, it’s the easiest way to grow your network! The more people you follow, the easier it becomes for people to discover you.
- On Facebook, LIKE every artist or celeb that has a fan page! Once again as you become a fan of these pages, you grow your network and start sharing fans with these pages!
- Utilize hashtags on Twitter. If you have an event, create a consistent hashtag for your staff and listeners to use when tweeting.
Ex. #JingleBall2012 or #iHRMusicFestival
- On-air personalities should all have fan pages on Facebook. This allows the radio station to tag them along with the artists and celebs that are trending with what is going on in that moment.
- Same goes for Twitter. ALWAYS mention (@) your personalities along with the artists and celebs. You never know who might catch it. Next thing you know, @JustinBieber retweets you and you’ve got 1,000 new followers. 
#WishfulThinking
- Using Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, YouTube, etc., we can reach more people, in and out of our markets, than ever before. They’re an extension of what we do on-air and online with our websites.
- We should be doing videos on a consistent basis to maximize the additional opportunity to give listeners content off the air. Doing a lot of videos just to do videos doesn’t automatically gain the trust from the audience. The content must be good and worthy of their time. Try and spend time actually writing scripts. Think “SNL”.
- On-air to site. Site to Social. Social to Site. Site to on-air. They should always be linked to fully engaged the audience in what the station is doing.
- Everyone in the operation should use online and social networking the same. From morning show to weekend staff, it has to be done in uniform so the audience understands and trusts that the content we’re providing is credible.
- Websites suffer from paper cuts more than any other part of the operation. You can’t die from just one but multiple paper cuts over time can cause you to bleed to death. Websites have so many components to them, the little things slip through the cracks.
- We all have fill songs and fill content on our streams. Make those categories DEEP! If you think about the online listener, it’s probably something they do on a consistent basis. That means the content you provide on the stream probably burns even faster!
- Give the audience something they can relate to in between the songs. If it’s not geared toward you target audiences, it’s not giving the proper brand image.
- Use it to set appointments. Whether it’s music or a promotion, we don’t have to have an on-air personality tease a song coming up. Use sweepers to sell a song.
Ex. “Justin Bieber will be your ‘Boyfriend’, in less than 8 minutes on (Station Name)”
Ex. “In less than 10 minutes on (Station Name), JLo and Pitbull will make you ‘Dance Again’”.
Make them sexier by dropping a quick line from the hook within the sweeper.
- Long form imaging seems to do nothing but get in the way of the listener experience. For instance, long “back to the music” sweepers do nothing for your audience. Getting back to the music fast does.
- Dry segs. I’m okay with using them, but try to utilize them into zero intros to maintain the momentum of the previous song.
- With promos, we should get to the point ASAP so the listener that wants to hear the message, actually hears it before deciding to change the channel. With that being said, don’t start promos out the same every time. Switch it up to keep the audience from getting the idea that they know what is coming.
- Thanks to online contesting and social networks, giveaways have become more accessible to the listener. If it’s on-air, it should always be shared online as well.
- They should benefit the two consumers of a radio station, the client and the listener. Stations need to think about client needs and how we can meet them through contesting and if there’s any doubt a listener would care about a certain promotion, it’s not good enough.
- The presence must be felt on-air, online, and on the streets. When a station is on the streets, it must be thinking about ways the audience can connect. Have them sign up for the online contests right there on-site, on an iPad, or let them use their phone to show you they’re a fan of your Facebook page. Compensate them with whatever you’re giving away that day for their loyalty. With today’s technology, this is all possible.
- Attention to detail is a must. A station should to present itself to the market with the impression that no one listens and they’re trying to change that. Consistency is vital to win a street battle and wear down the competition. - You must protect the brand image. Banners being hung crooked or upside down do nothing but create confusion. Your station’s brand should be treated like it was Apple, McDonalds, or Wal-Mart. Listeners shouldn’t have to question for one second who is on-site with them.