Radio - The Appliance

I remember many years ago, when I first entered the radio business, going to a radio sales seminar. The speaker kept referring to radio as an "appliance." Even being green and very naïve, I found that hard to digest. Radio to me was personality, serving the community, and bringing results to the station's advertisers. I didn't see the similarity between a refrigerator and a radio.

Today's biggest problem for all radio broadcasters is that we are allowing the media, retail and the technology industries to consolidate us with, literally, thousands of other forms of communication (satellite, cell phones, cable, TV, iPod's, newspapers, billboards, etc) and call it MEDIA. We are losing our identity that has always made us unique, special and a very effective personal disseminator of news, music and information.

The Media Mix

In my many years of teaching radio sales, I have always preached about "THE MEDIA MIX." A sponsor could get more "results" out of his advertising with a mixture of media; and, radio should be part of that mix. That mix included:

• RADIO - For Reach and Frequency.
• TV - For Image (remember "a picture says a thousand words").
• Newspaper - For the printed message.
• Other - Includes billboards, coupons, magazines, key chains, etc.

The businessperson only sees a big conglomeration of hundreds of ways to spend the advertising money. He also has a limited budget. By narrowing down the categories for him, you make RESULTS more likely...and for radio to be in the budget. Of course, a good radio peddler of advertising would say, "why should I settle for part when I could get his whole budget?" The answer is simple...again, RESULTS! If results are obtained you share in the credit and you have a better chance of your station being in the budget for the long run. If you don't, you get all of the blame and you lose his business, possibly forever. He now has a "bad taste in his mouth" for radio as a whole, and may never budget any radio station again. How many times have we seen this happen?

The New Media Mix

In 2006, the MEDIA MIX is still a great way to present advertising ideas to business owners and managers, but technology has changed it dramatically. The key is not letting radio get diluted. Make it stand out on its own. Now I said "radio." You have to present radio as a part of the mix before you talk about your radio station. Get the potential sponsor or client sold on radio, and then sell him on your station. The key word again is "RESULTS." The new Media Mix includes:

• RADIO - For LOCALISM (Reach and Frequency are now secondary).
• TV - For IMAGE (that picture again says "a thousand words," but today that includes hundreds of cable channels).
• PRINT - For the PRINTED MESSAGE (it can be picked up and read over and over again).
• WEB PAGE - A REFERENCE TOOL for customers, clients and patients.
• OTHER - Put all other forms of advertising here (outdoor, specialty items, magazines, direct mail, etc.). Note that "internet advertising" should be placed in this category and not take budget dollars away from the total plan, unless the customer is selling their product online. Then he needs a web design company to build and manage a catalog.

We now have to make our radio station stand out from the others. When an advertiser thinks radio, they must always have your station "top of mind."

Building a Brand

"Branding" your station does this. Branding is the hottest buzzword in advertising today, and it's crucial to the future of radio if you are not to become an appliance. The parts to building the brand include:

• Community Involvement - Get involved with area churches. non-profit groups, schools and business groups.
• Personality - It's great to find and keep unique personalities on your sales and air staffs, but the station itself needs to develop a personality in the community.
• Interaction - A web page is a must. Make it simple to for a listener or sponsor to simply email your station...and always reply. Don't use a form to fill out before they can write you. Database can be entered thru return mail, contesting and after some loyalty is established. Why build a database of people who "don't listen"? Many listeners or potential sponsors may not even send an email if they have to fill out a form.
• Listen to the Listener - When a listener compliments you, there are at least 100 more listeners who feel the same way. When a listener complains, there are probably 200 listeners who feel the same way. The "silent majority" is your listener base. They don't get involved but they listen. It's difficult to interact with them, but it's real easy to turn them off from listening to your station.
• Giving Back - Contribute airtime to local worthy causes, do listener appreciation activities, send birthday wishes, present concerts, etc. Build a lasting personal relationship with your community that no competition and no technology can ever destroy.

Is your station a brand? Or just another repeater?

From the programming perspective, in the future radio stations will be one of two types:

• A Radio Repeater - Playing the same homogenized programming that every other station (including satellite) is playing. There are "drop-in" PSA's and news at the same times with the same boring commercials, just like every other station.
• A Radio Brand - You'll stand above the competition. Top of mind awareness will help make your station a personality.

A big problem in reaching the goal of becoming a personality in your community is the lack of training for men and women wanting to enter the radio business. Most colleges are focused on movie production, web page design and television. You just don't find places for people to learn the radio business. Stations have got to either develop serious in-house training programs or we'll need schools teaching the fundamentals of broadcasting and giving hands-on training.

The FCC rules and regulations seem to be the number one thing not being taught to people entering the broadcast business today. Most employees are hired for minimum wage to basically run the board. They do not know what a "Station ID" is, or that cigarette advertising and the airing of phone calls without prior permission is illegal. We need a place for potential radio broadcasters to learn, practice and be critiqued, before they go on the air or in front of our sponsors.

In our sales departments, we find that a revolving door has been formed. Salespeople are hired, handed a rate card and then given three-month quotas with a base salary dropping to commission only at the end of the period. The salesperson spends one month learning, one month selling and then the third month looking for another job (because, by then, he has figured out he can't make it, right now, on commission only and doesn't have the personal resources to wait six months to a year for income to be adequate). There needs to be a better pay plan. There is no support from management, in many cases, and the perception of these "untrained rookies" is so bad on the streets that many sponsors are just cutting radio, completely, out of their budgets.

Step out of the box. Look at your station from the outside. Build a fresh image and a personal relationship with your community. Become a personality!