Connecting Locally with Your Listeners

Programming consultant Alan Burns has gotten a lot of ink recently for his study of what we used to call “the stuff in between the records.” (What Does Music Radio Communicate When It’s Not Playing Music?) And the conversation is justified.

Back before I became a general manager and sales manager I was a program director and programming consultant in markets like New York, Nashville, Cleveland and Atlantic City. And in the late adolescent years of FM Radio (the 80s), we spent a lot of time in programming meetings and aircheck sessions (remember them?) talking about making jock breaks “Timely, Topical and Relatable.” The goal was to make sure we struck an emotional chord with the audience when we opened the mic and to give more than the call letters, slogan and frequency. Alan is right. Somewhere in time relating to the audience and their community fell out of fashion.

The irony is that the decrease in relatable content has taken place at a time when our ability to easily find that content is at an all time high. Think about it; something as simple as localizing the weather for your hot zips was tough 10-15 years ago. Now we just type in the zip code and there it is. In most major markets, finding out what was happening in suburban communities meant waiting for a weekly newspaper or asking co-workers or request line callers who lived there. Now we can get high school and little league sports scores, honor roll lists and other local information delivered to a personal home page. With pre-set homepages on Google, Yahoo!, MSN or others, even out-of-market voice-tracked talent can deliver a quality local experience.

Over time an increasing number of liners, sweepers and sales promos took the place of breaks that once connected emotionally with our listeners. On the programming side we added extra station IDs and sell lines in the hopes of growing our audience share. Meanwhile the sales side added more live and produced promos hoping to sell a few more sponsorships to our latest NTR package. But we forgot that talking to and about our listeners creates a bigger emotional connection, and longer time spent listening, than shouting our name and slogan repeatedly. And we can’t rely on our websites and Facebook pages to carry this load.

Whether you are a diary or People Meter market station identification, or station branding, are still critical programming elements in the highly clutter media world in which we live. (The People Meter doesn’t require that you recall listening but people still need to have your station top of mind to get them to choose you in the first place.) And creating engaging integrated marketing programs for clients is more important than ever.

So how do you turn the tide and make your more personal and relatable? Here are two ideas that are simple but require some thought and great execution.

From a sales standpoint, make sure your events, promotions and sales contests are a benefit to your listeners. I know it’s hard and days are busy but we still need to protect the product (especially for the sake of our clients). So make time to jam in a brief brainstorming session with your programming folks and come up with ideas that resonate for both the audience and the advertiser. Don’t settle for the first easy idea that comes up. Force your sales promotions to add value to the listeners’ experience. After all, selling round pegs to square holes doesn’t help anyone.

For programmers and air talent, make your talk elements more personal and local, especially the “live” ones. First, eliminate any excess verbiage and get to the point (edit, edit and edit again). Second, find a person, event and/or place to relate it to. Third, creatively connect the programming or sales element to the audience. Try these examples:

Weather: “Sunny, really hot and humid today with a high in the 90s… the annual RiverFest in Tarrytown is a great place to be today and the Johnson family of Rye texted that they are rafting there now in 95 sticky degrees.”

NTR Event: “We’ve already signed up brides-to-be Joan Spalding of Ridgewood and Maria Russo of Tenafly for our third annual Bridal Expo this Saturday at the Hilton, sponsored by David’s Bridal and the Men’s Wearhouse. And they’re bringing the future husbands Jimmy and Brent, too. Why not join them by registering right now at myradiostation.com/brides?”

Sales Contest: “So far thirty couples have registered for the Chrysler Kiss-Off Contest at Jerry’s Chrysler Jeep in Hawthorne, include Tina and Joey from Colts Neck and Myra and Seth from Valley Stream. Want $500 off a new 300 Convertible and a chance to win one from New Jersey’s biggest and best Chrysler dealer? Only ten slots are left so go to myradiostation.com, keyword Jerry.”

Web Promo: “Tony from Staten Island just Tweeted a big LOL about the new comedy videos posted on Dan’s Morning Show web page. Need a little chuckle while you slave away in Brooklyn or Queens? Then go to myradiostation.com, keyword Morning Funnies.”

Sometimes we forget the basics. Sometimes we get too busy. And frankly, sometimes we just get lazy. Connecting with our listeners and tying our stations back to our local communities is easier and more important than ever. And we don’t get a lot of time to do it. So don’t miss a single opportunity. Push yourself to avoid these traps by taking full advantage of every second and every word you have to make an emotional connection with your listeners.