Everything that airs on a sports radio station has the potential to push away or keep the audience engaged. Most times, the programming team focuses on what happens inside the content, but once the commercials hit, all is forgotten until the show is back in segment.
Except there’s one problem, those commercials and promos air on the same radio station, and can have an impact on whether or not your audience sticks around to hear your next segment. For every Budweiser and Geico spot that offers quality writing and exceptional creativity, there are many more that miss the mark. When an abundance of poor commercials run on your radio station, guess what happens next? The audience leaves, and your ratings decline.
At the stations I’ve worked at and had the benefit of being around, production directors are usually given multiple brands to focus on and they’re overloaded with so much crap that putting an extra creative touch on each piece is virtually impossible. In some cases, the individual may also lack a creative skillset which makes things even more challenging.
If you’re the Program Director at one of these stations, you’re at the mercy of what they produce. When you combine the production person’s challenges with copy that is often poorly written by salespeople who are simply trying to get it to the production department so they can get back on the road and sell, 9 times out of 10 it leads to a sub par commercial.
When a bad spot airs everyone loses. The advertiser gets less than what they paid for, the listener hears something that makes them disconnect from the radio station, which then makes the Host’s job harder, and puts the Program Director in a position to have to figure out how to re-engage the audience so the ratings don’t tumble.
One person who knows this subject very well is Nate Lundy, who has spent 25 years in the industry and recently completed a five year stint as Program Director of 104.3 The Fan in Denver. As you’ll learn in this piece, Nate believes what happens during your commercial breaks can damage your brand, if you don’t pay enough attention to it. He also shares a few helpful tips on how to make things better.
The Other 15 Minutes by Nate Lundy
Your radio station has 10 Assistant Program Directors. And you probably don’t even realize it.
Those in the business who know me, or have had the unfortunate circumstance of actually striking up a conversation with me know very well that I am passionate about the imaging and production quality of a radio station. Twenty-five years ago, many Program Directors considered that aspect of the business “not my problem” in part because we had multiple people on staff dedicated to that aspect of the business. Well, not any more.
So, why does your station have 10 Assistant Program Directors? Because in every hour you turn over 15 minutes (25% for you non-math majors out there) to your sales staff and the rest of the production chain that influences what plays within your commercial breaks.
When your host hits the break, you don’t lose your entire audience. I’ve seen the data just like you have. Sure some tune away, but the majority stay. And this is certainly the case for your P1’s. So what happens within that break can influence whether they stay or go. Bad, lazy, or sloppy production can cause tune out the same way as your host being off topic.
If you don’t work with those Assistant PD’s, pay attention to what they are doing, and most importantly COACH them the way you coach your own talent, you as a station and us as an industry are never going to get beyond the level of quality we are at right now. And that should scare you even more than the knowledge that you just added 10 Assistant PD’s to your staff.
I could go on and on regarding this topic, and perhaps in the coming weeks I will be able to expand on the pieces I don’t get to here. But I will avoid that for my initial column for Jason and merely hit on three key points.
Most Account Executives Are Terrible Writers
I’m sorry for any salespeople reading this right now, but it is true. Granted there are exceptions to this and I have worked with some of them, but for the most part the AE’s on staff are there because they are great at making the pitch and closing the deal, but they don’t know how to write to connect with the audience. However, you do. So offer to help. You’ll be amazed at the result.
Most Account Executives Don’t Know When The Sale Stops
They have worked the client for weeks, maybe months. They finally cracked the ice and the annual buy is signed. They get ready to write the copy. The problem is, they are sellers. So they try to hard-sell in the copy the way they’ve been hard-selling the client all these weeks. It won’t work. You don’t have imaging that screams at your audience so why allow commercial copy that does the same thing? Copy that hard-sells is written for the business, not for the listener. When the contract is signed, stop selling and start connecting.
Most Production Libraries Are Stale
Every cluster of stations has the infamous “production library” for commercials. Do me a favor, go down and ask when it was last updated. There are too many GREAT companies out there providing music and production elements for you to be working with the same one you had 7 to 10 years ago. Make sure it’s fresh, contemporary, and most importantly make sure it fits the personality of your station. If you have an edgy, rock-n-roll feel to your station then the library you use better fit that sound. Don’t bump to break with Green Day only to play a commercial that has Kenny G in the background.
I know this is cliché, but does your sales staff know where your office is? Do you welcome them in? We all know that some of our clients have really bad copy ideas. But if you are a partner with your sales team, fewer and fewer of them make it to your desk let alone to the airwaves.
Why? Because you have educated the sales person to weed those out early. You have coached them as Assistant PD’s to bring copy and production that fits the station’s personality. And, in my opinion, you’re going to be pleasantly surprised—some of those Assistant PD’s are actually pretty creative and can be more of an asset than you think.
I will leave you with a final point, that applies to all of your station’s messaging, whether imaging or commercials. Share this with every one of your Assistant PD’s. It comes from Harvey Mackay, the author of “Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.” (READ IT!) I have kept this posted in my office for more than 15 years, right next to my imaging archives.
“Make your living selling small words, and as few of them as possible. Realize that advertising is not about the PRODUCT, it’s about the BENEFITS the customer gets FROM the product. Remember, they don’t want SOAP…they want CLEAN HANDS.”
Nate Lundy has been in sports, news/talk, and digital media for 25 years, including more than 15 as a Program Director. He can be reached by email at natelundy@me.com, on Twitter @NateLundy and on Facebook by clicking here.
