Recently, I was talking with a couple of fellow radio hosts about how their shows and stations were doing. Overall, they were satisfied, but they bemoaned the level of “noise” in the industry, the difficulty in cutting through an overcrowded media landscape, and the fact that they felt they needed marketing dollars from their markets to help their cause.
I was somewhat sympathetic to their points. There is too much clutter, it is harder than ever to make your show appointment listening, every segment and every day, five days a week, and, yes, we’d all love more marketing and promotional dollars than we have
But none of that excuses what needs to be done to put a show in the best position possible to win in the current climate.
There are three tools that local hosts can use to their advantage to cut through, and they cost $0.
Making News
Your show may have the strongest opinions, but your opinions won’t be heard by anyone who isn’t listening to your show. However, if your show makes news, then suddenly those who aren’t listening to your show will be forced to acknowledge and cover your show.
If you make news with exclusive comments from a governor, mayor, or prominent athlete, you’re likely to find your show getting credited on local newscasts, the newspaper (digital subscription, because who still gets a newspaper anyway?), and potentially other social media channels. These earned media opportunities can help drive listeners to your show and station.
It’s not easy to “make” the news every day on your show, and it’s not likely to happen at a large enough level where other media in town will cover or use your content daily, but when you hit something that is topical and truly news for your city, you’ve got yourself free marketing.
And you should always have your content, especially anything potentially newsworthy, or podcasted, this way other media outlets can easily access the audio for their use (with proper credit, of course).
Lastly, make sure you curry favors with some TV/newspaper reporters in town. These allies are the ones who can help get your worthy news-making content onto their broadcasts and into their columns. And by the way, be a team player, and return the favor when appropriate.
Grassroots Marketing
As most reading this column know, there are several ways to go about grassroots marketing in radio. But to speak broadly, these can include things like the obvious station event which listeners are invited. There are always the perceived “old school” radio remotes from big events around town. Also, Station personalities can emcee various shows that involve large audiences of potential listeners.
None of these are overly unique ideas for radio, but COVID did set us back 1-2 years, and sometimes we forget that the simplest things can work.
Given the state of the world, here’s another reminder: It’s getting harder to see or talk to a real person when we do anything in our day-to-day lives. Go through a McDonald’s drive-thru, call Verizon, or even call your doctor’s office. How long will it take you to get a real person, if you ever get one?
But suddenly, in a crowded media landscape, where so many shows aren’t even located in the markets they’re broadcast in, listeners can easily go see, meet and watch, in person, a local talk show host? That’s unique in today’s world.
Using Social Media
Once again, it’s not rocket science, but it needs to be done. You can’t be a host complaining about not having billboards for your show when you won’t even create a digital billboard for yourself. That’s what social media profiles are, essentially.
But for those still on the fence, or maybe not fully bought in, here’s where this ties back to No. 1 on the list: The promotion of your own content is likely to be seen by your colleagues in the media, who then are more likely to consider you an authority and destination for local news and information.
It doesn’t need to be about your hot takes or what you ate for breakfast. But if you follow the right people, who then return the favor, and you’re constantly reminding them of your content, you’re ahead of the game.
For the amount of work you put into preparing for and then hosting your show, don’t you want your daily “greatest hits” to be on display?
In no way is this column meant to deny the challenges and realities of the media landscape we are all battling through, but it’s still our job to do more than just pop the mic for a few hours and call it a day. The competition is too stiff. And no one wants to hear the complaining anyway.
Pete Mundo is a weekly columnist for Barrett Media, and the morning show host and program director for KCMO in Kansas City. Previously, he was a fill-in host nationally on FOX News Radio and CBS Sports Radio, while anchoring for WFAN, WCBS News Radio 880, and Bloomberg Radio. Pete was also the sports and news director for Omni Media Group at K-1O1/Z-92 in Woodward, Oklahoma. He’s also the owner of the Big 12-focused digital media outlet Heartland College Sports. To interact, find him on Twitter @PeteMundo.
