One of the questions I get asked most as a consultant and morning show coach is, “Why doesn’t the audience know what’s going on at my station?” My answer: you’re not running enough promos promoting your contest, your morning show, or your brand depth. Secondarily, the promos you are running don’t stand out.
The brilliant Pierre Bouvard of Cumulus recently wrote about how many spots advertisers need to run for a successful campaign. He outlined how to compute audience turnover. I’m going to take it one step further and give you the actual numbers for several different stations in different formats — but I’m going to keep the call letters out to protect the guilty. All of these scenarios are based on total week, 6am–12 midnight, and what Pierre would call “high impact” — reaching two-thirds of the station’s audience an average of three times. In my opinion, that is the absolute minimum needed for a successful morning show launch or major promotion. Keep in mind, these promos would need to run equally throughout the day to achieve results, and we are not counting the overnight show. Yes, it could be a mix of recorded and live. And this is to promote the one big thing on the station.
The Numbers by Format
Let’s start with Hot AC. These numbers are based on the general format target of women 25–54.
A hugely successful top-5 market Hot AC: 115 promos per week
A struggling top-50 market Hot AC: 151 promos per week
Top 40/CHR is similar. I did the math on the target audience of women 18–49 for this format.
A household-name top-5 market CHR: 111 promos per week
A top-40 market CHR that has seen better days: 167 promos per week
Moving to Classic Hits, these numbers are based on the format target of adults 25–54.
A successful top-5 market Classic Hits: 127 promos per week
A struggling top-10 market Classic Hits: 164 promos per week
Finally, a format with extremely passionate P-1s and much less turnover than music radio — the format that actually founded Barrett Media — sports.
A very successful top-10 market sports station: 55 promos per week
A struggling top-10 market sports station: 86 promos per week
Music programmers’ heads are probably spinning after reading those numbers. But when you give a promotion four promos a day, nobody except you knows you’re running one.
What Your Promos Actually Say Matters
Now, let’s also visit the content of the promos. If you air recorded promos right out of a song — or, in the case of spoken word, right out of strong content — does that recorded promo grab the audience in the first four seconds? If your recorded promos begin with “WXXX is your station in Chicago for summertime fun,” forget it. I know you want your station name up front, but how about opening with “Win Free Tickets” or “Win Money”?
Consider the most effective commercials on your station. They are generally live endorsements by trusted talent. So, are all your promos done by Mister Big Voice, or do you have meaningful talent selling your latest promotion? This is also the perfect vehicle for talent cross-promotion. For example, if your afternoon host talks about how funny the morning show was at 7:20 — and says it almost caused a wreck because they were laughing so hard taking the kids to school — that gets attention. It is, in effect, an endorsement of another show on your station.
Talent doing live promos — or even recording them — gives you a pass, because the audience doesn’t perceive them as commercials. However, you can bet that any recorded promo by Mister Big Voice is thought of as a spot. The audience may know it’s a commercial for your station, but it’s a commercial nonetheless.
The Bottom Line: Frequency Sells
I’m going to once again mention my favorite Scott Shannon quote: “The greatest radio stations are built on a typewriter” — updated today to an iPad. You need better promos, and you need to run them more often. Every programmer needs to internalize the basic rule from your sales department: in radio, frequency sells.
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Jim Ryan is a Music Radio columnist for Barrett Media. In addition, he runs Jim Ryan Media LLC, a consulting company which assists major market radio brands and top talent including national radio personality Delilah. Prior to relaunching his consultancy in 2025, Jim spent 15 years with Audacy/CBS Radio, serving as SVP of Programming. Among his responsibilities included programming WNEW-FM and WCBS-FM. His career includes additional programming stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston. Jim was voted the #2 PD of 2024 in Barrett Media’s Top 20 series in the AC category. He can be reached by email at Jim@JimRyanMedia.com.