It happens to all of us. In your house, garage, and car. It sneaks in slowly—almost unnoticed. It happens to your radio station too. Uninspired audio content, lingering rules in your music software, and tertiary categories unvisited for months.
Clutter Creep.
From an on-air perspective, the holidays are over. Christmas music is well underway, your tree-lighting remote is complete, and first-quarter planning has begun. As the holiday slowdown settles in, Gold-Based and Adult Contemporary stations get a rare Christmas gift: time. Now is the perfect moment in the annual calendar to clean house on-air and online.
While most people will use the remaining four weeks of 2025 to burn vacation time, this slow stretch in December means scrubbing tired promos, refreshing clocks, rules, and rotations, retiring and updating imaging, organizing digital assets, and de-cluttering the mess that quietly accumulates behind every air console and programmer’s computer.
As you work through this exercise, keep in mind what we shared in July 2024:
The average occasion of radio listening, according to Nielsen PPM data—whether you’re a Talk, Christian, or Country brand—is somewhere between 11 and 15 minutes. Whether you’re 1st or 31st, the average is 13 minutes. Combine this data point with the fact that attention spans have diminished 50% over the last two decades. Listeners behave more passively than ever.
Take a day to examine the “why” behind every on-air and online element:
Manage Your Music
Build a reputable format-specific panel in Mediabase. If you already have one, mix up the radio stations you monitor. Repack your categories and create a tighter list. The most common issue we encounter is categories that are too large. Even veteran programmers “tinker” throughout the year. When in doubt, leave it out.
Given that attention spans are way down, tighten your artist separation. Taylor Swift is scorching hot. So why—other than antiquated thinking—would you not play Taylor two or three times an hour? Classic Hits/Rock: why not spin Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”—Classic Rock’s all-time tester—six or seven times a day? The No-Repeat Day, or Workday, is dead. Listeners complain about hearing songs they dislike too often. They don’t complain about hearing their favorites.
Reimagine Your Imaging
Year-end is the perfect time to write and rebuild recurring imaging pieces. Whether it’s music promos, morning-show feature audio, or ongoing sponsor announcements, fresh writing is likely needed.
When revisiting or rebuilding clocks this month, kill the “silent segue.” ID between every element. Some radio programmers argue it creates clutter or that “the listener already knows who they’re hearing.” Listeners don’t. Starbucks doesn’t print its logo on every third cup—brand impressions matter. With 13-minute listening occasions, if you don’t ID frequently, your audience won’t remember who gave them that experience.
Brush Up Those Benchmarks
Many of our contemporaries aren’t in sync with us on this idea. If a benchmark feature is a killer, why limit it to once per show? The 6:20 a.m. audience is not the 8:40 a.m. audience. Nielsen data shows that running a signature bit once at 8:40 a.m. each week is heard by less than 5% of your P1s. If it’s hot, repeat it throughout the morning vertically and across the weekday morning horizontally.
Reimagine current benchmarks and toss recurring features that no longer work. Disney often replaces rides in their theme parks if a ride feels dated, like their “Frozen” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” rides. Disney does the same with rides that have low attendance. If your “Second Date Update” or “Craigslist Missed Connections” fails to create buzz after years, dump it. The audience will tell you if they miss a dropped feature.
Show – Station – Client Promos
Cross-promoting the morning show “a few times a day” isn’t enough. Everyone fears clutter, but if only a sliver of your audience hears the message, it’s essentially not running. As Nielsen experts remind us, “Your cume is beehiving all the time.” It turns over every 13 minutes.
Television understands this. NBC, fully aware that viewers second-screen their way through programming, ran a minimum of six Winter Olympic promos or mentions during The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade last Wednesday. When NBC airs the 2026 Super Bowl, you’ll see the same tactic. Six. Per. Hour.
Air shorter promos more often. Push incremental details to your digital platforms. Increase the frequency of mentions for shows, events, and clients dramatically. Swap standard :30 promos for tight :10s or even :05s, and run them multiple times an hour. Drop them in stop sets the way television does.
Lead with the benefit. Don’t bury the hook. If you’re giving away a trip to Hawaii at your T-Mobile event, that’s your opening line—not the closer.
Dive Into Digital
In every new situation, we encounter radio stations that have dated content or broken links on their digital platforms. Even worse, some have photos and bios of staff who have already left the building. Begin with a page-by-page audit and put several sets of eyes on your pages. Run a link-checker tool like BrokenLinkCheck.com to uncover outdated graphics and references to past promotions. Look for expired contests and talent no longer with you on sub-pages. This strengthens your digital credibility.
As with promo copy, tighten your writing while deleting long-neglected blog sections. Update outdated biographies and ensure every call-to-action leads somewhere useful. A clean digital presence projects a professional approach. Your audience is pummeled with up to 10,000 ad messages a day. Fast, error-free digital real estate is far more attractive and engaging.
An intentional and compelling brand is a great way to emerge from post-Christmas programming and a gift to yourself for the holiday. Listeners will hear—and see—a difference!
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Kevin Robinson is a passionate award-winning programmer, consultant and coach – with multi-formats success all over the country. He has advised numerous companies including Audacy (formerly Entercom Communications), Beasley Broadcast Group, Westwood One, Midwest Communications, Townsquare Media, Midwest Family Broadcasting Group, EG Media Group, Federated Media, Kensington Media, mediaBrew Communications, Starved Rock Media, and more. He specializes in strategic radio cluster alignment, building lean-forward tactics and talent coaching – legacy and entry-level – personalities.
Known largely as a trusted talent coach, Kevin is the only personality mentor who’s coached three different morning shows on three different brands in the same major market to the #1 position. His efforts have been recognized by The World Wide Radio Summit, Radio & Records, NAB’s Marconi, and he has coached CMA, ACM and Marconi Award-winning talent. He is also in The Zionsville High School Hall of Fame as part of the 2008 inaugural class. Kevin is an Indiana native – living near Zionsville with his wife of 39 years, Monica and can be reached at kevin@robinsonmedia.fm.
