Here’s a question every programmer and market manager should ask before signing a syndication deal: Is this going to make the station better, or just cheaper to run?
Let me get this out of the way. This isn’t one of those anti-syndication columns. I’ve carried syndicated shows, and some of them were flat-out better than anything we could have built locally. And being local has never made anybody funny. But radio’s connection to the community is still one of the biggest advantages we’ve got. So maybe the question isn’t local versus syndicated. Maybe it’s how you get great content on the air without cutting the cord to the community.
Radio loves to say “live and local.” Great. But is it good?
Putting somebody in a studio down the street doesn’t make them compelling. You can market a mediocre local show all day long. Slap the talent on billboards. Send them to every festival. Wrap their faces around the station van and have them shaking hands every weekend.
None of it matters if the show isn’t good when somebody turns on the radio. Great content is the price of admission. And that’s a legitimate argument for syndication.
Johnjay & Rich at Z100 Portland
I’ve been on the other side of this. When I was VP of Programming for the Portland market, Z100 carried Johnjay & Rich.
A lot of the credit goes to Justin Riley, Z100’s PD, and the programmers who came before him. They got it. Putting Johnjay & Rich on the air wasn’t the end of the programming decision. It was the beginning. We spent a ton of time making sure there was Portland in that show. Local content. Promotions. Imaging. Market knowledge. Constant conversation between the station and the show. The goal was to make sure Johnjay & Rich knew what was going on in Portland and felt like part of it.
We weren’t trying to make a syndicated show sound local. We were trying to make it matter locally. There’s a big difference.
The Woody Show Gets It
You can see a version of that today with The Woody Show.
Woody has made the point himself. Being local just for the sake of being local isn’t enough. It still has to be entertaining. He’s right.
But the show also gives affiliates plenty of room to make it their own. Look at 105.7 The Point in St. Louis. The station works hard at localizing the show, and Woody has history in that market. Now there’s the newer work-parts option, which lets affiliates run their own music around the show’s content.
Syndicated and local aren’t opposites. You can start with great national content and build local relevance around it.
Win at Home First
Most of the morning shows I’ve worked with over the years have told me, at one point or another, that they’d love to be syndicated. I understand why. Who doesn’t want more stations? My answer has always been the same. Win at home first. Then syndicate.
That means beating the competition down the street. It also means beating everything else fighting for your listeners’ attention. Streaming. Podcasts. Social media. The phone in their hand. If you can’t win that fight at home, you’re not ready for somebody else’s town.
Then there’s the fear of losing what made the show work locally in the first place. There are ways around that. Start with a sister station or two in nearby or similar markets. Keep the home station first. Build separate breaks for each affiliate. And keep somebody in each market feeding the show local content.
Take it one step at a time, and a show can grow without forgetting where it came from.
The Tourist Problem
Knowing about a market and belonging to a market are two different things.
A syndicated personality can say “Kansas City.” They can talk about the Chiefs. They can plug the big concert Saturday night. And they can cut customized liners all day long. That doesn’t mean they have a relationship with Kansas City.
Without the work around the show, they’re a tourist. They’ve seen the landmarks. They’ve picked up a few local references. Maybe they’ve even visited. Listeners figure it out. They can tell the difference between someone who mentions their town and someone who’s actually part of it. It’s on the station to build that bridge.
Save Money, Not Effort
Look, radio companies are businesses. There’s nothing wrong with being efficient. If syndication cuts costs and puts better talent on the air, everybody wins.
The trouble starts when the thinking becomes: We syndicated the morning show, so we don’t need all those people anymore. Programmers. Producers. Promotions. Street teams. Appearances. Marketing. Maybe syndication isn’t what costs radio its local connection. Maybe it’s gutting everything that used to surround the show.
Syndication can save money. It shouldn’t save effort.
Better or Just Cheaper?
So back to the question. If you’re swapping a mediocre local show for a phenomenal syndicated one, you may have made the station better. If you’re dumping a great local show because syndication costs less, that’s a whole different decision.
Both can be legitimate business calls. But they’re not the same call. Saving money is a business strategy. Let’s not pretend it’s a programming strategy.
The listener has no idea what the show costs. All they know is whether they like what’s coming out of the speakers. Local without great content isn’t enough. But great content without a connection leaves one of radio’s biggest advantages sitting on the table.
I saw it work with Johnjay & Rich at Z100. You can see it with The Woody Show. Radio doesn’t have to choose between great syndicated programming and local relevance. It just has to remember that localization takes actual work.
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