27 Jun Wednesday, June 27, 2018
This Week in The Lund Letter:
> Repeating your best benchmarks
> Grab attention fast
> And the latest media trends
Lund Programming Clinic: Morning Show Replays
Music programmers understand the value in building ratings by frequently playing the listener’s favorite songs, so we play the hits! The same is true with the morning show and replaying their entertaining bits and benchmarks. TV practices this concept when NFL halftime shows replay highlights of the first half plus other games of that day to enhance excitement. The NFL Redzone channel only plays scoring highlights. During a baseball game on TV, one sees past hits by players coming to bat. Cable news shows feature video excerpts from their own channel, press conferences, public discussions and briefings.
“Best of” moments can benefit your morning show. Your morning show gains audience through the use of strategic replays of compelling content. How?
1. Record all content. Repeat the best bits and benchmarks two hours later, or the next day.
2. Use highlights from a relevant bit in a recorded morning show promo. This is more effective than listing generic benchmarks and prizes slated for the next show.
3. Produce a weekend show of highlights taken from the previous week. You don’t want to position it as a “Best Of” show as you want the audience to believe the show is live and original.
4. Use highlights from regular benchmarks as an intro to the benchmark. This can be funny things a listener may have said on air or the morning talent reacting to the listener.
5. Use show highlights to use within custom imaging for the show. Does your morning talent have a unique laugh, do they use a keyword, do they express emotion on air? These are ways to help position the talents in custom imaging during the morning show.
6. Use entertaining content from other media. “Laughter at Twenty After” is a popular benchmark. It’s basically a “sizzle reel” of the best bits from late night television. Cable news has embraced this piece of content. Late night TV offers great content that many people haven’t seen due to the time they are aired.
7. Archive interviews and replay snippets when the subject matter becomes topical.
8. Use a content excerpt during a morning show to tease the replay of the content.
9. Use replays in creative contesting (like “Secret Sound”)… “What is this?” … “What did he say?”
What Are You Famous For?
What’s the one thing your listeners say best describes your show? Hint: there better be one! Listeners should remember one thing about you and your show – it’s typically a benchmark or one great bit that you do daily. Do you need some proven bits to be famous for? Use the Lund Morning Show guide to “amp up” your show – regardless of what daypart you’re on. The Guide provides the secrets to producing a terrific show every day, and will help improve the planning, presentation and sound of each performance. The Morning Show Guide has all the tools that talents need to grow and sound better.
Lund Talent Development: Instant Gratification
You don’t have two minutes for a bit. You don’t even have one minute. Those trained in Top 40 know about the seven-second talk clock, and it does have its merits! Behavioral studies show people “decide” whether to continue to pay attention (or tune out entirely) in only a few seconds. Scientists say the attention span of a goldfish is 8 seconds, but a human is just 7 seconds! An air talent has a nanosecond to hook the listener when the music ends. If you are still talking about the same bit when that listener finished brushing her teeth as when she started, you have probably lost her.
In the world of today’s listener time constraints, PPM methodology has taught us brevity: think in terms of 20-30 seconds. The exception is when something is riveting; stories about kids or pets still rule and can hold attention longer. Morning show calls with listener opinions or contributions may also hold attention longer, as long as these are quality conversations. Editing is a must, as is call screening.
Thank You, Iowa!
It was great meeting the many managers and programmers at the Iowa Broadcasters summer convention last week in Des Moines. Topics in the two John Lund sessions were: Programming Basics & PD grad school and the 2018 Radio Trends – Smart speakers, millennials, podcasting, radio’s digital universe, and ATSC 3.0. We thank all who attended these two Lund workshops. If your state or organization is planning a convention, we’ll design a custom presentation to excite your members. Contact John Lund.
Promotion of the Week: The Black Box
This is a terrific audience and sales promotion that garners new cume, builds intrigue, and drives appointment tune-in and TSL, as well as sales! The concept is simple:
> Get a very large black box – at least 10 feet x 10 feet x 10 feet.
> Paint the black box with the station logo.
> Put it on a trailer and ride it around town or hang it above a major road or expressway for all drivers to see.
> Place a number of winnable items inside and provide clues from participating clients. Take calls on the air, via text, or social media asking listeners to name each prize – winner takes all!
This can also be done on a much smaller scale as The Back-To-School Backpack (yes, it really is time to plan your promotions for back to school again!).
For 100 more great contests and sales promotions, see the Lund Contest and Promotion Guide.
Lund’s Top 3: Traits of Winning Air Personalities
Here are some more traits that all the best personalities share.
1. Life Experience. The best don’t just sit behind the mic; they talk about a broad range of topics that connect with many different listeners.
2. Succinct Communication. Getting a point across with as few words as possible is a necessary skill for on air personalities. No one hums the announcer!
3. Passion. Love what you do and reflect that on the air.
Continued next week in the Lund Letter. Visit www.lundradio.com for more Top 3’s!
Are you marketing to General Managers or Program Directors and want to reach the 9,400+ readers of the Lund Letter? Email John Lund.
This Week’s Music:
Post Malone’s “Psycho” continues to rule CHR. The top spot at Country is now taken by Morgan Wallen and Florida Georgia Line with their song “Up Down.” Panic! At The Disco’s “Say Amen (Saturday Night)” is the new Alternative leader. Hot AC has a new queen with “Never Be The Same” by Camila Cabello. And Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” continues to reign at Bright AC. Lund clients receive weekly music research information on current music plus regular updates on the best-testing recurrent and gold titles.
Music Evaluation
How’s the music sounding on your station? Playing the right songs and managing your software controls are vital to a music station’s success. Get a comprehensive music review and software tune-up from Lund Media. We’ll thoroughly examine your library and music software — this is an insurance policy for time spent listening! Contact John Lund for this cost efficient analysis and tune-up to help your station capitalize on the very thing listeners want most – the best researched music for your target demo!
Lund Trend Watch:
Short Ads May Not Be The Best
The TV and digital media advertising community have been testing shorter ads (6 seconds or less) lately. Consumers actually prefer 30s and 15s according to a survey by Research Intelligencer and Pollfish. For TV, 46.5% find 30s the ideal commercial length and 26.5% prefer 15s. For comparison, the next most preferred length was “greater than 30 seconds” with 13.3%. 6 or shorter were liked by fewer than 10% each. For online media, the preference for 30s and 15s was similar to the TV sample, same with 6 second spots. This is not in agreement with studies conducted by Fox, the Advertising Research Foundation and Nielsen. But why? Is it possible the novelty of super-short ads has worn off and consumers are back to wanting ads that better inform?
Mom’s Little Helper
Moms are heavily engaged with smartphones, according to an Edison Research study. 98% of Moms have a mobile phone that can access the internet. 81% use their phones to listen to audio. 72% access podcasts with smartphones, and 66% use Siri or Google Assistant to look up information via mobile. According to the study, Moms spend 3 hours and 34 minutes on the internet (including mobile), 2 hours 47 minutes watching television, and 1 hour and 51 minutes listening to the radio. 78% of respondents said they listened to traditional radio in the past week. This is a great reason to have a streaming app that is well-promoted on the air. Anything that makes Moms’ lives easier is going to be a hit.
Pathway to Sounding Better
Maximize your programming with a top-to-bottom review. The Lund Strategic Programming Evaluation finds the strengths and weaknesses of your stations – promotions, talents, and programming strategy, and details specific ways to improve the programming. If you play music, the evaluation also includes a detailed analysis of your music. ContactJohn Lund for info on how this study will benefit your stations.
Programmer’s Planner:
Here is a list of actions this week for the proactive program director:
Today, 6/27
Website Wednesday. Show your station’s American pride. Keep the spirit of the Fourth going through the holiday weekend.
TV Premiere – Special two-hour premiere for the twentieth season of Big Brother on CBS.
Thurs., 6/28
Summer diary ratings start week 2. July PPM week 2 begins.
Prepare now for the Nielsen Fall diary ratings sweep (begins Sept. 13) and upcoming monthly PPMs.
Fri., 6/29
Today is the start of the Independence Day Holiday Weekend (for those celebrating the weekend before; some will choose the weekend after since July 4 is a Wednesday. 
Facebook Friday: Post pics and videos promoting the station’s Fourth of July activities.
Streaming Premieres – Netflix has another of their premiere days; today’s offerings include British drama series Kiss Me First and the second season of GLOW. Amazon has new miniseries A Very English Scandal (Hugh Grant).
Movie Premieres – Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Uncle Drew.
Sat.-Sun., 6/30-7/1
This weekend: Be visible and promotionally active.
Social Media Saturday/Sunday. Tweet when (and where) you arrive at remote locations. Tweet again when you leave (“We had a lot of fun at…”) and say what happened (post promotion).
July 1 is Canada Day.
Mon., 7/2
This coming Wednesday is Independence Day in the US. Be visible!
Tues., 7/3
Today’s Programming Meeting … Continue with promotional work on summertime activities. Be involved at your county fair, street fairs, festivals and parades.
The start of Dog Days (thru Aug 11) & Air Conditioning Appreciation Days (thru Aug 15). Do a remote at a dog-friendly park and give out station Frisbees for Fido.
Wed., July 4th – Happy Independence Day. The Lund Letter is taking today off… We’ll be back next Wednesday (7/11). Enjoy the holiday!
Thanks for reading
The Lund Letter
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About the Lund Media Group:
For over 20 years, the Lund Media Group has provided programming, music consulting, operational guidance, and research to commercial and public broadcaststations throughout North America and overseas. Whether you program all sports, all t
alk, or all music, the Lund Goal is to help stations get more listeners and keep them listening longer. The Lund Consultants are a multi-format custom programming and management consultancy.
Call John Lund for more information about how the Lund Media Group can help your stations achieve more listeners, higher ratings, and more revenue.
Phone: 650-692-7777.
Email john@lundradio.com.