Wednesday, August 14, 2019

19 Aug Wednesday, August 14, 2019

This Week in The Lund Letter:  
>   Spice up your sound this fall
>   Over-prep and edit in the morning
>   “Name That Noise” bolsters cume
>   Politics a Turn-Off on social media?
>   It’s not me, it’s we… plus other Trends

Lund Fall Strategy: Refresh Your Brand, Part II

Stations need an occasional shot of adrenaline to spike listenership and energize the sound.  Continued from last week, here are more ways to spark your audience this fall:

+   Conduct a brainstorming session with your staff to look for new ideas, promotions and topical prizes for fall.  What could we do to create talk and tune-in – something that we’ve never done before?

+   Create a new contest or promotion for fall – one that you haven’t done in a year or two (and sell it to a new client).

+   Change up the music rotations so songs come up in a different order.  For the first month of the fall sweep in some formats, drop all Secondaries and just play the Powers.

+   Refresh your imaging.  Add a second voice – like a female added to your male voice (depending on format).  Add creative imaging so you’re not just saying the station name and slogan between songs.

+   Is your imaging voice heard more often in a day than your air talents?  Cut your dependence on produced imaging and have the on-air talent talk between songs more often.  They can do a liner, talk briefly about a local event, intro an artist, or talk about the weather (it’s hot!).  Help the talent sound live and local.

What do you do to spike attention and freshen up your sound?  Email John Lund and we’ll have more ideas next week.

Fresh Imaging Liners

Don’t allow your imaging to sound stale.  Get new creative imaging liners to perk up your station sound.  Order the Lund library of liner scripts that you need …

>   200 Fun Imaging liners (for all music formats)
>   200 At-Work Listening liners (all formats)
>   200 liners for News-Talk stations

Refresh your programming sound!

20% off sale price – Now just $39.95 for each liner library.  Use the links below to order and we’ll email your scripts immediately.

+   Creative Imaging Liners for music stations
+   At Work Liners
+   Fresh News-Talk Liners

These sweepers will sound great on your station!


Lund Programming Clinic: Rules of Great Programming, Part V

The top stations have these “rules” in common.  In recent issues we’ve listed the rules for playing the right music and morning show rules, which continue.

Mornings Rule #11: Over prepare.  Creating morning show content is as tricky as making a Frappuccino.  Typical morning show hosts prepare one to two hours for every hour they are on the air.  Carefully choose the best content.  Using just 50% of all prepped material is typical.  Your items must hit the core audience’s interests.

Mornings Rule #12: A great morning show anchors the day.  We coined the expression, “How goes the morning, so goes the day.”  In other words, hook ’em early with great content, and listeners are more likely to stick around all day.

Mornings Rule #13: Talk to your target’s interests.  A Sports or Rock host can talk about chick flick movies, but in a totally different way than an AC talent. Hip-Hop likely escapes the understanding of adults who listen to Country or Classic Rock.  Carefully edit material from national show prep services, and localize these stories for greater relatability. Choose stories that offer the greatest connective tissue with your local listener.

Mornings Rule #14: Edit for morning radio.  Think in seconds to make your point. The science is clear: The first eight seconds out of music will determine whether you continue to hold attention. Otherwise, listeners may tune out or fire up their blow dryer … and you lose.  This is true for music stations as well as talk.  Hit the gate fast with a catchy opening line and get into your content. Save the promo, weather, and other lesser material for later in the break.

Mornings Rule #15: Program for audience cycles.  Some talents think listeners are with them for their entire show.  Actually each listening occasion is about ten minutes – twenty minutes if you’re really good. Benchmarks and promotions need multiple mentions.  There may be several different tune-ins each morning show, which supports more frequent and effective teases.  Plan on at least one big benchmark per hour.  A great bit can be reused later in the show.

More Programming Rules next week.

Your Music Software needs a check-up!

Playing the right songs and managing your music software are vital to your station’s success.  Lund Media provides a comprehensive playlist review and software tune-up.  Are you playing the top researched music in the rotation?  We can help tune your station for fall.  For a comprehensive music software analysis and tune-up, email John Lund.

And if you just need a best-researched “safe list” for your format, we have that also. 

  
Lund’s Top 3:  When to Hire a Consultant
  
When does a radio station benefit from hiring a consultant?  A station needs help when it has exhausted its own resources trying to solve particular challenges in programming, sales, or marketing, or when management wants an outsider to provide an analysis with a fresh approach.  Your consultant should bring an impartial viewpoint that focuses on increasing audience as well as revenue growth.

1.   Stations rely on a programming expert with established credentials and expertise to help the Program Director and complement a manager’s strategic programming team.  Many stations utilize consultants as a first resource, not as a last resort.  Thus, consultants join a station’s management team as a sign of that company’s strength, not because of weakness.

2.   A consultant can assist management with all aspects of program operationsincluding strategic planning, music, sales, research, formatics, website enhancements, promotions, marketing, ratings analysis, and staff development.

3.   A strong consultant can elevate the sound with one-on-one coaching of the morning personality show and other talents, creating higher demand by listeners and advertisers.

Consulting and assisting radio stations achieve more listeners, more revenue, and higher ratings is at the core of Lund Media’s mission.  Would you like more information about how we can assist your station(s)?  Email John Lund to set up a time to talk.


Promotion of the Week: Secret Sound

This is an awesome promotion that works for all formats and stations in all markets.  Every listener is challenged to guess the strange sound, and they listen hourly for clues and wrong guesses.   The game gets people playing along, even though they don’t necessarily call in.  The promotion creates talk and builds time spent listening.

Examples of sounds:

+   Baseball being thrown into a ball glove
+   A basketball being dropped into a trash can full of foam peanuts
+   The slicing of a pear
+   Two batteries being dropped into a flashlight

The Secret Sound is, quite simply, a “name that noise” contest!  In fact, some stations call it that on-air.  This contest is great!  It’s easy for listeners to understand, and it’s fun to play along with (even if they don’t call).  We have a 30-page stylebook that outlines the contest and rules, and lists over 100 sounds plus pages of promos. Name the noise!  Order your copy here.


Lund Trend Watch:

Politics on Social Media

A Pew Research survey found that only 15% of US adults “enjoy” political content on social media.  And even though there is still more than a year until the presidential election, nearly half of respondents (46%) feel “worn out” by all the political content on social media.  68% of survey participants said they discovered that their political views don’t match those of others they know and “discussions” on social media is where they were confronted with that fact.

Cord Cutting Continues

Traditional cable and satellite TV continue to have decreasing subscriber numbers.  According to a new eMarketer forecast, by 2020 a quarter of US households will be cord cutters and rely on streaming services for their video content.  Satellite TV providers are expected to dip the most, falling 7.1% this year.  Telco and cable will drop by 4.6% and 2.4% respectively.

The “We” Generation

Millennials may not be as all about “me” as previously believed… at least when it comes to brand appeal.  According to the 2019 Fuse Multicultural Insider report, Millennials (18 to 35 year olds) find “unity” twice as valuable as “diversity.”  55% feel that diversity isn’t inclusive enough.  Almost nine out of ten (88%) said they like when a brand appeals to more than one type of person, and 85% say a brand should be something that everyone can enjoy.  85% believe brands should market based on interests and patterns rather than physical traits.  Just over three quarters (77%) of Millennials say their favorite brands value inclusivity.


Planning Your State Broadcast Convention?

John Lund’s positive, fast-moving presentation, “The Science of Growing Your Audience,” includes training and coaching guidelines on the basics of attaining higher ratings and more listeners.  Topics include the “basics” of radio programming, America’s top formats: who listens and why, tactics to get more listeners, talent coaching, and how to make voice tracking sound live and local.  This presentation will be customized and expanded to meet your members’ needs.  EmailJohn Lund for availability and more info.

Next week in the Lund Letter: Get listeners excited with a powerful contest.

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About Lund Media

For over 20 years, the Lund Media Group has provided programming, music consulting, operational guidance, and research to broadcast stations throughout North America and overseas. With specialists in every format, the Lund Goal is to help stations get more listeners and keep them listening longer.

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.