Wednesday, August 7, 2019

12 Aug Wednesday, August 7, 2019

This Week in The Lund Letter:  
>   Enticing ways to change things up
>   The Fox Rocks Flint
>   Kickstart your programming with something special
>   Make morning listening forced listening
>   Digital vs. print again… plus other Trends

Lund Fall Strategy: Refresh Your Brand

Successful stations tweak the programming occasionally to remain connected to their core audience and make it exciting to entice new cume.  With the fall rating sweep upcoming, consider ways to energize your station.

>   Add a new member to the morning show or a new talent in another shift.

>   Create a new daily benchmark for the morning show, or enhance a bit that the show has done for years.

>   Create a new merchandizing tool – like a station mascot outfit to wear at remotes and appearances.

>   Promote a new hat or T-shirt to give away at remotes.  Make it topical. Look at the success of Rush Limbaugh’s Betsy Ross flag T-shirt in response to Nike pulling their Betsy Ross flag sneakers.
>   Create special imaging for each daypart – driving to work, listening at work, driving home, relaxing at home, being out on the weekend, etc.

>   Like a baseball manager with their line-up card, you should change your category positions on your music clocks but keep the same sequencing.  It can be simply done by just rotating one quarter hour.  Instead of starting with song 1, you start the hour with song 4 and end the hour with songs 1-2-3.

What have you done to refresh and energize your brand?  Email John Lund and we’ll include them next week.

#1 in Flint

Congratulations Lund Media client Krol Communications and Classic Rock WRSR-FM, Flint.

103.9 the Fox is now rated #1 Men 25-54 – doubling its audience share fall to spring.  WRSR is #2 Persons 25-54, growing 50% over fall.

Lund Report: Sounding Special

How do you spice up the sound of your station?  Create special programming for a day or weekend which is consistent with your brand and embraces topicality.  Examples:

+   A Classic Hits station on a President’s Day weekend played music each hour from a former President’s time in office e.g. “Reagan Years.”

+   A Classic Rock station for the opening of professional hockey season did a “Hat Trick Weekend” playing three in a row by a core artist.

+   In San Francisco, a Classic Rock station played “Nine in a Row” every hour over the weekend during 49er football.

+   On Labor Day weekend, AC and Classic Hits stations stage a Labor of Love Weekend.

+   Classic Rock WMGK in Philadelphia flipped its on-air music format to exclusively play Rolling Stones songs with the new moniker and call letters “102.9MCK – All Stones All the Time” in advance of the Stones concert there in July.

+   A CHR station may play Ariana Grande every hour over the weekend to give away tickets to a local Ariana Grande concert.

+   On Halloween, Classic Hits stations can feature Halloween’s Haunted Hits: ghoulish songs and scary looking artists.

+   Also this fall, Gold-based formats can have a “Turn Back Time” weekend when Daylight Saving Time ends, “Elect Your Classic Hits Weekend” for election day, “Classic Hits in Uniform” on Veterans Day, and the “World Series of Rock and Roll” for the end of baseball season.

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 Programming Clinic: Rules of Great Programming, Part IV

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

Mornings Rule #6: Get attention and get cumed again!  The morning show stimulates listener talk, P-1 endorsement, and forces daily listening with the station’s high profile morning personality.  When the core is stimulated, they tell their friends, and this becomes as powerful as a 500 GRP TV campaign.

Mornings Rule #7:  Stunts generate talk and awareness.  Pranks are to radio personalities what hit movies are to actors.

Mornings Rule #8: Benchmarks create tune-in.  They are ways to make appointments to listen.  And they become time markings for listeners to measure their morning routine and progress.

Mornings Rule #9: Be multi-dimensional.  Talents are challenged to execute their greatest morning skills – including interviewing, listener interaction, comedy, on-location showmanship, and being a fun companion.  They develop these strengths into benchmarks, bits, elements, and fascinating talk sets.

Mornings Rule #10: The morning show has a “specialty.”  The host sounds credible, real, intelligent, fun, and provides interesting content and relevant info to the target listener.  The show reflects the “Big Event” of the day that everyone is talking about, or creates it, and offers many interpretations to add meaning to what is happening in the city and world that day.

  
Lund’s Top 3:  Formatic Basics
  
Discuss the format fundamentals chosen for your stations with every talent.  Don’t have an available guide?  Utilize these Lund “format flash points” to make sure your station sounds its best:

1.   Build your TSL. When going into a stopset, make your promote-aheads more effective and give the listener a reason to keep listening.

2.   Don’t pre-sell more than one song. Title and artist laundry lists aren’t effective teases. Sell one particular artist upcoming and colorize the sales pitch with info gathered from show prep, your music knowledge, or a TV appearance/concert performance.

3.   Teach listeners how to “use” the station with your liners, like listening at-work, driving home, on the weekend, on the stream or app, etc.  Begin these liners with the benefit (what’s in it for me!).

For more Top 3 lists, check out www.lundradio.com.

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!

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 large black box – at least 10 feet x 10 feet x 10 feet. (A shipping container works well, too.)

>   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!

Do You Need A Great Promotion?

Our Fall Promotions Guide outlines every programming and sales promotion you’ll need for the months ahead.  Over 100 audience-building promotions, contests, sales promotions and show prep ideas will make your stations sizzle through fall … and help the sales staff lock in new dollars.

Order our Fall Promotions Guide now… Order here.

Lund Trend Watch:

Music Industry Revenue

In 2010, streaming (ad-supported and paid subscription) made up less than 10% of music industry revenue in the US.  Last year, it was 75% of revenue.  Thanks to increases in subscriptions, the music industry has been recovering from its low position in 2014.  2018 is the fourth consecutive year of growth.  Streaming revenue totaled $7.4 billion in 2018.  With adjustment from inflation, the peak of music industry revenues was in 1999 when the total revenue was $21.5 billion… $19.2 billion of which came from CD singles and albums.  So there’s still plenty of room for continued improvement.

Digital vs. Print Coupons

Kantar Consulting reports that paper coupons fell 12.4% during the first half of 2019.  One major potential cause of this dip may be the lack of access.  Less and less people see paper coupons they used to find in their newspapers.  And companies know that, leaning more on digital as print shrinks.  In the same time frame, usage of digital coupons grew 8.5%.  Digital continues to gain ground, and your clients should consider the implications for their sales.  How can you help them?  Can you include client coupons in your email marketing efforts?

Fake Health

The recent increase in measles cases may be due to unsubstantiated stories that are anti-vaccine.  According to NewsGuard, 11% of health articles online are false or at least misleading.  And that includes stories found on reputable news sites!  If your site features health stories, you may want to consider an “always consult your physician” disclaimer in that section.  The old adage not to believe everything you read is still true today!


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.