Wednesday, July 3, 2019

08 Jul Wednesday, July 3, 2019

This Week in The Lund Letter:  
>   “U” – the fulfillment factor for your listeners
>   The nitty gritty of music scheduling
>   Show Prep made easier
>   A thinkin’ problem…plus other Trends

Lund Programming Clinic: The “U” Factor

What do listeners expect from your station?  Since about 20% of your total cume audience provides about 80% of the quarter hour listening, find out what the core wants, and give it to them!  What makes you Unique?  Promote this uniqueness to increase usage (tune-in), listening occasions per day, and TSL.

What’s “U?”  It’s the major benefit that core listeners derive from the station.  “U” is what the station means to him/her, what’s expected, and the biggest attribute of listening.

Find out what the station’s Uniquely valuable qualities are, and promote them.  Differentiation is the first step in building a brand.  In fact, the strongest brands distinguish themselves from competitors by way of their Uniqueness.

Passion

What makes listeners passionate about your station?  Make it easy for the core listener to understand what they get when they tune in.  Beyond positioning, becoming a destination station requires being Unique and special, and the best station in the listener’s minds.  “U” examples:

>   Hottest hits
>   Hot talk
>   Local news fast and first
>   The Rock Authority
>   Newest music; best music
>   Funniest/craziest morning show

The “Unique” factor drives passion, showcases the difference, builds core understanding, and gets those who are loyal to commit to listen more.  They know what to expect – and what makes U different.  Success hinges on the emotion of a format and station brand.  Targeting to the extreme, the station owns a clear-cut format position that is unchallenged.

Be Focused & Targeted  

The “U” factor concentrates on the narrow core that best represents the format niche.  All Sports or News-Talk stations have this advantage.  Oldies, Classic Rock, CHR or Urban stations are also high on the “U” scale since the formats are unique.  Promoting what makes your station unique – the U factor – is essential.  Enhance your branding and programming; put the U into Unique.

Lund Music Scheduling: Fine Tune Your Music

People come to FM music stations for the… you guessed it… music.  So making sure your music scheduling software runs smoothly is essential.  This is our third article in the Music Scheduling series.  The Lund Consultants offer these tips for better music scheduling:

Stretch your library. Use gold recycling from midday to the next overnight.  These are largely exclusive listening periods, and you can vary the actual mix of songs by not recycling currents and recurrents.

Don’t ask for the impossible.  Having a scheduling rule that says no male artists back-to-back may sound like a good move for variety, but not if your library is 80% male artists. The same goes for tempo restrictions.

Avoid artist conflicts.  Check your spelling and spacing on artist names, as well as solo versus group artists like Niall Horan and One Direction.  Also watch for featured artists, like Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, Bruno Mars featuring Cardi B, etc.

Programming Takes No Holiday

Despite Independence Day tomorrow, your radio station is still going to be on air.  Can your station or group of stations sound better, draw more audience, and better serve your advertisers?  Do you know what your listeners want to keep them listening longer?  As radio consultants, we research listener perceptions every day.  Lund Media provides stations with a cost efficient tool to provide you the answers. The Lund Strategic Programming Evaluation provides you with a programming analysis of your stations and competition that is objective and detailed.  The end result is a report that will help you grow audience and revenue.  Contact John Lund to discuss how this report can impact your stations’ growth.

Lund Talent Coaching: Show Prep Questions

Here are nine basic show prep questions that help get a talent off to a good start in preparing for his/her show:

+   What local event is coming soon?
+   What is everybody in town talking about?
+   What’s today’s big news story?

+   What kind of day is it?
+   What is my audience doing right now?
+   What’s the hottest new movie?

+   What TV show is hot?
+   What has a listener said to me recently?
+   What concert has been to town lately?

Prep your show every waking moment.

Next week – presentation advice from top radio personalities in the US.

Invest In Your Career

Are you a talent (personality or news) currently working at a station?  Are you at the start of your career? Radio personalities who systemize their approach to prepping and presenting their shows realize improved performances and higher ratings.  Want to know the benchmarks that listeners like most?  The Lund Consultants coach and develop talents for improved performance and higher ratings.  Contact John to find out how he can assist your performance for higher ratings, better formatics, or career advancement.  John has developed major market and network personalities as well as assisting talents in all markets better serve their listeners.  Email John Lund.  

  
Lund’s Top 3:  Promotion Planning Checklist
  
Fall Nielsen and Eastlan rating sweeps begin September 12. Do you have all the necessary promotions in place for fall? Use our helpful hints to thoroughly plan each step of every fall promotion:

1.   Conduct staff meetings and discuss the fall marketing.  Ask for promotion and contest ideas.  Create a plan with details, goals and execution. Ask for ways to make the promotion better, bigger, more exciting, and more enticing.

2.   Plan your promotion. Make someone responsible for every detail, including contacting the venue, getting prizes, obtaining permits or licenses, checking on insurance needs, writing promos, and seeing to it that all liners and promos are updated regularly.

3.   Find a sales partner for the promotion.  Make contests fun to play and easy to understand (it can be explained in just two sentences).  Practice the KISS formula (Keep it simple, stupid!).

Next week, more promotion planning tips for fall.  For more Top 3 lists, check out www.lundradio.com.

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.

Promotion of the Week: Jock Crossing Guards

Back To School is just around the corner, and parents are likely in your demographic no matter your format.  Have a morning talent act as a crossing guard at a big local elementary school on the first day of school.  This could continue for the end of the day using the afternoon talent.  Have lots of small station logo gear handy to give to the kids.

Do You Need A Great Promotion?

Our Summer and Fall Promotions Guides outline 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 right now and through summer … and help the sales staff lock in new dollars.

Order our Fall Promotions Guide now and receive the Summer Promotions Guide free.   Order here to get both guides.

Lund Trend Watch:

Prime Day(s)

Amazon’s Prime Day sales event will cover a full 48 hours this year on July 15 & 16.  In addition, there are special sales and events leading up to the main event.  Amazon Music’s “Prime Day” Concert will feature live-streamed performances by headliner Taylor Swift and additional artists Dua Lipa, SZA and Becky G.  The concert will air July 10 on Prime Video (another way for Amazon to rope in more $119-a-year memberships).

Digital Literacy

You have a thinkin’ problem!  MindEdge Learning has released the results of its third annual State of Critical Thinking Study.  69% of all participants received an “F” on the digital literacy quiz that is the heart of the study that tested knowledge and identification skills regarding actual vs. fake news.  An “F” means 6 or more wrong answers on a 9-question test.  Only 9% received an “A” (8 or 9 correct answers).  Older Americans did slightly better (13% of Baby Boomers got an A).  Is it just too easy for fake information to spread on digital media?  Does the old saying, “don’t believe everything you read” need a resurgence?

Programmer’s Planner:

July 4: Independence Day (tomorrow and the start of a 4-day weekend for many)

Summer is the time for county fairs, festivals, and other fun activities.  Be involved in local celebrations.

Have a terrific Independence Day Weekend – and work on ways to make your station sound special and Unique – the U factor!

Next week in the Lund Letter: America’s legendary personalities help you sound better.

Thanks for reading
The Lund Letter
Now more than 10,600 broadcasters get the Lund Letter each week!
We welcome your input.  Email John Lund!

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.