Wednesday, October 23, 2019

28 Oct Wednesday, October 23, 2019

This Week in The Lund Letter:  
>   Can your market count on you in an emergency?
>   Navigate to better fall ratings
>   Fix your website
>   Digital listener habits… and other Trends

Lund Emergency Alert: Being Hyper Local

Weather has been the big story in much of the US in recent weeks… the Dallas tornado, heavy rain and flooding in Phoenix and the South, a “bomb cyclone” in the Northeast, forced power outages in Northern California, the Southern California wildfires, and tropical storms and hurricanes in the Caribbean affecting US coastal states.

The local story on weather emergencies remains Radio’s big advantage.  Despite all the efforts of satellite radio, Pandora, Google, and Facebook, they are not perceived as having – nor do they have – the immediacy of local radio.  Listen to your station for thirty minutes, and note the things that make your station sound local.  Is it weather, local events, comments by the personality, or promotions that signal your link to the community?  What separates your stations from the digital pack?  (Of course, if listeners tune into your app or your stream, YOU ARE part of the pack)  Win on all fronts!

Depending on your market size and location, local activity may be school involvement, community events and festivals.  Good talents provide that connection to the audience.  Sound locally relatable.

Because radio is a utility to listeners, a major weather or disaster event can drive urgent listening as well as a follow-up sense of trust.  Ask Dallas residents who found only a few radio stations were providing vital information after Sunday night’s tornado. Newspaper was dead in the water, TV was slow, and most radio stations had no staff on Sunday.  Cell phone and internet service was sketchy.  Those stations that provided vital information gave a sense that area listeners were not alone. You can bet those stations have been rewarded with new partisans and will be the first place listeners turn when the next need arises.

Is your station ready for a big event?  See The Lund Consultants’ Disaster Stylebook to create your plan.  Order it here.


Lund Ratings Refresh: Spiking the Fall Book

The fall sweeps are going strong.  So how can you still affect your performance?  Use these eight rules to help guide your team to higher ratings:

Bolster your time spent listening.  The easiest way to get more AQH listening is expanding the TSL.  Find out what listeners want and give it to them, and do everything in your power to keep these core listeners happy and listening.  Structure programming to keep the average listener for a longer period each time they tune in.  Also, set more listening appointments by frequently promoting ahead.  Give listeners reasons to tune in (or tune back in) more frequently.

Always utilize forward motion… don’t call attention to stopsets.  Create programming continuity with transitions that are seamless and forward-moving.  Avoid “punch out lines” that give listeners a reason to tune out, like saying “We’ll be right back” or “Back in two minutes.”

Market the dial position aggressively.  It’s what 90%+ of FM listeners know your station by and they write it in their diary.  Listeners should know your brand name; your DNA.  Identity and uniqueness are crucial.  Make your brand a household word.

Constantly say the station name and dial position on the air: over and over, especially if you’re in a diary market.  Repetition builds recognition.  Create produced promos and liners that sell listener benefits and reasons to listen.  Also, target listeners who participate in ratings to get them to remember you – ask us for proven examples.

Become #1 at work.  Promote the station to people who can listen to it the longest and at locations where long listening spans occur.  Promoting to the working person makes sense because those listening at-work have long TSL.  Create contests that reward listening at work.  Working people have more opportunities to tune to radio, and most people who listen to the radio at work listen all day.

Why do people tune in and listen?  At most FMs, it’s a combination of the 3 M’s – Music, Mornings and Marketing – that forms the framework for top ratings.  Play the best music for your core audience, have a great personality morning show, and market like crazy on and off the air.

Concentrate on talent basics.  Work with talents to hone their profession.  Watch brevity, interest, idle chatter, and the dreaded Screeching Halt Disease.  Edit conversations to leave listeners wanting more, not less.  Improve talent enthusiasm, energy, flow, listener interaction, payoffs and portability (info listeners can use all day).  In radio royalty, Content is King and Execution is Queen.

Watch your competitors.  Set a future path with vision and direction, and know every competitive move and change.  Adjust accordingly when needed.

Fall Tune-Up

Your format and execution can sound better – as a result…more listeners, longer listening spans, and higher ratings.  The Lund team can provide you a cost-efficient evaluation of your station… music analysis, talent reviews and coaching, and formatics.  You receive a comprehensive report, executive summary and Plan of Action.

This Lund Strategic Programming Evaluation provides you with a detailed road map to increased audience.  Contact John Lund for more info!

Lund’s Top 3:  Website Checklist
  
Consider this checklist when updating your website:

1.   Home Page.  It should load quickly and present a clear view of the station.

2.   Have an Identity.  Make it easy for people to figure out what you do on the opening screen.

3.   Listener Benefits.  They should be in clear view.  Include your positioning phrase, music quantity pledge, morning show name and an example of listening attractions (contest).

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

Promotion of the Week: Facebook Friend of the Day

Listeners “register” for the contest by being (or becoming) a friend of the station’s Facebook page.  The listener then waits to hear his or her name on air and calls in within a certain amount of time to win a prize (usually cash).

Great Sales Promotions 

Boost your billing with creative sales promotions.  The Sales Promotion Guide details hundreds of money-making Sales Promotions with new ways to make extra billing.  The Guide details proven radio sales promotions geared to all kinds of retailers – including auto dealers and furniture stores.  And there are sales promotions for remotes and charity events.

Find new ways to lock in annuals.  Get sales promotion ideas for stations in any size market, and even prospects with small budgets.  Order now and receive our Fall Promotions Guide for free.

Lund Trend Watch:

Podcasts and Streaming Audio

Streaming audio has the larger audience.  135 million monthly streaming audio users and 43 million monthly podcast listeners according to Nielsen Scarborough. Podcast listening is showing more growth growing 53% in the past two years while audio streaming audience grew 13%.  But both audiences also have a lot in common.

They tend to spend less time with TV.  The AM/FM radio audience watches slightly less TV than the national average.  Streaming and podcast consumers spend much less time watching TV.  The lower TV use is attributed to more time online where audio streaming and podcast listening occurs.

The smartphone remains the dominant digital audio device.  Nine of ten monthly podcast listeners stream some form of audio on a smartphone.  Twice as many as those that stream on a computer (47%) and more than four times higher than those streaming on tablet.  Smartphones remain the top device for streaming audio consumers as well (84%).

Holiday Big Spenders

A holiday shopping survey by Tinuiti shows that the number of people who plan to spend at least $500 on holiday shopping increased by 10% over last year.  Shoppers aged 35 to 44 are expected to spend the most, with 36.3% of them planning to go above $500.  Men are the bigger spenders, with 31.6% of them planning large purchases versus only 23% of women.

Walgreens Has Wings

The drugstore company is testing drone delivery (with actual orders already being delivered) in Christiansburg, Virginia, near Roanoke.    Wing Aviation, the drone company they have partnered with, has registered with the FAA as a small airline in order to be able to charge for their service.  So watch the sky for your cough syrup and Band-Aids!

Refresh Your Station Sound!

Your listeners want variety – not unlike the music that’s played.  Refresh your imaging liners today.  Get 200 creatively written imaging liners.  Order now by clicking here.  For music stations order here, and for News-Talk order here.


Next week in the Lund Letter: The State of Radio Today.

Thanks for reading
The Lund Letter
We welcome your comments.  Email John Lund.

About Lund Media

Lund Media is a radio programming and broadcast consulting and research firm that assists radio and television stations throughout the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, and worldwide for American Forces Radio and Television, a division of the Defense Dept.  The Lund Mission is to assist the broadcast industry with hands-on programming, talent development, music guidance, marketing and promotion, news formatics, and research to help stations achieve their revenue and ratings goals.   With specialists in all radio formats, Lund Media helps broadcasters attract a larger audience and keep them listening/viewing longer.   John Lund is a frequent speaker at state and national broadcast conventions and is available to customize a speech or workshop for your organization.  The “Science of Radio Programming” is a hot topic for 2019-2020.

More than 10,000 subscribers opt-in to receive Lund Media’s weekly newsletter, The Lund Letter, the most-read independent radio programming and management newsletter in the US.

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.