Wednesday, October 30, 2019

04 Nov Wednesday, October 30, 2019

This Week in The Lund Letter:  
>   Nothing spooky about localism
>   Scare up more morning listening
>   Ghostbusters and your next programming meeting
>   So many tweets, so few tweeters… and other Trends

Personal Connection

When it comes to radio, it’s just different.  People watch television. But they engage with radio. They connect.  Localism is the one element that cannot be captured by Sirius, Pandora, or Internet stations.

Radio is driven by individual connections.  Earning that first button in the car comes from loyalty, and a station that delivers to the local listener.  It’s the ability to deliver customers for the local advertiser, even if their store is part of a national group.  Your local “touch” is vital via your signal, your website, your social media, and in your market.

Radio is Personal

People put stations’ bumper stickers on their cars.  Have you ever seen that for a newspaper or TV station?  Radio defines what it means to be a local medium, more so than newspapers or TV.

Radio is a community medium. DJs show up at fairs, street festivals, parades and wherever crowds gather. They entertain.  In many communities, radio is the only locally produced entertainment available. From this you get the bumper stickers and a sense of belonging that so defines community.

Also, radio is social – the original social media.  Radio stations bring people together and get them talking. Radio is uniquely positioned to reap major gains in the great and protracted shakeout going on in local media markets.

Syndication is Not Local Radio

Some local radio stations have been severely hurt by cutbacks and consolidation.  There has been a decline of local on-air talent and the rise of syndicated shows.

Local radio needs to be reinvigorated, revived, reinvested in, and “re-envisioned.”

That is the topic next week in the Lund Letter.

Lund Programming Clinic: Trick or Treat?

We sometimes wonder why radio talents do certain things.  It’s like the Geico TV ad, “Let’s hide behind the chainsaws.”  Nothing good will come of this!  Question what you’ve always done and find creative ways to stimulate and entertain.  Become Jack the Ripper and rip up the old, tired routines.  Consider these suggestions when reinventing a more compelling morning show.

Why do we do “today in history” info?  Did a listener ever ask for this?  It probably began because the AP wire service fed this stuff as the only real show prep they offered.  Despite technology and sources improving, we kept doing it.  Toss it out like bad Halloween candy.  Pick one or two relevant events that touch your listeners and spotlight those rather than giving a drawn out list.

Why do DJs and news anchors chit-chat?  Our favorite answer (and it’s a wrong one) is, “That’s how I add personality.”  Talents talk with listeners; they do not put the listener in the role of an eavesdropper.  Make the listener part of the show…maybe even the star!

Everybody loves show biz news!  Think again.  Celebrity news is for social media.  By the time it’s on your show it’s an oldie, like Werewolves of London.  Instead, have local and relatable info, and always make sure stories target your audience life group.

Understand time.  Listeners are time-conscious.  They are on a schedule.  Your job is to keep them from being late.  Listeners time their morning routine with when benchmarks occur.  Thus, hit the news and weather on time, and make sure the 7:15 trivia actually starts at 7:15.

Avoid “noise” status.  Talking too much at one time is an irritant.  In focus groups, we hear responses like “I turn them off when they become noisy/chatty.”  Don’t have too many topics in a break or have inside talk among the hosts, and don’t run too long in a break.

Keep listener needs top of mind when defining your on-air act.

Amp Up Your Radio Show

Improve the planning, presentation and sound of your show.  The Radio Personality Guide has all the tools that radio personalities need to grow and sound better.  This is the #1 best-selling e-book designed for air talents of all formats… and their PDs.  The updated Guide provides hundreds of tools and new ideas to make your show better.  This book with help you grow your audience, connect better with listeners, and sound terrific!

Order the Lund Radio Personality Guide here.


Lund Management Memo: Programming Meeting Topics

Programming meetings build consensus, morale, and are a great way for setting direction.  Halloween is tomorrow.  There are many topics to discuss in your programming meeting, like:

Plan your Halloween shows. Which neighborhood has the best Trick or Treat candy?  Will parents be taking kids out Thursday night or going to parties on Friday?  Where are the best malls with Halloween activities?  What is the best Halloween movie?

A check up from the neck up!  Get that vampire unlatched first, then… What are our promotional plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas?  What else is needed to improve cume and TSL?

What imaging and jingles are we running too often?  Can we recycle additional listeners to mornings and other shows more often?

Seek professional help!  Invite the Sales Manager to the Programming meeting to talk about how well the station is being received on the street, the best-attended remote, or a terrific job that was done for a client.

We live in a great city!  Introduce a rep from the Chamber of Commerce or BBB to discuss what’s new and unique locally.  Consider a “pop quiz” to start the meeting and demonstrate the need to know more about your market.

Meeting with the entire program department is as important as holding individual show sessions.

Monster Mash

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.   Music Info. Give the title and artist of the song currently being played, and those played previously over the last hour.  Allow listeners a way to buy songs they hear on the air.

2.   Downloads.  Make available podcasts of special shows, features, and artist content so people can listen at their leisure. Offer a sampler or “trial size” download of your station.

3.   Local Info. Have a website that’s local in appearance yet global in functionality, providing useful info like weather, local sports, school closings, road construction zones or delays, etc.

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

Promotion of the Week: Pumpkin Heads

At Halloween, listeners are given the challenge of wearing an actual pumpkin Jack-o’-lantern over their heads to win a big prize.  The promotion should be staged on the busiest traffic intersection where a lot of people drive by.  The Pumpkin Head wearing listeners are there on the sidewalk every day waving at those who drive by.  The individual who wears the pumpkin the longest wins, but it may take weeks to get down to one winner. When it comes to visibility, this promotion and contest can impact a huge number of people.  It stimulates a lot of talk within the market and creates free press coverage.

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:

Digital Word-of-Mouth

Good word-of-mouth has always been a powerful marketing tool.  Hearing about a product or service from someone you know is taken more seriously than “facts” from advertisements.  Now, the people you “know” may include social media influencers and online content creators.  This leads to more controllable, digital word-of-mouth marketing.  92% of people trust word-of-mouth; only 4% trust digital ads that are labeled or are just obviously paid ads.  Do the station’s talents mention sponsors/clients organically in blog posts, podcasts or other content posted on the station’s website or social media?

The Vocal Minority

According to a study by Pew Research Center, the top 10% of US Twitter users (in terms of activity) create 80% of the tweets in the US.  That small number churns out an even larger share of the content when it comes to politics.  An analysis of over a million tweets from one day each in June of 2018 and 2019 showed that 97% of tweets that mention any aspect of politics came from just 10% of users.

Getting a Jump on the Holiday Season

In large part due to the holiday shopping season being six days shorter than last year, many retailers are planning to start deals early this year.  Walmart already debuted their “Early Deals Drop” this past weekend.  Target will be joining in with holiday gift deals starting the second week of November.  Walmart is also putting more effort into super-serving their customers.  They have a digital gift-finder to assist with choosing presents, a toy catalog that can be scanned by iOS smartphones, holiday helpers that point out empty checkout lanes (and can in some cases even check you out anywhere in the store) and kiosks in store that allow online ordering (for things that have run out in the store or are simply only available online).  They are also offering NextDay delivery free “without a membership.” (They’re looking at you, Amazon!)

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.



Happy Halloween from the Lund Media Group… don’t forget to turn your clocks back an hour this Sunday, November 3!

Next week in the Lund Letter: Radio Gets Charged!

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.