Please, don't say that again!

 

Recently heard on my radio 

(What not to say)

Best practices for radio announcers eliminates barriers between the audience and the person behind the mic. There should also be a sincere effort to promote an increase in time listening. Seems basic, yet I still hear:

"We'll be right back after this"  

First: You're not going anywhere.

Second: This is really lame forward promotion. Promote to something specific coming up in less than 20 minutes.

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"More on that story at 5:44." 

You don't need a specific time. Say something like this, "Senators react to the resignation of Ted Cruz, in 15 minutes on Baltic Public Media's  All Things Considered." Don't expect me to make an appointment for listening, but if it's only 15 minutes away, I'll probably stick around. The goal is to increase Time Spent Listening.

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"Wow, it's really cold out there! Windchills are expected to be minus 32 outside tonight."

You don't need to say 'out there' or 'outside.' We'll get it. Instead say, "Stay safe and bundle up. Windchills are expected be 32 below tonight." Saying 'out there' puts up an unconscious barrier between you and your listener.

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"All of you out there." (Often heard during fundraisers.) "We need all of you out there to step up to the plate and make a donation so we can raise 20 thousand dollars." 

Where do I even begin with this? Radio is a personal medium. Most listening is done alone. Throwing up the barrier of "all of you out there" is so wrong on so many levels. Most importantly you've destroyed the intimate relationship you're trying to build with the listener.

What is special about radio?

Based on the human voice, radio is a uniquely personal medium, invoking a listener's imagination to fill in mental images around the broadcast sounds. Radio also can employ a boundless plethora of sound and music effects to entertain and enthrall listeners. -britannica

Why do people love listening to radio?

People love listening to radio according to a recent survey by Edison research - It's ability to connect listeners with new music, both local and global news, and the added benefit of going mobile are the main driving factors why audiences keep coming back for more.  -radio.com

Your Schedule Matters

I recently saw a posting from somebody in charge of content at a public radio station wondering about what program she could acquire to replace "Dinner Party Download." The question made me pause. As somebody who was once in charge of content at a small statewide network, I worked diligently to create a consistency in programming. The question for me was not about individual programs, but about the service as a whole.

Coming out of the 80's, public radio was in a quest to create a consistent appeal through the selection of content that had a affinity. Disparate programs could have that affinity, but that does not mean that all content worked well with other content. One of the discoveries was that patchwork programming resulted in barriers and rifts in the audience. The more programs in the daily program grid would likely result in audience churn and lower time spent listening and lower core loyalty. The idea was to create consistency across day parts. A question that was often asked of PD's in those early days was, "Can you tell me what is on the air at your station right now?" Programmers with a crazy quilt of programs had a hard time answering that question.

The big discoveries were the inconsistent appeals between news content and music programming like classical and jazz...and the opera with everything else in public radio. But, even content that on the surface seemed to have consistent affinity and appeal might not have. At a network in the Midwest with a consistent schedule of locally produced talk shows had problems of churn. The audience was not carrying over from program to program. The audience was defined by the programs not the programming. The loyalty was built among a micro-set of listeners and did not carry over to other programs or day parts. The host would sign-off and so would the audience.

The station mentioned above has been drifting toward patchwork programming with inconsistencies in program selection horizontally across hours. That's a problem because radio listening is habitual. Listeners tend to tune in at the same time everyday. If the programming they seek is not there, they tune away.

Public station that perform well with their audience have a consistency across day parts and even horizontally across hours.  Look at stations that perform well and take note of the consistency of their schedules.

Michigan Radio 

WAMU

WBUR

KUT
WHYY
KPCC
KQED

The question should be, "How can I best serve my audience and my community." There are so many good programs. How do you make room for them all? You can't. You're the gatekeeper. You need to make the decisions. It's never been easy. For example, What are you supposed to do with something like "Science Friday?" You can only answer that question by looking at the numbers. Make informed decisions and measure the results.