Brian Wright “Learn To Dance”
There was a time when many radio stations were vibrant and exciting and seemed bigger than life. These days many radio stations seem to simply go through the motions with little if any passion or enthusiasm. It’s no wonder stations have a hard time connecting with their listeners or attracting new ones. It seems evident that the primary concern among many personalities and PDs is to “follow the format,” not understanding that they are supposed to bring life to this schematic. The format alone does not provide the ingredients of a successful product.
As an illustration, dancing instructors sometimes put foot-shaped stickers on the floor, in a designed pattern, to teach people what steps to take in order to learn a dance. But, as you might suspect, it took more than simply following the pattern on the floor to become a great dancer. One would have to learn how to gracefully negotiate each step and commit it to memory before you would even think of performing in front of an audience. Radio formats are a lot like those foot-shaped stickers on the floor, many announcers simply follow the steps, without understanding their purpose and how to make their actions come to life.
This week, spend some time to see if there are things that you can bring to life at your radio station(s). Find ways to help your personalities create a multidimensional relationship with your audience. By doing so you will increase your ratings and that will lead to increased revenue, all without spending an extra dime.
How do we bring life to the format? 1. It all starts with talent coaching, real talent coaching. Be less of a format cop and really start to coach fun and excitement, complete with new and exciting ideas. If you don’t have any…get away from the station for a few hours and think for a while, you’ll be surprised at what you can come up with. 2. Instead of spending time coming up with new format adjustments, brainstorm with your personalities, many times they can help you come up with creative and unique ideas. 3. Instead of putting your personalities on a format railroad track, put them on a format stage to operate on. It’s amazing what a personality can do with a certain amount of freedom, when they understand what the format is designed to do. 4. Most importantly, your personalities must want to be better on the air. Think about this for a while…it could change the life of your station!
Brian is a 30 year radio veteran who has successfully served many companies over the years as Program Director, Operations Manger and VP of programming and consultant with Wright Media Group. For the last 15 years Wright has enjoyed building alliances with scores of stations in the US & Canada helping them grow in ratings and revenue. Contact Brian at brianw6187@aol.com.