Brian Wright “Listeners Speak”
Here is a grouping of focus group comments of real listeners talking about their relationship with radio. I hope you catch that listeners are almost always focused on the emotional connection they have with a radio station and the local people on the air.
“I think there’s a certain feeling of investment with some shows. You spend time listening to a certain person on the radio, laugh at their jokes, play the games or join the discussion, you might even have interacted with them directly a few times… all that goes to forming a sometimes passionate bond. So when something happens to them it’s not much different than if someone were to insult your best friend.”
“My favorite DJ was axed after 14 years of working in radio due to the new media takeover. It feels kind of like you have lost a friend.”
“You get a lot of lonely and sometimes extremely vulnerable people listening to radio. I’m sometimes that way. People will defend their favorite personality, singer, band etc just as you would do a friend.”
“People at my workplace seem to treat the radio as their life support system and they regularly tune into the same station and I am so fed up of listening to the same music over and over this last DECADE.”
“I will always go to the mom and pop station where I can hear the people talk about things that are going on around me. That makes me feel informed and comfortable. Satellite radio is too cookie cutter for me and they don’t have local people on at all.”
“I listen to Pandora Radio. It’s much better than anything on AM or FM radio. I used to listen to Talk Radio, but they replaced my favorite host with some guy out of New York. I still don’t know why they did that. That guy was like my friend.”
“Some radio people love to hear themselves talk. I don’t like that very much at all. I just hear another lady the other day on a different station that sounds friendly, you know, like someone I can connect with.”
“I love it when a DJ tells a funny story about what happened to them or one of their friends. I can relate so much to when he is saying. He could be my brother because he acts just like him.”
“I just dumped satellite radio because I found myself tuning back to my local station for school closings, weather and other stuff. I just hope they don’t get rid of the local guys for someone out of town.
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. After many years of success working for individual radio stations and clusters, Brian Joined one of the most trusted consulting firms in the country, Audience Development 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 brian@audiencedevelopmentgroup.com
