Brian Wright “Relevance”
Have you ever listen to a radio station for a long period of time and not remember anything about it? We hear this from listeners all of the time in focus groups. It’s highly unfortunate because the power of radio is more significant than we could ever imagine. Often times radio personalities seem to be working in a vacuum without having a full awareness as to what’s going on in the world they live in. When this happens, it’s not long before the listener loses interest and goes somewhere else. It’s very similar to being at a gathering and everybody is talking about something you aren’t interested in.
To develop strong emotional connections with your audience, you must be in the know all of the time. This doesn’t mean that you need to go in depth with all topics, but it does mean that you have to reference these points throughout your show. Here is the best way to make this happen. Each day before your show, you need to do your research and find out what you believe everybody is thinking or talking about. 3 to 4 topics is all that’s necessary. These topics can be anything from a huge social event, bad weather, big sports scores, major local events or any number of different things. All of these topics can be refined to appeal to your target life-group. For example, if you’re a female targeted radio station and a sports story is the big topic, you should stress the social aspects of the event, not so much the statistics of the games. If you are a male targeted station you could talk about the latest design of women’s handbags, but you would structure it in a way that you were talking about getting a gift for a wife or daughter.
The direct link to increase TSL is how compelling and relevant you are. Make no mistake; there is no substitute for this. Those who try to substitute will never reach their maximum capacity. It only takes a few extra minutes and some searching to find out what the buzz is. Captured the buzz and run with it. Remember, you are a content provider, not a DJ. Provide the listener with great content over and over and your station will reach Hall of Fame standards.
With all of the technology available to you, there is no reason why there isn’t enough time to do this type of show prep. Sometimes radio personalities become so disengaged with the operation that they disengage in the show prep area as well. This leads to below average results from most radio personalities. If you give the listener a memorable moment every hour in each show, you’ll be a superstar with great ratings. Work hard be great!
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.
