Summertime and the Living is Easy

As the First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald, told us with those words, summer is a time when things slow down a touch. Personal time raises a notch over professional time. Childhood memories flood back to us, while new memories are made for our children.

Summertime is special. The summer season is one that radio should take advantage of and view as an opportunity to generate revenue and attract users of the medium to your station.

I am not suggesting that there’s an opportunity to bring listeners from “Off” to “On.” That’s a topic for a future article. What I am suggesting is that being reflective of listeners’ lifestyles in the summer creates a connection to a station that can build loyalty for new listeners and strengthen the use of the medium for your P1 audience.

We know that radio users discover new stations on the weekend. It stands to reason that anytime there’s a disruption in a routine, radio stations have a chance to be discovered. During the workweek, when listening is habitual, no one has an opportunity or time to search new apps, new channels, or hit seek and scan to find a new radio station. It’s leisure moments when radio users discover new radio stations. They stumble onto new stations when they’re not rushed, and that presents an opportunity for radio and personalities. It’s a chance to expose your station to potentially new advertisers, too.

This won’t be a popular suggestion, but this is exactly why radio should have air talent on-air on the weekend and holidays.

I’m not saying that they have to be live and in-studio. Technology exists today that enables every station to have personalities on the air. Talent can be remote, voice-tracked, pre-recorded, or syndicated, so that your various talents are showcased. Your station has an opportunity to attract a new listener by broadcasting something they may like and adopt.

Discovery of a new on-air personality, or a personality that’s new to you, or a radio station that you were unaware of, is one of the ways people can find a new radio station. That and word-of-mouth. The latter often comes from discovery and is magnified by social media.

Segueing music without air talent and using only production and sweepers in place of the connectivity and entertainment that attracts an audience isn’t the way to convert a listener. It positions your radio station poorly. Do you want to be “that station” that sounds cold and emotionless? No personality? Not connected to your market. What message does that send to a listener or advertiser? More so than that, if you’re a music station, you cannot compete with the streaming platforms that make music available with little or no commercial interruption. 

That’s where the content that a personality presents becomes important. Most communities have festivals, parades, fairs, circuses, concerts, outdoor movies, fireworks, sports be they professional or amateur, rib cook-offs, beer fest, community pools are open, church events, cultural events, and more. The radio station that can attach itself to these events and be a part of them for the community increases its chance of converting a radio listener into one of its own.

It also enhances the station’s profile in a market, which is beneficial in attracting the attention of advertisers and potential advertisers. 

Before the comments fire up… know your market. Summer sparks negatives in places like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Tucson. I remember suggesting a client station at 99.9fm present the 99 Days of Summer. Management quickly pointed out how summer is as desired in the desert as it is in other parts of the country. It was a learning moment. They stay away from heat (and for good reason). In their case, we focused on activities indoors like big auto, home, and design shows. Even a remote broadcast in a meat freezer.

The key is to be everywhere and be seen everywhere. There are stations that have branded ice cream trucks with their logos. Live on-site broadcasts are not only a revenue-generating tactic, but they are a part of what makes a radio station memorable. An on-location broadcast is a marketing tactic, too. Local communities have “Splash Parties” where a DJ mixes music poolside. Music synced to fireworks continues to be an annual event in several markets where radio and the community co-sponsor pyrotechnics. 

When a big event comes to a community, like an Air Show, be there and be seen. Do more than have a table with a banner. Big classy. Be big. Make your presence known. Give away premiums that make your station memorable.

Be they logoed sunglasses, visors, T-shirts, or koozies. One of the tricks that I regularly recommend is underwriting the T-shirts for security and the workers at an event. If the event is for a non-profit, underwrite the shirt and put your logo on the sleeve or a less high-profile location, yet where it can be seen. The perception of involvement is important if you desire to be connected to your community.

Being reflective of the spirit of summer means sounding like you’re having fun. Create fun imaging for on-air. Do things like announcing your station as The Official Station of Summer. It’s self-proclaimed, but it’s meant as a fun tongue-in-cheek liner.

We need to have more genuine fun on-air. Do it with what you write and produce. It’s always fun to create imaging that yours is the station that “Rocks the Rivers, Shakes the Lakes, and Parties at the Pool.” I’m confident that many of you can write much more creatively and develop something more special for your station than these trite examples. Remember that such creative sweepers are not intended to be credible. They’re intended to be memorable and fun.

The elephant in the room: too few stations have staff in-market who can be on-location, participate in a remote appearance, or be on site to connect a radio station to a community.

The role of the receptionist has been eliminated from many operations. Promotions Director has become a job of one person. There’s no one to direct. Reduction in staff is fairly universal, but there are creative steps that can be taken to provide support. I know of one network that offers outsourcing of the street team for barter. I’ve seen radio clusters partner with local television stations (separate ownership) to share promotion departments, as well as news departments creating the term Mixed Media Journalists, and there are those stations that have joined forces with charities to use volunteers.

Don’t let this summer end without taking advantage of the disruption that’s caused by the lifestyle changes this season brings. There are many obstacles to accomplishing what I’m suggesting. Overcoming obstacles is a challenge that some accept, some reject, and some deny exist as they’re opportunities in disguise.