The Programming Foundation: Part 2 – Filling Out The House

Last week, we focused on two of the most visible elements in any station’s Programming Foundation: music and air talent. These are the front-facing pillars: the songs that fill your clocks and the voices that connect your brand to your audience. But just as a well-built house needs more than walls and windows, a truly successful station depends on the less glamorous but equally essential components behind the scenes.

Part Two explores these internal elements. We’ll talk about how imaging gives your station its personality between the songs, how community presence builds credibility and loyalty, and why syndication and network partnerships must serve your local mission, not replace it. Most importantly, we’ll address how these components can be aligned to create a listener experience that feels both cohesive and compelling.

Because again, it’s not just about one great break, one strong playlist, or one promotion – it’s about how every element comes together to form a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

PROMOTIONS: Great promotions are like life. Expectation, Realization, and Memory. Tell the audience what you are giving away. Paint-a-picture. Give the prize away. Let us all share in the winning experience by hearing the winner share how they’re feeling as they win. Remind the audience of what you gave away and share the sound of the winner as they take possession of their prize, or have them share what it was like when they enjoyed their prize. Most stations use the element of pre-promotion for an event, experience, or contest, and they have the execution of the promotion, but few activate the Memory part of a promotion. 

Visibility and community engagement are possibly the most important parts of station awareness. A station needs to be highly visible around town in order to be as successful as possible.

When it is time for listeners to fill out their Nielsen diary, they will recall it from memory. If you’re in a PPM market, you will want to develop contests and content that create repeat tune-in. This is why I feel it is so important to always be on the streets, be everywhere, and be seen everywhere. Do things in your community that make you a talked-about radio station. That is what keeps a good radio station on the mind of the listener. It’s too easy in today’s “remote” world to devalue the worth of public appearances, street teams, and remote broadcasts. That visibility should be a part of your marketing efforts.

Promote where and how one can find your radio station. Say it on the air.

Your station can be heard:

• On-Air

• Online

• On smart speakers

• On the station app

• On an aggregator (iHeartRadio, Audacy, Live365, and TuneIn)

• On podcasts

• On social media

• On YouTube

Wherever a listener can find your station… talk about it. (Maybe not all at once, as it is a mouthful, but promote it.)

Tell the audience HOW to use your station so they come back to it when they need what it is you provide. While You Work, In The Car, When You Need to Relax, and When You Wanna Get Up and Feel Good.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Getting a station together with an organization like St. Jude Children’s Hospital or Children’s Miracle Network, Salvation Army, The United Way, Feeding America, and Toys for Tots is a great way to serve your community. These causes tug at the emotions of listeners, and it makes the on-air personalities “human” and clearly local. A station that takes every opportunity to celebrate the community in which they live will accomplish much more than a station that is phoning it in.

SYNDICATION: The biggest problem that I see with syndication and voice-tracked programming is lazy or passive-aggressive Program Directors. They don’t want the show on their station, or they’re too lazy to focus on the show to make it sound like it’s a part of their station. They plug it in and ignore it.

Do NOT “flip the switch and walk away.”

The number one reason that a network or syndicated program loses the rating game is that the local broadcast programmer doesn’t update the liners and promo’s for the show, they don’t request content from the network talent that helps to localize the show, they never reach out to the talent or the show producer to inform the national talent what’s going on locally. Treat the nationally syndicated or voice-tracked talent as if they’re local by copying them on memos to the talent team. If they know what’s going on in your market, they’ll accommodate you. They want to sound local.

IMAGING: This is where and how you create a station’s personality. Known by some as Stationality. This is where you create fantasy, develop a “station sound”, make the image of your station bigger than life, and at the same time connect to the community as well as to an individual listener.  The best messaging is benefit-based. “What’s in it for me?” The best imaging can create an aspirational feeling. “If I listen, I’ll know what’s happening in my area.” The best imaging catches my attention. The best imaging is direct and to the point. It’s easy to understand. It paints a picture that an announcer speaking is incapable of painting. If the air-talent can say it and paint the picture without sound effects and music imaging, then you should have the air-talent say it. Produced Imaging should take advantage of the sense of hearing and paint a visualization that employs the brain’s eyes for the sense of sight. 

One of the things that I have noticed, many times over the years, is that whenever a new program director arrives at a radio station, they want to change the Voice-Over imaging voice of the station. If you are changing the station’s format, updating or changing its programming, or have a rating failure that needs a reboot … then change your voice talent. If you’re not failing … then think long and hard before changing the VO talent. One of the reasons your station is successful is consistency. A station that has a successful rating track record should view its imaging as a part of how listeners identify your station and how they remember it.  Instead, coach the VO talent to update their sound, without changing the dynamics of the fantasy that their voice creates. 

SPORTS/TALK: Great sports talk stations have on-air talent who understand that they are really on Guy Talk stations. There are men and women in Guy Talk audiences. The collegial atmosphere of friends, men and women, sitting in a bar talking sports, making fun of and teasing each other, that’s the mood the best Sports/Talk stations create. Stay away from politics. Don’t focus on heavy news stories. You cannot ignore the world or your local market, but the listeners who come to Sports/Talk stations are there for an escape. There are other stations that will debate the hot, hard news stories of the day. 

NEWS/TALK: This format, when executed properly, treats news stories as if they’re the biggest current hits on a Top 40 Station. Play the biggest hits as frequently as possible. View the aforementioned paragraph on Music and think of using the theory of Instant Gratification on the topics that are hot and perishable for the day. What’s the audience talking about? What are the newsmakers doing daily? What are the opinions of your commentators/personalities? Make no mistake that the personalities on a news/talk station are commentators and are offering their opinions. It isn’t news. It is commentary. 

Sidenote: if your local talent is only going to echo the talking points of the biggest national talk talents, you don’t need local talent. Go with a nationally syndicated talent. I’m not devaluing such local talent. I’m suggesting that local talent should focus on topics that matter the most locally. Those will sometimes be national stories, but often they’re not. People generally care more about the bridge being out between home and work than what the President said during a press conference. 

NEWS/INFORMATION: The topic of news content applies to both Spoken Word and Music stations. Content, in no particular order, should focus on Heart, Purse, Health, Relaxation, Safety, Local, and National stories. Heart stories pull on your heartstrings. They’re the stories that move you emotionally. Purse is all about the pocketbook. Health stories tell us about new illnesses that are hitting us, how to stay healthy, how to be in better shape, and what you should avoid, as it may be harmful. Relaxation stories tell me where to go with my free time, how to manage the stress in my life, and play to the fantasy of wishful thinking. Safety is the most important thing to us all. Safety for us and for our families. Tell me how to remain safe and avoid danger. Local and National stories should be rewritten to answer the question, “What does it mean to me?” Explain that, and the story will connect with your audience. 

THE STAFF: A Program Director needs to know the strengths and weaknesses of every one of their team members and use them accordingly. The Program Director must see to it that the air staff has the coaching and direction it needs to be at their best. All too often, I talk to talent who have NEVER been coached. Successful talents want to improve and perfect their craft. By working with and knowing the goals, personalities, and skills of each on-air personality, you will send the message that you not only care about the product but, most importantly, that you care about them and their careers.  

WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT: Perhaps the biggest and most important thing for a Program Director to do is to keep it fun to work at your station!  Without fun, morale slips, and on-air personalities move on. If you’re having fun, it is reflected on the air. Very few of us got into radio for the money. Entry-level radio talent can make more at Starbucks and have better insurance. We want to have fun. We want to stand in the center of a bright, white-hot spotlight. Share the freebies. Stroke our egos. Pull us into those things that the average person never gets to experience. Make it a fun place to work.

That’s often the only reason we continue to endure what we do… for the fun.