Separated a birth

Scott Hartnell of the Flyers and Chewy from Star Wars. Intergalactic line-mates.

From the mouths of kids.....

Read something interesting in a news story about a fund raising event some kids where doing. The organizer said....

"They don't see the obstacles in the way like adults tend to see. They have a vision for what is possible instead of what looks too difficult."

Perspective and attitude are everything.

On a couple of recent conference calls we did a session called "30 Ideas in 30 Minutes". Here is a sampling......

1) Use an incentive program to get user generated content on your website. "Send us your story and photos and if we use it we'll give you (prize)"

2) Ten clients in ten weeks. Jocks make calls with sales people once a week for 10 weeks to meet clients and talk about how radio works for them.

3) Send the staff out to lose 50 or 60 golf balls at a local golf course. Over the course of the season golfers who recover the balls and bring them to the pro shop win a small item and get an invitation to a year end tournament where a big prize is given away.

4) A mentor program where senior announcers mentor and coach junior announcers.

5) Get the summer events staff to bring back a ton of news stories, photos and video.

6) Video golf tips.

7) Stop selling remotes and make them all live shows. Sell the sizzle.

8) Trade out a Vespa scooter for the summer and give it away in the fall. Have your summer events person drive it around to give it, and the sponsor, plenty of exposure.

9) Have your front line air talent tracked on weekends from 10a-3p.

10) Put all your community projects under a common station umbrella. Eg: "The Country Cares Campaign".

11) Create special positions in your clocks to play local/regional artists and highlight the material with breakers and jock content. Put these profiles online as pod-casts.


There we're a ton of other ideas. If you have any to add, hit comments below.....

Thanks!!
Barrie

I don't know if you've been following this story or not. Jerry Jones, the guy who owns the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL, was caught on tape in a bar making less than kind comments about Bill Parcells and Tim Tebow. Parcells is a legendary NFL coach, and Tebow is a Heisman Trophy winning college quarterback.

The story here however isn't about sports. It's about the question "is this really news"? Does secretly recording a guy in a bar make for a news story?

I thought this perspective was kind of interesting. Posted by a friend of mine on Facebook. Check it out at this link.

http://tinyurl.com/y7m4lwo

Worth Reading

This is pretty good!! Click on the "Worth Reading" title above and enjoy the story.

We started sharing some "connection" comments yesterday. Here are a couple more.

Connection to the community

The thing that makes our stations unique is that they are created especially for the communities they serve. Our sword in the stone is local content and connection.

-In many cases, our centers are small enough that we can make regular flesh to flesh contact with a great many of our listeners. Do it. Be out and been seen.
-Make yourself aware of local issues and make that knowledge part of your show.
-Get local voices on the air every day.
-Name drop shamelessly. People love to hear the name of their town and it's landmarks on the radio. They love to hear the names of people they know on the radio.
-Be creative with PSA’s. Don’t just read them, know what they are about and make them sound great!!

Connection with the audience

There are some important things to remember.

-Radio is a one to one medium. We will have thousands of people listening, one at a time. Talk to one person.
-Use the language of “you”, “we”, and “us”. Not “me” and “I”. Think of making everything inclusive.
-Know the stations target. Create the content the audience wants to hear. It may may not line up with the stuff you want to do but remember, it's their station.

I was part of a web-ex this morning and the conversation turned to simple things that make radio stations successful in reaching their audience. We hit on four major points of connection. I'm sure there are many more. In any case, here are the first two we talked about. Two more to come tomorrow.

Stationality

Much of our on-air pop and sizzle will come from how passionate we are about our station. We need to spend time giving our audience as many reasons to listen as possible. We can best do this by talking in compelling and exciting ways about all the great things that are happening on the radio.

-Deliver stationality with passion and conviction. Be creative.
-Do at least 3 bits of station related material per hour. If you understand the laws of time spent listening you know it's not too much. Do it quickly and creatively.
-Do the big stuff every hour. Radio is the science of frequency. The more we mention something the better it will resonate with our audience.

Connection to the music

Most music fans have a passion for the artists and the songs they love. We need to reflect that passion by showing it ourselves on the air. This means sharing information about the artists, being in touch with what the songs are about, and in general, just sounding like we “get” the music.

-Do artist info at least twice times per hour. Make it quick and current. In and out will be best.
-Feel the love in a song. Feel the energy in a song.
-Keep the music moving. In sweep positions don’t let the music stop. Edit your content to fit over intros. Keep the station moving forward.