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3 Tips To Get Your Radio Station Ready For Back To School
August 6, 2021
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When the summer began many radio listeners escaped the school year routine which changed their listening habits. Data might suggest that their weekly Time Spent Listening and Occasions dropped due to vacations out of town and a lifestyle that adapted to Friday half days.
Some radio formats, like Contemporary Christian, are anchored by a P1 fanbase of families. Even though the makeup of each family looks more diverse than ever, still the one thing they have in common is the back-to-school routine. That means new schedules, drive times, and habits.
HERE ARE 3 TIPS TO WELCOME BACK LISTENERS
Your P1 fanbase of families are settling in to their new school year routine, so consider these three things to help them fall in love with your brand again and make YOU a habit in their lives.
- Tighten your playlist. Create special clocks that include currents, recurrents and only your top gold songs. Commit to this for a month and then reintroduce your lower testing golds back into rotation. Result: the best songs play more often, and that’s what listeners want.
For example, when I programmed a station that went All-Christmas in December, we often came back with only 90 to 100 songs for the month of January. That same strategy can happen during back to school too. - Make benchmarks in morning and afternoon drive. You can use social media to support the benchmarks by asking the question, “What are you looking forward to most about this school year?” Leave room for mom or dad’s perspective as well as “cute kid stories.”
Cross promote, run promos, find sponsors, and even rely on top donors to have the first chance to engage. Result: it gives the family a conversation to be a part of even if they don’t make it on the air. - Have a Back-to-School Party with your team. Invite every team member to rally around this concept: fans and new listeners are getting back into a new routine, and you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Ask the team these questions:
- Are we answering the phone with a welcoming and inviting demeanor or do we sound like we’re being interrupted from something more important?
- Are we engaging with EVERY comment and DM on social?
- Does every on-air talent realize the opportunity to be on their A-game?
- Is everyone on the team fully committed to super-serving with an ultra-customer first attitude for the next month? That includes teammate-to-teammate too.
- Tighten your playlist. Create special clocks that include currents, recurrents and only your top gold songs. Commit to this for a month and then reintroduce your lower testing golds back into rotation. Result: the best songs play more often, and that’s what listeners want.
Todd Stach is the Christian Format Editor at AllAccess.com as well as coaches and consults with his business, Beyond (615), where he strives to build confidence with clarity and creativity.