Let Me Know When You’re Here

How are listeners supposed to find you these days?

We've been asking that about podcasts for a while now, but the same question applies to radio. And it leads to another question, but we'll get to that.

You know the problem with podcasts trying to break through the teeming masses of shows out there; Unless you're part of a network with the resources to get the word out, like cross-promoting on podcasts with a large audience, it's becoming increasingly difficult for an independently distributed, no-big-names podcast to break out of the pack, no matter how good or unique it is. It can be done, but it takes a lot of work and time. The podcast issue is a topic for another column, though.

Radio has a different problem breaking through. I was reminded of this when I moved across the country and noticed that... okay, look, I'm in radio. I know who the players are, I know which stations are in which markets, and I should, considering I've been in this business for (redacted) years. And I had family history in my new location, so it's not like I'd never been to South Florida before and never listened to the radio here. Yet, with all the format changes in these markets, I've been finding it hard to, y'know, FIND anything on the dial. I can't imagine what it would be like for a non-radio person new to the market to find what they want on the local radio dial. They'd be left to just scanning the dial and hoping for the right song or topic to signal them that they'd found a station they might like, or they'd just give up and go to Spotify or Apple Music or some other streaming source.

This would, I think, call for marketing, yet in the five months I've been here, I've seen very, very little radio station marketing. There are occasional digital billboards for a Hip Hop station in West Palm Beach. I think I saw a billboard for one of Miami's many Reggaeton-heavy stations along I-95 while stuck in traffic heading to a Marlins game. (Bad sign: I couldn't tell you what station it was advertising. Not memorable at all.) One billboard just popped up near here for that just-sold brokered talk station that uses a logo nearly identical to the old KLSX FM Talk logo. There was that ad on the deli placemat for some guy's brokered talk show on an LPFM. That's pretty much all I've seen or read so far. Radio companies lean on promos (they're free!) on the stations themselves and they do live events, and, sure, please, do that, but it's far from enough. There's practically no outreach on social media; you have to know what stations are here to find the posts, and they're mostly gossip posts generated by corporate social media interns, anyway. Hey, anyone know a good talk station around here? How about a station that plays the kind of music I like? What station should I turn to in an emergency? Who's the trusted source for news in general? Where's the NPR station, and why does it seem the entire noncommercial end of the FM dial is playing religious music? What station has which playoff game?

If you're a typical radio listener, you're on your own. Non-radio people don't know what website might show listings of stations and formats, and they don't care enough to look for one. In most business categories, if you want to get new customers, you advertise, you use social media, you get your name and information in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Radio stopped doing that years ago; I haven't seen a TV commercial for a radio station in years, and the billboards petered out a couple of years ago. Radio still hasn't mastered social media, at least in using it to find new listeners, let alone service their existing fans. Direct mail? Is that still a thing? Haven't seen that in years, either. Marketing budgets are obviously not what they used to be. So, how are people supposed to know you're there?

That leads to the second question. WHY should people want to find you? Are you doing anything worth marketing? What makes your station a better choice than a podcast or a Spotify playlist? Well-marketed junk is still junk, and good marketing can't overcome a bad product. Is what your station is doing on the air worth marketing? I can't answer that other than to say that you should be asking yourself that on a constant basis. In fact, before you set out to let the world know about your station, you have to make sure the content you're creating is good enough to keep those new, casual listeners and make them fans. You know how you try some product because the advertising made it seem good, but you were disappointed and never bought it again? You really only get one shot to convert a new listener to a regular listener. Marketing a sub-par or even an average product is wasted time, effort, and money. And touting the music isn't enough in an age when most people know they can, with little effort, hear exactly the music they prefer on demand.

Seems logical enough: Create programming that's unique and better than any alternative (HINT: Personality, personality, personality), then use every weapon at your disposal to let everyone know you exist, and hope that word-of-mouth in person and on social media amplifies it. Too few stations are following those instructions anymore. But if you're doing anything worth anyone else's time and/or money, I'd think you'd want them to know about it.

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You'll find topics that will help you make that marketing-worthy content at All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics show prep page. Find it by clicking here, and you can also follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics and find every story individually linked to the appropriate item.

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Oh, and thanks for bearing with me during my days off this week. Needed a little break. Still do, actually.

Perry Michael Simon
Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief and News-Talk-Sports-Podcasting Editor
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
Twitter @pmsimon