At the beginning of your program, at the beginning of each segment and at the end of your program, use the old rule that works for giving speeches:
(a) Always open with a synopsis of the program. (Tell them what you are going to tell them)
(b) Stick to your outline and move the program along so your audience will hear the subject matter promised -
(Tell them what you told them you were going to tell them)
(c) At the end of each hour and at the end of your program, make sure to thank all of your guests and callers - then summarize the program. (Tell them what you told them) and always mention the program that will air after your program ends.
Most people listen to a radio program on the run; a few minutes at a time. Others use it for background noise. Those who really listen and concentrate on the program for an extended length of time are the MINORITY of your audience.
Most radio listeners are under the same pressures you face each day. Your radio program is a momentary distraction...in the unlikely event they discover it on the dial. This is why radio audiences are measured by “AQH”, the number of people who listen during a quarter hour and by “cume”, the cumulative number of people who listen at some time during the week.
Prepare your program in advance. Commit to spending three minutes of preparation for every one minute you spend on the air. Rehearse! Try out your program ideas on friends who will offer candid responses and suggestions.
Go into each hour on the air with enough content to last two hours. If you are interviewing a guest, prepare enough questions to last much longer than the planned length of the interview. This is the proven method to keep the program moving at the proper pace and to guard yourself against “yes” and “no” answers from a shy guest. This also protects you on a low volume call-in day. If you have too much content left over, plan another show on the same subject! And, if you can't find a guest for your particular topic, the helpful staff at www.guestmatch.com will be happy to assist absolutely free!
For information regarding access to guests on topical subjects, we suggest you visit this website.
You can email your request for a guest on a certain topic to [email protected] or call toll free (800) 372-8128.
Always be mindful that your program is a business. So, you should create a business plan around your program that includes long term sponsors or product support. Establish some financial goals and reasonable timelines for reaching your goals. You may want to incorporate your show and sell a percentage of it to an investor.
Establish a business plan that covers the cost of your airtime before you sign a contract with KCAA so you can concentrate on your program content and the future ROI of your sponsors and yourself. You will not be a success overnight. However, you will succeed if you make a long-term commitment of time, enthusiasm and money.
All the time and money in the world won’t make up for a boring or poorly executed program. Most new talk show hosts make the common mistake of talking to their guest/and or caller in a way that makes the listener feel excluded. When this happens, the radio show begins to sound like a private conversation between two people, like eavesdropping on a telephone extension without being part of the action.
If you make a mistake or "gaff" on the air, just move on quickly. Don't dwell on it or cause listeners to think about the mistake even more. Keep talking and get the show back on track.
Always try to draw each individual listener into the conversation you are having with guests and callers. If your monologues are provocative, they will generate calls. You will discover that callers generate more calls and build the energy of the program. During your interviews, pretend you are having a conversation with one individual listener and the guest/caller, because from the perspective of the individual listener, that is exactly the situation.
It all boils down to having a conversation with your audience that holds their attention. This is very difficult to do if you talk at your audience and even more difficult to do if you seem to ignore your audience.
For God’s sake, never say, “For all you folks out there in radio land”
Don’t get distracted by your chat room, by texting or any other social media. You may have dozens of people signed in on the chat room, which is quite an ego builder, but you will have hundreds, if not thousands of people listening to you over the air and on the net. Think about it. Would you stop a speech in front of 1,000 people to answer a text message?
Announce your phone number when you're going into a commercial break and when you return from the break. Don’t beg for callers. If your program is provocative and interesting, listeners will listen but they may not call you. Always be prepared to host a show without callers. Callars should not be an important component of your talk show.
You are there to entertain your audience. Your audience is not there to entertain you or itself.
Giveaways from sponsors always help to generate calls. Teasing upcoming shows and giveaway promotions is another way to keep your listeners coming back and to build a loyal listener base.
Always assume you have an audience, especially when you don’t get calls or if your sponsor/advertiser doesn't’ get immediate results. Advertiser results and phone responses stem from listener trust and their comfort level with you. This takes time to develop. IT IS NOT EASY!! Radio is not like a click through Google ad that you forget after you leave a website. Radio ads are designed to build product or company awareness and trust so listeners will remember the company when it's time to buy their advertised product.
Above all, don’t allow anything to take your attention away from your most important task, and that is to produce the best program possible. It is all about your air sound.
Self promotion is essential. The days are long past when you could open the microphone and expect instant results. We live in an ocean of media and you must aggressively compete for attention. KCAA has a small and very loyal audience, but our listeners come and go during the hour like listeners of any other station. You must find ways to make your program known and make it a priority in the lives of as many people as possible. The new social networks like Facebook and LinkIn and Twitter are becoming essential methods of self promotion. You should use them for all they are worth and do so daily.
Here are a few more promotional tools.
http://www.spreaker.com This company offers a group of services that support numerous aspects of your program. The company’s support services will add depth to KCAA’s multi media platforms.
There are two services that will enhance your twitter account. The first is called http://www.twitlonger.com This service allows you to post long tweets and it’s great to have when you need to publish longer promotional articles about your program.
Here is a service that allows you to add twitter followers and follow others in bulk while removing fake and other undesirable followers. www.manageflitter.com This service is important for anyone wanting to quickly add thousands of Twitter followers.
This site will publish your bio and it’s free.
KCAA will help, but we can’t do it all. You must be ready to do everything you can to promote yourself and your program, Start by getting yourself interviewed on KCAA's Morning Show and other KCAA shows. Offer to interview other show hosts in exchange for your time on their show, Distribute press releases about your program. Trade out print ads about your program in newspapers and local television. Remember, they need to advertise too!. Think of every legal way to promote your program. Think of ways to get free press. The press should always be exploited when possible. Ask any politician.
Have you thought of getting trade outs for signs on the back of busses? Have you thought of making a trade for commercials with a car dealer who would agree to leave a brochure about your program in the seat of every auto they repaired or sold?
Have you thought about asking a car dealer to set the radio dial on every car repaired or sold to 1050 AM? For female on-air personalities, what about leaving brochures at your hair and nail salons? Almost all neighborhood vendors are willing to let you leave a small stack of promotional materials on their counters. Many will allow you to put posters in their windows. Offer them a few spots on the air for the privilege. KCAA will help here too, we always offer a few freebies to sweeten the deal for you and your advertisers.
Promote yourself like you were running for public office. In many ways, you can relate the self-promotion necessary to be successful in radio to running a successful political or issues campaign.
A side note here; in many ways, volunteering your services to a political or issues campaign provides you with an experience that parallels the promotion/campaign necessary to be a successful independent broadcaster.
Realistically, radio is simply the bottom rung on the show business ladder. In the long run, listeners must like you enough to vote with their radio dial and by supporting the products you sell. In essence, your radio program on KCAA is ½ “Show" and ½ "business" and to be a successful broadcaster, you must succeed on both fronts.
Since radio is ½ show and ½ business, you need certain talents to be successful. YOU DO NOT HAVE THE LUXURY OF THE OLD COP-OUT, "I hate to sell” or “I can’t sell”. If you start with that attitude, you will fail, period! The best sales person you will ever have is looking at you in the mirror every morning. Ignore any tapes that might be running in your mind that say "I can’t sell", just go out and do it. On average, you will have to make 15 calls before you'll get one or two "be-backs". Keep making the calls and always follow up with the be-backs. Keep a daily diary of every sales call you make and review it daily, without it, you will get lost and lose sales. This is all tried and true. It works.
You can hire bird-dogs, which is slang for a person who will get leads under your direction or you can hire a salesperson, but NEVER depend exclusively on a sales person or a bird dog. No one can sell you better than YOU.
You must care about your program and take it seriously. I was astounded recently to learn that a talk show host at KCAA was actually playing solitaire on a lap top computer while on the air. Another was watching the Fox News at our NBC News station. Another was on the phone taking care of private business matters during a commercial break in a live show. Worst of all, I actually saw the video of a host playing a game on a smart phone during a break. This is simply not acceptable. Would this be proper conduct in front of a live crowd? Certainly not. So, even though you can't see your audience, they are listening and grading you to determine if you are worth their time. Many are watching you on the KCAA TV webcam.
Needless to say, playing an Internet game while on the air is not the way to create a professional sound. Don’t fool yourself. Listeners chear the difference between someone who is “phoning it in” and someone who is giving 100% to their performance.
I am looking forward to helping you organize and launch your radio program. We are here to help you 24/7.
Here are some suggested spot rates
KCAA CURRENT RATE CARD
MONTHLY
50 SPOT ANNOUNCEMENTS
LENGTH EACH TOTAL
10 SECONDS $10.00 $500
30 SECONDS $20.00 $1000
60 SECONDS $30.00 $1500
100 spot packages should be reduced by 15% with cash at signing
13 WEEK RATE
25% DISCOUNT FOR CASH WITH ORDER OF 300 SPOTS OR MORE
FIXED TIME LIVE READ SPOTS
$45.00 per minute
You get one free for each one you buy
You Pay KCAA
$50.00 to $200.00 per hour for your air time
(based upon day part)
One half hour shows
$30.00 to $125.00
( based on day part )
'Keep Rolling!'
Thanks,
Paul Lane
909-486-3047
Hello! My name is Paul Lane. I am the Bureau Chief and Morning Show Host of KCAA Radio, Loma Linda, California. I have created this page on our website to explain how you can become a talk show host on KCAA. First, some background on the station.
KCAA is a successful "stand alone" AM Radio Station. KCAA 1050 AM Radio is the GO-TO News-Talk station for the Inland Empire region of Southern Ca. Please review all our audio and video services. We provide a great listener experience which is enhanced by numerous, state of the art audio and video platforms.
KCAA broadcasts some of the highest rated shows in the history of American Talk Radio. If you choose to air a program at KCAA, you will be listed along side the top ranked talkers. At KCAA, we guide you through the process of establishing yourself as a professional talk show host. We provide full hourly blocks of airtime for $50.00 to $200.00, depending upon when your program is aired. Contact me at (760) 701-0272 when are ready to take advantage of this rewarding opportunity.
KCAA is licensed to Loma Linda, California but our Internet stream finds listeners in more an 133 countries. KCAA is an independent station. We're not owned by Wallstreet. We make all programming decision in house. Our studios are located in San Bernardino.
KCAA produces more than 50 local programs each week on subjects ranging from political talk to vegan diets, organic farming, general health, raw food preparation and nutrition shows, psychic mediums, medical marijuana, a shopping show and of course, a "serious" show filled with Hollywood's latest gossip.
KCAA also leads with sports that includes Redland's Bulldog Football, San Bernardino Men's Basketball and Inland Empire 66rs Baseball.
KCAA's daytime signal reaches over five million people on 1050 AM in Riverside, San Bernardino, and Orange counties.
Our Broadcasters are second to none.
KCAA's Top Ranked Syndicated Programs
Joyce Riley's Power Hour Weekdays 4-6 a.m.
IMUS in The Morning Weekdays 6-8 a.m.
Contorlled Chaos Weekdays 8-9 a.m.
The Morning Show Weekdays 9-10 a.m.
Ed Schultz Weekdays 10-11 a.m.
Alex Jones Weekdays 11-Noon
Dave Ramsey Weekdays Noon-2 p.m.
Roseanne Sunday 11-12 p.m.
Our Toll Free call-in number is (888) 909-1050
We air many local programs every day so tune in any time!
KCAA's weekday programs attract listeners of age 35 years and older.
Our weekend programming also includes music and variety programs that attract ages 18 to 34.
Most of KCAA's audience is comprised of well-established, long-term residents.
Our station airs a wide variety of programming (both political and non-political) that represents liberal, conservative, libertarian and independent points of view.
Our per-minute ad rate is $20 and a full hour of prime airtime is under $200.00. All shows are video recorded plus...
KCAA's Reach And Platforms
104,000 Weekly 1050-AM Radio Listeners per Statistics
43,410 Podcast Visits per Month for KCAA's Podcast System
145,762 Podcast Page Views (January 2013)
32,195 Website Page Views per Month for www.kcaaradio.com
37,312 Twitter Follower's for KCAA's Twitter Feed
10,162 Merchant Circle Connections KCAA's Merchant Circle Page
8,962 Facebook "Likes" for www.kcaaradio.com
2,917 Facebook "Likes" for KCAA's Facebook Page
1,128 Facebook Group Members for KCAA's Affiliate Group
1,689 Readers of KCAA's Quarterly Newsletter
986 Monthly Customers for KCAA's Youngevity Store
About Us
KCAA is operated by people who understand business. KCAA is large enough to provide a valuable service and small enough to give you the personal attention you deserve. KCAA is special. It's a successful, privately owned stand-alone AM Radio Station in a world dominated by conglomerates.
If you have a business to promote or advertise, please email me at [email protected] or call me at (760) 701-0272. KCAA would like to build your customer base. If you are a radio listener and not a business owner or potential programmer, we will be honored to have you as a new listener.
With sincere thanks,
Paul Lane,
Bureau Chief
KCAA 1050 AM RADIO
"The station that leaves no listener behind".
