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)
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!
Your program is a business. So, create a business plan and 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. You will not be a success overnight. However, you will succeed if you make a long-term commitment of time, enthusiam 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.
So, 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. You may have a dozen people signed in on the chat room, which is quite an ego builder, but you will have at least several hundred or possibly thousands of people listening to you over the air. Would you stop a speech in front of 1,000 people in order 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 call you. 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 that 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!!
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 compete for attention. KCAA has a small very loyal audience, but our listeners come and go during the hour like listeners of any other station. You must find a way to make your program known and make it a priority in the lives of as many people as possible. 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, starting with getting yourself interviewed on other shows, getting press releases about your program printed in newspapers and local television. Every legal way to promote your program should be exploited.
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 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 tried and true. It works.
You can hire bird-dogs, which is slang for a person who will get leads under your direction, you can hire a salesperson, however, NEVER depend exclusively on a sales person or a bird dog. No one can sell you like YOU. For the first 2/1/2 years, I was KCAA's only sales staff. The occasional sales that walked in the door were the only exceptions. They are called house accounts. In other words, I worked 2 ½ years before I hired anyone to sell for KCAA.
I was astounded recently to learn that one talk show host at KCAA was actually playing solitaire while on the air. Another was watching the Fox News (at our NBC station!) during a board shift. Yet, another was passing time on a personal phone call and taking care of private business matters while producing a live show. This is simply not acceptable. Would it be proper to do this in front of a crowd? Certainly not. So, just remember, even though you can't see your listeners, they are listening and grading you to determine if you are worth their time. Many are watching you on the KCAA TV webcam.
Playing an internet game while on the air is not the way to create a professional sound. Don’t fool yourself. Listeners can hear the difference between someone who is “phoning it in” and someone who is giving 100% to their performance. Listeners can actually hear differences between the sound of a host who stands and a host who is seated during a performance. The sound of a host who stands during the performance delivers a sense of immediacy or urgency that is difficult to duplicate while seated.
We will be excited to help you organize and launch your program. We are here to help you so please call us at (909) 885-8502
Here are some suggested spot rates
KCAA RATE CARD
Effective March 15, 2011
MONTHLY
50 SPOT ANNOUNCEMENTS
LENGTH EACH TOTAL
10 SECONDS $10.00 $500
30 SECONDS $20.00 $1000
60 SECONDS $30.00 $1500
100 spots reduce by 15% with cash
13 WEEK RATE
25% DISCOUNT FOR CASH WITH ORDER OF 300 SPOTS
FIXED TIME LIVE READ Spots
$45.00 per minute
You Pay KCAA
$200.00 per hour for your air time
one half hour
$125.00
Break-a-leg!
Thanks,
Fred Lundgren
(281) 599-9800
