Make The Most Of Your Free CMA "Year Of Radio" Membership

CMA’s commitment to Country radio is long and enduring, dating back to the origins of the Association and continuing through today.

This year, CMA takes that commitment to a new level with exclusive content, promotions, research tools and more. It's possible that your membership credentials arrived too late for you to see a copy of February-March CMA Closeup Magazine.

If that's the case, I hope you'll enjoy this quick reprise of quotes from a terrific two page article by Brad Schmitt with insights from the CMA Broadcast Award winners on what it takes to score a national award which I plan to reprise here this week, starting with:

I think radio should try to make ‘em happy, make ‘em cry, make ‘em mad, make ‘em sigh. We just try to get emotions out of them, make them passionate, get them to show up for your causes, get them to show up at your events and do things on the air that inspire reaction. Get them to
call in with their comments. Make radio valuable. Give them what Pandora can’t give them. Give them what the Internet can’t give them. Give them all these great options they can’t find anywhere else.

Do things on the air that will inspire reaction. We have an open mic segment twice every morning. They call in and we don’t interfere, but we’ll throw in sound effects and clips. They can rip us, they can argue with us, they can call in and congratulate us on a CMA win.

They can do whatever, and we try to keep it entertaining. Make it a radio blog! Let them know they’re welcome to be a part of it, participate in it and have fun.

-- Chris Carr of “Chris Carr & Company,” WUBE, Cincinnati, Ohio (Large Market Broadcast Personality of the Year)