Growing Your Target Audience in 2010

If celebrities are brands, and brands aspire to be celebrated by consumers, having the wrong celebrity endorse the wrong brand can be pretty detrimental.

The MBS programming staff at CHFX/Halifax does a fun, helpful exercise for the entire staff of their cluster each year at this time. They get everyone together to vote for each person's five nominations of the five to seven major country artists which they think will be driving cume growth and target demo appeal in the coming year, tab all the votes and announce the 'faces' and 'voices' from a marketing standpoint.

Of course, they also give the listener a big vote too, by ranking the number of artists with songs in recurrent and power gold, according to their local research. (pictured - outdoor for Three Eagles' KXKX/Lincoln)

Then, the magic begins when you look and listen to everything you use to promote yourself both on and off the air, realigning the visual and audio to conform to your goals!

You Could Look At The World This Way...

.. As Tom Taylor did today:

"The topsy-turvy Summer of 2009. The NAB’s without a CEO, RAB is in flux, Arbitron’s under attack (but may eye television) – The world is unsettled. Just take a 30,000-foot peek out of the cockpit window for a second – can you recall a time of more uncertainty in the radio business than right now?"

Or, you can look at it THIS way...

CHFX, Halifax, morning host Denyse Sibley was located at Kenny Chesney's Boston show Saturday by two of her fans.

Maritime Broadcasting Programming Chief Scott Clements emailed in response to Denyse's cell phone photo, saying

"We have as strong a visual presence as Country 102.5/Boston, CatC ountry/Providence and a station from NH combined. Too bad its not our cma/metro."

Yes, that is "visual presence" all right!

Happy Trails

CFDR Dartmouth/Halifax – after 46 years of AM service – will sign off on Monday, July 27. The Newcap Classic Country station, as its final out, will air the old Roy Rogers/Dale Evans classic tune: Happy Trails.

And with CFDR’s going dark, it brings to an end AM radio service in the large Nova Scotia market.

Broadcast Dialogue reports Morning show co-Host Frank Lowe will leave while co-Host Stephanie Woodin will stay with Newcap in another capacity. CFDR was part of a trade-off with Rogers, which gave up CIGM Sudbury to Newcap.

A&O proudly works for FX-101.9/Halifax, and we know that Maritime President Robert Pace, OM Scott Clements at the market's remaining country station take the responsibility of serving the large area's many country fans very seriously, while tipping our hats to the people who contributed to CFDR's heritage and history.