Success

Now that PPM has proven the average radio station’s highest usage daypart is afternoon, it’s not possible to simply judge a morning and midday personality by their daypart's ratings alone.

• Does morning drive attract enough early morning cume recycle their audience into midday and afternoon?  (folks tuning to radio at home before 7 am, listen several hours per day more than the average person - who now starts their day at home with television and only turns to radio when they get in the car, so those very early radio at home listeners help the station all day)
• Does your morning audience grow after 8 am, as listeners arrive at work?  (many do not, as a station's cume switches into at work station mode)
• Does the midday talent take whatever cume given to them in their first quarter hour and avoid dips in their quarter hour by quarter hour and day by day audiences (that requires an understanding of the best places to put the stickest content)?

A morning show and midday host is successful when they not just beat their competitors head to head, but when a large percentage of the cume audience is actually returned to the station for the next day part.

Evenings and overnights must do the same thing for the next morning show's audience.

Listener retention is about both eliminating irritants and entertaining content, acting like a user magnet in every minute.

That is how we must attack our success.

Everyone Knows Wendy Lynn's Goals

They are posted on the PD of Townsquare Media-owned WYRK's office door.

No wonder the station's ratings have hit all-time highs in 2012.

How close to having 8% of your metro's total population, 33% of your total persons weekly cume, do you have in your database?

Maybe it's time for a poster on your door too?

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)

Radio Keys To Success

1. Signal
2. Potential market or format growth
3. Potential station growth
4. Price and/or terms paid for the facility
5. Promote: increase visibility and sampling, then build loyalty and time spent listening.
6. Concentrate on retail business. Emphasize local, direct sales.
7. Be flexible. Avoid bureaucracy.
8. Research consistently. Make sure the audience thinks you have the best personalities and the best music.
9. Attitude. Become positive and aggressive. Make your staff that way, and "take it to the streets."
10. Take risks.

You simply MUST have #1. Then, the more of the others you have, the higher your potential for success.

Getting Sticky

"A sticky idea is understood, it’s remembered, and it changes something.

"Sticky ideas of all kinds—ranging from the “kidney thieves” urban legend to JFK’s “Man on the Moon” speech—have six traits in common."


If you make use of these traits in your communication, you’ll make your ideas stickier. (You don’t need all 6 to have a sticky idea, but it’s fair to say the more, the better!)

I must be the next-to-last person in the world to have finally gotten around to reading Chip and Dan Heath's "Made To Stick," since it looks like many of the pages of their web site are under construction, getting set up for their next book and starting to do trainings around the "Stick" concepts.

Still, it's well worth a read, even after sitting on my bookshelf for more than a year.

Business Success Rules

Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.
Be candid with everyone.
Don't manage, lead.
Change before you have to.
If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete.
Control your own destiny or someone else will.

- Jack Welch, former CEO, General Electric

Change Isn't Hard After All

If change is difficult for you, or you want your listeners to change their habits/perceptions, read this new book:

"If people hate change, they have a funny way of showing it. Every iPhone sold serves as counter-evidence. So does every text message sent, every corporate merger finalized, every aluminum can recycled. And we haven’t even mentioned the biggest changes: Getting married. Having kids. (If people hate change, then having a kid is an awfully dumb decision.)

"It puzzled us--why do some huge changes, like marriage, come joyously, while some trivial changes, like submitting an expense report on time, meet fierce resistance?

"We found the answer in the research of some brilliant psychologists who’d discovered that people have two separate “systems” in their brains—a rational system and an emotional system. The rational system is a thoughtful, logical planner. The emotional system is, well, emotional—and impulsive and instinctual.

"When these two systems are in alignment, change can come quickly and easily (as when a dreamy-eyed couple gets married). When they’re not, change can be grueling (as anyone who has struggled with a diet can attest)."

In a nutshell: look for, or even better BE "the bright spot."

"Success Can Be Measured At Many Levels"

"It can be teaching that first-time job holder the importance of good work ethics, helping that salesperson hit a goal he never thought he’d meet or turning a client’s business into a success story that a community can be proud of. The larger the impact you make on your staff, your clients and your community, the larger your numbers will grow! With formal training seminars, reading and networking with other members in our industry, we learn from others’ successes and mistakes. We share in frustrations and obstacles. Not only do we mature professionally by educating ourselves, but this infuses the energy that drives our stations every day." - Jerry Butler, GM/Williams Broadcasting/Enid, OK (#5 in a series)

Tip #1 From Fortune Magazine: Open Your Junk Mail

I learned a lesson today: Open all the mail you get because it could be something worth reading — even if you think it’s junk mail. I wouldn’t necessarily categorize mail from Fortune as junk, but in a subscription renewal notice today I got a small card that lists “3 Skills You Can Improve Right Now.”

It could have been written by a radio talent coach for air personalities:

Public Speaking: Conquer fear with a game plan

• Podiums disconnect you from the audience. Grab the mic and wander the stage.
• Eye contact is your friend. Looking at people one by one shrinks the room.
• Questions. If you’re stumped, talk about your team. “We’re lucky to have an expert on that, I’ll get you in touch with him later.”

Negotiating Skills: Using the right phrases matters

• How did you come up with that number? Opens a window into the other side’s thoughts.
• Let me check with my wife. Or husband, or boss. Stops you from saying yes prematurely.
• If things change, give me a call. Put the burden on them.

Memory Skills: Never confuse Don with John again

• Introduce yourself first so you can focus on the other person
• Connect the name to your brain. When you meet a guy named Bill, think of other Bills you know.
• Use the name three times. Once to confirm you have the name right, then in mid-conversation, and again when you say good-bye.

I was all set to write an article on the full implications of this advice, when I discovered that Melanie Holmes of Manpower North America had done the work for me on her blog.