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.

Crêpe Suzette

I got a lesson in teasing content last Saturday night with a party of friends dining at West Edmonton Mall’s trendy “L2 Grill.”

While our group was in the midst of dinner we observed closely as our waiter attended to another table by creating a Caesar salad table side for them, using some surprising, unique ingredients.

So, we all took a chance and asked him to whip up Crêpe Suzette for our dessert.

He came to the table and did his culinary magic right before our eyes, culminating of course with a colorful flambé.

Then, after dessert as he refilled our coffee cups he made sure that our dinner was exceptional for everyone and also confirmed that the crepe was delicious. After doing so, he informed us that L2 is the only Edmonton restaurant to create Caesar and suzettes table-side.

We all agreed that we’ll be back again and again for more of that.

The lesson: there’s certainly nothing wrong with trying to recycle your audience into great content experiences by "selling" them in advance, but there’s no better time to do so than right after you’re absolutely certain that the reception to your "benchmark/event" is 100+% positive.

Less description and hyperbole is required; success is assured.

1. Do what listeners love.
2. Ascertain for sure that they did love it.
3. Invite them back with appointment listening when you plan to offer an equally pleasurable event.

A big menu of dishes that everyone else also serves, simply presented a lot better than the rest, won't drive as much loyalty and regularity is becoming famous for a select few delightful experiences no one else does but you.