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I read a post by the very smart Seth Godin today where he asked the question "what would you do (about various issues or industries he listed) if you had a clean sheet of paper". It got me thinking about radio. How would I build a radio station today if there were no traditional "rules"? In no particular order:
Talent on Demand: Get rid of traditional "dayparts" and have the best talent provide content to be played in all hours (and across all platforms)- like we play our best songs. Why do we lock our top talent into a 6a to 9a time-slot only? We would never play our best songs only in mornings, yet we do with our talent.
Hire sales reps for digital knowledge and teach radio: Have you walked through the sales department of a radio station lately? Hard to find anyone under 35 or 40. We need to do a much better job getting younger people (who truly "live" digital) interested in "sales".
Stop hiring "radio people" with the hope of making them interesting. Instead, find interesting people and put them on the radio (and FB, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, live events, etc.
Hire a 22 year old as a Program Director and let them loose.
Get Top Talent (and PD's) making sales calls: The time has come where some of our best talent needs to be using their big profiles and celebrity status to excite prospects and turn them into clients. And, I've yet to come across talent that doesn't want to make more money.
Generate revenue from producing live events (concerts, job fairs, wine shows, etc), endorsements, product placements, social media, etc. and rely less on 30 second commercials filled with phrases like "shop now and save", "best customer service" and "hurry, this offer ends soon".
Appreciate and engage with the audience constantly vs. putting the lines on hold and referring to our best customers- the ones who engage the most - as "contest pigs".
Take back the streets: There was a time when radio was everywhere. Being visible matters.
Figure out ways to make listening to radio on a smartphone a "habit" for the audience- like turning on the radio in a car. Currently it's not.
Stop reading blogs and posts from tech people that say radio is dead.
A few thoughts from my clean sheet. Please feel free to ad yours to the list in the comments section to the right.
Dave Farough is Radio Programming & Talent Coach based in Toronto, Ontario. He can be Reached at 1-647-923-1047 or e-mailed here.
This episode is brought to you by PromoSuite Next. For over 25 years you've known PromoSuite as radio's original promotions management system. Helping promotions teams and programmers manage their contest winners, liners, sales, requests, remotes, prize fulfilment, and much more. Today over 2,500 radio stations across the United States and Canada use PromoSuite Next.