Summer officially starts this weekend. Is your station ready?
People will be traveling, taking vacations, renting beach houses, taking day trips and having backyard gatherings that will surely involve listening to your station. Some people will be listening for the first time as they may not be in the one in control of the listening platform. Your superfans will be tuning you in and sharing your product with their captive audience. It’s time for you to shine and make new fans!
All listening starts somewhere, whether it be in a car, at the office or at someone’s gathering of friends and family. The “host” will be judged by the music they play and if it’s your station, you want to be putting your best foot forward. Just like a restaurant, you could have the most beautiful setting with a tremendous view, impeccable service and great value but if your food, or in this case, your music sucks, you’ll lose them and probably never get a chance to wow them again.
Here’s some food for thought.
Is every hour of your music the best it can be? If you finished the logs, go take a second look. Review it as a listener song for song, to make sure it’s as close to perfect as it can be.
How do you sound at the top of the hour, coming out of your stop sets and during transitions from song to song? It should be tight and right and since people tend to listen more at the top of the hour, it’s where you need to tell the audience who you are and what your specialty is especially if you’re doing something unique for the holiday weekend.
Do your personalities sound like they’re having fun and want to be on the air? It’s a holiday and sometimes air talent belly-aches about having to work and even if they don’t say it on the air, the way they truly feel comes through on the radio. Psyche them up about the huge audience they’re performing for. Cume goes through the roof on weekends and holidays so let them know how important it is to be positive, relatable and fun-sounding.
If you’re doing a music special like a countdown or the “best summer songs” type of programming, make sure you’re constantly telling the audience that come Tuesday morning, you’re back doing what you’re known for. Give them a reason to make an appointment to listen. Have some kind of prize or call-to-action for Tuesday morning. Make it big! Recycle that audience to your morning show.
Social media is a great way to promote your holiday weekend call-to-action too. Make sure it’s specific. Tomorrow morning or Tuesday morning doesn’t cut it. Neither does Tuesday morning between 7 & 8. Be very specific. “Tuesday morning at 7:20, the WXXX morning show gives away $1,000. Listen to find out how to win!”
Holiday programming can be a lot of fun. It’s a time to possibly step away from the norm and be creative, but be sure to stay true to who you are and remind the audience of it often.
And make sure you have enough gas for the grill. It sucks to run out.