Look at your station’s website.
Are there three, unduplicatable reasons to go to your website on a daily basis (not including streaming or contests)?
Can visitors to your site find this unduplicatable stuff the moment your home page loads?
If either answer is no, we’re not getting the job done.
What does your station do that is truly unique to it, utterly unduplicatable? Something that no other station can do? Because that is what will make our brands pre-sets on the infinite dial (ie, when everyone can get streaming radio in their car, on their phone, etc – it’s coming sooner than you think).
For News/Talk/Sports brands, which create original, timely editorial content all day long, the answer is easy: Who but WEEI can provide the inside take on the Red Sox? Where better to learn about the daily trials and triumphs of post-Katrina New Orleans than WWL?
For music-based formats, we have to uncover the unduplicatable.
If it’s our talent – name-brand AM/PM drive personalities – then we need to amplify the experience of their show online, and do it daily, and with the same relevance and connection they bring to their air shifts.
For younger demo formats, our talent should be posting content that firmly establishes them as their audience’s ambassadors to pop culture. Why let some faceless blog become their tastemaker, their water-cooler, their gossip guru? That used to be OUR role – and it should be again.
For older demo formats, we need to tap into the lifestyle passions of our audience. Just because they tune into our station as a background experience, as a rush hour or workplace oasis, doesn’t mean we can’t bond with them online. What’s the connection? Is it family-related content? Unique recipes? Funny anecdotes? Romantic memories?
Since 80 percent of our streaming takes place during work, think in terms of ‘lunch break.’ What can you tout on-air that would compel your average listener to click over to your website as a form of instant recess during their workday? Chances are, our audience is jazzed about the same stuff our talent is jazzed about, so if something is compelling enough to get our air staff to go online, then it’s probably the same for their audience.
So are we getting the job done?
If the deepest content you have about your star morning guy is a static page with a bio and photo that never changes, then we’re not getting the job done.
If our talent promotes their station website on-air with rote, pre-fabricated liners and no mention of specific, fresh content, then we’re not getting the job done.
If the bulk of our talent’s time online is spent updating their MySpace profile, then we’re not getting the job done.
If your concert calendar (or your ‘babe of the day’ page) is the highest visited page on your website, then we’re not getting the job done. Do you know how many places a listener can find out who’s playing in town – or see a hot babe – online?
Unduplicatable is our rallying cry.
One of my favorite podcasts is the radio show