Fine-Tuning Talent And Morning Show Performance

With Spring ratings underway, how your station engages your listeners is an essential aspect of growing your ratings. How do you use your listeners' time? Listeners "vote" their attention in three ways: engaging, ignoring, and tuning out. Don't waste their time. Provide stimulating, interesting, yet abbreviated tidbits. When you end a bit, you want listeners wanting more, not less. Be efficient and topic-focused to improve Time Spent Listening.

Engaging listeners means getting their attention quickly (in the first few seconds) and compelling their attention. As with commercials on TV, people decide rapidly whether to pay attention -- or not -- and buy-in to your content. Every word matters, especially in a PPM-metered ratings environment.

Listeners sometimes ignore content by mentally tuning out. This isn't as bad as changing stations or hitting the power button because you still have another chance to re-engage them. Mental or physical tune-out happens when listeners feel we are wasting their time, being unnecessarily talkative without saying anything of value, or talking at them (rather than with them). Here are key places to do preventive maintenance:

• Rambling lead-ins to bits or show segments, especially when listeners are waiting for weather or traffic.
• Wasted words such as "rockin' with you 'til 9 tonight" or "if there's something you wanna hear, give me a call."
• Bloated weather or PSA information with wasted words - cut to the chase!
• Newscast language that contains bureaucratic words or descriptions, too many official titles, and/or unclear phrases that describe official process but have no meaning to listeners.
• Inside talk between talents or talking to someone off-mic who cannot be heard.

Chances are you started in radio because it was so much fun.

Sound unique and give the station a singular Stationality(r). Brand by how you sound as much as by what you say on-air. Like Apple did with the iPad and iPhone, winning stations don't just copy what others do. They innovate and develop a unique approach. They make their listeners "want" to belong. They involve listeners, with air talents viewed as friends. They make the content relevant and enticing, focusing on the listener rather than the staff or corporate faces.

Funny thing: Stations like those above are usually financially successful, too. Clients want that same excitement and involvement. The Lund Consultants coined the "Stationality" term some time back to describe the essence of winning stations that make radio a priority for listeners by programming with passion and attitude.

Our Stationality Stylebook tells the whole story - how to create Stationality at your station!