You've got a small town station — how do you compete in the 21st century?

[tomservo]

So you just had a radio station fall into your lap. It's in a small town, far enough from the "big city" to be its own little economic market, but close enough that some of those big city radio stations are presets on locals' radio dials. Even though it's a small town, there's plentiful high speed internet so streaming radio, podcasting and the like are viable choices for listeners both at home and the in car.

How would you program this kind of station? Let's assume the big music formats, like classic/rock, country and urban are all available from nearby bigger city stations… do you try to do the tried and true country and just try to differentiate yourself by being local? Or maybe do classic country to try to siphon off the big city stations' listeners?

Or maybe something else?

And let's just accept that "local! local! local!" is a given as far as doing community events, news and sports. That's a no-brainer (which is the only reason I came up with it) but beyond that, how would you try to compete in today's media landscape?

 

[michael hagerty]

So you just had a radio station fall into your lap. It's in a small town, far enough from the "big city" to be its own little economic market, but close enough that some of those big city radio stations are presets on locals' radio dials. Even though it's a small town, there's plentiful high speed internet so streaming radio, podcasting and the like are viable choices for listeners both at home and the in car.

How would you program this kind of station? Let's assume the big music formats, like classic/rock, country and urban are all available from nearby bigger city stations… do you try to do the tried and true country and just try to differentiate yourself by being local? Or maybe do classic country to try to siphon off the big city stations' listeners?

Or maybe something else?

And let's just accept that "local! local! local!" is a given as far as doing community events, news and sports. That's a no-brainer (which is the only reason I came up with it) but beyond that, how would you try to compete in today's media landscape?

My first question is "What are they doing now and how well does that work?"

Second question: Is there room for improvement, and if so, given the state of local radio, the listener and advertiser base in the town, the condition of the facility and other listening options, is it likely to attain that improvement?

Third question: How much will it cost to attain that improvement? Equipment, repairs, promotion?

If the answers to those suggest that doing something different would be good, your next step is research:

Figure out who in that town you want to listen to you (demographics) and start asking those people:

• When you listen to audio, what do you listen to?
• Can you think of anything you're listening to that you think could be better? How?
• Is there something you'd listen to that right now, you either don't think exists or can't find?
• Would you be willing to listen to that thing (either the thing that could be better or doesn't exist/can't find) on the radio?
• Would you be willing to listen to that thing on radio with commercials?
• How many interruptions per hour for commercials would you be willing to hear?
• How long would you be willing to listen to a commercial break to get to the next thing in the show/format?
• Would you be willing to listen to it on AM radio? (You didn't specify the band. "Radio" in the question above would cover "FM", but if it's an AM, you really need this additional question)
• What are your other media habits (print/online/TV/movies in theaters)? (You need to know the answer to this to know how to promote your station to this potential audience when it goes on).

You should poll at least 10% of the adult population. If it's a really small town, more than that.

Unless there's some unusual circumstance in that town where there are significant ad dollars that want to reach people under 18 or over 55, responses from those groups are less likely to be helpful.

You should also build in an exit plan. Even if you get everything right and it's a roaring success, you may actually peak in the first year or two---the medium is in decline. Your business plan should allow for declining audience and revenue each succeeding year.

Having a radio station "fall into your lap" right now is kind of like adopting a 12-year-old dog. You're battling the inevitable, and sooner rather than later.

 

[Jean Luc]

Find some religious broadcaster. You can probably sell the station for more than it's worth.

 

[b-turner]

Michael has great advice.

I might add connecting with the community is the key. In a small town it is typical for the local station to be the only daily source of accurate local information and news in the area. Local PSAs. DJs talking about local things. Weathercasts for local area. Tie in with the school on anything you can. If you voice-track (and I suggest you do versus a computer in a closet), have them doing this. Absolutely do as much local content as you can do. The music format doesn't matter as much as local. Obviously, don't go heavy metal in a country town expecting good results. Last, be where your listeners are.

Firm up listening via an app on people's phones and online listening at your website.

I work for a station that was insignificant 15 years ago and high on the AM dial. With a translator, the station is consistently #1 by a longshot. In my years here, 1 in 8 listen and an average 1/3rd of radio listeners. We're ultra local. Local news, weather, high school sports. If some event happens, we're there. Totally voice-tracked. I was told by KOTO in Telluride, Colorado when they were a 10 watt FM the plan was to involve someone in every home with the station. The idea was if they could reach one person, they had a household that was aware of KOTO and likely listened. To bolster that, they placed fish bowls at store counters for customers to give their change to KOTO because it produced money and the station logo was seen everywhere in town.

Warning: My owner told me he went 5 years without a paycheck building the station to the point he could get a paycheck from the station.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Warning: My owner told me he went 5 years without a paycheck building the station to the point he could get a paycheck from the station.

I tend to take those “went without a paycheck for X amount of time” stories with a Morton’s box full of salt.

I’d love to know how such people kept a roof over their heads, food on their table, or clothes on their back during that time while meeting the other daily expenses of life. I suspect many already had a large amount of stored money or had independent wealth they could live off, or an overly indulgent spouse who didn’t hit them with divorce papers.

If I had an FM station dropped in my lap, it would have to be already making money, or at least close to breaking even with discernible potential for improvement…otherwise I would immediately turn around and sell it. An AM station without a translator? Sell it regardless.

 

[michael hagerty]

I tend to take those “went without a paycheck for X amount of time” stories with a Morton’s box full of salt.

I’d love to know how such people kept a roof over their heads, food on their table, or clothes on their back during that time while meeting the other daily expenses of life. I suspect many already had a large amount of stored money or had independent wealth they could live off, or an overly indulgent spouse who didn’t hit them with divorce papers.

You're assuming that is their only business. The only sole owner/mom and pops I worked for where the station was their only business were the ones who were constantly in trouble.

The first radio station I ever worked for (in Bishop, California) was put on the air and owned for the first 16 years of its existence by a guy who owned the local Zenith radio & TV store. One hand washed the other.

The second one was a guy with some significant land holdings...including the site the tower sat on.

Even in what were then some pretty good days for radio, the guys whose only moneymaker was the radio station were guys you could see sweating in 20-degree weather.

 

[b-turner]

One boss I worked for sold real estate and ran the station at the same time.

 

[Cold Coffee]

It helps if you have roots in the town. Some small towns don't like outsiders.

 

[michael hagerty]

It helps if you have roots in the town. Some small towns don't like outsiders.

This.

If you're coming in cold, or haven't been involved in business in the town yet, join the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club (if they have one). Show up at every event. Go to the school bake sale, introduce yourself and buy a few dozen cookies. Make sure the radio station is promoting every single one of these events that is not a profit-driven thing...this is where local PSAs come in.

Whatever you do---buy local. Don't go to the Walmart in the next town to save a few bucks. These are the people you're going to pray will advertise.

Show up for them, be consistent about it and don't make it transactional. That will go a long way.

 

[fybush]

It really, really, REALLY depends on the town.

You'll find it much harder to build a culture of "local" radio listening/media consumption/advertising sales in places that have lost their own sense of localism or never had one in the first place.

If it's a Sunbelt community that's relatively new and young and full of chain stores and transplants from somewhere else who have only arrived in the last few years, what sort of community are you going to be able to build around your radio station?

Compare that to a community that might be the same size on paper, but with residents who are less transient, more interested in local news and politics and more likely to have local businesses still chugging along in their town. Maybe it's a place where the local newspaper folded not long ago or was hollowed out by a chain like Lee or Gannett.

Places like the second one may not seem as shiny or glamorous, but they have enough "there" there so that a savvy operator who can work relatively inexpensively can still come in and get a few good years out of doing local sports and news, especially if they can get a digital "newspaper" up and running in tandem with radio.

Music format? That's just about the LAST thing I'd be thinking about at this point, because it's not what's going to make your radio station uniquely valuable when the locals can already stream and listen to big city radio just like everyone else.

The music is what will fill the holes around your unique local content, assuming you can can come up with THAT. If your market skews older, do the classic hits or classic country that the big city might not touch because of sales demos. If you're somewhere with a unique local music flavor (beach oldies in the Carolinas or bluegrass in the hills or red dirt country in Texas), sure, lean that way.

But I stand by my premise that it's really what's surrounding the music that will make your hypothetical station succeed or fail.

 

[radiofan2023]

I'd only accept it if it was an FM station. If it were an AM station, even with a translator in a smaller town, I wouldn't. I'd also get to know the local emergency services chiefs or community liason officers (not every police department has one but they're becoming more popular), so you could possibly get more info than what's in dispatch reports if there's a fire, robbery, etc.

 

[michael hagerty]

I'd only accept it if it was an FM station. If it were an AM station, even with a translator in a smaller town, I wouldn't. I'd also get to know the local emergency services chiefs or community liason officers (not every police department has one but they're becoming more popular), so you could possibly get more info than what's in dispatch reports if there's a fire, robbery, etc.

Yes, and...

Be careful to maintain a respectful distance with those folks. If you're to be of any value to your listeners, the police chief cannot have input into what you report and how you report it.

Special interests abound in small towns. This obit of Bennett Kessler, who owned a station where I grew up, tells how getting on the wrong side of the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, a major landowner in the Owens Valley, likely cost her a job as a news reporter at a station down-valley:

Benett Kessler, founder and owner of Sierra Wave Media, dies

Benett Kessler, one of the most recognized and trusted journalists in the Eastern Sierra for a generation, has died. She was 65. Kessler died Jan. 2 in N

sierrawave.net

 

[MassMusicMan]

Special interests abound in small towns.

"I'll go and get a better job, and you won't find a better mayor." - Ed Koch

 

[radiofan2023]

Yes, and...

Be careful to maintain a respectful distance with those folks. If you're to be of any value to your listeners, the police chief cannot have input into what you report and how you report it.

Special interests abound in small towns. This obit of Bennett Kessler, who owned a station where I grew up, tells how getting on the wrong side of the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, a major landowner in the Owens Valley, likely cost her a job as a news reporter at a station down-valley:

Benett Kessler, founder and owner of Sierra Wave Media, dies

Benett Kessler, one of the most recognized and trusted journalists in the Eastern Sierra for a generation, has died. She was 65. Kessler died Jan. 2 in N

sierrawave.net

Unfortunately some emergency services departments have gone to encrypted communications and have changed their public facing websites with reports that just give the bare bones information of where a call was dispatched and a few words for the reasons, knowing local news has been so hollowed out that nobody is going to bother trying to sue the city to get access to the full written emergency dispatch reports, so their attitude seems to be, "you get what you get and kick rocks if you don't like it".

 

[michael hagerty]

Unfortunately some emergency services departments have gone to encrypted communications and have changed their public facing websites with reports that just give the bare bones information of where a call was dispatched and a few words for the reasons, knowing local news has been so hollowed out that nobody is going to bother trying to sue the city to get access to the full written emergency dispatch reports, so their attitude seems to be, "you get what you get and kick rocks if you don't like it".

Right. Which is why making contacts while setting boundaries is your best move.

The old days of picking up the phone and getting a talkative watch commander are long gone.

 

[Delete My Account]

I'm looking a lot at what stations like KEXP in Seattle do. Now, don't confuse it with the music. What I'm looking at is the sense of community and purpose, the ability to be intimately keyed into what that audience and lifestyle group cares about.

How can a more mainstream or commercial station learn from that? There's a tangible gathering space. There's constant interaction between the hosts (or their producers) and the audience. There's "specials" to get excited about, and real time response to the vibe and mood of their audience when major things happen culturally.

Admittedly, they have a large budget and are listener supported. But the principles of human connection apply.

I'm thinking of a particular opportunity or two in markets in the shadow of larger markets, but still with a unique local vibe, local culture. There's still a healthy local economy, an older audience with higher income or savings, a sense of wanting to be a bit different. And I'm also thinking about content and platforms in connection with the local stuff the big market doesn't have room to cover. What about making it not just the local radio station, but a media center? What about finding ways to take content that may be too longform or niche on the air and podcasting it? What about offering those podcast facilities to clients and local content creators? Running a media preservation project to help the aging locals preserve memories and stories? Local vignettes that tell people things they didn't know about the communities, not in a dry "history lesson" way but in a "here's something cool you didn't know about this place you pass by every day on your commute." What's the news that you can take some action on today, locally, that isn't being covered in the din of national divisiveness? What's something you could do to be more involved in the community, or do some good with your time or a small contribution? Have a "high school radio hour" on the weekends in association with the area high schools. Run video webcasts and streams of local sports.

I know none of these are revolutionary ideas. It's what a lot of radio stations used to do, or have always done. They're starting points. Food for thought.

The music is less of it than it used to be. But in some markets, depending on format and competition you can do some things there too. The barriers to recording have lowered dramatically, and sometimes, there are some seriously GOOD local and regional performers that are as good as what's national. Be open to it. Consider the occasional in studio. If it's truly good, don't bury it in overnights or on the weekends. Treat it like any other level of song if it's worth playing. Take some calculated chances. Older audiences can value curation, and not every song they love or will love is on their playlist. Do it cautiously but if you have the credibility, it's worth doing at times and can be tied into local live events and buy you goodwill. Don't compromise your product but do consider it. Know your audience. One classic hits station I loved did a brilliant promotion - since all of their music was classic hits, they had a covers contest with local artists covering classic rock and pop songs. Sponsored and fun - stayed in their format lane while also connecting locally.

I for one would not bother targeting younger audiences. I'd want to do this in a market where enough upper demo, adult consumers had a history of engagement with radio and lived a less tech driven lifestyle. And I'd be everywhere. App, stream, podcast, web "newspaper", events. You're buying yourself a job. If you're so inclined, it's a lot of fun. But you can't only do one thing.

 

[davideduardo]

Find some religious broadcaster. You can probably sell the station for more than it's worth.

Religious broadcasters don't generally buy "small town stations" as the heading of this thread indicates. Unless there is a local church that can afford a station and all its expenses, this is not an option.

 

[davideduardo]

I tend to take those “went without a paycheck for X amount of time” stories with a Morton’s box full of salt.

I’d love to know how such people kept a roof over their heads, food on their table, or clothes on their back during that time while meeting the other daily expenses of life. I suspect many already had a large amount of stored money or had independent wealth they could live off, or an overly indulgent spouse who didn’t hit them with divorce papers.

Long ago, the FCC required a license applicant to show the ability to operate the station for a considerable period of time... I do not recall if it was a full year or longer... but it required proof of solvency and funding.

I built my first station in a very competitive market with over 40 fulltime local stations. I went for 7 months with no revenue at all. Two years later, I built the market's first FM and went for well over a year with zero billing.

But the cases of "overnight success" in a streaming world are never again going to occur in OTA radio. Unless you buy a station with sustainable cash flow, it will take a long time to become profitable if ever.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Long ago, the FCC required a license applicant to show the ability to operate the station for a considerable period of time... I do not recall if it was a full year or longer... but it required proof of solvency and funding.

Decades ago the new station applications I would see listed in Broadcasting Magazine would usually include “First Year Expenses” with a dollar figure.

 

[michael hagerty]

Long ago, the FCC required a license applicant to show the ability to operate the station for a considerable period of time... I do not recall if it was a full year or longer... but it required proof of solvency and funding.

In 1974 (the only time I was involved in a start-up) it was three years' operating capital.