"Here are my requirements for the perfect radio station website:
1. A source of revenue
2. Easily maintained
3. Highly trafficed by listeners (and hopefully non-listeners alike)
Here are mine:
1) Contains content people care about:
A)I believe that the single best feature of radio station websites are
"What's playing" with a trailing history of those previously played for at
least half day. It's bad enough that radio decided long ago to rarely give
this information on the air. How about the website?
B)How about a radio advertiser directory? People hear ads on the radio and
call the front desk all the time for information. If the receptionist is
top-notch, he or she will run it down for the caller. More likely, the
caller is told "I don't know. Keep listening."
C) Streaming audio. Why so many stations still offline? Especially AC's who depend so heavily on in-office listening. There are a lot of stations that cannot be heard in offices because of structural interference. So the workers default to an internet station
that does stream. I know it costs money. Not as much as people claim however.
D) A decent events calendar. I am constantly amazed that I frequently hear
events advertised on the air here (Greenville, SC) and miss half the
promo so I go to the station website where I find NO information. I quit even
looking.
E) Off-air contests. Contests for your P1's who will take the time to visit
your website AND listen to the station. A website should be a strong
marketing arm of the radio station. A lot of GM's disagree but that's because
their sites suck. You need a compelling way to get people to opt-in to your
email database.
2) Keep the design clean. The cardinal rule of websites is to design for content, not appearance. Radio station websites seem overwhelmingly to favor flash over content. If you don't have much content, don't bother with filler. Who said you can't have a one page website? Have as many pages as you want but filling in a bunch of crap is.. .. well, crap.
It's not perfect (it does not appear to me to have the "What's Playing" feature) but one of the best websites in my opinion is from a little Mom and Pop station (it's ratings are competitive with the big boys however)in Savannah,
WRHQ. Kudos to Savannah-based "Systems Connect" for putting together a pretty decent site. (I lived in Savannah but don't know anyone there so this is not a "pitch". ) It is the ONLY Savannah radio station that is currently streaming. Clear Channel and Cumulus are in that market and do not.
It seems to me that stations like this that are not part of a large company have an advantage. They don't have to submit to the company template or run all the national ads. Ads are fine but some of these sites are so cluttered it's embarrassing.
Revenue? It need not be expensive to have a good website but I'd worry about getting traffic first. Most sites have so little traffic, you can't derive much revenue anyway. It's primarily a marketing tool. How much money do you make from running tv ads and billboards?<P ID="signature">______________
Jerry
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts" -
late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan</P>
Sorry...