Ideas on local emphasis???

[mike_carter]

I am looking for ideas on how to emphasize the "local" aspect of our Christian Inspo station to set us apart from the satellite stations in our market.

 

[RussAllen]

> I am looking for ideas on how to emphasize the "local"
> aspect of our Christian Inspo station to set us apart from
> the satellite stations in our market.
>
You can always use the listeners for this. Simply record listeners making comments about your station. Each one could be different or you could have them all say the same thing. For example:

"This is Michelle in (town name) and (station name) is my station"

Or work in your positioning statement. Take a moment and listen to the hedonistic top 40 or urban station in your town I'm sure they have some kind of listener drops/testimonials on the air.

During contesting always make sure your air talent are mentioning, or getting the listener to mention what town she lives in. Then you can say something goofy like "(town name?) that's right here in (state) another local winner on (station name).

Have fun.<P ID="signature">______________
Free Lil Kim
April 29, 2005 5pm What a glorious day it was
</P>

 

[u-j]

> I am looking for ideas on how to emphasize the "local"
> aspect of our Christian Inspo station to set us apart from
> the satellite stations in our market.
>
BE local. Sounds simplistic? Talk about what's going on in your market and your state. The satellite folks can't do that.

 

[gregdymon]

> I am looking for ideas on how to emphasize the "local"
> aspect of our Christian Inspo station to set us apart from
> the satellite stations in our market.
>
All the previously mentioned ideas are great. I'd like to also mention your weather forecasts... make sure you mention communities/cities, or even (since you're a Christian radio station) church names (The WXXX official weather forecast for city A, City b and Crosspoint Community Church in City C calls for sunny skies and a hi near 93 today ....)

You could also make sure your announcers know how to use the phones and that you have adequate recording/editing facilities in studio for them to record phone bits (some to be used on air in the show, others to be used in recorded promos). As mentioned above... your announcers should ALWAYS ask where your listeners are calling from. Back when I was working nights at a Top 40 station (in the 80s), no matter who called, I had the basic 5 questions going for every call, and EVERY call was recorded, because I never knew what I might get that I could use that night or some other night. (Back then it was on 10" reel at 15 ips and I had a box of splice tabs at the ready ALL THE TIME!) Digital editing is REALLY nice for on air editing, and its not all that expensive (Check out AUDACITY - its an open source - FREE - piece of software, and you can get it to run on cheap used laptops even!)

Get your announcers into finding out everything they can about their listeners who call in.... it gives you a ton of information about the active listeners of your station.... it will help you with demographic/psychographic information about your actual listening audience, and it could provide some interesting and often humorous phone segments to run between some of your songs.

 

[nuzguy]

Satellite programming originates from 23,000 or so miles in spce. The background for your progtamming comes from much higher up than that.

 

[WyllyWylly]

Something that might help, and draw folks out - with Mother's Day around the corner, invite listeners out to record dedications to air prior to and on the day itself (Sunday, May 14)? You can expand this idea in several ways, use Father's Day for the same thing, Veteran's Day, etc... and give the listener something to walk away with for coming out. Go where you've got built-in traffic: a local grocery store, Wal-Mart, whatever, so that people don't have to make a special trip.Promote the hell out of it on-air beforehand to get people there, and you've got a nice local, personal touch that sat can't... ahem... touch. You've built station awareness and hopefully garnered some listeners in the process.

 

[LR]

Get out in the community! Shake hands and kiss babies! Go to the church events and family fairs, put up an EZ-Up and pass out bumper stickers. Let people know you're there. The satellite guys can't do that.

 

[gregdymon]

Interview various listeners who reflect your stations core audience and ask them some basic "lifestyle" questions:State your name and where you're fromDescribe your familyWhat do you do for a livingWhere do you workWhat do you/does your family do in your leisure timeWhat do you like about living in your hometownWhat do you like about our radio stationWhat about our station makes it your hometown stationAnd then get them to say a standardized identifier/closer for the station to use at the end of the promoTake the quotes and edit them into a :30 or :60 promo and you've got a stack of stuff you can use throughout the year (rotate them in and out, and add more to them as the days go by).You'll want to record them as close to studio quality as possible, but with natural sound in the background enough to establish that it was more man on the street interview than it was bring em in the studio and read a script type of thing.You'll also want to avoid using the phone lines if at all possible, because then it starts soundling like one of those syndicated promo packages you buy from some production/promotions consultant.Finally, you'll want to get them to say your call letters and positioning statements in as many different inflections as possible. You'll use them to replace when they say "your station" or "my station" in the interviews, and you'll want to use them in liners and other promo pieces later on.Hope this helps.