Discover where your listeners spend their time on the Web AND off

• Conduct research
• Listen in on social media site conversations relevant to your station
• Ask your listeners to participate in surveys via Website, phone, email and at events
• Pay attention to all of your listener feedback channels

Add appropriate social media buttons for sharing your Websites, content, apps and eNewsletters

• We know social media is popular and already exists in many places on line, but stations should leverage what’s out there and add social media icons to station sites, tools and communications to help spread the word virally and help you appear more progressive
• Add forward to a friend buttons too

Start an eNewsletter if you don’t have one and if you do

• Add an online survey—I’ve learned that listeners LOVE to give you their feedback.  99X in Atlanta once had a response rate of 60% to their email survey and that’s without attaching an incentive!
• Add links and value to give the listener something in exchange for their time and valuable sharing of their information
• Look for trends in deliverability, open, click-through and other rates of activity
• Always respond to communications from listeners, let them know you are listening to them!  AT minimum, program an auto-responder so listeners know their information is going where it is supposed to go.
• Make listener email registration consistent and use primary real estate on your home page to encourage data sharing

Add online surveys and instant polls to your Websites

A survey or poll can add engagement by asking questions and allowing listeners to answer, see results, etc. Be careful not to interpret this listener feedback as official research.  These tools are more for engagement and limited feedback.

Conduct Website usability sessions, on the cheap

We tend to program what we as a station think we should put up on a site or in our communications.  One of the best ways to gain listener perspective is to conduct informal usability sessions.  Call up some friends or acquaintances and ask them to visit your office and review your site and comment (with you looking over a shoulder).  Ask them to talk through everything they are thinking as they navigate your site.  Take notes and you may learn something new about how your site is perceived by someone outside your station.

Add an “Ask the DJ / personality” feature

• Where listeners are clicking on your site,
• Where listeners come from,
• How long are they on your site or time spent on pages or apps (are they having difficulties finding what they are looking for?  Or interested and engaged in an article or activity?)
• Are listeners reading or using your content and tools?

Add RSS feeds

Add RSS feeds to your most valuable and most often updated content. This will maximize your content and automates your continued reaching out to listeners.  Don’t forget to track which content is most popular via RSS feed.

Start a blog on your website

Blogs are a great way to see who is engaged in a topic or blogger and allows for listener generated content.  Even if a blog receives few or no comments, that doesn’t mean you haven’t added value to your site by adding a blog.  Just by allowing and asking for listener feedback, even if listeners don’t take you up on it, still makes a listener feel more empowered and creates a positive reflection of your station.

Include privacy policy

Always place a privacy policy link next to any form where you collect listener data.  Explain briefly how you will not share the listeners’ personal information with anyone without consent.

Maximize analytical tools

Don’t forget to set goals for success and determine how you will track and use this listener information to build listener engagement and loyalty.  Make sure you track

• Where listeners are clicking on your site,
• Where listeners come from,
• How long are they on your site or time spent on pages or apps (are they having difficulties finding what they are looking for?  Or interested and engaged in an article or activity?)
• Are listeners reading or using your content and tools?
• Which listeners are most active on your site and may you harness participants and encourage viral sharing and content contribution?

Some of the tactics above in and of themselves promote listener engagement and loyalty.  Just by asking a listener what they think and responding to them, help create a better relationship, even if you are not using the information as formal research.

If you don’t listen to your listeners, someone else will!

Lori Dillé is a Managing Partner of Weather Shore, LLC and a member of The Radio Workout Team

Talent is just as important as ever under the New Radio Model. Strong talent gives a face and voice to your station’s brand. Despite the advent of all the new high tech toys and entertainment devices, radio stations with strong personalities generally still outperform those stations that do without or employ marginal personalities. Radio under the new model, as well as the old, is still personal and one-to-one. There are just more opportunities and methods for consumers under the new model to interact with a station today than in past years. From Facebook and Twitter to podcasting and mobile video, talent providing creativity in entertainment is essential in creating compelling content that will translate into new revenue dollars.

Here are five steps to consider when evaluating the roles of talent under the new radio model:

1. Be local in content but be willing to search to the ends of the earth for top talent. The realities of today’s economy make it more difficult to hire out of market talent than in past years. It may take more dollars to lure top talent, so budget accordingly and remember talent is an investment in your brand.

2. Look for versatility. Under the New Radio Model, everyone involved in operations will be called on to provide more than ever before. Today’s talent needs to do more than pull an airshift and cut a few spots. Video skills, advanced computer ability and web savvy experience can prove invaluable to the overall success of an operation.

3. Look to additionally compensate top talent based on station revenue goals. Make sure everyone is on the same page and understands what is really important. Bonuses and incentives that are revenue based, as well as ratings based, helps to ensure that everyone is shooting at the same target. In smaller markets, some talent are now doubling as sales people and doing well in that dual role.

4. Don’t underestimate experience. It may be cheaper to hire less experienced talent, but keep in mind that with talent, like most everything else in life, you generally get what you pay for.

5. Be willing to provide direction. Talent isn’t an appliance that you can plug in and then walk away. Constant feedback, priority setting, and evaluation are all keys to ensuring your talent is successful. Teach and preach your station’s mission and your talent will thrive!

There was a top selling business book from earlier this decade entitled “Built to Last.” Top talent can play a contributing role to ensuring that your New Radio Model station does the same. There is an old theory in management that says, “Surround yourself with talented people and you will be successful.” Will top talent guarantee success? No, but it will certainly improve the odds!

John Stevens is President/COO Paragon Media Strategies and a member of The Radio Workout Team.

Why is this? Are salespeople inherently unmotivated to make face-to-face calls with legitimate prospects? Some of you might think so based on the new-business call quotas I have heard of in the field. We have found that talented salespeople, properly trained, do NOT avoid face-to-face calls with prospects. Rather, they are prevented from making a sufficient number of new business calls by the structure in which they operate.

Who in your organization writes ad copy for clients? Who helps salespeople prepare marketing materials for prospects? Who in your sales operation is responsible for helping salespeople work through the details of order entry, continuity tracking, and spot-time communication? Is there someone in your department who is highly competent in helping salespeople develop compelling ideas and proposals that offer powerful solutions to clients’ needs?

If your response to these questions is “Absolutely, we have support people in each of these areas that free sellers up to do what they really like to do—sell”, then I say congratulations. You are a rarity and your business is probably doing very well this year. But, chances are the resources to support your salespeople and free them up to get in front of new prospects, uncover needs, and propose solutions have gradually been eliminated in this expense-cutting environment. So, you have discovered the culprit—in the mirror.

You are no doubt thinking I don’t understand how tough things are and why you had to cut resources over the year. But, alas, I do understand. I also see and understand the impact of those cuts. The work those support people had been doing is still getting done, but now it’s getting done be your salespeople, and every hour they spend on support functions is an hour less spent selling. What you’ve actually done is cut your sales strength, not your support services.

There is a solution that does not involve calling all those laid-off people back. Perhaps you should be thinking about taking your total cost of sales compensation and re-allocating it. Think about this. If you had a sales staff of ten people, each making two face-to-face new business calls each week, your practical inventory of new business calls would be 20. If instead you had even six people making six legitimate face-to-face new business calls a week, your practical inventory of new business calls would increase to 36—an increase of 45%. (Keep in mind; I am talking about real new business activity, not hawking one-time packages.) The other four people could be support staff and marketing specialists who would make your people look good and are more effective.

With radio revenue knocked back t
o mid 1990s levels and newspaper expenditures thrown back to the 1960s, it’s ludicrous to think we are in the same business we were in during the 20th century. It’s a new world that requires new thinking.

You probably still need 10 people in the sales department, but not all of them need be salespeople. What most stations are doing today makes salespeople overpaid administrative assistants, lackluster copywriters, and a source of forgettable ideas. On paper, it looks like you’re saving money. On the street, it makes you weak, with fewer than ever new-business calls. Based on our own experience with stations that have done this, we know for a fact that there are new ways for radio stations to structure their sales departments, and to get more done without adding headcount.

Jim Hopes is the CEO of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc, and a Member of The Radio Workout Team.

As if the magic voodoo that goes into the final stage of a recording – the mixdown – can cure any ills.

To a certain extent, it’s true — a great mix can make all the difference.

And now the mix is more important than ever. With media convergence upon us, we’re producing audio for every manner of delivery.

Today, a radio promo/spot/sweeper/etc. is heard on living room stereos, car speakers, computer monitors, smart phones, clock radios, ear buds, headphones, etc. Ever seen two friends sharing the ear buds of an iPod? That drives any notion of cool stereo mixes right out of your head.

So make sure your producer has the right tools. It doesn’t mean getting him an expensive 5.1 surround sound system. Rather, it means getting your producer a system that includes some really crappy speakers.

Every good producer should be listening back to his final product on cheap speakers, headphones, ear buds and on the computer.

Years ago, Auratone (or as they were lovingly called, “Awfultone”) speakers were a must. These days, Avantone makes a similar model.

For your message to be heard; it has to be heard. So make sure it gets fixed in the mix.

Ben Manilla is President of Ben Manilla Productions and a member of The Radio Workout Team

That seems to be changing now, as radio receivers are starting to appear in greater numbers on personal digital devices. While this may seem something of a retro move, it makes sense because radio has long been first and foremost a portable medium. The baseline infrastructure built into devices people carry with them today allows an FM radio receiver to be added with negligible burden to a device’s cost, size or battery life, but it can provide considerable new, desirable functionality. Considering recent handheld product introductions with radio tuners from Apple, Microsoft and others, plus the ongoing movement to add FM receivers to cell phones, we may see an explosion of such “converged radio devices” in the next few years.

Beyond the simple extension of radio listening to these products’ users, the real benefit may come from new, convergent applications that arise. Think about how a handheld device that simultaneously offers both broadcast radio reception and wireless Internet access could be used. The addition of synchronized visual “enhancements” from a station’s website to its regular audio broadcast content will increase the appeal of a station’s programming to listeners and to advertisers. In such an application, audio still arrives at a handheld’s headphone jack via the very efficient and robust FM broadcast channel, while a relatively small amount of additional enhancement data (such as album cover art, advertiser logos and location info, playlists and program guides, sports scores and weather graphics, etc.) flows via WiFi or 3G links to the device’s display screen.

Unlike Internet radio, occasional loss of Internet connectivity for such enhancement services is not a big problem, since audio continues uninterrupted as long as the FM signal is receivable. Screen refreshes are only occasional, and can be restored when connectivity returns – perhaps without the user even knowing there was an interruption. Moreover, the displayed data can be customized or filtered to the personal preferences of the user, adding value that the user attributes to the station currently tuned.

This could become the true nature of “digital radio” in the New Radio Model. (Importantly, this scenario applies equally to either analog or HD Radio receivers with Internet capability). Anticipating this, a group of U.K. based broadcasters has developed a mechanism called RadioDNS that provides an easy way for a converged radio to automatically bring up a station’s website as soon as a station is tuned on the device’s radio. The first radios to implement this functionality, and the first stations to serve content with this process in mind, are already in place in the U.K. For more on an exciting development that may significantly affect the radio industry’s future, see http://radiodns.org and http://www.rwonline.com/article/87102.

Skip Pizzi
Media Technology Consultant
Contributing Editor, Radio World
Co-Author, Audio Over IP: Building Pro AoIP Systems with Livewire
Member, The Radio Workout Team
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If someone has set the autopilot on your airplane this might not be the read for you.

On the other hand if you can still do a little open cockpit flying now is the time.

Radio missed a lot of opportunities to try new things, take chances and make mistakes when times were better. It was easier to recover from a stumble. Now with everyone’s laser focus on the bottom line it seems like there are no opportunities to try something new, but the opportunities are out there and it’s time to TRY SOMETHING.

There are always new technologies and tech companies who are looking to bring their new ideas to market and radio still has a cache that can be attractive to these companies. New Tech loves radio because it is LOCAL and its closer to its core customers. Radio has a scale that a new tech company can manage and learn from.

Where do you find the opportunity? They are out there but you have to dig. Expand your reading material. Look for blogs and newsletters that regularly report on tech trends. You won’t find new ideas in the same old reads.

What are other industries talking about and trying? Can they be applied to radio?

You don’t have to be in a Top 10 market to get someone’s attention. Send a few emails and make a few phone calls. Offer to help new tech adapt their technology to radio in a way that rewards both of you with knowledge and new opportunity.

It may not work the first time, but you will learn and you will find new ideas along they way.

One thing is for sure, if you don’t do anything NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.

Dan Halyburton is the President of RadioTime and a member of The Radio Workout Team.

• Why doesn’t radio focus more on local issues and local music tastes?
• Why doesn’t radio sell more multiplatform advertising packages?
• Why doesn’t radio make money off of local events/promotions?
• Why don’t radio stations create social networks?

I’ve come to realize that almost all questions bugging radio today come back to the same answer: Radio stations are using antiquated budget templates that simply do not allow them to change.

Just moving money from one line item to the next is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. If a New Radio Model is truly the goal, then radio stations need to rip up their old budgets and start over with new ones.

Before you start the 2010 budget process, it is absolutely critical that you create a brand new budget template. I have done this myself lately for radio stations, and the result is staggering. It’s amazing to discover the budgetary line items that radio in 2010 doesn’t need anymore, and even more empowering to add new line items that radio absolutely requires, but never existed before.

What’s more, most radio budgets don’t need more funding, they simply need different line items to fund. In doing so, you will not only find many new ways to grow your station and profitability with a Hyper-Local and Multiplatform new business model, you will also learn that your station can afford external marketing and audience research that is required to push forward against massive competition.

This is not a drill. This is not a test. This is the real deal. Burn your old budget and start over with a new one.

Mike Henry is the CEO, Paragon Media Strategies and a member of The Radio Workout Team.

In both diaries and PPM, Core, or P1, listeners tune in about 1.5 times more per week (150%) than Fringe listeners. By comparison, the time spent listening per tune-in for Core listener is 30% greater. This might be an oversimplification, but getting someone to tune in is five times more important than keeping them from tuning out.

Knowing this informs content and promotion strategies. In the New Radio Model, the content that creates listening on the radio, whether spoken word or music, is the content that will create listening on other platforms. As online usage grows, the opposite will be true too. Content that generates lots of “occasions” on-line should help create on-air occasions.

It is imperative to look beyond Cumes, Shares and Ratings Points to succeed in the new model. It will be critical to measure and track listener behaviors in response to the broadcast content and the multiplatform content. Understanding what causes listening occasions and using that information to program and promote across platforms is the key to audience growth.

John Sutton is the President of John Sutton & Associates and a member of The Radio Workout Team.