A Loyal Reader Writes:
“I am a morning drive announcer with an adult contemporary station that serves three different cities. My manager wants me to be more ‘local’ in my on-air chat.
“How can I do this without alienating the other cities? Or should I keep on doing what I am now, which is sharing stories and information that can be of interest to all three communities?”
Both you and your manager need to redefine your understanding of “local.”
“Local” does not mean it happened within your geographic community.
“Local” = anything that is of interest to your listeners…regardless of where the event occurs.
And the more skilled you are as a personality, the more able you are to make practically any topic “local.”
Comments on this entry are closed.
Gee Dan , i hear what your saying , but try not name dropping a local event etc in a live shift , then its goodbye “live “shift…lets automate from wherever
on our station “Local” does mean it happened within your geographic community.
Locally aware i’m more for. more local content depends on the format and what the demo is perceived to be interested in, vs what is available in the market to talk about. You don’t want to start a call in swap and shop on a alternative rock station……but there are still some block formated small town independently owned stations that do it, at least in my province, but don’t play alt rock. 🙂
Most commerical radio stations really don’t have a grasp of what really is local. That’s why LPFM’s are popping up. They’re far more focused on what is happening in the local community then corporate commerical radio will never grasp. I’m not sure one can change it. You can come close as dan suggests, but that’s not really local for reasons already mentioned….doing 3 jobs at once.
So what do you get? usually a combination of regional, local, national and international bits and stories that should be revelant to your audience. I think that’s far more important then just saying “more local” I think that manager really doesn’t necessarily know what he wants. Unless he/she can specifically elaborate and direct to you exactly what they mean. To me, that’s such an off the cuff remark, it’s almost not worth commenting on.
\Local\ means scouring your local newspapers (be they daily or alternative weeklies) and looking for area festivals or events that would be of substantial enough interest to your own station’s listeners that a mention is worth dropping over a record intro. And, if it gets headlines in the paper or stories on TV, it’s worth talking about.
It means, even if you’re voice tracking, to relate to what the weather’s like that day, particularly if there’s been a substantial event or change in it. Say, the first \significant\ snow, or even the first widely seen \snowflake\ may be grist for an intro.
Imagine your station’s typical \listener\…what are they doing when you’re on the air…or tracked? This can change with the airshift. Make note of area businesses you catch listening to your station when you’re in there…say hi…and thank them for listening.
Big news event locally that affects your listeners? Talk about it.
And every bit of this can be done whether you’re on live, or tracked.
It just takes prep. The best in the biz do their prep 24/7/365. You just got to stay aware and make mental, or physical notes of things and bring them back to the studio with you.
This is what used to be done on live shows. It can be done tracked as well.
The late Dan Kieley once told me cementing the image of being ‘local’ in your listeners’ minds is as easy as dropping a quick street or business reference into whatever bit you’re doing. If it’s a story of a beer truck that overturned somewhere out of your market, a quick comment like, “Can you imagine if that happened here on Your Local Street?” can make it real in your listeners’ minds– they envision the local street you just mentioned, even though the story itself might have been ‘national’.