DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

As someone who needs eight hours’ sleep yet rarely gets it while engaged in seminar travels, I’ve longed marveled at the power of the world’s greatest drug:

Adrenaline.

Recently I had an interesting conversation with a famous morning radio jock. He commented, “It’s funny. No matter how tired I am, as soon as I open the mic I’m filled with energy.”

That conversation confirmed what I’ve long believed:

If you’re doing a personality-oriented radio show and the adrenaline doesn’t kick in, as a performer you’re not meant to be there.

Corollary:

If you’re doing a personality-intensive show and you’re not physically exhausted at the end of your shift, you’re doing something wrong.

Why? Because when the show is over, the adrenaline supply suddenly is cut off — and your body suddenly should “crash.”

That, of course, is why subjecting a high-intensity morning show to an immediate post-program meeting is a mistake.

The jocks need time to “come down” and then bounce back up again.

A Loyal Reader Writes:

“I’m GM of a small market radio station that’s got a major market sound. Listener attendance runs hot and cold to live, sponsored remote broadcasts.

“Today we did a remote at a car lot, and the turnout was horrible.

“I always do my best to manage my client’s expectations. The car dealer wants us to be selling their cars on the radio, and it’s frustrating because I believe that is a tune-out.

“GREAT RADIO needs to be at a remote; great radio is what will bring them in. I’m not a car salesman, and trying to be one on the radio isn’t going to bring people down to stop and look, let alone to buy.

“Any ideas on how to educate our radio advertising clients about an effective remote?”

 1.  If the turnout was horrible, that suggests to me that the radio commercials didn’t give targeted consumers a good enough reason to come.

2. In the case of a remote broadcast, radio’s job is to deliver qualified prospects. It’s to motivate qualified prospects to show up. It’s definitely not to sell cars.

Your job is to deliver qualified leads; it’s the car dealer’s job to convert the leads into sales.

3.  “Great radio” and “remote broadcast” rarely occur at the same place & time.

4.  Why are you doing a remote there in the first place? I’m guessing because the client asked for one.

If so, why did the client ask for one? Why is “having a remote” important to the client?

An important part of your job is helping the client focus on his true goals — on what he really wants to accomplish.

5.  I suggest you help the dealer develop new promotions that don’t necessarily require a live station presence.

This is the fifth of a 6-part series of Secrets of Radio Advertising.

The only reason ever to include the radio advertiser’s phone number in a commercial is if the Call to Action — the way to act on the sales message — is to call the advertiser.
    
For most local retail merchants, giving their phone number is a complete waste of time.

Giving their phone number five times is five times the complete waste of time.
    
Maybe that’s not what you were told when you started writing copy.

Probably you were told something like, “Mention the name client’s name at least five times and the phone number at least four times.”
    
Wrong.

If you’re advertising a restaurant, nobody cares what the phone number is.

Nobody calls a restaurant until — maybe — the day they want to go there.

And then they might go online, find the phone number, and call to ask, “Do you take reservations? What time do you open? Where do I park?”

Or, more likely, they Google the restaurant and get all that information from its website.

Claude & Barbara Hall’s THIS BUSINESS OF RADIO PROGRAMMING is the best book ever written for radio programmers.

If you’re a radio guy or gal and someone is asking what you’d like as a holiday gift, you might send them here to order the book for you at a 70% discount.

Just a suggestion.

(Oh, yeah — The huge discount offer is this week only. So if this sounds at all interesting, probably you should check it out now.