Pronouns, the Enemy of Cume!

August 10, 2011

PPM has changed our awareness of listening patterns.  Where the diary has/had a natural bias to the top of the hour, PPM doesn’t. PPM data clearly shows that listeners tune in and out every second of every hour of the day. To communicate better with listeners that may be tuning in during the middle of a story, learn to talk on the radio with fewer pronouns using proper nouns instead.

Here are some examples of pronouns that can be reduced or eliminated from the radio vocabulary to get better communication with your show’s cume audience.

Pronoun Examples:

• His

• Her
• Our(s)
• We
• Us
• Their(s)

Entertainment Reports

Show hosts will more effectively communicate to the
casual cume listener by repeating the names of the celebrities throughout the story.

Instead of:

“Brad Pitt was caught in a heated discussion with his wife over the weekend.
They were busy arguing over how many children they could afford to have and how crazy their house was getting with what may soon top 10 children. He was quoted as saying…”

The cume listener will more easily follow this conversation about the same
subject with fewer pronouns:

“Brad Pitt was caught in a heated discussion with his wife Angelina Jolie over the weekend. They were busy arguing over how many children Brad thought they could afford to have and how crazy the Brangelina house was getting with what may soon top 10 children. Brad was quoted as saying…”

Station/Show Branding

Using fewer pronouns can also get more station/show identification and branding.  To better brand your radio station, reduce the number of times you refer to your radio station with a pronoun.  Many pronouns, ours, we, etc. can be replaced with your station name and dial position.  The more the station/show name can be mentioned (naturally), the better for call letter retention by diary-keepers and potential word of mouth fans.

Instead of:

“We have a chance for you to win with Stop the Clock coming up in just a
few minutes; you tell us when to stop the clock and we will pay you lots of
money”

Try:

“Z100 has a chance for you to win with Z100’s Stop
the Clock. Coming up in just a few minutes, you tell us when to stop the
clock and you’ll win lots of money from Z100.”

Weaving the name of the radio station/show/hosts into the conversation naturally is an art you will become expert at with practice.  Initially it can feel awkward, but the payoff in increased station recognition, listener impressions, and diary credit is worth the effort.

Ask any of your best sales people and they will tell you repetition sells. Repeat show/station names and dial positions to penetrate the listener’s mind.

In both diary and PPM worlds, using fewer pronouns will make you a more
effective communicator.