Top 10 Fall Book Checklist

Fall ratings success are crucial to all stations, regardless of format or market size.

1. In 30 minutes, listeners ought to know the contest and how to play it, the morning show and what’s funny about it, and what kind of music the station plays.

2. Be sure all marketing strategies contribute to the brand.  Are there too many messages on the station and in the morning show?  A good rule of thumb:  one station message, one morning show message, and one contest/promotion message.

3.  Go through Selector/MusicMaster – review clocks, rotations, coding — to make sure the balance is right. Review morning show clocks and logs to ensure that the tempo matches the show and that there is maximum variety (e.g. the powers aren’t falling at the same time every day).

4.  TSL is largely about increasing the number of tune-ins, especially in PPM markets.

• Tag all fixed time features at the end and in promos with the run times (e.g. “Hollywood 360, every morning at 6, 7 and 8.”).

• Devise contests and promotions around appointment times.

• Use liners and/or mini-promos to tease your most important features from each daypart throughout the day. Some segments, like an entertainment report or music news for example, might be replayed in afternoon drive for example.

• Hook listeners immediately at the beginning of all talk segments and at the end to move them through every quarter-hour.

• Come up with serial content and story lines on your morning show.  (For example, “Listen tomorrow at this time…8:10…to find out if Kid got arrested!”).

5. Review imaging.

• Do you have listener testimonials about specific things they like about the station or on the morning show, such as “I never miss War of the Roses!”?

• Freshen listener testimonials every 30 days.

• For morning shows, keep character imaging updated.  Remember to use both funny material and material that highlights your character’s endearing qualities and vulnerabilities, when possible.

6. As we mentioned this last week, review every feature, benchmark, specialty show, etc. and ask yourself if it is  A) still great as is;  B) still viable but could use some freshening;  or C) no longer viable, in which case, replace with a new idea. 

7. Know your competition.  Review their playlists, rotations and music logs.  Have all morning show players listen to at least two hours from each of their biggest competitors.  Ask the sales department if they have heard any rumors about competitive promotions or campaigns.

8. Be sure your website is a strong extension of your audio brand.  Are the artist images up to date?  Is your morning show page updated daily?

9. Is your audio signal the best it can be?   Does all the equipment work?  Are the microphones optimal for each morning show player (sometimes the processing needs to be adjusted for female voices, for instance)?

10. Plan killer content for the morning show.  Always be asking, “What’s the payoff?” and “How can we make this bigger?”