Part 1 written by Terry Doyle visit www.radiosolution.co.uk
Have you ever considered why people listen to the radio generally and more importantly why? What is it about radio that makes it such an important part of every listeners life but at the same time it is not a very important part of their lives at all?
I believe radio is intrusive. The word intrusive sounds negative but in terms of radio it could not be more positive. The entire reason for the success of the radio industry from it humble beginnings to what it is today is the simple fact that radio is intrusive. This is the secret why radio stations can be a viable business and an important asset nationally and locally in the first place. Without its ability to be intrusive radio does not and will not work. Sadly, this fact is no longer understood, either forgotten or ignored by almost every programmer in this country today.
To understand why radio works is to recognise the intrusive nature of the medium. How many radios are there in a household generally? There is a radio in the kitchen, there is a radio in the bedroom, there is a radio in the sitting room, and there is a radio in the car. There is probably a radio in the bathroom too. Nowadays, you can listen on your PC and on your phone too. So every household has at least three or four places where the can pick up and listen to a radio station. There was a time and it probably remains the case still that the radio is outnumbered by just one other electrical item in the household…light bulbs.
The ability to listen to a radio station is everywhere and with the advent of other ways to listen too, radio has become even more intrusive into peoples lives. So if you try to answer the commonly asked question why do people listen to radio the first simple answer is that it is intrusive. It is easy to listen to the radio, its accessible everywhere and it’s free. People do not have to make any big decisions to listen to a radio. If you do not understand or choose to ignore this fact your station will never succeed. More importantly, if you do accept that radio is intrusive then you must include this immutable premise when you try to define why people should listen to your radio station as opposed to your competitors.
I believe that very few people in local radio today understand the nature of the medium or understand how it really works. They do not understand how intrusive it is which leads to the fact that so many radio stations struggle to achieve any success at all. Smaller radio stations place themselves in vulnerable positions simply because they ave no understanding of why or how people listen to radio generally. If you don’t know how people use radio generally, how can you implement the second stage of the process, which is getting people to listen…, to your station!
Let’s be positive and work through what would happen if a programmer of a station understood fully how intrusive radio is. That programmer would know that the majority of people in the area have listened to a radio station within the last seven days based on the fact that recent figures published (Rajar Q4, 09) says46 million adults are tuning into radio nationally each week. This fact has nothing to do with him. It is simply because radio is intrusive.The issue for the programmer is how does he get people to listen to his station as opposed to any other station broadcasting in his area?
fm radio stations in South-Carolina says: 
