Part 5. Written by Terry Doyle visit www.radiosolution.co.uk
I am certain that I will never be able to target a 25 year old and a 55 year old with the same brand (radio station product) and that is why it is ridiculous to say my station target audience is 25 to 55, you simply cannot do it and keep everybody happy all the time.
I would hold tight control of my programmes and presenters and protect my brand rigorously. If any presenter decided to work outside of the target audience on their own, they would have to deal with the consequences. The fact that on community radio they are volunteers does not matter. They must understand and keep to the format regardless. However if they understand and wish to build the brand with ideas and hard work on air that helps the station achieve its overall goals they would receive every encouragement and help to do so with access to ongoing training and development with a view to developing their overall career in radio.
While some stations consistently perform poorly. There are some very successful ones too. Stations of all sorts exist now that have to genuinely beat advertisers away with a stick. These are the very same community or local radio stations that have a cool, tight and attractive format that is rigorously controlled and implemented. The presenters sound intelligent, they clearly understand and know their audience and know how to keep them listening and listening for longer. It is no coincidence that the programmers in these stations do not take any nonsense on air from its presenters and that some investment, thought and planning has gone into deciding what these stations should sound like and getting presenters to implement that strategy.
Guess what… it works. There is clear brand identity and you can almost identify the audience the station is aimed at just by listening for a short time. I was offered a very good piece of programming advice from an eminent broadcaster in Ireland a few years ago. He said if he heard a station and could identify its name before he heard a station identification being played on air then it is also very likely that it was a clearly focussed station with a loyal audience. That is what you should be trying to achieve.
In conclusion, I urge you to recognise the innate intrusiveness of radio and what you can do to make your station successful by recognising this fact. We know people listen to radio. Your station success is based solely on your ability to get them to listen …to you.