It’s easy to lose sight – if you program a station (s) – that creating powerful radio is an art form. 

Here are:     
 

 

1.   Content is, and always will be, king. 

You’ll never go wrong keeping to the Powerful Radio Principles: 

• Tell the truth, Make it Matter and Never Be Boring.  

To that end: Develop Talent – Hire original fun, smart people with humor. Find Storytellers who listen. Work with them. Create a Farm Team “Radio’s R&D”  Even if that means  giving people podcasts under the station imprint, find and develop talent. And hire a digital specialist. Become platform agnostic. Build your people, build your brand – and be anywhere and everywhere your audience can find you and listen. Aircheck, encourage self checking if you don’t have the time to aircheck them yourself. 

2. Take Chances –  Lead, don’t follow.  Learn the lesson from Adele –  just make your art. Stick to your vision. If you get held back by fear, other people’s vision –  worry about costs, get stuck in trends, or slam down ideas with: “that won’t work”  or “we don’t do that here…”   you lower your shot at winning –  Encourage ideas. Try them out. Stick with ideas (and people) long enough to give them a chance to catch on.  Radio is littered with great ideas and talent that never got a long enough “runway” to catch on.  Believe in your product.  

 

3. Remember Your Listeners.  It’s easy to get jaded, when caught up in day-to-day corporate minutia. Don’t. Radio has NOT lost its cachet for the general public. An example: The new Marvel Comics series, “Jessica Jones” on Netflix. A critical success, popular with the 18-34 demo, one of the show’s main supporting characters is a female radio host.  Sometimes it helps getting an outside reminder that the world sees radio as a very cool gig.

 

4. Listen. Focus on one thing at a time. Multi-tasking looks great on paper… but it’s highly overrated.  It’s so easy to get distracted, but if you give each task full attention, and if you pay attention, it’ll pay off. 

 

5. Be a man (or woman) of your word. “Do Unto Others” Good rule for managers. Good rule for life.

 

International broadcast consultant Valerie Geller coaches talent, working with stations (and now podcasters) throughout the world to grow audiences and to  become more powerful communicators and storytellers. She hopes to be back in OZ in August 2016. Her fourth book, Beyond Powerful Radio – A Communicator’s Guide to the Internet Age is in a ninth printing from Focal press, www.beyondpowerfulradio.com  and is now available in audiobook from iTunes & Audible.com http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Beyond-Powerful-Radio-Audiobook/B015WWLQAS/ref=a_search_c4_1_3_srTtl?qid=1447266945&sr=1-3

Beyond Powerful Radio will be available in a French translated edition in 2016.