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How to Ensure an Audience for Your Program

Sheila Gerzoff

1. Top-Notch Production Values:

Just because we all call it public radio, it isn't automatic access radio.

Today's marketplace is fiercely competitive. Station personnel have choices. The last figure I had on programs offered to the satellite, it was over 2000 hours weekly.

In the 15 years I have spent marketing programming, I have found that I also spend a fair amount of time critiquing production values. I am often truly moved by the high caliber of audio that we find in the non-commercial sector of broadcast. I have to say however, I am just as often surprised at the need for clean-up on productions which presume themselves ready for syndication.

Any production HAS TO be clean from top to bottom: top-notch radio-friendly, engaging voices; solid transitions, forward promotion, back promotion, appropriate and wonderful music, clean mikeing, etc. A show must also be produced with clear cognizance of a station's need to identify/brand itself, and be an important, highly visible player in its own community.

2. Knowledge:

In order to insure that your program "has an audience", you must first have knowledge. You need to know about the system in which you are operating--the stations, the staff 'gatekeepers', the listener demographic and psychographic profiles, your competitors, (remember those 2000 hours) your target audience(s).

Long before your show idea ever becomes a demo, you'll want to collect this knowledge to help you determine the marketability of your program and the roadblocks. Once your demo is a reality, your knowledge of the marketplace will then guide you in positioning any promotional strategies and materials.

3. A Branding Position:

What's your story? Is it as good as your show?

Israel Smith, marketing consultant and former Director of Cultural Programming for Public Radio International often says that stories about your show need to be as extraordinary as the show itself. He's right! Have a clear brand, editorial picture, a promotional story that sets your show apart from anything else out there.

4. Accomplishable Goals and A Clear Strategy:

Where will you go, when are you going and why? Ask yourself A LOT OF questions.

Yes, its true. Fundamentally, producers market programs because they want them heard. However, it isn't always that simple. Therefore, one of the first questions I ask any producer (besides whether they have a day job, ahem ƒ) is what they hope to accomplish by marketing their show. The answers do vary considerably and ultimately dictate the strategy for marketing.

Where you go can mean what part of the country or for that matter what media. In today's 'newmedia' market, niche programs can gain a lot of visibility on the internet for example. Is on-line presence part of your strategy? Should it be? Do you want to get clearance in certain markets because it will help your funding situation? Does your programming appeal more to stations in the Southeast, the Northwest for whatever reasons? Do you need to reach an audience in Buffalo, in Chicago? Are there strategic partners who should be involved with your program and who can help you attain visibility?

5. A Well-Focused and Doable Marketing Plan

Once you have goals and strategy, make a plan.

Develop a clear, written marketing plan with a month-by-month timeline and a line-item budget. I have had the opportunity to look at program grant proposals from time to time, and am sometimes surprised at the lack of detail in the marketing section of these proposals. Even granters understand a viable plan to get visibility for a show is essential to the success of that show. If the plan is not well-thought out and doable, the producer may loose important. Putting the plan in writing will help you flush out the missing links in your thinking. And, there are always more than a few.

6. The Resources to Carry It Out

Great, but who is going to do it all???

Under-resourced and under-funded is the name of the game. You need to determine that the goals you have set, the strategy you have used and the marketing plan you have developed match the recourses you have to do the job.

Sheila Gerzoff is an independent marketer for public radio programs.