Fire Yourself and Start Over
I happened to be at a client’s station the other day when a listener came in to pick up a prize they had won. One of the station’s staff asked if the winner wanted a tour of the station.
I couldn’t believe the response. You would think they were just offered an all expense paid tour of Europe! “Really?!” she said excitedly, “I’ve never been in a radio station before!”
At that moment I quietly admitted to myself that I had become so close to the forest that I wasn’t in awe of the trees anymore.
Do you remember how you felt when you scored your first radio job? Your friends couldn’t believe you were in ‘show biz’. You were in the mass electronic communications business, playing music, getting back stage passes, hearing the news before anyone else and it was FUN!
And what about the first broadcast order you filled out? Was it more exciting than the daily paper you push today?
Maybe it’s time to fire yourself and start your career again with that same enthusiasm.
Sure you’ve got budget pressures (you used to call them “challenges”) and your clients are cutting back or demanding competitive proposals and costs. But there’s a lot of sizzle to the sell of radio that many of us have forgotten.
Are you using the emotional power of music or the compelling sound of the human voice in spec spots to put the excitement and sizzle into your presentations?
Have you offered the services of your personalities to M.C. events at your client’s club? Is your station aloof or do you offer your audience station tours like the station I was at?
Do you offer your clients opportunities to sponsor exciting on-air contests?
While you might think all of the buzz today is around new media, there’s still a lot to be said for local people being able to call their favorite station and talk to a real live person.
Your music inspires them and your information, contests and humor still evoke conversations around the water cooler. Radio advertising is just as effective today as the day you started in the biz. The only difference is, you now have more competitors vying for your sponsors’ attention. To win, your presentations need to be more professional and more exciting.
Your clients have a lot of media choices today. And you have to deliver the competitivelypriced steak they want, to get the sale. But if you’ll fire yourself and start your ‘new’ career with the enthusiasm you had at your first job, the sizzle you add to your steak will be the tiebreaker to help clients choose you over a competitor.
P.S. While you’re having fun again, I’m betting you’ll also make more calls!!