Finding the right radio station to work with you — and support your show — can mean the difference between success and simply writing a check for an undesirable time slot every month. “You have to shop around,” says Jim Neidner, former host of “Homeline Talk Radio,” which aired on Houston’s KPRC-AM (950), who notes that his show generated a profit through the sale of advertising to sponsors. “Go and talk to different radio stations,” he says. “Find out who’ll work with you, and who will give you an opportunity to buy time.”
That opportunity is crucial, because other businesses in your area are hitting those stations up for that time as well. “Your competition is the local mortgage company, the vitamin salesman, and anyone else in your neck of the woods who is willing to write a check for airtime,” says James Carey, co-host of “On the House With the Carey Brothers,” which has been on the air for 20 years and is carried by more than 300 stations nationally.
Birner’s opportunity resulted from having an “in” with the local station managers he’d been buying advertising from for several years. “I was already [writing] a check to these guys every month, so they were a bit more receptive to my ideas,” Birner says.
Good point. Just because you can buy airtime from a radio station doesn’t mean it has to sell you that airtime. Program managers have the final say — and they’re not in the business of boring their listeners.
“Don’t lose sight of the fact that this is entertainment,” says Tom Kraeutler, co-host, with Leslie Segrete, of “The Money Pit,” a nationally syndicated show that airs on more than 200 stations. “A radio station’s job is to provide quality entertainment to its audience. It has to be entertaining, engaging, and enjoyable.”
Merv Hollander, president of Youngstown, Ohio-based Weathertite Windows, has developed exactly that type of style on seven different radio stations in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Paying for various “spots” during the morning drive, Hollander calls as “Uncle Merv” to banter with the a.m. deejay, always reminding listeners that “it’s a wonderful Weathertite Windows day.” The gregarious company owner comes across as a cut-up, intent on getting a chuckle. Recalling one show, he says, “I talked about what I was going to be dressed as for Halloween.” He was costumed as a double-hung window.
Hollander also uses his salesforce, and his wife — known as “Mrs. Merv” to listeners — in his skits to connect with his audience. “That type of thing tends to bring out the warm and fuzzy in people. It shows them there’s a real human being on the other end of the phone.” It also shows up on the bottom line at the $8 million business. Hollander reports that his closing rate for radio leads is more than 70%. With an average radio lead cost of $120, the average sale from those leads is more than $4,000, an excellent return on investment.
Whether it’s Birner’s consumer education angle, or Hollander’s disarming humor, radio experts say you need to have a well-focused idea and format and an engaging delivery to stand out. “Anybody can tell you how to fix a door,” Carey says. “But it’s how you say it and how you endear yourself to your listeners that compels them to continue to listen and come back every week.”
With the availability of the Internet and podcasts today, you can develop your on-air personality before you even get to the station. Kunkel recommends practicing at a site such as BlogTalkRadio.com, where you can host your own show for free, while responding to live call-ins from the site’s audience. Working in partnership with the site, you can even get a percentage of any advertising revenue your show generates. “You can cut your teeth and develop your personality there, while getting your style down,” Kunkel says. “Then, you can go to a producer at a local station and say, ‘I’m an experienced talk-show host.’”
GO-TO GUYS Of course, you don’t have to launch your own radio program to become a recognized, regular radio personality in your local market. There are other strategies as well. Kraeutler, of “The Money Pit,” suggests contractors position themselves as experts in their respective fields to become the “go-to” guys and gals of home improvement programs already on the air. “You’re better off being a guest on my radio show,” Kraeutler says, “because I, as a national host, am holding you up and endorsing you as the expert.” Kraeutler says you can get into that position with a well-executed public relations campaign that targets local media in general — radio, TV, and print — and then being responsive when local reporters call you for an interview or quote. In fact, that’s exactly how Kraeutler got his start in radio. Working as a home inspector in New Jersey, he hired a local public relations firm for $500 per month to establish himself as a reliable source for media outlets when it came to home improvement topics.