Like that wardrobe full of clothes that you haven’t worn in years, radio stations tend to get cluttered with stuff that isn’t relevant to the listeners’ enjoyment of the station. That shirt that you bought on holiday in 2019 looked good then….but hey, it’s 2023 and you haven’t worn it since!

Every single element on your station should support the brand and contribute to the listeners’ enjoyment of the station. If it doesn’t support the brand and doesn’t contribute to the listeners’ enjoyment, then one could say it is harming the brand and potentially causing the listener to tune out.

Let’s start with imaging: Are the promos too long, are they too wordy, are they promoting off peak shows that don’t really matter to the majority of the audience? Are there simply too many promos? Look at the scheduling of promos. Are they coming around too often?

“It’s your ear more than your eye,” said CBS 60 Minutes creator, the late Don Hewitt. Broadcasters sometimes overlook the importance of audio. In television, what audiences hear is more important than what they see. Radio and podcast ...

You’re watching a close football game. It’s the beginning of the second half, and Team A with the lead comes out and exhibits a very conservative approach, doing what is tried and true, minimizing mistakes and avoiding any unnecessary risks. Meanwhile, the ...

Who talks first, second, third, etc.? There are no hard and fast rules for mic order on radio and podcast shows. There are highly successful shows with a fixed mic order and highly successful shows with a varied mic order. Fixed Mic Order Almost all shows with one ...

Everyone loves a comeback story. The Boston Red Sox in 2004 … Robert Downey Jr. … Steve Jobs. They all made comebacks and, ironically, became better versions of their previous selves. There is a very special recent comeback that caught my attention, and you ...

Last week’s blog on contesting drew a polarized response. We are not saying abandon contests; we advise radio stations to avoid designated caller and text contests that only engage the small percentage of listeners trying to win. Instead, focus on ...

A few weeks back, I read a story about artificial intelligence and its effect on the “deepfake” videos, where you see actual individuals you know say and do things, but it’s not really them. It’s what happens when one uses a form of A.I. The gist ...

Radio programmers have long believed contests persuade people to listen and listen longer. We are the only major medium still running them to encourage listening and to create awareness. The annual Jacobs Media Techsurvey reveals that most people are motivated to ...

At a recent lunch with a Nashville label exec, we got into a discussion -- as those in our business usually do -- about the state of music as it relates to Country radio. The conversation worked its way into the radio station music selection process, and what labels are ...

We all spend many evenings watching top-rated shows like The Last of Us, You, or Young Sheldon…or do we? The truth is most of us have not seen those shows. We assume that almost everyone has seen the top-rated shows we and our friends watch. Let’s look at ...