It is long past time when a community or college radio DJ or programmer can simply show up to do their show and expect to have an audience. Everyone who has a radio show bears the responsibility to build an audience for that show, and their station.
Audience building is a challenge for every radio station today (terrestrial or online), not just community radio. That’s because there are so many other entertainment and information platforms competing for attention, and radio isn’t the default it used to be. Commercial and big public radio stations attack this problem, in part, by buying billboards, digital and television ads, and by choosing strict formats aimed at very specific demographics.
Most community and college stations can’t afford to buy all of these ads, and (understandably) don’t want to adopt strict formats. Moreover, these techniques may still not work well enough to be worth it.
Yet community and college stations have one major advantage: dozens of volunteer programmers. In a world where most individuals have personal networks of dozens to thousands of people – both online and IRL – this means your station has a far larger network of potential listeners than you might realize.
Network Effects Solve for Eclecticism
This idea became clear to me towards the end of this week’s episode of the Radio Survivor podcast and radio show. Matthew Lasar, Eric Klein and I were having a discussion about radio formats, which led to an assessment of the eclectic formats found on many community and college radio stations. As I’ve argued before, these formats can be challenging for listeners who are more accustomed to the commercial and public radio models, where each station primarily features just one kind of programming or music. In turn this can make it difficult for some stations to build and maintain an audience.
However, I think this challenge can be offset when DJs and programmers take more responsibility for publicity and audience building. This is because programmers should have expertise in what they present, which also means they should be connected to the communities that share the same interest, or know how to connect.
Many stations have staff or committees that do publicity. This may entail creating and distributing promotional materials like flyers and stickers, advertising in local publications, tabling community events, or booking station events like concerts or lectures.
All of these are form the vital foundation of a station-wide promotional strategy. But they are also very broad and unfocused. While you build awareness for the station, you still are probably not reaching all the people who might enjoy specific programs.
Of course, with an eclectic format that might feature dozens of musical genres of special interests, expecting a staff person or volunteer committee to target all these smaller constituencies is unrealistic. That’s why the responsibility falls squarely on each and every programmer.
Making the Connections
Say, for instance, you DJ a heavy metal show at 10 PM on Thursdays. On Wednesdays at that time your station has electronic music, and on Tuesdays there’s experimental and new music. How will a metal fan, who might be interested in hearing your show, know it’s there? Especially when they might tune in Tuesday and conclude that the station just plays strange classical music, never occurring to them that there’s something different every night of the week.
Well, there’s one sure-fire way for that listener to know: you tell them.
For that metal show, maybe there’s a record store or venue that features a lot of metal. Make a flyer specifically for your show (and other metal shows on your station if there’s more than one) and ask to hang it up there. Even better, talk to the staff and see if they’d be willing to hand them out.
Make friends with the local metal bands and invite them to have their music played on air, or come by for a live interview or performance. They’re likely really plugged into the local metal scene, so recruit them to be part of your street team, and reward their efforts. That’s community building 101.
The internet and social media make this easier than it ever was before. Create a social media presence for your show on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or Snapchat. You don’t have to do them all. Just pick one or two and keep up with it. Follow local groups, businesses or prominent people in your scene, and don’t be afraid to reach out if you do something of interest. The only cost is a little of your time.
Since not every interested listener is able to tune in when your show is on, find a way to archive episodes online for on-demand listening. Radio Free America offers this as a free service to college and community stations (hear more about it on episode #125 of our radio show). So it’s something that you should take advantage of if your station participates, or it’s something you should recommend to management if your station doesn’t.
Mixcloud is a free service where you can share both music and talk shows (learn more on episode #95). You just need to record your show and upload an MP3. Just make sure to put these links on all your social accounts and promo materials.
The same tactics go for any genre or special interest show.
Tell ‘Em the Old Timer Sent Ya
From the late 80s through the early 2000s one of the most popular shows on the station I volunteered at, WEFT Community Radio in Champaign, IL, was “The Old Timer’s Country Music Jamboree.” It was hosted every Saturday evening by a gregarious DJ channeling the charms of old fashioned local country stations.
While the show was indeed unique and very entertaining, there’s no doubt in my mind that much of its popularity was due to the Old Timer’s relentless promotion. I’m pretty sure he carried business cards or 8×10 headshot everywhere he went. If you met him, there was no way you’d walk away not knowing about his radio show, and taking a card with you.
In fact, I first learned about him when I visited the university before moving to town. I had a meeting with a professor who had the Old Timer’s headshot on his office door. The prof was from Italy and was charmed by the utter Americanness of this man and his show.
The Old Timer loved listener calls, and every week challenged his audience to tally up more calls than the week before, saying hello by name to very single one on-air. For a while he even ran his own taxi service, with the “Old Timer Taxi” emblazoned on his minivan, functioning as a roving billboard.
Over the course of nearly two decades, he became a local celebrity of sorts. If you weren’t lucky enough to meet the Old Timer personally, there’s a good chance that someone would tell you about him and his show. That was priceless publicity.
Though the Old Timer passed on about a decade ago, he lives on in my memory, and the memories of thousands of people who passed through this Central Illinois college town. Even though Facebook was created during his lifetime, all this was accomplished without the aid of the internet or social media. So, take a few cards from the Old Timer’s deck.
No Excuses
There should be no excuses that this can’t be done. If a programmer says there isn’t a local community of interest that pertains to their program, then it begs the question: why does it deserve airtime? Who does it serve if there are no listeners?
Especially when a station recruits new programmers, doing this kind of publicity should be an expectation. I also recommend making it part of the training program. When you make this expectation clear up front and combine it with tips and inspiration you greatly increase the likelihood of follow-through.
Everyone’s a DJ – So Recruit Them!
Stations can also turn this idea on its head by recruiting creative and active people in specific communities to become programmers. Many bars, restaurants, cafés and other venues often have live DJs playing specific genres. Reach out to the DJs who have regular gigs and who play music compatible with your station’s mission. They’ll probably be delighted to get the invite, because a radio show lets them reach out beyond the few dozen people who can see them live.
Your station benefits by tapping into this audience, which is highly motivated by virtue of the fact that they turn out to a live event. Make sure to ask the DJ to promote their radio show at gigs. They’ll also spread the word in their social media network, and help recruit more talent for your station along the way.
Here in Portland, OR I see how two of our newer community stations have built audiences this way. I’m always seeing flyers or announcements on social media for DJ nights hosted by XRAY.fm and Freeform Portland DJs. I also see ones hosted by DJs from our long-standing community station, KBOO. I know for a fact that some of these DJs were playing out before any of them had a radio show.
Training and Inspiration
Even if your station’s roster of on-air staff is very stable, with little turnover, there’s no reason not to socialize the idea around your station. It’s likely that you have at least few – if not more – programmers already doing some great publicity for their shows. Ask them to do workshops, or share tips and tricks with the rest of your programmers.
Though these ideas seem pretty straightforward – if not downright obvious – sometimes we all need a prompt and some encouragement to start doing something new.
Growing Vital Networks Large and Small
Not every programmer will be as successful at building their audience network, and that’s OK. Some people are naturally more comfortable networking, more gregarious, and enjoy doing this work than others. But everyone should be encouraged to try.
Networks of all sizes are valuable, and a programmer shouldn’t be judged based on the size of theirs. A small network might be full of superfans who listen and donate (and spread the word) disproportionately.
Small communities of interest need and deserve service from community and college radio. But if they don’t know about the programs intended to serve them, then the loop is broken. It’s reasonable, and necessary, to expect your programmers to close that loop.
