Continuing my series on radio advertising today by injecting a bit of common sense into the whole idea of radio advertising scheduling.

In a nutshell, the common sense approach to radio advertising scheduling is to pick as large a segment of the stations audience as you can afford to reach with your message with enough frequency to leave an impression that creates either top of mind awareness or drives them to action. 

I may annoy a few media buyers who work for ad agencies with this article, but maybe they’ll learn something too.

Radio and Television stations in medium (like Fort Wayne, Indiana) and large markets have rating services that supposedly tell us who listens.  Arbitron was the trusted name in Radio and Nielsen was the trusted name for TV Ratings until recently.

Nielsen bought Arbitron and now there is another radio rating service called Eastlan that is becoming the new standard.

An advertising agency media buyer will often try and work the numbers with the specialized software programs that tell them that if they buy 2 commercials a week in morning drive, 4 a week in mid-days and 7 a week in afternoons, toss in a few in the evening and weekends and you’ll reach x number of people 3 times a week and your advertising schedule is going to bring in tons of new customers.

Sorry but sometimes relying on this data is idiotic.

Now I have access to the same software and data that the media buyers have, and I can play their game of finding the perfect combination of ads  per week like they do, but often you have to suspend common sense.

What is this common sense that I keep talking about regarding radio advertising schedules?

It’s the stuff you can figure out on your own.  It’s that common.  And it makes sense.

I’ll walk you through this and use my own radio station as an example.  The station we are going to use is WOWO radio. We are a news and talk radio station.  WOWO has been on the air for nearly 90 years, starting on AM and a couple years ago we added an FM signal. You can listen to WOWO on 1190AM or 92.3 FM.

As a news and talk radio station we have different programs that are 3 or 4 hours long.  Our line up, starting the day with Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Charly Butcher from 5am to 9am followed by the national talk show Glenn Beck from 9am until noon.  Next is another national talk show host, Rush Limbaugh from noon to 3pm.  At 3pm we are live and local again with the Pat Miller Program until 6pm.  Then from 6pm to 5am, we have more national talk shows.  That is our weekday line up.  Weekends are filled with a mix of local and national programs.

We also carry Notre Dame Football, The NFL Indianapolis Colts and our local Fort Wayne Komet Hockey play by play.  Plus we air a few special event sports broadcasts including the Indianapolis 500 in May and the Brickyard 400 NASCAR race in August.

As a news, talk and sport radio station, we attract an active listening audience.  This is not background music or escape music.  This is not a music station.  When our audience listens, they are paying attention.  This is brain food for them, the main course, not some light and fluffy dessert.

Let’s take a look at our habits.  Most of us work 5 days a week and follow a routine.  We get up about the same time each morning, tune in to find out what’s going on and what the weather is going to be like.  We head to the office or where ever we work and then in the afternoon head home.  Each persons routine is customize to each person, depending on where you work, kids, and all those other things that fill up our lives.

However, take a look at your life and your personal daily routine and you’ll likely see a pattern.  And these patterns are part of the common sense that I use to help you build a radio advertising schedule that works for your business.

I mentioned that our radio station has 3 and 4 hour shows.  These talk shows are similar to TV shows in that TV viewers have their favorite shows that they watch every week.  My wife and I watch The Good Wife and NCIS every week when there is a new episode. Our radio shows have regular listeners who listen because those shows are their favorites too, and they will listen as much as possible to those shows as possible on a regular basis.

When you combine daily life routines with favorite radio programs you build an audience of regular listeners who are dedicated, loyal and could become your customers if you invite them to do business with you.

You invite them to do business with you by airing radio ads (commercials) at a time when they are listening.  Nearly every radio station has listeners 24/7.  Not the same listener, that’s silly.  Some stations have more listeners than others and this information can be determined by the previously mentioned ratings services.

It just so happens that my radio station, WOWO has more total listeners than any other Fort Wayne radio station.  We also have more listeners at any given time than most Fort Wayne radio station.  Trust me on this, I have the data to back it up and one day, I’ll dig deeper into this aspect of radio advertising.

Because we have been around forever, we have the largest audience and 95% of our listeners are adults, there is a high demand for advertising on WOWO.  If your business wanted to be on the radio as much as possible, it would cost you a pretty penny.  Just once an hour between 6am and 6pm, 5 days a week could run you $6000 per week.

Depending on your business that is either a great deal or way over your head.  The key is what type of response you need to earn a profit on that money and can you even afford to do that type of schedule week after week?

Here’s how I (and you) can apply common sense and create a radio advertising schedule that is both affordable and works:

Pick a segment of our audience. Let’s start with scheduling your advertising to reach a portion of who you could reach. Instead of 12 hours, 5 days a week, let’s focus on 3 hours.  For example, focus on the Pat Miller Program between 3pm and 6pm, Monday through Friday.  You will be inviting less people than if you ran your ads 12 hours every day, but the key is to build your reputation with the listeners between 3pm and 6pm.    We can do the same with any of our programs, but, don’t jump around and try spread yourself too thin by scattering your ads all over the place with not enough frequency.

Frequency really refers to the number of times an individual hears about you.  This is different from the number of commercials you air.  If your ad plays 10 times a week in the Pat Miller Program, I may hear it 4 times or 9 times. But rarely will I hear it all 10 times.  The same is true with most radio listeners.

Again, In a nutshell, the common sense approach to radio advertising scheduling is to pick as large a segment of the stations audience as you can afford to reach with your message with enough frequency to leave an impression that creates either top of mind awareness or drives them to action. 

 

Contact me at Scott@WOWO.com or 260-255-4357 and we can discuss how to make this work for you and your business.