Anyone with an iPhone can produce a radio show. The key to being in radio is to have a successful syndicated show.
Here are Six Steps to having a successful radio syndicated show:
1. The first thing you have to do is to Create Your Show. What will be the theme and concept of your show? How will your unique knowledge, talents, and abilities work best on the air?
First, what qualifies YOU to host a syndicated radio show? Are you an expert in something? Do friends say you’ve got the ”gift of gab”? Is there a subject you feel passionate about? Do you like discussing ideas and sharing opinions with others? Do you enjoy entertaining people? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you can host a syndicated radio show. There are syndicated radio shows on topics as diverse as alternative health, politics, spirituality, small business, pets, law, dating, and the list goes on and on. There are successful hosts who never hosted a radio show before getting into syndication.
Try to find a unique niche for your show. Be as original as possible. For example, if you want to do a health talk show, decide what might make your show different from other health talk shows.
2. Get On the Air, Anywhere. You have to start somewhere. It’s just like planting a seed in order to grow something. Your show should be on at least ONE radio station, or ONE high quality Internet site, before you try syndicating it nationally. So do what ever you have to do to get your show heard.
Program directors who consider your syndicated show will naturally want to know if it has a track record. Their first question will be, ”Where is the show heard? What station or stations already carry the show? Is it heard online?” If you answer, ”We”re not on anywhere. We were hoping to start with your station,” the next sound you hear will be a loud click as the phone is hung up in your ear.
3. Create a Marketing Kit and Demo. You’ll want to be sure your marketing kit looks professional. And you’ll need a good-sounding demo of your show.
Program Directors and Station Managers will want to see your marketing material and a photo of you, before they put your show on the air. Since you can’t travel to every station in the country, your sales kit has to be your ambassador.
Research has shown that people gather most of their information visually. Yes, this is even true of radio managers, perhaps more so because they deal with so much non-visual material. So it’s important to make a good visual first impression with potential affiliates. Remember what your mom used to say, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.
4. Market Your Show to Stations Nationwide. You’ve got to tell the radio industry about your show. Stations need to know the show exists, if you want them to put it on the air.
Marketing’s just another word for promotion, and few syndicated shows succeed without it.
If radio stations have never heard of your show, they may be reluctant to add it. Think about your own purchasing decisions. How often do you choose a product you’ve never heard of? People are much more comfortable buying something that is familiar to them.
You can certainly try telephoning all 10,000 US radio stations. You’ll quickly discover how tough it is convincing program directors to add your unknown show. You can also try mailing your marketing kit and demo to every station. But that will cost you a small fortune and be very wasteful, since most stations will simply toss your valuable marketing material.
5. Sign Up Stations. A syndicated radio show is only as good as its list of affiliates. Syndication success is built by signing up stations to carry your show.
Syndication Networks’ Affiliate Relations experts have decades of experience in this challenging and rewarding field. Our skilled staff has the proven ability to sign up radio stations to carry all forms of syndicated programming.
Affiliate relations is by far the most difficult part of syndication. If you decide to try it on your own, be prepared for a real challenge.
If your marketing is effective, stations may be calling for your demo. You then follow up by phone with these ”warm leads”.
6. Take Care of Business. Once your show is up and running, there are things to do! Commercials need to be sold, clients need to be billed, the show has to be produced and distributed, and you have to get paid. How does it all get done?
The answer is, you systematize it. You want all the important things to happen automatically without lots of time or effort on your part. You want a system to handle the sale of commercials in your show, billing, production and distribution of your show to stations, and more. This gives you the freedom to do a great show and to build more revenue streams!
Syndicated radio shows have details that must be taken care of for ongoing success and profits. At the beginning, you may wish to handle all of the production, ad sales, affiliate relations, and other details involved in your show. This is not only most affordable, but it’s fun to build a show from the ground up. Plus, it lets you learn first hand how syndicated radio works. You can do it with a little advice from others in the business.
If you’re like most syndicators, eventually you’ll find that your time could be better spent on other things. For example, if your show is a recorded short vignette, you might want to record, edit, insert commercials, and upload the shows all by yourself. But as your list of stations grows, these tasks may become routine and time-consuming. At that point, you may be better off letting someone else do it, and use your time for more productive things.
You can check out the latest casting calls and Entertainment News by clicking: Click Here
Click the logo below to go to the Home Page of the Website
Click the logo below to follow ETInside on Twitter
Click the logo below to follow ETInside on Facebook
Click the logo below to follow ETInside on Instagram
Click the logo below to follow ETInside on Pinterest
Click the logo below to follow ETInside on Medium
