Brown Media Blog

Time Spent Listening? Or time spent surfing?

Sometimes it seems like every other promo I read ends with a tagline that goes something like this:  “Get all the details at OurStationWebsite.com.”  Of course as a voice talent, I’m more than happy to read whatever copy my client stations put in front of me.  But as a former programmer, I’m often left scratching my head over why stations believe it’s wise to send their listeners away to get information that we used to force listeners to get on the air — you know, by actually listening to the station.

In this modern age of multi-platform presentation of content, more and more radio stations are looking for ways to extend their market reach.  This began, innocently enough, decades ago when radio stations sought to achieve increased market awareness through the use of outdoor, television and print advertising.  Then it extended into direct mail promotional campaigns.  In the last decade or so, radio stations have placed an ever-increasing emphasis on their websites to enhance their branding and call letter (or brand name) retention.

How does your station use your website?  Is it an extension of the radio station itself?  Or does the website serve to provide information to listeners that might otherwise take up precious air time from your broadcast day?

While I understand how certain station promotions can be cumbersome to explain on the air, it is really smart to direct listeners to “get more details at OurStationWebsite.com?”  I mean, it used to be that when a contest was too cumbersome to explain in one 30-second promo, the program director had a couple of choices to make.  He could either (a.) rework the promotion to make it simpler (always the best place to start), or (b.) break up the information into two, three or even more promos and tag each one with words like “get more in twenty minutes.”

Do you want listeners reading about your station or listening to it?

It seems foolish to me to tell listeners that if they want to learn more about the happenings on the radio station that they needn’t actually listen to the radio station to get that information.  They can read it online.

Okay, if we’re talking about a bunch of legalese, like contest rules written by the company’s broadcast attorneys at the Washington law firm Dewey, Cheatum and Howe, then fine, I’m all for moving that to the website and directing listeners there if they really want that sort of minutia.  But what about contests that require a bit more explanation than can be delivered in one 30-second promo?  Wouldn’t it be better to cycle listeners to the next half hour to “get more?”

For forty years, stations somehow managed to keep listeners engaged and aware of how their contests worked without providing them with a written handbook, like what you find on a website.  The info was creatively written and fed in bite-size portions every couple of quarter hours.  And guess what?  Listeners actually stuck around for it.

Jack McCoy’s legendary production for The Last Contest on KGB/San Diego in the early 1970s still stands today as the gold standard for how great production can drive a great promotion.  With hundreds of promos, each one describing a different prize package that the winner could select, it was easy to understand how listeners would be glued to their radio to hear another different prize package “in minutes.”

I’m all for stations having websites.  Especially when it can keep sales crap — er, excuse me, “value added” promotional material — off the air.  But when stations direct their listeners to read about the radio station instead of actually listening to it, that’s when the website seems like more of a liability than an asset — because it’s potentially robbing you of quarter-hours.

The question you should ask yourself is this:  Does your station website add time spent listening, or does your station treat the website as a substitute for listening?

We’re giving away one quizillion dollars and a lifetime supply of monkeys.  Get more details in twenty minutes.  Or save yourself some time and just read about it online.  I mean, who wants to have to actually spend time listening to this station anyway?

As long as Arbitron is measuring the number of quarter hours your listeners are actually listening to your station, it seems foolish to throw away potential quarter hours by sending your listeners to your website to read information that you might be better off giving them on the air.