Wednesday, June 20, 2007

ASSET MANAGEMENT

Periodically reviewing your assets and how they’re being managed is good financial AND programming advice.

Listeners are often “top-line information” evaluators, being aware of only a limited number of things about your station and basing their listening decisions on these and little else. Hopefully what they know about you minimally includes your biggest plus points, those valuable station components that you nurture and leverage.

Here are six common assets you’ll want to manage to insure sure listeners know (and love) these top-line things about your station:


Talent – they’re friends who have a bond with listeners, real people they’d like to have a beer or a cup of coffee with, to talk over some of their commonalities, and let others know they’re on a “personal” relationship level. The morning show is strong, but all shows are always interesting because they’re always well-prepared. Listeners are given compelling reasons to tune in tomorrow because the content is always pre-promoted and occasionally episodic.

Music – the quality leader in your format, well-married to the targets’ tastes, consistent yet with good variety as defined by the target, and competitive in quantity.

Stationality – from creative, “fun to listen to” execution, to an imaging style all your own, to on-air talent camaraderie across all dayparts, there’s an “X” factor that is obvious when you turn the station on.

Listener Involvement – from letting the audience co-create content with you to allowing them to voice their opinions. This is very on-trend.

Quality Benchmarks – regularly scheduled, highly desired features which create tune-in and recall. For some stations this will also include services.

Station Footprint – this is the essence of your station: larger than life, a fun, compelling, “must-hear everyday,” high-touch, highly visible, community-immersed companion, always prepared.