Not a good idea to take the personality out of Urban/Black radio. Most listeners who listen to radio enjoy great on-air talent who have something to say. In a recent end of the year survey, local listener overwhelmingly prefer a local station and it was because of the local on-air talent. That’s the good news. But, what makes them listen to local instead of something else.
It’s not complex. The primary objective for any station is to be local and sound local. It’s what the locals relate too and you become their every day habit. Every single break must a hit and relevant to the city and about the city. If you can listen to any station regardless of format for more than 15 minutes without a local relatable tie-in with the city (just saying the name of the city isn’t relatable). You can’t win and be THE local winner.
In the radio world today talent are more important than ever on any format. What kind of talent make you standout? There should be an all out effort to hire talent who are the following:
Familiar with the marketplace
A mirrored reflection of the lifestyle of the format for the purpose of relatability
As with any format the main personality is and should be the format- stay out of the way of the music and watch all the unnecessary talk
For great radio that scores in Nielsen, a great morning show engine can and should set the pace for success in all dayparts – it doesn’t work any other way
When hiring talent for any daypart, it’s about TOTAL RELATABILITY that’s of prime importance. Meaning, you should hire only the perfect talent to create growth (take it to the extreme- when you have to replace, find someone better than what you had)
Each format has a direction and vision of where it wants to go. If perfected and 100% is given working on that direction, you should be good regardless of PPM or Diary market. Finally, it’s your local attitude and what you do every day to entertain will make the ratings.
Harry Lyles, is President of Lyles Media. For a confidential conversation email at: hlyles@urbanradio.com or call (770) 594.7171.