Choosing a Radio Station

Radio is a tried and true medium for advertising small business messages, reaching 228 million Americans each week. With such a large variety of radio content genres and so many kinds of stations available, choosing the right radio station on which to advertise can be a real challenge. There are several ways that people can get the radio. One is good, old-fashioned radio that you can pick up in your car or at home. Regular radio features both independent broadcasters and standard corporate radio stations. Another is Satellite radio, and yet another is Internet radio, where users go online to get their audio feeds.

When selecting radio stations on which to air your radio commercial, it is important to select ones that not only mesh with your brand, product or service, but also reach your desired target market. First, identify the target audience profile based on demographic (geographic, age, occupation, etc. criteria) and psychographic (values, attitudes and lifestyles) research. Consult with radio station representatives and share your target audience criteria. Identify the station format, programming and personalities of the radio station. Compare these against your brand/product/service, and determine whether the listening audience of a particular kind of station will help reach the goals you set for your radio commercial.

Independent broadcasters are present nearly everywhere. They are unique in that anyone can start up a station about anything they want, however the audience may be small due to the niche content or simply being newer and less advertised than major corporate stations. These stations can be valuable if you are trying to reach the very selective markets they reach. Standard radio stations, often owned by major corporations, are also excellent options for radio advertising. Standard AM/FM radio stations are great to reach relatively well-targeted local and regional audiences.

The high tech alternative to radio, Internet radio, is wildly popular right now. People can listen to streaming radio online or download “podcasts” of stations for their personal MP3 devices. Internet radio allows broadcasters to reach more Web-savvy radio listeners, but also affords them opportunities to reach customers in a broader global spectrum than they may have in regular radio. Some Internet stations are also broadcast on Satellite radio, thus further expanding the audience receiving ads.

Satellite radio stations like XM and Sirius are currently considered “commercial-free” (though XM stations that have Clear Channel programming will likely feature ads). For now, the stations say their airwaves are off limits to marketers, but that could change as the need for ad-driven revenue and the demand for highly targeted niche radio marketing increase.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 7:11 am and is filed under News.