Create or update your imaging plan.  Station imaging sells continued listening and listener benefits.  Here are ten imaging suggestions to make your station sound great:

1 – Clean up your music sweep.  Keep the transitions between songs free of info, promos, and teases in music sweeps.  Traffic and weather reports don’t belong in music sets because they stop the music’s momentum.  Keep your imaging between songs no longer than 10 seconds.  Otherwise, you risk the audience perceiving a stop in the music flow:

Imagine going to a concert, and the headlining band interrupts their set to instruct the audience on how to exit the show.  You lose all the momentum of the music sweep and violate your promise of going non-stop.

2 – Never say “Commercial-free” and then play a spot.  Avoid music imaging that sells music quantity and/or music quality (positioning statement) going into commercials.  The optimum placement is between songs and the kickoff after commercials to reinforce your music images.

3 – Promote at-work listening live and with imaging often; listening on the job results in long TSL. Promote it 24/7.

4 – Promote “local identity” in liners and jock comments.  Talk up local identity in imaging and talent remarks.  Localize by mentioning landmarks, roads, shopping areas, neighborhoods, major employers, new stores, local events, and concerts.  Help plan your listeners’ leisure time and talk about things to see or do.

5 – Promote digital listening hourly.  Sell the advantage of listening on smart speakers, listening to the stream on the app, and reasons to go to the website.

6 – Sweepers need a sense of humor.  They can poke fun at general lifestyle, work, recreation, pop culture, and talents, but not the music.  Use frequently updated liners to make the station sound fun and memorable.

7 – Have listeners promote the station.  Listener endorsement imaging is easy to capture; record them when doing remotes.  Don’t play canned ones from services that say, “It’s my favorite station.”  Coach people to say the station name and what they like about the station and the music.  They should sound passionate about the music, talents, and station.  Coach them to say where they live and work.

8 – Promote the morning show often, at least once after the show.  Don’t have a laundry list of what’s on the show, but sell one benchmark and say the time it airs.  A “short funny clip from a previous show” is excellent, but do not repeat often.  In addition to one produced promo an hour, support it with a live liner an hour.

9 – Space out imaging that airs between songs.  Alternate imaging with the “live” talent in sweeps to keep the talent’s presence and not sound like automation runs the station.  Always have a “live” talent presence every quarter-hour.

10 – Promote your major contest often, every twenty minutes, with a combination of produced promos and live mentions.

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John Lund is President of the Lund Media Group, a radio programming consulting firm with specialists in all mainstream radio formats. Did you find this article useful?  You can leave a comment below or email John at John@Lundradio.com.