Radio: Someone still loves you
The demise of radio has been talked about for decades. It was 29 years ago that Queen hit the top of the charts with Radio GaGa, a nostalgic homily to the end of the golden age of the wireless. Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor wrote the hit in despair at the way that commercial radio stations were dumbing down the medium.
Almost three decades later and we still find that radio has a powerful role to play in helping our clients to tell their stories and communicate with the communities they serve.
We recently ran a radio workshop for one of our clients, so that their regional managers felt more confident and better equipped to take advantage of promotional opportunities on both national and local radio stations.
Radio often gives you the time and space to talk about the issues you are passionate about and that helps build the audience’s understanding of you, your business and your brand.
Local radio is particularly powerful in winning hearts and minds in a specific area. The presenters are often thought of as “trusted friends” by the regular audience. So, if you are able to hold your own under questioning, win over the presenter and get your message across personably and in a way that resonates with people, it provides a real opportunity to influence people’s thinking.
This works particularly well in the property world, for example, where every development has a degree of opposition and people may be adverse to change or the perceived impact on where they live.
As Freddie Mercury sang: “Everything I had to know. I heard it on my radio". Why does it work so well?
Radio is quite an intimate medium. Unlike television, most people do not gather together to consume it, they listen on their own, often when they are doing something else ,such as driving the car or making their breakfast – which means they have more time to reflect on what they are hearing. .
Of course, people are not always listening to the radio to be informed. They often just want to be entertained and part of your job as a guest on a radio show is to say something interesting and memorable; something that people will tell others about later that day.
The internet and social media have enabled us all to become independent broadcasters – and in many ways, this has helped radio to become more appealing and more powerful. Radio broadcasts are now also available online, giving them a much longer shelf life. This also enables them to be shared and used as blogs to get even more value from them and reach a larger audience.
The other great advantage is that radio interviews are nearly always live. This may fill you with fear but the reality is that unedited, you get to say what you want to say in the way that you want to say it. Good quality media training to help you harness your fears and explore the power of radio, is well worth the investment.
As one of our clients said: “Martin is an excellent media trainer who not only provides the theory of how to conduct yourself during media interviews, but also delivers the practical help and advice to instil in you the confidence required to speak to journalists.
“The training is thorough, covering all types of media interview you might be called upon to take part in, from promoting a new product or service to what to say during a crisis.
“All of this was delivered in an incredibly supportive, personable way, tailored to the individual’s needs and overall an excellent way to build the skills and confidence needed to speak to the media.
“As a trainer Martin is expert at instantly identifying the things that you need to work on, providing positive feedback allowing you to address those issues.
“Not long after my own media training I put Martin’s advice to good use when invited onto the BBC to talk about Flipper, where I had the confidence and poise to stand my ground and give a good interview.”
Find out more about our media training services or contact me for an informal chat.
About the author
Martin Powell was born and grew up in South Bristol where he started his career on local newspapers, including many years as Chief Reporter of the Evening Post, covering major stories that affected the lives of Bristolians.
Martin founded his own PR company Wordsmiths Press in 1989, which evolved into one of the best known PR agencies in Bristol and the South West, Martin Powell Communications.
The company rebranded as Empica in 2008. Martin continues to play an active, hands-on role within the business, working closely with our senior management team and a well-established, in-house team of PR and communications professionals, former journalists, copywriters, social media specialists and a videographer.