Every radio station has a show that seems to carry more influence than the others. It might be the morning show that's been part of the community for years, an afternoon personality with a loyal following, or a local talk show that gets people discussing what's happening around town. These shows have something valuable that a station website often struggles to build on its own: a daily relationship with an audience.

I write and talk a lot about podcasters because it’s a growth industry and every radio on-air talent should be podcasting. But mainly because I think there are a lot of things the top podcasters are doing that also translate well to live, terrestrial radio. Another one of those podcasters is Steven Bartlett. Steven is a British entrepreneur, investor and the host of the incredibly successful Diary of a CEO podcast.

Many radio station websites still struggle to provide the basic information these systems need to understand and recommend them. Start with the obvious. Does your website clearly identify your station's name, call letters, frequency, format, and the communities you serve?

Imagine one of your advertisers receiving an email from their sales rep asking them to use a new link to pay this month’s invoice. The name is right, the station logo is there, and the message sounds like someone they’ve worked with for years. Except your sales rep didn’t send it.

We’ve spent years telling listeners to follow us on social media. We should put just as much, if not more, effort into giving them reasons to visit our websites, download our apps, and subscribe to our newsletters.

There’s an ongoing global debate about the best way to use AI. I’m on record advocating for using AI to enhance humans as opposed to replacing them. But, how do we utilize AI tools for virtually every aspect of our jobs without slowly weakening our own skills? Here’s my thought on that.

While everyone is preparing to tell listeners who won, there’s an opportunity to make the station website useful well before the first results arrive. People need to know where to vote, how to check their registration, where to find a sample ballot, and which election office to contact with questions. Those details may not make exciting radio, but they give someone a very practical reason to visit your website.

We spend plenty of airtime saying, “Download our free app,” but often spend little time explaining why. If the entire pitch is that they can listen to the station, we’ve given them only one reason. What else happens after they install it?

There’s currently a groundswell of backlash around AI happening here in the US, and around the world, that’s getting too big to ignore. Every week there’s a new story about a leading AI company’s model getting out of its cage and doing something it shouldn’t. So, how should radio respond to this current AI backlash? Here’s what I think.