Every Halloween season, I hear my fair share of spooky stories — not about haunted studios or ghostly playlists, but about radio station websites. And let me tell you, some of them are terrifying. The worst part? These horror stories are 100% real. The good news? They can all be avoided with a little foresight and planning.

Not too long ago, your radio station’s website might be a listener’s first stop for local news, contests, DJ bios, events, you name it. But now? A growing number of listeners are directly receiving their updates straight from social media feeds, voice assistants, or even AI-generated summaries that appear in search results.  

Instead of telling your staff to "post X amount every day," let them know it's IDEAL to post a few per show, but make sure the post makes sense. If you're barking orders about social media posts, that's going to do the opposite of what you'd like the outcome to be.  It won't be engaging and may seem stale.

If another station is already “the news station,” don’t try to out-news them. Instead, ask: what are they not doing well on their website?  Are they ignoring community events?  Do they lack strong on-air personalities that blog daily?  Do they miss opportunities to tell human stories about the community?  News-heavy stations often sacrifice personality and local flavor for headlines.

Your own jock page on social media is crucial in controlling the type of privacy you want.

One day your website is rolling along, pumping out stories. The next, a legal letter lands in your inbox: pay up or get sued for that “innocent” image somebody right-clicked from Google. The fine? Could be thousands. The stress? Off the charts. And yes, even if the image was buried in a three-year-old post that nobody’s read since the Obama administration, you’re still on the hook.

Stop trying to force your air talent, sales team, social media strategy, and community outreach into a single web page with five dropdown menus, local news, pop culture updates, sports, and a traffic cam link. Instead: Build a second website that’s branded differently but powered by your station’s (and your sister station) content, personality, and reach.

Digital isn’t the enemy of terrestrial and it’s never been an either-or proposition. The best creators are excelling at both and leaving everyone who chooses to only focus on one in their rearview mirror. The sooner we can get more radio talent thinking this way the better it will be for the overall health of our industry.

Successful YouTuber David Pakman, who has 3.29 million subscribers, puts it this way, “The advice I give everyone is to figure out how often you can do it, daily or weekly, and then fully commit. This is more important than which camera or light you buy, how to do ad sales or anything else because it all flows downhill from there.”