Fall is radio’s annual reminder that hope is not a strategy. You can’t wait until the ratings arrive and then decide what you should have done three months earlier.
Before September gets away from you, build a Fall Strategic Plan designed to increase Cume, listening occasions, TSL, and Top-of-Mind awareness. Here are ten places to start:
- Find Some New Listeners.
Gain new Cume trial through external marketing. Lock in billboards, transit, digital, connected TV, and other visual advertising early. Your P1s already know you exist. The challenge is reminding everyone else.
- Keep the Message Simple.
A billboard is not a brochure. Drivers should not need to pull over to finish reading it. Keep outdoor copy to seven words or fewer, with one compelling benefit, strong station branding, and an instantly understandable message. If you need three sentences to explain the promotion, you don’t have a billboard—you have homework.
- Own the Streets.
Create promotions that put the station where the listeners are. Concerts, fairs, football games, community celebrations and major local events all provide opportunities for visibility. Schedule promotional personnel and part-timers so your station looks like it is everywhere that matters. Top-of-Mind awareness begins with actually being top-of-mind.
- Give the Morning Show Something to Talk About.
Plan stunts, contests, benchmarks, and events throughout the ratings season that generate conversation—and reasons to come back tomorrow. The best morning-show promotion doesn’t just create attention once; it creates repeated tune-in.
- Put the “Local” Back in Local Radio.
Partner with organizers of important community events from Labor Day through Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Review the community calendar now and identify opportunities for special weekends, appearances, remotes, and promotions. Spotify probably won’t be broadcasting live from the high-school rivalry game. You can.
- Make Sure the Music Is Right.
Conduct local music research in late summer and have the strongest-tested titles reflected in your music system by early September. Familiarity is important, but familiarity alone isn’t enough. The question is: “Is this song still familiar—and well liked today?”
- Tighten the Playlist.
Fall is not the time to demonstrate how many songs are stored on the hard drive. Review categories, rotations, clocks, and song-to-song flow. Program to your core listener. Every time a P1 tunes in, the goal should be to hear a favorite song quickly—not wonder, “Where did they find THAT?”
- Super-Serve the Core.
Know your target audience’s lifestyle and passions, and build promotions around them. Sports may be a powerful promotional opportunity for some formats and audiences; concerts, food, family activities, shopping, entertainment, and community causes may be stronger for others. Don’t chase everybody. Own somebody.
- Keep Your Starting Lineup on the Field.
Review vacation schedules before the Fall ratings period. Minimize unnecessary absences among important personalities during critical weeks. Your audience has habits. Don’t encourage them to develop a new one while your morning host is enjoying a mai-tai in Maui.
- Win at Work.
Develop an aggressive At-Work Listening Campaign. Promote listening from 8 AM–5 PM on-air, digitally and through workplace promotions. Build your listener database and communicate regularly through email, your app, texts, and push notifications. Create workplace contests, office invasions, and appointment listening. One listener at work today can become five coworkers listening tomorrow.
The Lund Lesson
Fall ratings aren’t won in the Fall. They’re won by what you plan before the Fall.
The strongest stations enter September knowing exactly what they want to accomplish: who they want to attract, what they want listeners to remember, how they will generate additional listening, and how they will measure success.
The Lund Challenge
Gather your programming, promotion, digital, and sales leaders and ask one simple question: “What are we doing this Fall that will cause more people to listen to our station more often?”
If the answer is, “Well, we’ll do the same contest we did last year,” keep planning.
Pic AI generated using Gemini.
John Lund is President of the Lund Media Group, a radio programming, broadcast consulting, and research firm with specialists in all mainstream radio formats.