How To Get Radio-Active PR For Your Non-Profit Cause-Part One

"We are in the communications business, the business of conveying messages to the human brain," said the late David Sarnoff, founder and president of RCA. "No man is wise enough to know which avenue to the brain is best. Therefore, the sensible idea is to make all avenues available for carrying the message."

In short, a sophisticated promotional effort, even for the most fledgling charity organization must target the electronic media to effectively reach the audience you want as contributors and volunteers. This article will show you how to tap into the great world of radio.

UNDERSTANDING THE MEDIUM OF RADIO

Radio is the oldest of the electronic media, and it has a number of characteristics that are important to understand if you want to use radio properly in your promotional campaigns.

First, radio is the medium that brings you closest to your audience. Radio can make you feel like you're having a chat with millions of listeners, just as President Franklin Roosevelt had his famous "fireside chats" with the nation, via radio, during the Depression. For listeners, radio calls the senses into active involvement with the message to a degree that television doesn't. The mind's eye goes to work, creating images to go along with the inflection of the voice on the radio and the pictures painted by the words. Old-time radio dramas and comedies had that effect, con, luring up vivid pictures in the minds of families gathered around "the wireless."

The possibilities for you and your charity to give mental pictures to your audience, and to capture their interest in deep and probing ways, is powerful.

I speak with experience on the ability of radio to link speaker and listener. I do a weekly radio commentary on KFWB, an all-news station in Los Angeles, and I am a frequent guest on talk-radio programs across the country. I am also frequently interviewed national and local radio-news people for comments on Hollywood culture, the media, and marketing and publicity.

The response I get from people who hear me over the radio airwaves is quite extraordinary. Invariably I find people grappling with the content of my comments far more when they've heard me over the radio than when they've seen me say something on television. A listener who has heard me on the radio will typically ask me to explain, elaborate, or provide justification for some point I made. In contrast, people who have seen me on TV are more likely to give me a simple comment, such as "I saw you on TV!" without pursuing any issue or stance I may have taken on the television show.

Second, radio is a fast medium, allowing you to get out a message quickly. While it took five months to get word back to Queen Isabella about the voyage of Columbus, and two weeks for Europe to hear about Lincoln's assassination, it took only 1.3 seconds to get the word from Neil Armstrong that a person could walk on the moon. Today, it takes less than thirty seconds to let the world know about anything, from the latest turn in Middle Eastern diplomacy, to a report that Madonna had her baby. The speed of radio is useful to keep in mind whenever you have a timely announcement that you believe you must get across quickly.

Third, radio is still largely unfiltered, allowing ideas to be tested and tossed around in robust debate. While some of the hosts and callers of talk radio sensationalize their messages, or are pure-and-simple wacky, radio at its best offers a modern-day equivalent of the old town-hall gatherings, where everyone is free to give vent to their opinions and complaints and the marketplace of ideas is at its most vibrant. This can be useful for charities and nonprofits that can benefit by tapping into the collective social conscience of a community through discussion and debate.

Finally, radio is still a regulated medium that is supposed to carry a modicum of public-interest fare. According to the Communications Act of 1934, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is empowered to issue radio- broadcasting licenses "if public convenience, interest, or necessity will be served."

Although these words are interpreted very broadly today, many radio stations see themselves as having a social responsibility to broadcast interviews, feature stories, and public-service announcements (PSA'S) designed to promote local charitable ventures. This is obviously a significant advantage for charities and nonprofit groups.

DESIGNING YOUR RADIO STRATEGY

Tapping into your local radio network is actually not difficult. The first step is to become familiar with the radio stations in your area. Which ones have public-interest segments or programming themes that are compatible with the message you're trying to get out?

The only way to discover which stations are best for you is to systematically listen to every station in your community. To save time, a good approach is to apportion out the listening task among many members of your organization. Each person can be assigned a few stations to listen to and report on. I recommend that you listen to each station over the course of a week, studying and getting familiar with their announcers, their style and type of programming, and the audience they appeal to.

After listening to the stations, begin making contact with the program manager at each station. Begin by calling the stations and asking for the program manager's name. Then write a letter to the person, asking about the station's policies on feature programs, special interviews, and public- information spots to profile a charity such as yours.

In most cases, you will receive a reply letter spelling out the policies. Pay close attention to every point and nuance that the manager includes in the letter you get back, because if you submit material for use by the radio station, it must comply in form with any rules or parameters that the station has given you. For example, you can't expect station personnel to rewrite a press release or a public-service announcement that is longer than station rules dictate. You must take note of those rules from the outset, and make sure any announcement you send the station abides by them.

When checking out radio stations, don't be put off by a radio station's emphasis, whether it is an all-music or mostly-music format, or all-news. All of these formats potentially provide some opportunity for a charity to get its message broadcast. Even all music or all-sports formats often make space for spot announcements during breaks for advertising.

To improve your chances of being of interest to a station, you must therefore be closely in tune with the station's audience. You need to figure out their interests, their age ranges and demographics, so you can make your pitch in language that they can relate to and with examples that draw them in. If it's a sports-oriented station, for example, sports analogies would make sense.

Look for the second part of this article, next week.

Michael Levine is the founder of the prominent public relations firm Levine Communications Office, based in Los Angeles. He is the author of Guerrilla PR, 7 Life Lessons from Noah's Ark: How to Survive a Flood in Your Own Life.

GuerrillaPR.net is a resource for people that want to get famous in the media, without going broke. http://GuerrillaPR.net Michael@guerrillaPR.net

---

When Should You Outsource Your PR Efforts?

1) Do you NEED solid, consistant media exposure...week after week,... Read More

Talk Back Radio - Tips To Be A Star On-Air!

Talkback radio offers a fantastic opportunity to access thousands of... Read More

PR: Focus on What Matters!

Sure, as a manager, you have a talented member of... Read More

Best Approach For Free Advertisement

Product/service publicity is the superhighway to business success everyone dreams.... Read More

Levines Laws For Pitching With Panache

Excerpted from "Selling Goodness- The Guerrilla PR Guide To Promoting... Read More

Managers, Have You Been Shortchanged?

You have been if you're a business, non-profit or association... Read More

How to Write a Media Release That Wins You Coverage & Exposure

The Today show? The New York Times? Vanity Fair? What's... Read More

The Working Case Study

Next to white papers, case studies are the most popular... Read More

Go Ahead, Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Call a Reporter

Yes, you can call a reporter.I've said it before, in... Read More

Dont Get Eaten Alive!

If you don't have a grip on public relations, how... Read More

Leveraging Media Coverage - Your Tool For Business Growth

Media relations, simply put, is the business of building and... Read More

Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, the Media Wants to Give You Free Publicity

In this great country of ours, there are basically three... Read More

Three Communication Secrets of The Great Communicator

I've worked in media and public relations for 20 years,... Read More

Sound Like Your Situation?

What a shame! Potentially productive public relations people resting on... Read More

The Press Release is Dead (Now Will Somebody Please Tell the Clients?)

In competing for a piece of business not too long... Read More

How to Use Community Relations to Grow Your Business

Community relations is one of those marketing strategies that isn't... Read More

For Financial Planners, Marketing and Publicity Is About You

For financial planners, getting publicity, in the end, isn't about... Read More

This is the Power of PR

The power of public relations is its ability to alter... Read More

Managers Who Tap Into PRs Value

Business, non-profit and association managers get a ton of satisfaction... Read More

PR Power: How to Write a Killer Press Release

I'm what we in the business (the "business" being journalism)... Read More

Publicity: A Financial Planners Best Marketing Friend

There's an old African proverb:"If you think you are too... Read More

HELP: I Need a Press Kit!

A press kit is an essential press relations tool. While... Read More

Writing a Press Release: Inverted Pyramid Style

A term you'll hear in newsrooms, in editing meetings, in... Read More

A Winning Game Plan

You want to sell your products or services, and that... Read More

Are You Sure You Know What Youre Doing?

Because when it comes to public relations, non-believers can produce... Read More

Does Your Small Business Have a Grooming Policy?

They say that image is everything and some of us... Read More

Are You PR-Challenged?

You won't be if you accept a very simple premise.... Read More

Business Community Relations 101 - Getting the Most Out of Your Chamber of Commerce Membership

Since the major part of a small business typically comes... Read More

Do You Have an Exclusive Market Segment?

You do if you're a business, non-profit or association manager... Read More

How to Generate Free Publicity for Your Product, Service, or Cause

One of the most misunderstood and most underutilized promotional tools... Read More

Why PR is an Engine for Economic Growth

Business, non-profit and association managers committing their public relations resources... Read More

Dont Expect to Bump Oprah From A Magazine Cover

"I want a pony, a tree house and the fastest... Read More

Managers, Start Your PR

There'll never be a better time for a manager working... Read More