Instant Radio Publicity

By Paul Hartunian

It happens 12 or more times a day, 365 days a year in thousands of radios stations around the country. Some guy or gal sits at a microphone and starts talking. A lot of what they have to say has been scripted or pre recorded, but a large portion hasn't. These people are hired for their ability to ad lib. They have to be charming and insightful. They have to have something to say that the rest of us will want to hear. And they have to draw and keep as many listeners as possible. Which translates into an incredible gold mine for those of us looking for quick, free publicity.

Unlike television and the printed media, radio is extremely flexible. All they're really interested in is getting and keeping a solid radio audience. To do that they have to be extremely timely and entertaining.

If you've purchased my publicity course (www.Hartunian.com/prkit) you probably understand the basics of orchestrating a promotional campaign. In a nutshell, you have to find one or more angles that make what you do fascinating to the general public. (Don't get nervous. Everyone - including you - can do this easily.) This needs to be translated into a powerful headline on a well-written press release. If you need help in this area go to www.PressReleasesMadeEasy.com.

Once you have a good release in hand, and a product or service to back it up, you're ready to take the world on.

Typically you fax out your release and sit back to wait for phone calls. But our focus on this site is a bit different. We're looking for ways to get quick, effective results specifically on radio.

The first step to getting on a radio program involves understanding how the industry works. Every program on the air is run almost like a separate business. They each have a host, the person you listen to on the air. Most of them have some form of theme, be it a style of music, a political or commercial vent or just the fact that the host is a character people enjoy listening to.

Call the stations you're interested in being on and ask for a schedule of their programming. You may also find this information on the stations website.

You'll end up getting a list of programs, what time they play, and usually a brief description of what they offer. Take the time to listen to a few of the programs and take notes on the style, themes and general feeling of the program. Once you have a good idea what goes on at the various stations, pick out the two or three programs you feel would best blend with your theme. And don't discount the music stations. 15 minutes on a program that pulls 2,000,000 listeners is a lot better than 60 minutes on a program with 5,000 listeners.

At that point you should probably be looking at a list of 20 or so different programs spread out over 5 or 6 local stations. These are going to be your target programs. Next, call each station and ask for the name of the program director and their fax number. The program director is the person who schedules guests, figures out themes and generally oversees what happens on the show. You can also find this information on the Internet or in the media directories in your library.

With your list of 20 shows and 20 contacts, you're ready to get going. Begin by faxing your press release to each of these new contacts. When you checked on program managers you may have found that a few of them pull double duty and manage more than one show on the same station. If that's so, just send one release to each person. Will they call back? Possibly. But if not, you want the various program managers to file your release under whatever topic you represent so they can call on you some time in the future, if something comes up where you might qualify as an authority.

But you aren't going to sit around and wait for the call, either. You're going to come up with an angle or two that makes what you have to say sound fascinating, and you're going to send out press releases to all of them a week or so after they got the first one. What'll happen is actually pretty fascinating. The program manager will see the title for a story that might work for them, and immediately they're going to go find out if they've run it before. When they get to the file, vaguely remembering they've heard your name somewhere sometime recently, they'll suddenly find a folder with your name on it and remember having received it. Having a folder on file will establish you as an "old timer" someone they've had some sort of experience with and will tend to make them want to dive in more quickly.

After you've established the fact that you're in town and available to do the shows, you then want to start listening to the shows. Keep the radio on during your drive times and get a feeling for what each show is like. Later on, when you're talking on each of these shows, it's important for you to be able "fit in" with the overall theme they promote. Understand the audience and become a bit familiar with the jargon of any station you hope to appear on. It'll pay off in return calls.

Again, don't get nervous. It's easy - and fun.

After doing your research and getting your press release in their files, you now have to start the basic publicity campaign I describe in my publicity kit (available at www.Hartunian.com/prkit). It starts with a powerful press release promoting a unique and exciting theme. If you need help putting together a powerful press release, go to www.PressReleasesMadeEasy.com.

Yes, it helps to get the exposure, but more than that, at this point, you're interested in piquing the curiosity of the program manager. You want them to know you're alive and have a story to tell. Even if they decide not to call back on the spot, for our purposes, being recognized is vitally important. Because we're now going to start working the media. We're going to start getting up early and finding out what happened in the world last night by checking the various news outlets on line. As soon as you spot any kind of angle that pertains to your topic, you're going to send out another press release, something that tags on to the news story.

That's a very powerful trick.

Program managers thrive on timely, entertaining guests. They love to sound like they were "right on top" of the story. A shoe salesman might appear on a show an hour after a news story breaks talking about how a certain brand of shoe was recalled. He might explain the problem, how to correct it, etc.

Another very powerful way to get instant publicity is to listen for talk show hosts announcing unscheduled "open phones" times. That typically means someone was scheduled to be on but didn't make it. In fact, if you've heard someone was scheduled and then suddenly the station starts announcing "open phones" it's a sure thing they wish they had a guest on at that time. That's a great excuse to immediately fax in a sheet announcing your topic and explaining that you're available for an immediate call in. You can be ready to do the show in a couple minutes.

One final trick to getting instant radio publicity is to announce in your press releases that you're always ready to come on the air. If you can pull off being a fascinating or entertaining guest, you might be able to parlay that reputation into quite a package. Matthew Lesko lives in New York City and has his name posted in every television station in town. He jokes about being New York's favorite stand in. It may be second fiddle, but it sure sells a lot of his books. If you have something to say, and you say it well, there's no reason why you can't plan on getting plenty of instant radio publicity.

Want to find out more about how publicity can help you? Click on the links on the left side of this page.

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