Radio PR Agency – Book a Radio Day

Whilst the quality and quantity of our coverage remains similar to what it was pre-pandemic, the way we organise a radio day has changed, probably forever. There is no longer any reason for a radio day to take place in a studio, instead broadcasters say they will continue conducting interviews remotely, as they have been doing since the start of the pandemic. The BBC prefers using FaceTime via an iPhone and commercial stations favour Zoom.

Broadcasters are happy with the sound quality and spokespeople and clients love the convenience of being able to talk from home.

Moving forward, once we’re through the worst of the pandemic we will be offering our pop up radio studio, which can be operated from a client’s office, a PR agency, someone’s home or a hotel – wherever you like.

Other than that our radio days continue to include:

On a speaker, an app, a smart phone, at home, in a car, in an office, radio is so simple to find.

STEP 1.  EXPECTATIONS.  We agree key messages with you and identify the sort of audiences you want to target.

STEP 2.   PREPARATION.   We brainstorm with you, to create a story suited to the sort of radio stations on which you’d like coverage.   We can also help with third party spokespeople, case studies and commissioning PR research.

STEP 3.   TARGETS.   We fine tune a target list of stations.   Unless you want a specific audience, the opportunities are likely to include a mix of BBC and commercial stations, at national and regional level.

STEP 4.   SELLING-IN.   We write or re-write press releases in a broadcast friendly style.   Often there are several versions, each targeted at a specific radio station.   You’ll be updated about our progress regularly as we speak to broadcaster.

STEP 5.  IN THE RUN UP.    Since the pandemic most radio days happen remotely.   Therefore we encourage you and your spokespeople to do a tech check with us, a few days ahead of the radio day, so we can check the internet connection and iron out any potential problems.

STEP 6.   THE DAY BEFORE.   Your spokesperson may be asked to do some pre-recorded interviews that will be embargoed until the next day.   You will also receive the schedule for the next day, when the bulk of the interviews will take place.    We will also offer a through editorial briefing, so everyone feels prepared and knows what to expect.

STEP 7.  ON THE DAY.   Radio days start early.   The more news like your story the earlier your spokesperson is likely to be required, probably from around 0700.   If the radio day is being hosted remotely then everyone will communicate via an open Zoom link and WhatsApp.  Our producer is there every step of the way, briefing spokespeople on each interview, reminding them about local angles and any background information about the radio stations and their presenters.

STEP 8.  WRAPPING UP.  Once the final interview is complete we will do a national sweep of all BBC and commercial, national and regional stations, to confirm coverage.   The results of this will be included in our final report, along with a recording of all interviews that took place.

The benefits of radio PR and using a radio PR agency are many.

Audience Reach.  According to RAJAR, the radio industry official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK, 89% of us tune into our favourite stations each week.  That’s nearly 50 million adults, who listen to radio on average for 20.3 hours a week.   If you want brand awareness, and a massive number of people to hear about what your company is doing, then radio is the way to go.

Targeted.  Not every station is after the same audience.  That means you can target your radio PR campaign accordingly.  BBC regional radio stations, for example, attract a predominantly older audience.    Heart stations have more female listeners and BBC Radio 5 Live has more men than women tuning in.

Most of our Radio Day schedules include a broad range of stations, covering most geographical areas and sectors of the population.   But if you require something more specific, we adapt our strategy to mirror your needs.

Accessibility.    Anywhere, anytime – at home, the office or in the car.  That’s part of the joy of radio.   It’s easy for listeners to tune in and not just the old way.   Research by RAJAR claims 74% of the population tunes into radio digitally each week, on a speaker, an app or a smart phone.

Trust.  Unlike social media, online and even print, people trust broadcasters.  They believe what they hear.   That’s one of the reasons we turn to radio and television to hear about a big breaking story.   Other media reports are often anonymous.   But on radio you hear from named presenters and personalities that as a listener you have grown to known.

Radio is an intimate medium.   When you listen to a radio programme on a regular basis it’s almost like listening to a friend.   And that station loyalty, by association, can reflect well on any brand that is featured on it.

Brands that feature regularly on radio become associated with the qualities of that station.  It therefore enhances your reputation in the same way.

Engagement.    We all love a story and that’s what radio does best.  National or regional radio, the style might be different but the rules are the same.   Our attention spans are not good at the best of times, but when we’re listening to the radio, we’re most likely doing something else as well.   Our role, as a radio PR company, is to help you craft a PR story that broadcasters are going to want to tell their listeners about – a story that will keep them engaged.

Let us help you create a story.   Most PR generated content for radio ends up on the news, or the mid-morning chat shows.   News wants a good “top line” for the story – a story that can be told in a pithy sentence.  And they like a “peg”, a reason for running the story on a particular day.

That could be research published by you, out today, or the launch of a new product, an event…..reasons for pegging a story to a certain date are numerous and we, as a radio PR agency, can help you do this.

Mid-morning shows are more open to feature type stories.  They like covering trends, for example, fuel price rises, but they’re open to anything that will appeal to a broad audience.    As journalists we used to call them “water-cooler stories” – the sort of thing you’d remember because it was quirky, or funny or unusual and tell your colleague/friend/spouse about it.

Relevance.  As listeners, we’re quite inward looking and even selfish when it comes to what we’re interested in.  That means broadcasters often look for topics that will appeal to the biggest audience possible.    There are exceptions of course; a story might be of interest for the opposite reason, that the subject is so rare, but as a rule of thumb broadcasters want to make their content relevant to their audience.

The perfect spokesperson.   Sometimes the perfect spokesperson isn’t permanently employed by your company, instead they’re a third party one.  This means a brand ambassador who is (normally) paid to represent your company.   Because they’re a third party they are more palatable to broadcasters – they seem less commercial, therefore more likely to give a better interview.

You could be wincing, thinking you don’t have the budget for this.   Celebrity spokespeople work really well for broadcaster, but other relevant ones work too.  Psychologists, academics, charity partners, for example, feature frequently as radio day spokespeople.

Spokesperson availability.  The majority of interviews for our radio days are live rather than pre-recorded.  In fact we encourage this, because a live interview gives you more air-time, plus much more editorial control.   Your brand mention or key message isn’t going to be edited out, as is often the case with a pre-recorded interview.

That means the spokesperson fitting in with the broadcasters’ schedules whatever time in the day they want them.   As a generalisation, you have a better chance of coverage with a PR story earlier on in the day.   Breakfast shows prefer news stories but from 0900 onwards they will go for softer stories too.  Since Covid, and the ensuing newsroom cutbacks, radio PR opportunities have spread into afternoon and drivetime shows too.

That means ideally your spokesperson will be available for most of the day, if you really want to maximise your radio PR coverage.   We allow a minimum of 15 minutes per live interview and 10 minutes for a pre-recorded one.   So, if your spokesperson is only available for an hour your radio PR opportunities will be limited to just four or five interviews.   As we guarantee 10 -12 interviews with more spokesperson availability, and typically get 15-20 when we have a spokesperson all day, it would be shame to miss out!