music_noteFORMERLY ATLANTIC SURF RADIO

Pro Tips For A Great Syndication Show

Background

Stand Out From The Crowd.

There is no magic formula for successful syndication but there is some best practice you can follow which I have given below. This is from my own experience as a station owner and programme director. If you follow these simple steps it will give you the edge, help you stand out from the crowd and get your show out to the world.

Be Original.

Success comes with new ideas. Think about something that hasn’t been done before. Everything has been done already right? Countdown shows, Chart shows, Hits & Headlines shows are ten a penny aren’t they? So how do you stand out from the crowd? The answer is to do it better, differently or find a niche that is not currently being provided for. The one thing you have that no one else does is your creativity. That’s how to be a success. Listen to other people and how they do a similar show to yours, it’s OK to be inspired by others. Don’t be a copycat though, that’s not cool, put your own unique spin, personality and energy into your show. Listen and learn and do it better. They say there is nothing new under the sun, that may be true, however you can always improve on an idea and make it your own. Above all you must love and believe in your show, if you do the passion will shine through.

Have Great Production

This is closely linked to the above. Great production is key to your success in getting stations to take your show. You mustn’t let poor production get in the way of your idea. You must sound professional, and that’s not just you or the host, that’s the whole package. The links should be slick, the jingles should be professional and any music beds should be at the right level. The host should have lots of energy, be interesting, and funny where appropriate is always a winner (maybe not on a news show)

Great production isn’t about having the most expensive equipment either. I’ve been through loads of mics over the years, some of them very expensive. I’ve tried the Sure SM7B that everyone craves but it wasn’t right for me. Until recently I used an £85 Audio Technica 2040, it’s very affordable and really worked for me. I’m now using an Electro-Voice RE320 hich I love. Remember most people will listen to your show on their phone or laptop so a £1000 mic is wasted. Just find the right one for your voice regardless of cost. 

Pre-Record Your Show

This is a quick one, a pre-recorded show is the preferred way to go for lots of reasons. Live shows are great but harder to syndicate. There’s lots of reasons why but here’s a few. It’s not always possible to be available at the same time and same day every week. There could be time differences or you may not have a studio set up for professional live broadcasting. Most people don’t. If you are just starting your syndication journey then a pre-recorded show is your friend. For one it’s more convenient, you can record at a time to suit you. You can edit until you are 100% happy with it and you can always record extra shows to cover holidays or sickness. Shows recorded ‘as live’ are very common in radio land and even the BBC makes extensive use of them.

No Station Imaging

When producing your show keep it ‘vanilla’ and that doesn’t mean plain, boring and unexciting. By that I mean keep it generic, don’t make it station specific, don’t include adverts, phone numbers or any local references. Any jingles, bumpers, etc. should only reference the show and not the station. That way it can be played on any station in the world on any day of the week at any time.

Keep It From Dating

What’s he on about you say. Similar to the above point, don’t mention what year it is, the date, the time, morning, afternoon, evening, day of the week or reference anything that is in the news, unless it’s a news/current affairs type show obviously. That way it can be scheduled any day and time of the week, and indeed in years to come as there will be nothing in it to date when it was first created. That means repeats and even more exposure.

Allow for News

This is an interesting one, different stations have different requirements. Best practice is to allow for an hourly news bulletin, most common is 2 minutes. So make your show 58 minutes long, not exactly one hour. If the station doesn’t have news they can always add a two minute song.

Be prepared for stations to request your show to be split into sections. e.g. a 2 hour show split into 2 one hour shows. Sometimes you will need to be flexible and accommodating to get them to take your show.

End Your Show With a 2 or 3 Min Track For Fading/Edit

Always end your show with a 2 or 3 minute track, that way if the station needs more than two minutes then they can fade it or cut it completely. They may want to gain some time for ads which is possible by stealing a couple of minutes from the end of your show.

Have Great Structure and Consistency

Structure and being consistent is very important. There isn’t a right or wrong way to structure a show but keeping a familiar format for every show is vital. Listeners don’t want your show to sound different every time they hear it. Different music or chat yes but not the format. People like familiarity, it brings comfort. Work up a template and stick to that for every show, it’s what I do and works great. It’s also a huge time saver too, having a familiar template to work on each show means you have an established workflow to produce a great show every time.

Get The Kinks Ironed Out Before Syndication

If you are just starting out, the best advice I can give you is get all the kinks ironed out of your show before you start sharing it with the world. Keep producing your show until you are 100% sure it’s ready to set the world on fire. Try different ideas, change the position of jingles or features. Try different music beds or when to play 2 tracks in a row. Check out some traditional ‘Hot Clocks’ and use these to format your show correctly. They’ve been used since the 50s and are tried and tested formulas for quality radio programming. When you have found what you believe to be your winning formula, stick to it. A potential station is reliant on you sending them the same high quality product every week. It’s OK to try new ideas but do keep to the format of the original concept. Constructive feedback is always welcome and don’t be too proud to act on it and make changes where improvement can be made.

Make Trailers

A station may ask for trailers for your show, 30 or 60 seconds is most common. It’s not a bad idea to practice making trailers suitable for playing during another show. Some people even supply a trailer for every new show which can be played all week leading up to your time slot. 

Summary

So in summary, just follow the tips above to stand the best chance of getting your show spotted and syndicated by multiple stations. Good Luck. Neil

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