subject: Get More Coaching Clients By Working With Your Local Radio Station [print this page] Coaches are perfect guests for local radio shows and you can be the best known coach in your market by promoting yourself on you favorite morning program. Most coaches would never dream of approaching a station and asking to be a guest on a morning show but there is a good chance you could be successful if your niche fits the show.
Radio has seen many changes over the last couple of decades as well. Most broadcast companies own several stations with several different formats in any given market these days. That means that they too have cut back staff and are trying to reduce expenses by combining support staff and automating programming as much as possible.
Many formats no longer have live DJ's and many only have live DJ's in the morning. You will want to find a station that has a format that fits your niche and has a live DJ's. Now this whole idea of fit can be tricky because something that is way out may be a fit. For example, what about coaching questions on a rock n roll station or EFT on a conservative AM radio show? That could be a fit if it is entertaining. Be creative and have a sense of humor when you are thinking about these ideas.
The person you want to approach is the program director for that particular station. There may be one program director for several stations so you may find that while talking to them they have another station in mind for you. Give the program director a sample recording of what your show could be like. You want to give a complete show and you want to have a sample of how you could be a live guest on a morning or evening show. You could take caller questions for example.
Make a list of all the stations in your market, who owns them and who the program director is for each station. Do your research and listening to each station before you talk to the program director. Pay attention to who the morning, midday, afternoon, and evening DJ's are and notice if there is a specific sort of theme for those dayparts.
Radio and TV stations serve the public interest so you can also approach the station through public service. If you have an event that is free, is open to the public and serves the public interest then you can submit public service announcements. The length of the public service announcement will depend on the station and the format so contact the station to determine what their preference is.
They are required by law to have a specific number of public service announcements per day so there is already time allotted for this purpose the tricky part is finding out how to get yours accepted and scheduled. Many stations have someone who schedules public service announcements but it is not a full time job so you will have to contact each station to figure out who to contact and what their preferred format is. You will have to contact each station and ask for that information because each station will be different.
