It gives new meaning to the word "pitch." Trying to get exposure on the radio for your company or a new client requires a completely different tone than trying to get exposure
from print and/or broadcast outlets. "Most PR people are print-oriented, which is words, and then they apply that technique to broadcast, which adds the visuals," says Bryan
Farrish, president of Bryan Farrish Radio Promotions, a Los Angeles based PR agency specializing in placing radio interviews. "But then the same [PR] people apply those techniques
to radio, and that's where they falter."
Farrish argues that it's not so much what you pitch to radio - anyone with a great yarn to tell is a slam-dunk - but how you pitch. "There's no pictures [in radio] so visual
stuff doesn't work," Farrish says. There are approximately 10,000 radio stations in the U.S., about 10 times the number of TV stations in any given market. What's more, the growth
of the Web will lead to more streaming radio stations, so PR pros need to raise the dial on their radio pitches. For the lowdown, PR NEWS asked Farrish for pointers on how to
penetrate the medium.
Radio does not like to read:
- Radio does not respond to printed press releases the way print media does; radio requires phone calls, because that's how they live day-in and day-out.
- Describing your topic in your press release will fall on deaf eyes, that is, until the stations can be assured that your guest will sound great.
Radio people are audio people:
- If your pitch is working in the print media, then your topic/angle is good. If your TV is working too, then your angle might be good, but you probably also have great
visuals, or, the presentation can be carried-along by the host. (TV can present the host and the guest together, and it can show the host while the guest is speaking, thus the
host can make up for lack of guest performance.) - In radio, only one person at a time has the attention of the audience; thus radio's worst fear is that when your guest has this attention he/she will be a dud.
- Radio producers need to be assured (or shown) that your guest can "carry" the audience with his/her voice, before the topic/angle itself will be dealt with.
- If you are pitching radio for the first time, the producers are not going to believe you when you say "the guest is great". They will need to have worked with some previous
guests of yours, or they will need referrals from other stations (regardless of topic).
Any topic can be interesting and/or controversial:
- Interesting/controversial is what radio wants, regardless of topic.
- Even sad (death in the family) or generic (lawn mower repair) topics can be made interesting by a good guest, by relating the topic to a personal experience, or by telling how
the topic affected another person of stature (say, an actor). - Any topic can be found to be controversial, by just finding someone who uses the topic in a controversial way (there is always someone).
- If you and the guest are unable to find anything of radio PR value then create a side-topic from scratch that does have this value. Then, near the end of the interview, segue
into your product/service that you really want to push.
Listeners respond to the personality, not topic:
- The grand proof of this is the talk show hosts themselves; they have no particular topic, but they go from day to day accumulating listeners, by converting regular topics
into interesting, controversial, or funny presentations (just the way your guest could). - If listeners like the personality, the listeners will follow the directions of the guest (e.g., listeners will go to a Web site, call a number, etc.).
- It's been long known by people in the ad business that the proper person talking about a product makes all the difference in the world in sales.... even though the product, or
topic, stays the same.