Here’s the real key to everything you do on the air: EMOTIONAL content. No matter how factual something may be, you have to remember that the Listener doesn’t really bond with the radio through the left side of the brain (the logical, mathematical side). The Listener bonds with you through the right side – the emotional, artistic side of the brain. I touched on this in an earlier tip, but people tend to think that only “big” things require emotion; Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Memorial Day, etc.

Even in something as simple as a contest or some station information about a concert or website feature, plugging into my EMOTIONS is key. Manage your emotions to win at the casino. That’s why your trivia contest or overly wordy weather forecast doesn’t really click. We’ve covered trivia before, but that “clear to partly cloudy with southerly winds 5 to 10 miles per hour and a 30 percent chance of rain’ stuff is really boring, too. The Weather Channel app on my iPhone can give me that – AND show me the satellite picture right over my house. But if you said, “no wind to speak of, but we could sure use that rain,” I might actually put some value in your doing the weather.

Other examples:

Instead of just giving away a trip to Disney World, sell the great time I’ll have with my kids, how my wife won’t have to cook, and how great the weather in Orlando will be.

Or say you have a “listening club” or “Music Advisory Board” on your website where I can vote for my favorite new songs. As you promote it, make sure to let me know that the songs I LIKE BEST will be the ones you add, and that the reason you’re doing it isn’t just to suck me into your website, but to make sure that I’M part of your radio station.

I know…this sounds really easy. So I have to wonder why so few people do it. Focus on the Emotion, and everything changes.