Sean Goldsmith. Presenter. Bauer City 2 Network.

Too many presenters judge a great show on the amount of texts they get or if their competition got a full switchboard!! It really doesn’t matter. Don’t get sucked into thinking that your ‘fans’ are your audience, In fact they are far from a typical listener.

If your station has 100,000 listeners realistically less than 50 people will care about you. Yes it’s lovely to get nice comments and yes it proves you are doing something right but the truth is if you haven’t been a station for at least 2 years the chances are most listeners don’t even know your name yet.

Work hard to have a broad appeal. Think about the target audience of your station and make sure you BROADCAST to them and not NARROWCAST to the ones that text and email. 

Keep it simple. In my opinion radio has changed. People are so busy now they haven’t got time like they used to. I personally don’t think you need lots of features with clever rhyming titles. I think being real and friendly is more important than it’s ever been. Years ago it was all about tight slick presentation, talking up to the vocals and being cool and credible.

In my opinion radio as a media isn’t cool or credible, the best presenters in the country are just normal people who have the ability to connect and the only way to truly connect is keeping it simple.

The biggest radio show in the country on Radio 2 (Chris Evans) is as simple as you like. Same thing day in day out with a very friendly presenter who makes you feel very welcome to his show each time you tune in. The reason it’s so popular is because it’s simple and easy to listen to. You know where you stand with him and the show in general. 

I also truly believe you have to love the music you are playing. Too many presenters ignore the music. Occasionally you have to really love a song. Not everyday as you will sound like a nerd but every now and then grab a song from the playlist and love it like it’s only the second time you’ve heard it and you know love it.

We think because we’ve played Pharrell Williams Happy 7 times this week that the audience is a sick of it as we are but in reality they turn it up when it comes on. They still love it so why not say ‘you do’ as well at times even though you are sick of it. If the listeners think you are loving the songs they will buy into it and listen longer.

Don’t just big up old songs though as that’s what most presenters do. Makes you sound old.