Create A Personal Brand Preference with Radio

Create A Personal Brand Preference with Radio

by | Mar 31, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

One of the questions I sometimes get when people learn I work for a radio station is, “Do People Still Listen To The Radio?”

And those are honest, sincere people, not being sarcastic.

I can honestly tell them and you, “Yes.”

The day this article and podcast goes live, March 31, 2025 is the official 100th birthday of my main radio station, WOWO, which officially launched as an AM radio station in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

WOWO still has a home on AM at 1190 along with 92.3FM, 107.5FM which is a low power FM signal along with an HD option at 97.3 FM HD2.

WOWO is one of over 20 local radio stations in Fort Wayne.

Besides listening to WOWO and other stations on a traditional radio frequency, nearly all traditional AM and FM stations can also be listened to online.  There are apps that you can download, station websites that you can listen to, or do what my wife and I do at home and listen over smart speakers.  In our family room and kitchen we have Alexa, in my home office I have Google’s smart speaker system that I use.

Every vehicle that I’m aware of has access to FM radio, most also have access to AM too.

The one challenge is finding a traditional portable radio, but I’ve bought one from Amazon, my wife has a couple too.  Trying to find one at a big box store like Walmart is challenging but they still sell them at Best Buy.

Radio Stations are still around, but does anyone listen anymore?

For this question, I dug into my Nielsen data that I have access to and here’s some numbers:

In Metro Fort Wayne there are 438,000 adults age 18 and older. over 304,000 people listen to the radio weekly.  That’s 70%.

I narrowed the demographics to the youngest group, ages 18 to 34 and 53% listen in Fort Wayne.

However 76% of adults age 35 and older listen to radio in Fort Wayne.

That 35 year old threshold is what I call the beginning of being a true grown-up. Between 18 and our mid 30’s, we’re still transitioning from college and party life, looking for fun and adventure and we’re just getting started earning some serious money in our late 30’s and early 40’s.  We start making grown-up decisions and having busy family lives after we reach our mid 30’s and later.

Those people are still the primary radio listeners and quite frankly I’m not sure what the future will be in say, 15 or 20 years.  Will those younger turn to traditional radio?  We’ll have to wait and see as I’ve been doing for a long time.  See the demise of radio was predicted 25 years ago and yet it’s still here and a viable place to advertise and build brand awareness for your company.

A couple weeks ago, Westwood One published a story titled:

The Business Case for AM/FM Radio Advertising: Be Known Before You’re Needed

You can click on the headline link to read the whole article, however here are the highlights:

  • Media plans with AM/FM radio have +28% greater market share than brands that do not use AM/FM radio
  • Advertisers using AM/FM radio have +42% greater profit than brands that do not use AM/FM radio

But radio works best for long term Return On Investment.  The article includes a story:

How advertising really works: Steve’s Pest Control of Columbia, Missouri used AM/FM radio to build a huge business

1,095 miles to the west of New York City lies Columbia, Missouri, the home of Steve’s Pest Control, “Missouri’s number one choice for pest control.”

Steve’s Pest Control knows what Madison Avenue has forgotten. To generate substantial sales and profit, a business needs to create future demand rather than obsess over short term metrics and only focus on converting existing demand.

Steve Hotsenpiller and his wife Anita started their business over three decades ago with one truck. They bought ads on a small radio station.

Each year, they devoted about 8.5% of their revenues to advertising. As they grew, they bought ads on more radio stations and soon became one of the largest advertisers on local radio.

Their ads are charming, funny, and entertaining. They usually end with the jingle that exclaims, “Now you’ve got a friend in the pest control business – Steve’s Pest Control!” Today, with over 90 trucks, Steve’s Pest Control is the undisputed leader in the pest control business.

As I review the businesses I’ve worked with in the radio business, some are brand new, while others are a few generations strong.  If you’ve never done a radio campaign as part of your business marketing outreach, it’s time to start considering it.

What’s Your Sign?

What’s Your Sign?

by | Mar 24, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

You’re standing on the 50-yard line in a stadium filled with 50,000 people. The lights are bright, the crowd is buzzing, and you – yes, YOU – are holding a massive sign advertising your business – and it’s about to be even bigger up on the “jumbotron”. This is your big advertising moment.

So, what does it say on your sign? Something bold? Something clever? Or just your logo because you panicked?

Now, here comes the plot twist – just like a corporate game of “Survivor”, NINE of your competitors are standing right next to you – with their own signs.

Suddenly, your message might feel… less special. The point is… your MESSAGE matters the most, regardless of what form of advertising you’re using. “For all your ‘blank’ needs” doesn’t cut it.

If you’d like to see a list of bad slogans and tag lines or short advertising phrases to avoid, click here.

Be memorable, not forgettable. You’re not the only one “holding up a sign”.

What I just shared with you was sent to subscribers to my Sound ADvice newsletter a couple of weeks ago.  Email me and ask for a free subscription and I’ll include you too. Scott@ScLoHo.net

Make It Personal

Make It Personal

by | Mar 17, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

One of the best marketing tips I can give you is the title of this article and podcast episode: Make it Personal.

Despite all the new tech and capabilities of AI generated stuff, it’s people you need to connect with.

This is my anniversary week. Kathy and I met 25 years ago and married on St. Pat’s Day a year later.

I’ve never had an ongoing daily relationship with anyone for 25 years.  Sure, my kids who are now 40 or close to it, I’ve know longer but they are all over this country with their own families and so it’s a bit different since they are under their own roofs, different from Kathy and I who share a roof and whole house for 2 and a half decades.

My challenge to you is to make sure your advertisements and marketing messaging is as one-on-one personal as your best human relationship connection.

Think about the characteristics that sustain that relationship.

How can you mimic that and avoid “ad-speak” in your marketing?

Earlier this month I touched on this as part of a presentation I made to local business people and I’ll share in more detail what I shared with them in an upcoming article and podcast episode.  In the meantime, take a fresh listen and look at how you and your business present themselves and make a list of both the good and bad as it pertains to Making It Personal.

 

Right-Sizing Your People

Right-Sizing Your People

by | Mar 10, 2025 | Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Our federal government is in the midst of attempting to cut staff that isn’t needed.

I’m not going to get all political on you, however the way they are doing it appears to be confusing, chaotic and in conflict with itself.

As a business owner or manager, you probably have similar goals of increasing efficiency but you need to be smart about it and minimize the pain.

As a former manager myself, I found myself sometimes debating how to support my team by either doing some tasks for them myself, or to delegate.

Turns out even in my non-management position, I have support people that I can use to handle certain tasks more efficiently than doing it myself, while other times, it’s better for me to do it.

Last month one of my Sound ADvice newsletters touched on this subject:

What would you rather have – more time or more money?

Wouldn’t more time EQUAL more money?

You’ve heard the phrase, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”. Well, if you constantly feel that there are not enough hours in a day and keep going like you’re going… stress is a killer. If you’re doing the job that 2, 3, or 10 people should be doing, then you probably have tension, high irritability, and marble-size knots spread throughout your back.

The problem: Too many tasks, too little time.  Or if you DO get them done, you’re massively sleep-deprived and your employees and family start to dislike you real fast.

What’s the quick answer? DELEGATE. It will give you more time. More time can equal more money – and more peace. Doesn’t “peace” sound nice?

I know a business manager who has a mountain of tasks to complete every day, week, and month. She also likes to have a lot of control. I get it. But I think she’s going to have a breakdown soon if she doesn’t learn to delegate some of her workload.

The benefits to her would be her health and potentially more moments to be happy. The benefits for YOU can be improved health, more happiness, and BUSINESS GROWTH. You’ll find that when you delegate certain tasks, you can increase the profit potential of your business.

What is your time worth? $50 an hour? $125? $1000? If you take a close peek at your regular tasks, you’re probably doing a lot of things that someone else could do for far less.

If you learn to outsource a few of those things, you’ll be able to have more time doing the truly valuable things you’re really good at. You’ll also have more time to vacation, laugh, love, and get the rest your body deserves.

If you’d like to know a crucial step in DELEGATING and taking a few things off your plate, click here.  Let’s get started…

Your family and your employees will thank you.

If you would like to be included as a free subscriber to my Sound ADvice weekly newsletter, email me: Scott@ScLoHo.net

In our own company we discovered that some of our people were both highly accurate and highly efficient which meant they not only could take on more tasks, but they wanted to do more because they enjoyed the work but were getting it done quicker than their predecessor, so they’ve been given more to do and they’re grateful.

 

The 2025 Fort Wayne Radio Rating Update

The 2025 Fort Wayne Radio Rating Update

by | Mar 3, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

As a follow up on last weeks article and podcast episode, Today I’m going to share information regarding the last ratings data we have for the Fort Wayne, Indiana market pertaining to radio station listenership. This data was collected last Fall and is the most recent information we have until an update is released later this year.  Radio stations and ad agencies pay Nielsen for the data and I’m limited in what I can share publicly but my goal is to give you some insight that will either confirm your perceptions or blow them out of the water.

I have to bounce around a couple different survey data sets but all of this is specifically about radio listenership in Fort Wayne.

Using the Total Survey Area which includes 19 counties in Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio, I see there are a little over 900,000 people ages 12 and older living here. Over a third of them live in Allen County which includes Fort Wayne.  When I eliminate the 12 to 17 year olds, we have almost 570,000 adults in our area.

70% listen to a local radio station every week.

Less than 20% listen to satellite radio like Cirrus XM.

Only 61% are watching one of the traditional broadcast TV channels of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox networks.

Less than 20% are subscribing to our local daily newspaper.

This tells us that local radio stations still have the largest overall audience of readers, viewers and listeners compared to other local media options.

Also the perception that everyone listens to satellite radio is far from true.

Which Fort Wayne radio stations have the most listeners?

In the last rating period , just one WMEE had over 100,000 weekly listeners age 12 and older.

WMEE is owned by Federated Media, where I work.  Other Federated Media stations were in the top ten in this classification include News Talk WOWO, Country Station K105, Rock Station 989 The Bear.  The other 6 stations with the most weekly listeners age 12 and older include WBCL, WAJI, WJFX, WLDE, WXKE and WBTU.

29 stations made the entire survey.

From a business perspective, using the broad age range of 12 years old and older doesn’t make sense because teenagers are not spending much money compared to adults.

And to really take an honest look at who spends money, we should also leave out the young adults in their 20’s maybe up to age 35 or 40.  It’s not that those age demographics don’t have money, but most of it is already spoken for with college debts, rent, car payments and credit card debt eating up most of those paychecks.

Realistically, it’s when we are in our 30’s that our families are growing both in number and expenses.  However by the time adults reach around 40 they begin to have some breathing room or at least figured out how to deal with their finances on a more grown-up level.

That’s why when I talk to business owners I use the term “grown-ups” as their customers.  These are people age 35 and older.  Sometimes business owners are targeting grown-ups age 45 and older because that’s who will spend money more freely instead of the younger folks.

I give you all of that just to set you up for what I’ve been doing for years when it comes to rating data for the purposes of advertising and that is to look at the age demographics of each radio station that matches who will buy what a business is selling.

That starts with age 35+.  My station, WOWO has the most weekly listeners in that age group.

Another important number that I look at from the ratings is how much time do listeners spend listening to their favorite stations?  It’s called Time Spent Listening, or TSL and again WOWO dominates over all the other local radio stations.

From a business perspective this means  there is an increased likelihood that a WOWO listener will hear your ad compared to listeners of any other radio station.

Nielsen has a cool tool in their dashboard where I can plug in a sample schedule on WOWO of let’s say 15 ads per week and it will tell me that on other stations I need  at least 30 ads up to 45 ads to reach the same number of people, the same number of times.

Talk to me about this specifically for your business and I can run reports for you too.

While all this is good news for the people I talk with about inviting WOWO listeners to become your customers, it’s just reassurance data.

Coming up in a couple of weeks, I’ll share my simple  formula on how to buy advertising that doesn’t involve ratings or anything other than common sense and show you how you can use it to be smarter than most advertising sales people.