Start a Radio Show
Volume 11, Number 50
Issue 546
One of the ideas that allowed me to obtain much success was the fact that I decided to produce and host my own radio show for four years. That idea gave me much exposure and much self-confidence to learn how to, as a craft, explain and advocate complex issues quickly and succinctly.
Every true entrepreneur is an expert in their field and could host a radio show. It’s fun, it’s exciting and it will make you money if you do it properly.
Every radio station has a format that generally falls into one of two categories: music or news/talk. The music stations almost always do not allow for talk shows in the form of paid advertising. Most of the news/talk shows do. If you want your own talk show, find a news/talk station in your area. Find out what their policy is on entrepreneurs having their own shows to talk about things in their areas of expertise.
I’ve seen successful lawyers have shows about law, investments advisors have shows about financial and investments, carpenters and electricians have handyman shows and realtors have shows about real estate. They’ve all been very good at it and it was easier than they ever thought it would be.
If you have a pleasing personality and are able to think on your feet and you have multiple contacts in your industry, you have the basics for the show.
Radio stations often sell airtime for $500-$750 per hour. You can have your own company sponsor your own show, or have your vendors sponsor it. You can then sell sub-sponsorships to break even.
For the first year that The Entrepreneurs Hour Radio Show™ was on the air, my accounting firm paid the radio station’s charges. In the second year, the station dropped the price because I was so good at being a host and producer. In the third year, they dropped it further and I had the idea (I wish I had had it before) to approach my clients and associates—especially vendors—to sponsor segments of the show. That year, I actually made a surplus. In the fourth year, I changed stations and received a better deal on a higher watt radio station and I was able to have more and even better-paying sponsors.
The format of The Entrepreneurs Hour Radio Show™ was that I would interview my clients as studio or telephone guests. My clients loved being showcased—it promoted their business. Producing a live radio show at the studio allowed for very deep relationships to be made with existing clients and made opportunities for exploring relationships with potential clients.
At first, I had studio guests (Virginians) and I would do a full hour of interviewing them and mixing in telephone calls from listeners who had questions. Then I decided to have shows with 3-4 different segments, each having a different telephone guest of national or regional prominence. The telephone interviews allowed me to explore national issues such as the “flat tax” by having congressmen as guests or exploring an entrepreneurial side of a story in the national news media. I also had a lot of fun calling entrepreneurs that I would read about and asking them to talk about their businesses.
Since my show was a Friday evening show, I had the entire week’s news cycle to find interesting guests by reading The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and my local papers. Using the Internet and/or telephone books, I would contact interesting entrepreneurs and I would ask them to be on my show.
I also had the opportunity to interview celebrities, including Hall of Fame football, baseball and basketball players. I was also fortunate to interview several very famous musicians and actors. All of these interviews taught me that celebrities started out just like regular people, but they had to quickly learn to trust professionals. I formed the opinion that the most famous celebrities are also savvy and seasoned entrepreneurs.
There were a few celebrity guests that had sad stories to tell or who were simply “sad” and pathetic. I treated each one with a great amount of respect, but I let the listener know that celebrity status does not always mean that success exists. The guests evolved in their interview because I made them feel at-home in the studio. There was a famous Football Hall of Fame quarterback that cussed repeatedly in the interview (I was reprimanded by the station) and the Grammy Award-winning musician who was intoxicated (I figured it out half-way through the interview).
I also had many telephone interviews with authors about their books. This allowed me to explore writing as a craft by having dozens and dozens of great writers talk about the writing and publishing process.
Authors were great examples of entrepreneurialism. They must be “marketeers” over anything else. Lousy books written by an author with a fantastic personality easily turned into GREAT books because they were such great radio show guests. I learned that the most successful authors know that they have done only the easy part by writing the book—the hard part is marketing the book. Even the best book with the best publishing company needs to have aggressive and savvy marketing to make it successful.
Having your own radio show is a great way to become regionally prominent in your own field and have tons of fun at the same time. It is a costly marketing experience in the beginning before you find sponsors but it is also a great way to make strong relationships stronger and explore potential ones. Hosting about 200 shows over four years made me knowledgeable about a lot of things that I would never have explored.
I didn’t really realize when I started the show that having it would make me much better at communication and organization. I had to become a great unabashed and very entertaining communicator and this made me an even better professional in my life as a Certified Public Accountant.
I also realized that everything always comes back to personal responsibility and capitalism and that the general public looks to experts who are passionate and enthuaistic about what they do. Some of my favorite times as an entrepreneur were ones that I had hosting The Entrepreneurs Hour Radio Show™ by way of meeting entrepreneurs from all over the world.
So, if you want your own radio show, it’s far easier than you think.
1. Come up with a theme that is centered around our expertise as an entrepreneur.
2. Contact the low-watt news/talk stations in your local “market.” The low wattage stations, though they are more difficult to hear on the dial, are usually the ones that are (1) locally-owned and (2) most likely to accept a locally produced news/talk show. You’ll want to interview other talk show hosts on that station that are run by businesspeople and ask what they pay for their airtime. You will want to negotiate a better deal by convincing the station owners that you will bring far more than money to their station by doing promotion and advertising that will promote your own show. Sign a short-term (nine or twelve weeks) at first, just in case you decide, once you get into it, that you don’t like it.
3. Network with your best friends and business contacts to find sponsors and guests.
4. Listen to every other talk show on your station and any other stations in your market that have a news/talk format. Emulate other talk show hosts, local and national—but learn to be even better.
5. Work to produce the best show. Plan, prepare and get better and better. Work with the producer that the station assigns you. Ask for, take, and work with constructive criticism to get better and better. As the show progresses, change the format to suit your interests.
6. Never, never, never do a taped show. Have the commitment to do a live, weekly show that is always aired at the same time. You will build a base of loyal listeners and you will work to get better and better. You will look forward to doing the show.
7. Choose your guests wisely but passionately. Set the schedule of guests well in advance and announce it. Program a website, change it constantly and dedicate it just for the show. This allows listeners to explore every facet of the show’s past, present and future.
8. Talk to station management often. Find out how you can be considered part of the station’s regular “on air” staff of radio personalities. Volunteer to fill-in for other hosts at no charge. Volunteer to do remotes at no charge. Volunteer to do commercials and voice-overs at no charge.
9. Produce CDs and tapes of every show. Keep a library. On the day after the show, send your guests a taped copy of their show as a memento along with a handwritten thank-you note.
10. Do your own advertising of your own show. Promote, Promote, Promote!
11. Keep everything fresh and new—especially the telephone guests. Choose theme songs, play music clips and have fun.
12. Take a break every now and then by taking the show off the air for a few weeks to see if anybody misses it. When you have had enough and when you are at the top in terms of success, know that this may be the best time to let your show sign-off the air for good and get your life back.
Having my radio show was one of the greatest things I ever did. It opened-up a whole new list of potential clients by having asked them to be guests on the show. It was always something special to spend an hour in a twelve by twelve foot room creating a live show with a studio guest. It also never failed that I would get follow-up calls at my office the next day from people who had heard the show.
The show also gave me a tremendous amount of self-confidence and trained me to be able to think-on-my-feet as situations evolved. It gave me the ability to do research and to have fun marketing my trade.
I always enjoyed the opportunities to network my clients and promote their business. I loved showcasing clients who had paid me money for their tax preparation and business consulting. This was a way that they could try to see that I wanted to give them back something for what they had given me.
It was also fun to go into the grocery store and write a check and have the checkout clerk say, “aren’t you the guy on the radio?”
David B. Robinson, CPA
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