[box] The presenters call News an interruption to their otherwise perfect show. The News team like to extend their bulletins; the presenters talk a lot of nonsense anyway. Apart from the occasional ‘Hi’ when the newsreader walks into the studio, the Presenters and news staff rarely interact. Does this sound like your station? Well it could describe many. News is still an important element of even the most music-intensive stations. Why? because if your News is well-targeted, it will be talking about issues that are important to your audience. So it’s time for presenters to stop treating the News as a ‘toilet-break’ and start thinking about ways to incorporate the News team into the programming. You should be bringing in reporters, editors or readers from the news team outside of news bulletins to discuss big issues or breaking stories. I’m always greeted with looks of shock and horror when I suggest this one but… have you considered having your best Newsreader as a member of your breakfast show team? And for the news types… do you realise that the presenters are likely to be closer to the target audience than anyone else in the building… (after all they need to understand the audience if they are to attract them!) the presenters can give you some valuable insights into the listeners tastes, even for news stories. You should listen to them once in a while! If your Presentation and News teams work more closely together they will be able to understand each other and start generating content together that is more focused on the target audience and more inline with the brand. [/box]

[box type=”bio”] John Wilkins offers solutions for your radio station to help increase audience and maximise revenue. If you are interested to find out how John can help to improve your station’s programming, presenters, promotions or imaging please click here.[/box]