Community Relations & the Radio Station

In this world of focusing on generating income from advertising, voice-tracking, and cutting of staffs, I'm always afraid that radio will lose sight of it's involvement in the community. Specifically in being there for all of the non-profits that are also feeling the pinch of the economy. I have always been a big believer in the fact that radio needs to be a part of as many non-profit campaigns as humanly possible. Part of this comes from having worked in the non-profit world as a fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, but also from my sense of wanting to do the right thing.

Now I understand that fielding all if the calls for help can be a daunting task. the way I always liked to handle it, and take it for what you will, was that if was working with the big charities such as the American Cancer Society, Muscular Dystrophy Association, The National MS Society, The Red Cross... you see where I'm going with this... is take on those causes. No questions asked. Whatever they need, we were there for. PSA's, participating in events, helping to recruit teams, interviews... you name it.

Unfortunately, for the smaller groups like the church holding a book sale... we had to cut back. We would run PSA's and put them in the community section of the web site. If time and staff allowed, we would send a street team and a van.

I'm not saying to ignore the smaller groups, but you have to allot for time and resources.

Here's a personal example of what being involved in the community has included. I'm a cancer survivor. At my last radio job, I wondered why we weren't involved in any of the local "Relay For Life" events in our area. I called the Director of Communications for our region and arranged a meeting with her. She told me that they had been working with our competitor for years, and the Cancer Society wasn't particularly happy with them. But the volunteer committees that actually ran the events kept insisting. I asked her what they did and she replied that they would run some PSAs and show up with a van for a little while. I laid out my plan for her which included not only the PSAs, but they would be on all three of my radio stations, interviews on 2 of them, assistance in recruiting teams, web site inclusion (a whole page dedicated to Relay), showing up for the events, having our jocks do the kick-off and in one case singing the National Anthem, help in recruiting entertainment, and so on. When the person I was speaking with asked me how much this was all going to cost.. well, I was caught off-guard. My response was "What do you mean cost???" Apparently, our competitor charged non-profits. this is a HUGE no-no in my book. When I told her nothing, I thought she was nearly going to faint.

As it turned out, this was a huge win for my radio stations. Not only did we do something for the good of the community, but it was a win-win for everybody. It gave the American Cancer Society some much needed publicity and gave the stations that "warm-fuzzy" with the community.

We not only under-promised and over-delivered, but we were awarded the ACS' award for Best Media. One of the accomplishments I'm most proud of in my career.

If you're radio station has a minimal involvement in the programs like this, consider taking a more active role. It will only reflect well.