(By Mike McVay) One of the core tenets of having an FCC station license is to serve the community. At least it is supposed to be that way. Ascertainment of community issues is to be addressed in Public Affairs programming.
If stations become more and more networked, will they be able to serve the needs of their communities? Theoretically, yes. It will have to be purposeful and an effort to connect will have to be made. My concern isn’t now but the future. Present-day radio remains very engaged in improving lives.
Happening right now in Memphis is St. Jude Country Cares. For 35 years, the country music industry has helped support the mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through Country Cares for St. Jude Kids. In that time, country music radio marshaled its audiences, organized radiothons, and raised more than $800 million for the hospital. Country Cares started with Alabama’s Randy Owen. Since then ALSAC, the fundraising arm of the research hospital, has also engaged other radio formats including Rock, Urban, and Spanish.
Unlike any other hospital, the majority of their funding comes from individual contributions. It currently costs more than $2 billion to run St. Jude each year, and the cost is estimated to grow to $2.2 billion by 2027. Donations help ensure that families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food – so they can focus on helping their child live.
Founded by Danny Thomas “so that no child dies in the dawn of life.” St. Jude brings radio together, by format, several times per/year.
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is another. The charitable organization was founded more than 40 years ago with the vision to Change Kids’ Health and Change the Future. A large number of radio stations support CMN and tie-in sponsors who also underwrite donations to assist more than 170 children’s hospitals. All donations benefit local member hospitals to fund what’s needed most, like critical life-saving treatments and healthcare services, that put kids’ and families’ minds at ease during difficult hospital stays, and financial assistance for families who could not otherwise afford such health services.
When the pandemic first hit the world in Spring 2020, a large number of stations got behind Feeding America to ask for donations to food banks nationwide. People who had never been faced with having to depend on non-family members to be fed suddenly found themselves in food lines. America, the richest nation in the world, sees one out of seven families in need of food. Radio came through during the pandemic and continues to support those in need.
Radiothons include Toys for Tots, Stuff-a-Bus for school supplies or food, housing the homeless, coats for kids, and the list goes on. This is where radio stations connected to a community make a difference. It’s where charity covers the challenges of a tough year. Engaging in philanthropic work as a radio station and as a performing talent strengthens the foundation of an audience that should lead to the ability to better compete against those stations that are heard in, but not a part of a community.
Audiences don’t forget when you change their lives and when they witness you changing others’ lives.
It’s all too easy to forget that serving a community is at the heart of what radio does better than any other medium. We’ve seen it over the last few months with two back-to-back hurricanes making landfall in Florida and ravaging the Southeastern states. When the power went out, radio stayed on. Radio stations, plus syndicated/network shows, and broadcasters joined together to help those in need. The Broadcast Foundation of America opened a program to help broadcasters suffering because of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
If you’re worried about losing your audience during a radiothon or because of a fundraising event, you’re not executing in a way that the audience is drawn to your station like a moth to a flame. Hearing the stories of rise and fall sticks with listeners. Stories of success and the empathy that comes with loss are reality radio in a way that helps those in need. It lifts lives. It emphasizes the memory of loved ones. It restores our faith in humanity.
While you may think that socially responsible Baby Boomers are the generation with the largest tendency for giving, it is actually Millennials. That group, born between 1981 and 1996, is more involved in charity work than the rest. Generational experts praise them for their strong sense of social responsibility. They are reshaping the charitable landscape. They prioritize causes that align with their values and are highly engaged in peer-to-peer fundraising. Online giving is their forte, with crowdfunding platforms and social media serving as powerful tools to raise awareness and funds. Millennials value a sense of personal connection with the causes they support.
If you want to connect with an audience that’s in the center of 25-54, then you want to engage Millennials and draw them into your station as a P1 listener. Charities, social causes, and community involvement do that.
Entertainment and information bring a listener to your station. Connectivity keeps them there. Building listener loyalty begins by being genuinely connected to the community of your audience.
Mike McVay is President of McVay Media and can be reached at [email protected]. Read Mike’s Radio Ink archives here.
