Hi Everyone,
I'm James Murphy and I've been a radio show presenter for three years. I have now started my own Internet Radio Station which launches next month, and I need to bring in an income to make it viable, as I want to build a quality online station in the UK.
Here's my double headed situation:
1) I've never done sales in my life
2) Being a new station, we have no sales history
Having no history means that I have no way of showing success for previous clients, so it means that with no experience in sales, I have to work hard at it.
The advantage I see is that I've already got listeners to my shows in 96 countries. We're just testing our stream at the moment, and we've managed to get listeners in 35 countries.
Luckily, I do have an income from my disco business, so it's not drastic at the moment, but I would like to make the change in time and derive an income solely from the radio station,
What would you do if you were me?
James,
You might want to get in touch with Ken Dardis at Audio Graphics, and perhaps Holland Cooke as well. Ken has been at the forefront of Internet radio in the USA for a number of years now, and Holland has some keen insights on where the radio business is headed.
Based on what you've described above, you probably shouldn't look at quitting your disco business anytime soon. Under the best of circumstances, advertisers are loathe to part with their money unless and until they can be assured of a reasonable chance of getting a return on their investment. You have to be able to demonstrate that they can achieve this on your station.
Good luck with your project!
I had a feeling that I won't be giving up my disco anytime soon. It's looking like a 5 year plan.
I think it's going to take a while before we'll be getting advertising on a regular basis. I'm trying to look at it from the buyers side, and we really don't have anything to offer audience wise. I think it's going to take a long time before we can build a loyal audience and without that we don't have anything to offer.
I'm looking at it as a long term project and hopefully in the interim I can pick up some tips which will enable me to put them into practise.
I think I'm in the phase where it's about getting the station producing results listenerwise first. But at the same time, I think it's good to see what I can learn to help me with the next steps.
