A day in the life of….a radio producer

Who cares what a radio producer thinks?

• Provide valuable insights and inform a stronger media strategy

• More confident, knowledgeable and trustworthy

• Increase your likelihood of clients wanting to work with us again

Who cares about producers?

Okay, but why should I listen to you?

What does a radio producers day look like?

Pre-Programme

LBC & BBC Breakfast

Pre-programme

• Producer begins at 5am for a 7am breakfast show

• First thing: Read programme brief

Show is set up from 2pm the day before

Using embargoed stories, forward planner

There will be gaps in the schedule for new stories

• Newspapers (Pick the titles that your target audience reads)

How they get their news?

• Social media• Who the producers/presenters are following to understand them• What lists have they created?

• Wires

• GNS

• PA (Breaking news)

• Press releases

Picking a story

•Six to eight stories for a three hour programme

•Not just about being newsworthy it's about creating a conversation

•News may just go in the bulletin

•Journalists will go on their gut instinct of “what works”

•First question: who cares?

•Second question: what is my question to the audience?

•Third question: who to talk on the topic?

•Final question: will my presenter like the story?

•More than any other media, radio wants a conversation starter

Lining up the programme

• Pitch the stories to your presenter

• Fact sheets, top lines and guests

• Local, target audience focus

• Conversation questions for the audience

• Hard-hitting stories at the top of the hour

• Bottom of the hour – feature stories, which could be dropped

What does their day look like?

5am – Show prep6am – Presenter comes in7am – Show is live

– Watching for breaking news– Checking and prepping guests– Helping presenter through interviews

10am – Show is off air & debrief10am – Editorial meeting & begin planning for next day11am – The pitching sweet spot!12pm – Go home

Great. It’s 11am. Now what?

How to be heard

• Who cares?• The headline test• How to cut through the volume?

• Hundreds of emails• Keep email subject hyper-local

• Know the programme:• What stories does a presenter usually like to cover?• What facts or case studies does a producer like to know?

• They are looking for six stories across a programme

• They will tell a story through your spox, case studies or an outside expert

Planning

• One producer in charge of forward planning

• Daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly forward planner shared at the

beginning of each month

• They want the headline and potential spokespeople

• Reporters and producers are assigned a week or day in advance

• Breakfast planner will start around 2pm on the day before (including

Sunday)

Securing a story

• New assets to help tell a story

• Sound clips

• Fact sheets

• Interesting top lines

• Spokespeople

• Credible

• Quirky but authoritative, what they can’t get on-air

Recap

•Try and get as much relevant information to producers a few weeks

in advance to increase chances of your client’s story being covered

•Make sure your advisory meets the what's the headline and who

cares test? If not, then re-work it

•If you can’t get through the door, go through the windows (keep

giving them new assets)

Any questions?