Even in 2007 it’s not uncommon for the average radio station to view their website as a cost, and usually a nominal one at that.
To most stations even today, it’s a billboard in cyberspace (remember that term?). A repository for boring details about your personalities, your music, your events, and tons of non-contextual banner advertising, occasionally bonused with a live stream.
So it’s only fitting, at this stage of the media game, that you should really ask yourself what your website is and why it is and what and why it should be.
Here’s one starting point for that answer (there are, of course, more than one):
Your website is a destination for enriching the experience of visitors in ways that entertain and involve them such that your brand is enhanced, usage is stimulated, page views are maximized, and revenues are generated.
Start thinking about your website in those terms and recreate your site from ground zero.
The trap in our industry is the norm. I can’t count the number of times I’m asked for “a good example” of this or that on other radio stations. The best examples of websites for radio stations are generally not on radio stations.
The trap in our industry is the template. Applying templates across stations or across groups provides what everyone can agree on or what’s easy to provide, not what is necessarily best in your situation.
The trap in our industry is the budget. Too many stations have volunteer webmasters if they have any at all. Your web effort will soon be as important as on-air programming effort. In fact, I would suggest you picture your website as an entirely separate radio station and budget accordingly.
I can easily – easily – foresee your website attracting a larger audience than your radio station.
Shouldn’t you be prepared to program and monetize that?
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