What Radio can Learn from Magazine Content Research

Female-targeted music stations use research to learn what music content has high appeal for the core consumer. Female-targeted magazines similarly determine what story content has high appeal.

Here are the 6 content areas that magazine publishers know will interest American female readers, in no particular order:

Sex Relationships
Family Relationships
Work Relationships
Health & Beauty
Personal Finances
Exercise & Diet

Lets get the airstaff focused on these content areas for prep. If these 6 subjects are what sell magazines,  then of course they'll work to help us hold listener attention as well.

90 Seconds to Get to Compelling Content Choices

Content Choice is the most basic decision a personality makes in preparing a show. WHAT we're going to talk has to come before HOW we're going to say something that is entertaining.

The easy road is to choose a subject that is already familiar and interesting to the listener. A harder path is to go with a subject that is unfamiliar and has uncertain interest.

Here are 9 questions that can help talent to brainstorm subjects that are already familiar and interesting to the target listener.   Think simple- spend 10 seconds on each one to get to 1 or 2 ideas that immediately leap out at you. 

What is "everybody in town" talking about?
What news story is my listener mentioning to a friend today?
What is my listener doing right now (for example, at 10:10am)
What is the new movie my listener wants to see?
What TV show are her/his friends talking about (last night/tonight)?
What artist or song is my listener most interested in this week?
What is my listener planning to do this weekend?
What situations are happening between people at work?
What conversations did I overhear in a restaurant or at the market lately?

You've just come up with at least 9 ideas for  familiar content and therefore you are a fairly interesting conversationalist for your station's listener.  Way to go!

Comic Strips: Must Connect or their 4-5 Panels are a Lost Cause.

Ideas for lifestyle and relationship content are plentiful in the newspaper comic strips.  Consider this-if the central idea for a 4-5 panel cartoon doesn't connect with the target reader,  all the work put into builidng a strip would be irrelevant.    Everything rides on the foundation: does this idea connect?

Any given day I bet there's more than 1 idea for relatable content for air personalities to be found in the funnies.  For any of the typical examples below,  what might be YOUR cast's dilemna?

Personal Finance: dad wants everyone to stop leaving lights on (For Better or For Worse)

Workplace: The Boss at work gets bossed when he is home (Hagar)

Neighbor to Neighbor: being interrupted by door to door magazine subscription sales

Seasonal Rituals: The 8 year old daughter is SO nervous about giving a valentine to a certain boy at school.

A soldier we know loses a limb in the war (Doonesbury)

The perfect vacation ends up being too lonely for the empty-nester couple (For Better or For Worse)

Little kid gets grounded for watching an R-rated movie (Foxtrot)

A guy's inability to tell his dad "I love you" (Zits)

A telemarketer calls anyway despite the 'do not call' list (Blondie)

A mom watches her kids misbehave at fast food restaurant and thinks 'next time i'm too tired to cook after work, remind me it takes twice as much energy to go out' (Baby Blues)