Can BYU Radio (107.9) ever break out of the 0.0s range?

[henry]

I suppose I have a vested curiosity, as someone who used to work there in its early days.

But even with a lot of "local" (in-house) programming, much of it surprisingly live (Lisa Show, "Constant Wonder", and Julie Rose) often live more often than not. And I'm really surprised it never got legs in the ratings.

What would you do if you ran the place (to build an audience)?

[levoix]

I've worked in local radio for a number of years, and I always thought stations were missing out on social media advertising. Specifically Facebook ads running to the listening area, with the objective of appointment listening. Costs are a lot less than billboards, and you can actually measure the results. BYU could get their marketing department to run these

[CAwasinNJ]

It's overly simplistic, but getting the word out is critical for any radio station.

(Thank you Captain Obvious. )

That being said, the first thing I would want to know is what the public's perception of the station is.  Honestly, if I didn't know better I would think it's Devotionals and LDS music 24/7.  I'm probably not the only one.  If there is a perception problem that's got to be fixed first.

[henry]

I think BYUtv suffers from the same problem. That's why they've plastered "TV FOR ALL" billboards across Utah and Arizona. But even with TV's larger marketing budget (and effort), I'm not sure they've seen any significant progress.

When I was there, religious programming was pushed to Sundays. I'm not sure if that's still the case today.

[fmdj1]

I've seen billboards in both the Salt Lake and Utah Valley areas promoting BYURadio in the past. Personally, I think a big problem is it is hard to tell who their target audience is. Trying to say "we target faithful Latter-day Saints" is way too broad an audience. If they are targeting educated, religious, middle-aged women, which half their programming seems pointed at, then why feature BYU sports? Appointment radio can work, and I say this as someone who spent a long time managing a public radio station, but it rarely draws big audiences, which is why it is usually something only public stations do. Of course, for public stations, the number of listeners doesn't usually matter near as much as the amount of money those listeners are willing to donate to support their favorite program. I'm not sue what BYURadio's ultimate goal is. I don't think it is to build a large audience. They don't program for it. They may be happy just filling a niche for a very specific group of people

[henry]

That's a good point re: target audience. I don't think even BYUtv know who they are programming for.

Early in the SiriusXM days, I was told we were to program for "a guy who isn't LDS living in Boston driving a BMW X5 with SiriusXM." We even promoted show times in EASTERN. By the time I left, BYUtv was targeting teens and tweens, so I have no clue what happened later on.

Big push early on for podcasting, and honestly the on-demand audience is probably far higher than the live. BYU Sports Nation pulls in more downloads than everything else combined, though the NPR-style "Top of Mind" show did very well with downloads. But again, my info is five years old at this point.

[amanuensis]

Henry, did you really mean BYUtv -- I think it is clear that they are programming for tweens and teens and (for the sports) BYU alumni.

As for BYU Radio, my impression is that they are targeting LDS women (again, except for the sports). It seems to me that the format is much like what Bonneville tried with KUTR when it was women's talk radio.

[fmdj1]

Apr 15, 2022 1:46:22 GMT -6 henry said:

Early in the SiriusXM days, I was told we were to program for "a guy who isn't LDS living in Boston driving a BMW X5 with SiriusXM." We even promoted show times in EASTERN.

Wow, they sure aren't targeting that guy anymore

Apr 15, 2022 11:10:36 GMT -6 amanuensis said:

As for BYU Radio, my impression is that they are targeting LDS women (again, except for the sports). It seems to me that the format is much like what Bonneville tried with KUTR when it was women's talk radio.

That's funny, KUTR is also what I thought of with most of the current programming. Of course, we know what happened to that station, but non-comms don't always have the same sort of audience concerns and don't have to worry about selling advertising.

[CAwasinNJ]

I'm not sure I'd read too much into that SiriusXM target audience. In those days, wasn't that the audience who actually subscribed?