The unTestimonial: Syndicate Your Show or Die, Brother Church
Mandeville, LA – We received the following letter from listener Jeff S., today. We are compiling a survey based on Jeff’s suggestions, meanwhile, please leave your comments below – thanks!
“Brother Church I wanted to let you know that while I enjoy most of your show there is one thing that is troubling me. You seem to be caught in this constant cycle of lamenting the lack of listeners. While internet radio may be the future we aren’t quite there yet. One of the fundamentals of how to succeed in business is to study people who are already successful. It doesn’t mean you have to copy them, but you should at least understand how they achieved their success.
The other day you brought up Freedom 95 on Tune In. They have over 53,000 followers. Why is that? Because they carry programming that is both streaming and on syndicated broadcast radio. Their content of made up of known syndicated radio hosts. Michael Savage is the number 1 streaming program. How did that happen? Because he is also on over 300 radio stations. These people have a platform to reach people who may just be scanning the “dial”. Given the sheer volume of internet programming, the odds of someone stumbling across your program, or any specific program, are pretty low. You have great programming and content. The problem is very few people know you exist and running banner ads on religious theology websites probably won’t change that. With your years of radio experience you know that there are a tremendous number of small AM radio stations that are begging for economical content. Given that syndicated programs are far cheaper to run than having local talent do live programming, putting together even a small group of broadcast affiliates should be doable.
I listen to several talk show hosts who have done this very thing. Whether it is a state network, a religious network, or just small group of radio stations I think its something that you should consider. I can’t justify giving Sirius $10 a month for 100 stations, its hard to spend $7 a month for 1 station. There is just too much free content out there that is supported by traditional advertising. Thanks and please get back to bashing Obama ….LOL
I do not know anything about the radio “BIZ”. But it seems to me that this individual is trying to talk you right back into the box that you have freed yourself from. What makes this channel most exciting to me is the palpable sense of freedom. Freedom from the powers that try to force spin be they advertisers, radio station groups or what have you. In my opinion there has never been anything like this available before. Yes it is new, yes it is not going as fast as you would like it to but incorporating some old school ways cannot help. And $10 for 100 channels BALONEY. I had that satellite radio back before the merger and it was $12.99 a month and I only listened to 1 channel. What you have put together is an incredible bargain. “Brotha” Church do not listen to that liar. And I am not talking about whoever wrote you that letter. I’m talking about that liar that would do anything to get in your way.
I think Jeff has a point. Some AM stations or fledgling FM talk station would love to carry veritas programs. If the truth gets to be too much for them they can drop the feed without issue. As long as they pay for the costs of carrying the signal it is a win-win. I would love a local station to carry a program or two, I only have 1gb of data on my phone each month and that leaves me with about 2 weeks of listening when using the tunein app’s lower quality stream rate.
Tom, we will reach out to AM & FM stations to gauge viability of syndicating some shows, I think it is a great idea. meanwhile, we can have syndicate/affiliates on individual websites using the embed code I mentioned today.
I think trailblazers often struggle and see your efforts as just that, Mr. Church. If you can make it work as you have been, just online, I think you should keep it up. Thanks again for all you do.