5 Step:

Radio
startup
checklist.

By James Mulvany,
Founder of Radio.co
 CONCEPT

START THE
ENGINES

SCHEDULE &
PROGRAMMING

CREATE
BUZZ

DEVELOP &
BUILD
 01 CONCEPT
What will your station
become?

Building a strong idea

Coming up with a solid idea and
concept for your radio station is
essential groundwork you should be
undertaking, before jumping into
broadcasting.

Ultimately this starts with your

audience. Who are you going to be
targeting, what sort of music do they
like to listen to, what sort of content do
they expect?

Let's look at how to identify your ideal

listener.
Building a strong idea

Task: Personas
By asking ourselves these kinds of
questions we can start to build up a
profile of who that IDEAL listener
would be - personas are used widely in
many marketing and branding
exercises.

Getting a good grasp of this early on is

a great place to start.Then once we
have a clear idea of who our audience
is, then we can start building and
crafting the concept for the radio
station to match this person.

Ultimately, there's no point in spending

time building a radio station if there's
no one who's going to listen in.You
need to name your station and give it a
brand that will speak to your ideal
listener.
 Define an
audience
persona

IDENTIFICATION
What is their name?
Gender?
Age?

PERSONALITY
Are they introverted or extroverted?
What car do they drive?
Where do they hang out?

LISTENING HABITS
What time do they listen to the radio?
How do they tune in?
What other stations might they listen to?
What spotify playlists do they listen to?
 02
START THE
ENGINES
Radio.co
Using a solid platform like Radio.co to
automate, control and stream every
aspect of your radio station is key.
From scheduling playlists to tracking
listeners. Broadcasting from anywhere.
It really will become the solid engine
behind your station.

Used Everywhere
Radio.co has over 4000 customers, in
almost every country in the world.
Tried and tested by stations big and
small and with a network capacity large
enough to keep up with even the
biggest of players.
03 Schedule +
Programming
Build a killer schedule.
Plan it before going live.

COMMON
MISTAKE #1
You might already be a huge music
fan and you might already have a
very good idea of what sort of songs
or artists that you want to play...
Right?

However, it doesn't necessarily mean

you're always right and you need to
tailor your output to suit the majority
of people rather than the minority.
THE
SOLUTION:
Using tools like Spotify to research
playlists that other people have
created can be a really good way to
make sure that your output is along
the right lines especially if it's going
to be a music based radio station.

Also search on things like BuzzFeed

or Reddit for top lists of genre or
artist based content to see what other
people are talking about what other
people are listening to and engaging
with. These kinds of tools can be
really useful when your concepting
and building a schedule for a radio
station to make sure that the output
is going to be appealing to a wider
audience as possible.
04 CREATE A
BUZZ
Time to think about how to
build your station's presence
Plan your
attack
SPOILER: Just constantly
asking people to tune in
WON’T WORK.

The term ‘build it and they will come’ is wrong.

You'll need an engaging marketing strategy to
back up your station's output and grow.

Start thinking about what kind of content

you can create to gain listeners, increase
engagement & be creative about it.

Roll out this content across different

channels. You need a blog, social and video.
This all needs to link in tightly to your on air
output.
STEAL THESE
CONTENT
IDEAS...
Below are some examples of content
headlines, that are on topic for music
focused radio AND can easily be
adapted for any genre or era. They
can be posted on social, turned into
blog posts or even made into video.

SO feel free to steal these ideas.

They are also designed specifically so
people feel the need to respond.
Listeners love sharing an opinion, so
encourage it - make it about them
and not just about you..!

"Here are the Top 10 songs which

were on the charts [1/5/10/20/30]
years ago. Which was your
favourite?"
"Which lyrics are poetry to you? Pick
an iconic [70s/80s/90s] lyric that
should be displayed loud and proud?"

"Here are our top 3 lyrics of all time.

What are yours?"

"Many people listen to us in the

shower. Have you had a moment of
clarity while in the shower recently?
Share your shower thoughts with us
now!"

"It's Friday night. It's time to party.

Here are our Top 3 Floor Filler's that
get us into that Friday Feeling. What
are yours?"

"Here are 2 statements about

[ARTIST]'s new song [SONG]. Agree
or disagree..."
"These are our top 5 WORST albums
of all time. What is the worst album
that you own?"

"Rate these 5 classic songs from best

to worst..."

"Most Popular [GENRE] Band’s from

the [DECADE]"

"Missed out on yesterday's [SHOW

TITLE]? Here's our top 5
highlights..."

Have you used any of these? How did

they get on! Let me know:
james.m@radio.co
 05 Develop &
Build

BUILD ON WHAT YOU

HAVE BY DEVELOPING A
GOOD TEAM &
IMPROVING SHOWS
In my opinion the worst thing you can do
when you own a radio station is just set
and forget it.

I see so many customers who spend a lot

of time in the early days building a
schedule, uploading music, creating a
website but then just leave it and expect it
to sort of ‘magically’ do well.
A radio station should be an ever-evolving
entity & you need to be updating your
playlist every single month with fresh new
content so that your output doesn't start
to sound stale.

Plus, remember to take on-board listener

feedback! If people don't like listening to
a certain type of music, or people are sick
of hearing the same song again & again -
then make darn sure you do something to
change it!

Remember: Your radio station is designed

to be a tool to entertain and inform
others.

Finally, you need to build a team. You

shouldn’t try and go it alone. Most
successful radio stations we see have lots
of people involved. I’m not saying you
need to spend a fortune hiring staff. It
can be listeners spreading the word or
volunteers helping with content for the
blog.
I ran a radio station for a number of years
called MCR Live which ran with a skeleton
staff and we reached an audience of over
half a million every single week.

This would not have been possible

without around 50 contributors who
would go to gigs and review them for the
site and social channels, write reviews
about new albums, attend events to
spread the word and also helping with
things like suggesting new music for the
playlist, arranging interviews with artists
who were passing through town.

Not to mention the 20 or 30 DJ’s &

Presenters we had who contributed to the
output of the radio station on air. We had
an awesome team and would reward
them by organising regular parties and
events, putting money behind the bar.
Not to mention getting them access to
some of the hottest gigs in town - for
free! People like getting involved with
radio projects, it’s a cool thing to be a
part of and you can build a really strong
community.
You’ll also need a crack team of technical
and marketing experts and that's where
we come in at Radio.co! We have built an
awesome, expert team who will become
YOUR team. Always there to help,
making sure everything runs smoothly
behind the scenes and keeping you ON
AIR 24/7!

Plus our world class content team is

always creating new, useful guides and
video content so you can keep upto date
with the latest ninja techniques, industry
tricks, equipment reviews and much
more.

If you’re looking to get started ASAP - I'd

love to invite you to book a one on one
consultation with myself or one of the
team.

We'll talk over your ideas and figure out

a plan to get your station launched
quickly. Plus show you how to use the
software and answer any questions! have.
QUESTIONS?
Feel free to email...

james.m@radio.co

or Book A Discovery Call!