As the owner or manager of a radio station you should always be on the lookout for ways to expand your station’s reach. This is crucial because, without some form of promotion on your end, your station’s growth is limited.
There are several different ways to increase your station’s listenership. Each method has its place in promoting your radio station. However, the sole focus of this help article is on one method alone: radio syndication. We’ll first explain what is radio syndication, then we’ll discuss why it’s important and lastly we’ll describe how Radio Cult is useful for facilitating syndication.
Let’s dive into it!
So what is radio syndication
Earlier, we described radio syndication as a means of promoting your station. However, technically speaking, radio syndication is a means of distribution.
It is the practice of radio show owners selling or leasing the right to broadcast their content to other radio stations. So in effect, a syndicated radio show will likely be broadcast by multiple stations who otherwise need no other affiliation with each other.
Radio syndication is firstly a means of increasing the distribution of a particular piece of radio content. However, when employed successfully it is also an effective promotional tool. Broadening where a radio show is broadcast, means more listeners and in turn results in more listeners - and importantly new listeners - becoming aware of the original creator of the syndicated show.
The importance of radio syndication
The importance of radio syndication should not be understated. As mentioned earlier, syndicating your station’s content can have a significant impact on your station’s ability to attract new listeners.
By having your shows broadcast beyond your station, you’re guaranteeing a larger audience will hear it than would otherwise be the case. With the right attribution to your station, the aim is these other stations' listeners permanently become your own. Further, the syndication doesn’t have to go one way. It can be a great opportunity for cross collaboration with other stations, where each participating station broadcasts the shows of the other stations.
It's also a wasted opportunity not to consider syndication for your radio station. The bulk of your efforts when producing your shows will be directed at the content’s original broadcast on your station. With today’s modern technology, the extra effort to have that same radio show broadcast elsewhere is minimal. So if the show was going to be produced for a single audience anyway, then it makes complete sense to broadcast to multiple audiences where possible.
How Radio Cult can help with syndicating your station
For an internet radio station looking to syndicate their shows, Radio Cult is here to help.
We recently released our relay functionality. A relay allows you to add the streaming URL of another station to your media library on Radio Cult. Once the relay has been added, you can schedule a relay show at any time.
When the show is scheduled to begin, the audio being broadcast from the other station will be routed to your Radio Cult streaming server and will be broadcasted from your own streaming URL. This means your station’s listeners can enjoy the other station’s show all from the same place that they’ve enjoyed your previous broadcasts.