Website Reviews
CFCW | 740 CFCW | Edmonton | NewCap | Country
While a significant number of CFCW's audience are between the ages of 35 and 64, the station actually has quite a diverse fan base. More than once I've been riding in a young, twenty-something friend's pickup and realized after a few minutes that we were listening to CFCW. Since Edmonton only has a couple country radio stations, it's not uncommon for young country music fans to jump over to the AM dial when CISN Country isn't playing the songs they're in the mood for.
Given CFCW's popularity among a younger audience, I was somewhat surprised to realize that they haven't taken to social media in the way that some the city's other radio stations have. Surfing CFCW's website, you'll find not a trace of social media. There are no links to Facebook or MySpace. There are no discussion forums. And there are no RSS feeds for the events, concerts, or other sections where the ability to subscribe to updates would be beneficial.
One could argue that CFCW is unaware of it's youth audience, but considering the station's role in the Big Valley Jamboree—that annual orgy of country music and youthful self-destruction—that would be a naive assumption. The station's media managers need only look at the young audiences who flock to Big Valley every year to realize that there are a lot of young people tuning in to the station.
Besides, young people aren't the only ones using social media (close to half of Facebook's members are over the age of 35) so it makes sense for CFCW to get involved in the social web even without making considerations for their younger listeners.
But, despite the lack of social content on the station's website, CFCW is active on Facebook. There is an official fan page created by the station; it's quite active and contains a fair amount of information that isn't available on the station's website. Why they haven't linked to their Facebook page from the website is something one can't help but wonder. Given that the website is a static one, containing no blogs or other frequently updated content, it would make sense to give visitors a link to the much more dynamic Facebook page.
CFCW's Facebook page
Despite this small oversight, CFCW is engaging with it's audience. Unlike a lot of media outlets that have a presence on Facebook, CFCW actually has someone interacting with the fans who are posting on the page (even if they are a bit slow to respond).
Anyone who thinks that CFCW is a vanguard of old fashioned ways, and hasn't kept up with the times need only look at their Facebook page to be proven wrong. While their website doesn't show it, CFCW is dipping it's toes into social media even more than some of the more "modern and edgy" stations currently on the air. In time, I expect that we'll see them go even further.
Of course, social media isn't the be-all and end-all of online communications. CFCW's website has a Contacts page, which lists phone numbers for a variety of departments, as well as email addresses for all of the important people at the station, including the on-air personalities.
They've also got listing for Events, Concerts, and Contests. These all seem to be listings that are in some way sponsored by CFCW, so any organizations hoping to be mentioned in this listings will likely have to get CFCW on-board as a media sponsor.
Between the information on the Contacts page and CFCW's highly active Facebook page, communicators looking to connect with the station and its fans online shouldn't have any trouble.
CISN | Edmonton | Corus | Country
CISN Country is one of Edmonton's two country music stations. In addition to being the more popular of the two, it came in second in the Winter 2008 ratings (630 CHED was first). There's clearly a significant audience to be reached on CISN.
How can communicators make use of CISN's website to reach this audience? There are a few different ways. The first is the “Contact Us” page. Like all Corus websites, CISN's contact page provides a significant amount of information. There are email addresses for all of the on-air staff, the interactive department (who manage the website), and of course the sales and promotions teams. Phone, fax, and mailing information can also be found on this page.
Like most radio stations, CISN also has sections for contests, concerts and events. And, like most other radio stations, all of the events listed here are sponsored by CISN. If you want to have your event listed, you'll have to convince CISN to act as a media sponsor for you. You may also want to consider donating a prize for one of their contests.With the exception of local news and weather, CISN's news sections actually link to fellow Corus radio station 630 CHED. If you're going to try to pitch a press release to CISN, you might as well go through the news department at CHED. If you're lucky, this will get you attention on both stations.
CISN has a number of active blogs, written by the on-air hosts, that allow visitors to comment on them. To leave a comment, simply click on the “READ MORE” link at the bottom of a post to be taken to the page where you'll be able to leave a comment. You can also click the number in brackets beside the word “Comments.”
Bruce Bowie's blog
Sean Burke's blog
Jennifer Martin's blog
Mike McGuire's blog
Chris Sheetz's blog
Stacy Woodward's blog
Dave Rolfson's blog
Nashville Kat's blog
Jimmy the Intern's blog
These blogs all appear to be moderated, so your comment will not appear right away. However, most radio stations will approve just about any comment. In order for your comment not to be approved you'd probably have to write something truly offensive—which you're obviously not going to do if you're a communications professional trying to get a message out to the public.
CISN Country also has a Twitter account but, like media outlets, it's used only to broadcast one-way information. There doesn't seem to be a chance to effectively communicate with the station via Twitter. But, it never hurts to try, so if you've got a Twitter account you might as well give it a shot.
CISN Country's Twitter account
Like a lot of radio station's in Edmonton, CISN has started to embrace social media—mostly in the form of blogs. If you're willing to get involved and make your communications public, leaving a comment on one of CISN's blogs might be an effective way of sharing your message with both the staff and the fans of CISN. And, of course, there are the traditional methods of communication listed on the “Contact Us” page that should never be forgotten—social media is great, but the old school methods often remain the most effective.
CFRN | The Team 1260 | Edmonton | Astral Media | Sports Talk
The Team 1260 is Edmonton's all-sports radio station, making it an obvious choice for marketers and PR people who have products or services related to sport. However, their website is not a particularly way to get your message out. For one thing, I couldn't even find a “Contact Us” link on the site. Sure, there is a “Contact Astral Media” link, but that's to contact the larger media company that owns this and other Alberta radio stations. It's not a way to contact the station directly.
Given the lack of a “Contact Us” link, I wasn't particularly hopeful about finding ways to use the Team 1260's website for any sort of communications or marketing programs. After all, if they don't even list an email address or telephone number, how interactive can they be?
The secret seems to lie in the listener club. At first glance, the station's listener club is remarkable only for it's lack of any content whatsoever. Signing up seems to provide absolutely no value other than the ability to vote in polls on the website.
However, upon logging in to your account for the first time, you will be taken to a seemingly blank page containing little more than an advertisement for ConnectorLocal. This seemingly unrelated company is actually the service provider for the Team 1260's listener club. Clicking on the advertisement will take you to a separate website that, while technically not related to the Team 1260, seems to be used almost exclusively by the station's listeners.
ConnectorLocal appears to use geo-targeting software to determine your location, and serves up only information relating to the city you are located in. As I said, a significant number of the Edmonton-area users seem to be Team 1260 listeners, so if you want to get in touch with that audience, this is the place to do it.
Your Team 1260 listener club login information will allow you to login to ConnectorLocal, which gives you the ability to contribute to the community blog. One need only login to write and publish a blog post on ConnectorLocal—there doesn't appear to be any sort of moderation of posts. However, the business directory (which can also be edited by any user) is moderated, so it stands to reason that the blog must be moderated as well.
To write a blog post, click on the “Blog” link at the top of the page; this will take you to the blog itself. Once there, click the “Submit” button and you will be taken to a page where you can write the post. When you're done writing, click “Save Draft” to see a preview of your article or “Publish Article” to actually publish what you've written.
While the Team 1260's website is seriously lacking in user interaction—there's no contact information, and even the “Community” section is nothing more than links to the websites of various local sports team, rather than a true community section—their audience is plugged into ConnectorLocal. If you want to be in touch with that audience, you should plug-in, too.
CFMG | EZ Rock | Edmonton | Astral Media | Easy Listening
EZ Rock, like Joe FM, is a popular workplace radio station. Because the station is played in a lot of offices around town, that means that many people listen to it for 8 or more hours a day, making a great station to promote events to a broad and diverse audience.
A quick glance at the station's website shows all of things one would expect: show schedules, concert and event listings, contest information, and news. The site's news sections (“News” and “Lifestyle & Entertainment”) seem to be pulling their stories from a wire service, as most of the stories are coming from outside of Edmonton. While this isn't a particularly bad thing when it comes to the standard news—it's good to know what's happening in the rest of the world, after all—it's a bit of a let down with regard to the entertainment news. As anyone who as lived in the city for more than a couple of years nows, Edmonton is an entertainment mecca. It's a bit disappointing, then, that a local radio station wouldn't focus more on local entertainment news. (To be fair, EZ Rock is hardly alone in this failing.)
As far as Web 2.0 adoption goes, EZ Rock is doing alright. The way the station makes use of social media tools is comparable to most of other Edmonton stations. There are staff blogs (which could use some serious CSS design work, but which do allow comments), which are listed below, as well as a link to John Tesh's blog (Tesh has a syndicated show which airs on EZ Rock).
Shane's blog
Cheryl's blog
Seanna's blog
Jill's blog
Ron's blog
Shannon's blog
There are also YouTube videos embedded in the site under the “Audio & Video” category. If you want to watch an interview with Richard Simmons or Kurt Browning, you can do so without leaving EZ Rock's website. Of course, if you want to leave a comment, you can always click-through to YouTube itself and leave one there.
EZ Rock also has a Facebook profile, although it's rarely updated and doesn't provide much information to either fans or potential advertisers/marketers. It's like they set it up so they could say that the station has a Facebook presence, but then didn't bother to do anything with it.
In addition to the social media aspects of the site, EZ Rock gives user the standard “Contact Us” link so that they can get in touch with the station—anyone at the station. EZ Rock's contact page rivals any that I've ever seen. It appears to list the email address of every single employee the station has, from the on-air talent to the creative writing team to the marketing and promotions department. No matter your reason for needing to contact the station, it's almost guaranteed that you'll be able to find the email address for the appropriate person on this page.
EZ Rock also has a Community Calendar that anyone can submit to. It appears to be free, just click the link at the bottom of the page to send an email to Seanna Collins. If she deems your event worth mentioning, she'll add it to the calendar. EZ Rock appears to be pretty liberal about what they'll announce on their Community Calendar, so odds are that if you tell them about it, they'll spread the word. For community groups and non-profit organizations, this is an opportunity you simply can't pass up.
CKNG | Joe FM | Edmonton | Corus | Soft Rock
Joe FM is one of the most popular workplace radio stations in Edmonton. There are a lot of people in the city who listen to the station for 8 hours a day—more if they also listen to Joe during their commute to and from the office—so getting your message out to Joe FM can be very helpful to organizations trying to reach a wide and demographically diverse audience. Joe's website provides a few ways of doing just that.
There is, of course, the option of trying to get Joe to act as a media sponsor for your event. This will get you mentioned on-air repeatedly, as well as on the station's website. This, of course, isn't an option that everyone will be able to take advantage of.
But, it is possible to make use of the station's website to help get your message out to the audience.
First, check the station's “Contact Us” page. They provide email addresses for everyone you might want to get in touch with: the program director, the on-air talent, the sales department, and the promotions people. If you've got news that the Joe FM audience might want to hear, try sending your news release to the appropriate person at the station.
If you're up for more guerrilla tactics, the station does have a blog. Maureen Holloway—who provides the Last Word on the morning show—has a blog called MoreMo that allows comments. If you've got information that is relevant to one of her blog posts, leaving a comment can't hurt. At worst, it might get deleted (though, as long as you're not spamming, this is unlikely). At best, you'll get your message out to Maureen's readers and possibly even an on-air mention.
Maureen Holloway's blog
The trick to using blog comments as a marketing tool is to make sure that your comments are completely relevant to the topic at hand, and that they will provide genuine value to either the blogger or her readers. Ideally, you should read the blog regularly and become a part of the community by posting comments that are not commercial in nature.
Once you've established a certain level of trust with the author and her audience, you can probably get away with dropping the occasional self-promotional link in your comments. But, if you try that before you've built up enough trust, you might just find your comment getting sent into the void...along with any comments you might try to post in the future.
Joe FM doesn't appear to have an official presence on Facebook, although there is a fan-created group with about a dozen members on board. It doesn't have any activity on it, though, so it's probably not worth pursuing as part of a social marketing campaign.
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