{"id":7484,"date":"2026-05-08T13:38:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bprworld.com\/?p=7484"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:38:43","slug":"you-cant-buy-your-way-out-of-poor-programming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/news\/you-cant-buy-your-way-out-of-poor-programming\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can\u2019t Buy Your Way Out of Poor Programming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By David Kidd, BPR<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-6879\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bprworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dk-150x150-1.png?resize=143%2C143\" alt=\"\" width=\"143\" height=\"143\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the hard reality: if your station\u2019s content is weak, no amount of cash giveaways\/international holidays etc will fix it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Contesting doesn\u2019t build a brand\u2014it borrows attention.<\/strong><br \/>\nA big prize can create a spike in cume. People sample. They show up for the chance to win. But they\u2019re not showing up for\u00a0<em>you<\/em>. And when the contest ends, so does the relationship. If the station underneath isn\u2019t compelling, there\u2019s nothing to hold them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You train the audience to be transactional.<\/strong><br \/>\nRun enough big cash promos and you condition listeners to ask one question: \u201cWhat\u2019s in it for me today?\u201d The moment the answer is \u201cnothing,\u201d they\u2019re gone. You haven\u2019t built loyalty\u2014you\u2019ve built a habit of leaving.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It masks the real problem.<\/strong><br \/>\nContests are often used as a substitute for fixing fundamentals: unclear positioning, inconsistent music, unfocused shows, weak execution. The danger is the illusion of success; short-term spikes that look like progress while the core product remains broken.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s expensive churn.<\/strong><br \/>\nAcquiring listeners who won\u2019t stay is one of the most costly strategies in media. You\u2019re effectively paying for traffic that has no lifetime value. Meanwhile, competitors with a sharper product convert fewer people\u2014but keep more of them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Great stations use contests as an accelerant, not a crutch.<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen the content, music and talent are aligned, contesting can amplify momentum. It gives people a reason to sample a product that\u2019s already worth staying for. But it can\u2019t create that value on its own.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s an example. Sydney\u2019s Smooth 95.3 runs the lowest amount of big money promotions in the market year on year. And guess what, it\u2019s the #1 station in Sydney on cume and share!<\/p>\n<p><em>You can buy attention, but you can\u2019t buy attachment. Fix the product first. Then, and only then, give people a reason to come faster\u2014not a reason to leave later.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By David Kidd, BPR Here\u2019s the hard reality: if your station\u2019s content is weak, no [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bprworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-sami-aksu-48867324-17872347-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7485,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484\/revisions\/7485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}