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Two Characteristics of Radio Distinguish the Medium
Radio is Brief—The vast majority of radio station programming today is built around music, sports, news, traffic reports and weather, laced liberally with commercials, including PSAs. The average radio news broadcast runs around 3 minutes, with the lead story counting out at 100 words! Radio stations often promote themselves as giving listeners 50 minutes or more of music every hour. This trend toward even greater brevity leads the stations to use 10-second PSAs whenever possible. Occasionally they will use 30-second announcements, but rarely are 60 second spots aired.
Radio is Specialized—Listeners in most communities can choose from many different “types” of radio stations aimed at specific market segments. Stations are categorized according to the type of music appealing to a particular audience. Some stations are targeted to different ethnic groups, often broadcasting in a language other than English. PSAs could be translated into Spanish for locally broadcast Hispanic stations. Also, college and university stations have their audiences. These university markets might be appropriate targets for PSAs describing the respiratory care profession. The “all news/all-talk” stations are good avenues for respiratory care announcements because listeners are already primed to listen to “words” and messages—not just music.