The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

If you’re a guest expert, or a PR person who represents an expert, and you’re looking for radio talk shows and podcasts that need guests, don’t pitch only the big shows.

Many of them are difficult to book, and you might be far better off trying to get onto shows that reach niched audiences.

Check out RadioGuestList.com.  You can use this site several ways.
       
      

How to be on a show

Experts, authors and PR firms searching for the right shows can sign up here. Whenever a talk show is looking for guests, RadioGuestList will notify you.
  
     
How to find guests for your show

If you’re a radio show booker, podcaster, talk radio host or TV producer who needs guests, submit your talk show booking opportunities here. RadioGuesetList will email its list of guest experts, authors and PR firms so that experts who are a good fit for your show can email you directly.
     
    
How to see which shows are available 

On the homepage, you can see a list of categories on the right side. I clicked on a few of them and saw lots of opportunities for authors, musicians, small business people and Internet marketers to appear as guests. If you have an area of expertise, you’ll find something here that’s a good fit.

The site is maintained by Scott Fox, an author and Internet marketer. Check out his 10 tips on how to use social networking to market your product or service. You can also follow RadioGuestList on Twitter.

Never done a radio interview before? George McKenzie, a former radio talk show host, offered tips galore when I interviewed him about how to get onto drive-time radio shows and ace the interview so that the host invites you back.

Have you used RadioGuestList.com? Share your success stories here.

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, How to Interview, Media Leads, PR Consultants/Publicists, Pitching the Media, Publicity Resources, Radio Publicity, Social media marketing, TV Publicity
posted On: 2/11/2010: 9:29 am: By Joan
Comments: 9 Comments

Jill Starishevsky of New York, NY writes:

“I am a prosecutor of child abuse and sex crimes in New York City.  I wrote a children’s book called My Body Belongs to Me to teach children that if someone touches them inappropriately, they should tell a parent or teacher right away. 

“In a non-threatening, engaging manner, this guide establishes boundaries and teaches kids that when it comes to their body, there are some parts that are for ‘no one else to see’ and empowers them to tell a parent or teacher if someone touches them inappropriately. 

“Most importantly, this narrative assures young ones that sexual molestation is not their fault, and by speaking out, the child will continue to grow big and strong.  A ‘Suggestions for the Storyteller’ section is also included to help lead a comfortable discussion afterward.

“How can I promote this book in traditional and social media?”

(Read more about how to submit your own question to this blog.)

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Radio Publicity, Social media marketing, TV Publicity
posted On: 1/26/2010: 1:04 pm: By Joan
Comments: 25 Comments

If you’re trying to get onto local radio stations, but you don’t have money to spend on advertising, offer the station free recorded 30-second  spots filled with valuable how-to information their listeners will enjoy.

Tie it into a month of the year that’s related to your topic, and you just might generate some valuable free exposure for next to nothing.

This is more difficult to do today than it would have been 10 years ago because radio stations, like their brethren in the print media, are seeing ad revenues plummet. But I know some local radio stations still do trade-outs with local vendors, so that might be an alternative to asking them to just hand over free air time.

I was reminded of this tip when Beverly Belury, who has been through my mentor program, wrote this week asking what I thought about an idea that her husband, leadership consultant John Hersey, was considering:

“Motivational speaker Earl Nightingale’s wife lives in our little town and having met her last week reminded John of a dream he had. He loves Earl’s inspiration thoughts that were frequently on radio stations.  They were quick spots that the station used as filler. 

“John would like to do something along the same lines.  John has developed oodles of thoughtful quotes and inspirational thoughts on self leadership over the last 12 or so years and we are thinking about giving them to radio stations to use as they want. 

“We would send out a dozen or so professionally done audio spots a month. First, is there a challenge in what we want to do. Would you recommend 30-, 45- or 60-second spots or even longer? Do you think this is a worthwhile project?”

Her question jogged my memory. I remembered a teleseminar I had conducted several years ago with Dan Collins, media relalations director at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. It was called How to Make Hospital PR an Easy Pill to Swallow.

During the call, Dan explained how he ad gotten thousands of dollars in free publicity for his hospital by doing something similar to what Beverly had asked me about. His strategy was successful, and there’s no reason why it can’t work for you, too, depending on the product, service, cause or issue you’re trying to promote, and the type of station you’re targeting.

Here’s an excerpt from the transcript that explains what Dan did an how he did it:

Dan Collins: I contacted WLIF, which is a leading light station here in Baltimore and I contacted the news director and I said, “Hey, where you aware about this being National Nutrition Week?” I called this particular news director because I happen to know that fitness was a pet thing for her.  In fact, she was seeing a personal trainer that I had recommended and that I’ve worked with here at Mercy and have done some media for. I knew that it was something near and dear to her heart and I said, “I’ll tell you what we’ll do. If you think this is interesting, we can provide you with a dietitian who could come in and give you a series of tips, throughout the whole course of the month, about how to stay fit and what to eat and what not to eat. What would you think about that?” 

She said, “Well, that would be great,” because that way she could run a spot every day.  The person could come in and tape them all at once, do it in one shot.  “If it would be easier, do you want us to write it or do you want to write it?” she asked. ”Oh no, we’ll write it,” I said. 

Obviously, we’ll write the piece, that way we can control the script.  And so we did, and the dietitian recorded the various tips and made sure to plug Mercy in each spot and “if you’d like to find out more, call Mercy Medical Center at 1-800-MD-MERCY. 

They ran these every day for the whole month and it didn’t cost us anything.  If we had booked this as commercial time, it would have cost thousands of dollars, but because it was something that was near and dear to the news director’s heart, I was able to convince them that this would be a fun thing to do. It would be one less thing each day that they would have to worry about filling. So we looked at it from the station’s viewpoint and really got some nice publicity.

Joan: You had one spot aired each day?

Dan: Yes.

Joan: For a month?

Dan: Yes.

Joan:  Hospitals probably don’t even have to do that just during National Nutrition Week.  You can probably find all different kinds of days, weeks and months of the year to tie into.

Dan:  Oh, absolutely. I’ve got the schedule hanging up on my wall. I’m looking at it now.  We’re in August, which is Cataract Awareness Month. It’s also Medical Alert Awareness Month and Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month.  You’ve always got to look ahead and see what’s coming up.  Radio is an underutilized medium. 

The whole world of radio may change, but with this new sort of cable—you hear about cable radio, satellite radio—I don’t know how that’s going to ultimately change everything, but in the land of free radio, many stations have news directors and public service programming that they have to fill. 

Health is always a story, and as we’ve noted, doctors are hard to get a hold of.  You can call up a station and say: “Hey, it’s Healthy Lung Month and I have a pulmonary specialist who can talk to you about it. Did you know, for example, there’s enough nicotine in a single cigar to kill you three times over? And talk about things like that.” Then they’re going to say, “Well, you know, it’s great.”

Joan:  There are two really good resources out there for finding these special days, weeks and months of the year that you can tie your hospital experts into or your hospital into.  The first and probably the most popular is called the Chase’s Calendar of Events, and it’s about as big as a small phone book. You can find it at Chases.com.

There’s another book that was written by John Kremer called Celebrate Today.  I think you can even search by the month and come up with all kinds of interesting days, weeks and months of the year to tie your press releases and story ideas into.

Dan:  Absolutely.

As for John Hersey, he needs to remember that business topics generally aren’t a big draw for local radio stations. But because he’s a motivational speaker, he might offer inspirational messages for mass audiences, instead. Good luck, John! Be sure to let me know if you’re successful.  

Posted In: Advertising, Authors & Publishers, Radio Publicity
posted On: 12/7/2009: 10:02 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

If you’re trying to get onto radio talk shows to promote your book, product, service, cause or issue—and you’re on a tight budget—a series of inexpensive ebooks will help you locate the contact information for shows in specific niches. 

Talk radio advocate Francine Silverman has based the ebooks on her book, Talk Radio Wants You: An Intimate Guide to 700 Shows and How to Get Invited (McFarland & Co.  2009).

The ebooks include the show theme and guest criteria, which is usually missing from radio websites, in addition to title of show, name of host, email, phone (optional), website, best method of contact, and where the show is aired. You’ll also find information on Internet radio shows.

“Naturally, there are more shows in the book in every category, but as more questionnaires are returned, the number of shows in the ebooks are likely to surpass the book’s,” Silverman says.  “The business ebook, for example, has 53 shows, compared to the book’s 49.”

Even though some of these shows are small, Publicity Hounds can use these gigs as practice sessions. Appearing on TV and radio talk shows in smaller markets lets you make your mistakes, and learn from them, in front of much smaller audiences. Then, and only then, will you be ready to hit the big-time talk shows in the top markets. 

The ebooks include information for these niches:

Business
53 shows, ($20). Covers workplace issues, innovation, entrepreneurship, business strategies, careers, finance, small business, sales, home-based businesses, investments, insurance, money management and real estate. 

Entertainment
30 shows ($12). Covers art, fashion, movies, music and comedy.

Politics
25 shows ($12). Covers conservative, liberal and Libertarian politics; current events; the Constitution; and pop culture.

Self-Help
27 shows ($12). Covers overs personal and professional goals, growth and empowerment, emotional freedom techniques, motivation, creativity, living one’s calling, making for a better world, transforming your life, and self-realization.

Health
20 shows ($12). Covers healthy living and lifestyles, fitness, health as a business advantage, natural healing, alternative medicine, medical travel, issues, education and treatment, and overcoming adversities.

New Age
35 shows ($15). Covers astrology, metaphysics, Tarot, Angels, psychic development, paranormal, parapsychology, holistic health, healing, mysticism, occult, mediums and more.

Customers will receive five free updates when Silverman gets information on five new shows in that niche.

To buy the book, pay by PayPal to franalive@optonline.net. Or send a check payable to Francine Silverman to P.O. Box 1333, Riverdale, New York, NY 10471.  She’ll email you your book when she receives your check.
  
I asked Francine for three sample listings, and here’s what she gave me.

Bob Hardcastle’s Money Talk

Name of Host: Bob Hardcastle

Theme: Financial

Where Aired: KFNS 590, St. Louis, Missouri

Guest Profile: Banking & Finance, Investment, Real estate, Commodities professionals

Email: delta@moneytalk.org

Website: http://www.moneytalk.org

Phone: 636-532-0484

Best Method of Contact: Phone
        
       
The Art Rocks! 

Talk Show Name of Host: Philly Joe Swendoza & Co-Host Alexandra Rosa (Executive Producer)

Where Aired: WS Radio

Theme: “Where art, fashion and Lifestyles collide”

Guest Profile: Someone in our related genre, rock stars, celebrities, people who want to showcase their product or service on our show as it takes the form of an Infomercial. 

Email: alexandra@artrocks247.com

Website: http://www.artrocks247.com and http://www.wsradio.com/artrocks

Phone: 619-890-254

Best Method of Contact: Email
   
   
Mission Unstoppable Radio

Name of Host: Unstoppable Frankie Picasso

Theme: Inspiring stories to help folks be Unstoppable

Where Aired: Blog Talk Radio

Guest Profile: Authors (preferred) who have been unstopppable in their lives, attaining their goals, overcoming tragedy or who help others, i.e., business, crime, music, religion, spouse abuse; all categories are open.

Email: coachpicasso@rogers.com

Website: http://www.instituteforquantumliving.com and http://www.unstoppableplanet.com

Phone: 519-267-2493

Best Method of Contact: Send books to 839 Avenue Rd, Cambridge, Ontario, N1R 5S4 Intiial contact. Email is best.

Posted In: How to Interview, Pitching the Media, Publicity Resources, Radio Publicity
posted On: 12/1/2009: 8:44 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

National Public Radio, with its hundreds of shows, offers opportunities galore for people to pitch a story about their product, service, cause or issue.

But here’s an important caveat: Don’t pitch to more than one show at the same time.

That was one of several tips from (Ms.) Alex Cohen, a reporter and local host for “All Things Considered,” at KPCC-FM in Los Angeles, in an article for Bulldog Reporter.

“Don’t send the same pitch to a bunch of reporters in the same general area. If you send me something and I like it, but discover it’s already been pitched and accepted by one of the talk shows on my station, then you’ve wasted my time and put me in an awkward situation with my own colleagues.”

Are you listening, authors? Eager publicists who are pitching your book, particularlyone that ties into a hot breaking news story, might be tempted to pitch multiple NPR outlets concurrently.

“If you pitch a book to both ‘Morning Edition’ and ‘All Things Considered’ at the same time and both shows are interested, one will have to back down.”

Book publicist Lissa Warren, who I interviewed during a teleseminar on how to get booked on National Public Radio, says one of the best ways to find shows that are good candidates for your pitch is to use the search box at the NPR site. NPR will deliver a list of shows, and you can spend your time listening to them to find out which are the best fit.

Make a list of shows you want to pitch, with your preferred shows at the top of the list, and then pitch one at a time. If, within several days, you hear nothing, pitch another show.

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Pitching the Media, Radio Publicity
posted On: 9/30/2009: 3:13 pm: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments