How Radio Talent “Ambassadors” Facilitate Charitable Initiatives And Sponsorships

Over the summer, I was asked to write a post for the RAB’s “Radio Matters” blog. The story I chose revolved around the role talent plays in charitable and fundraising campaigns in collaboration with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

The RAB published it last week, but since all our readers are not members or perhaps just missed it, I got the green light to post it here as today’s JacoBLOG entry.  

Jacobs Media has worked closely with this organization, along with hundreds of participating radio stations across the country. It has been a wonderfully rich experience for us to see broadcast radio at its very best working hand in hand with local children’s hospitals in their communities.

Along the way, we’ve spent time with some of the most talented, committed, and generous personalities who grace the radio airwaves and truly fuel these efforts. Understanding how they work with local businesses in their metros who participate in these fundraising efforts as participating sponsors has opened our eyes to how these efforts can be win-win-win situations.

As local radio searches for meaningful ways to stand out in the competitive morass, not just in contrast to the other stations in their markets but also platforms that include streaming audio services, podcasts, and satellite radio, these community endeavors become even more valuable in a radio station or cluster’s portfolios. More often than not, these same stations are the ones lugging home Marconi and Crystal awards year after year. Coincidence? I think not. – FJ

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For more than four decades, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals has been focused on raising money for local children’s hospitals in communities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Broadcast radio has played an integral role in these fundraising efforts, as stations in hundreds of communities have showcased their local impact and influence through partnerships with children’s hospitals and area advertisers. With the mission to change kids’ health, CMN Hospitals has helped raise more than $9 billion for 170 children’s hospitals.

The ultimate success of this program often hinges on the important role radio’s air personalities play in raising these funds and how stations can integrate sponsorship participation with advertisers. Combined with their strong, emotional connections with the audience, these efforts can be optimized by local radio sales teams and the degree to which they collaborate with their own personalities to drive new revenue and forge new relationships.

There are two key variables that contribute to maximizing results:

1. A year-round relationship between the station and the local hospital hinged on trust and collaboration.
2. Air personalities who commit to this great cause and their local communities.

The relationship between a station sales team, the hospital, and local sponsors is often turbo-charged by station talent who function as linchpins between these key groups – including the kids and their parents who utilize their hometown hospitals. When these various parties optimize their roles and work collaboratively, the magic happens.

And the audience notices. We’ve conducted numerous focus groups among listeners who donate to Radiothons. In case after case, they are captivated by the powerful stories personalities tell and how emotionally connected they are to the kids and their families. Many look forward to listening to Radiothons to get updates on how kids are progressing – stories shared by personalities who stay in touch with them throughout the calendar year. These emotional through-lines often motivate donations from listeners, as well as moving local businesses to participate as a sponsor.

This has an effect on how both listeners and sponsors relate to personalities. Radiothons humanize them, and in turn, increase their credibility with the audience because of how they enhance their support of the community. Participation in these types of events is unique to radio, truly separating the platform from its digital counterparts.

To gain insight into how these important relationships work – not just during fundraising cycles, but throughout the year – I spoke to four groups of personalities representing three prominent radio companies, as well as a nationally syndicated show deeply involved with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Of these, the morning talent with the longest relationship in their market with their local children’s hospital is Nancy Wilson (pictured below) who programs and doubles as morning host (with co-host, Woody) on K99.1 Country in Dayton. Owned by the Cox Media Group, the station has led the charge for Dayton’s Children’s Hospital for more than a quarter century. Its Cares for Kids Radiothon is the main event, but as Nancy reminds, the station’s ties to the hospital run throughout the year:

“Our collaboration with Dayton Children’s is all year long, and that is what I would like the hospital to continue to think. Keep (the radio station) in mind when there are ambassador meetings, keep us in mind when there are potential client meetings, because we know when the date’s going to be. So just because it’s finished, the work isn’t. You know, kids still get sick, and kids still need our support and our attention, no matter what’s going on at the hospital.”

Across the country, Bender (pictured below), co-host of the Jodi & Bender Show at iHeart Media’s 95.7 The Jet in Seattle, recites pretty much the same mantra. For 20 years, the affable Bender has run point on his station’s partnership with CMN Hospitals and Seattle Children’s Hospital. Per his way of thinking, success starts with going all-in to this fundraising initiative:

“There are just certain things that I think (talent) has a responsibility to the community for, and if you truly enjoy what you do for a living for the other 364 days out of the year, you take one day, you shut the radio station down and you do it. The audience is genuinely taken aback because they know that you are all-in and if you do it the way I do it, it’s a year-round thing.”

Deep in the heart of Texas, Hawkeye and Michelle Rodriguez (pictured below) have been taking the lead on charitable activities on behalf of Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth. Along with programmer and afternoon drive host, Al Farb, the morning team heads up fundraising activities on New Country 96.3 KSCS (Cumulus). Similar to Nancy Wilson and Bender, this trio has the benefit of experience over the past decade, pre-and post-pandemic. Hawkeye explains how the station and the show plan out their activities on behalf of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals:

“We’re always constantly thinking, ‘How can we continue to involve Cook Children’s as part of our regular programming?’… It’s not just the two days in December (for Radiothon). We start

(planning) in January with the Texas Independence Jam. Then we have the Diaper Drive. And we have little events throughout the year that all go toward the Radiothon totals.”

Business and community partnerships are the other key pieces that drive success in these relationships, especially their sustainability over time. The pandemic tested their resilience, and it proved that a unified mission could keep these charitable activities going strong even during the most trying times. During the years since, many personalities talk about the value of focused collaborations between stations, sponsors and hospitals, as well as how they contribute to success moving forward.

All the personalities in our conversation underscored the importance of making advertisers feel their participation in fundraisers with local hospitals and CMN Hospitals transcend running a typical spot schedule.

Jodi Koontz is the woman in the middle on the syndicated “Murphy, Sam and Jodi” show (lead photo in this post), heard on more than 70 stations throughout the country. She’s a huge fan of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ mission. The trio support their stations’ fundraising efforts, often flying to other markets to lead the broadcasts. Jodi says it’s often about getting everyone on the same page:

“The sponsor has to understand it and care. And the sales team or the salesperson has to understand it and care. Otherwise, it’s just other package.” Seattle’s Bender echoes that remark and emphasizes the need to be all-in: “There are certain things that you can’t dance around, and this is maybe one of them. If you want to win, and you want to be embraced by your community, there’s only one way to do it … They can tell if you’re faking it. if you’re only doing it to save face or you’re only doing it because you’ve been told to, it’s not going to work.”

As it turns out, a majority of radio personalities in our new AQ6 study of talent reinforces precisely what our featured stars in this post are telling us. In fact, more than half say that serving their communities is a key reason why they do what they do. Nearly one in four say its about raising money for good causes. And there’s no better way to drive that point home than to spearhead high-profile fundraisers for important local causes:

What role can the personality play in bridging the sponsorship gap, working with the hospital and businesses to create win-win-win situations?

It helps to think of talent transcending their traditional role at the station, and functioning as personable ambassadors who can effectively use their storytelling skills not just to fundraise, but to also help put sponsors in the most positive light.

Dayton’s Nancy Wilson encourages her sellers to just ask: “We’re here for you. We will go out with you. We will help close the deal. We’ll play story songs. We’ll tell you about these kids. So, that sometimes, I think, needs to just be constantly reinforced with the sales team.”

On that note, station personalities know what it takes to put their Radiothon clients in the best possible light. Cumulus programmer Al Farb describes how the small things can pay back in a big way:

“We invite all of the clients who donate to come up to do check presentations, and we record them in advance because a lot of them are not seasoned on-air professionals like Hawkeye and Michelle. So, we edit them. It’s that yearly family reunion type of atmosphere.”

Bender is another personality who craves sponsor interaction because he has learned what works – emotion and taking responsibility for how the fundraiser is going to work:

“(As the personality), you’re the only one that’s got the mindset of ‘Here’s the deal. Here’s the way the package looks. Here’s the way it is in black and white. Here are some cute pictures of us doing it with other clients that have signed on, and they’ve been very successful with it. Here’s what we can do. But I’m telling you when I’m on the air, and I’m in the trenches – we’re in the fourth or fifth or sixth hour of a 13-hour broadcast, I can promise you: This is how I’m gonna do it because I’m the one that’s gonna do it. The sales department can only go so far.”

Jodi Koontz has worked with plenty of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ fundraisers, enough to have a clear concept on what she can bring to the party for her affiliate stations:

“I think the talent should be involved with sales at every level … because basically, this is cause marketing. If I really care about (the cause), which I do, then bringing me to a meeting with the sales team makes it not a sales call, it makes it a community call.”

And New Country 96.3 morning star Michelle Rodriguez puts a bow on the symbiotic bond between sponsor and station talent:

“If the personality can bring that personal connection, which I know a lot of our peers do, it’s kind of unspoken when you talk to these clients that they feel you’re giving that message for their product anyways. And when you connect emotionally like we do at Radiothon, and they just hear it for a second, there is no doubt that they’re going to want to be a part of it.”

Many of these station personalities have already carved out meaningful relationships with clients and local businesses. These partnerships encourage more participation, sponsorships and donations with each passing year.

For more information about Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and its incredible fundraising efforts on behalf of local hospitals, you can click here.

To access the original post on the RAB’s “Radio Matters” site, you can click here.