I am (obviously) new to the world of Blogging...and to Active Rain. Thanks to all for making this a very informative forum for our profession.
I'd like to start out sharing a little of what I have done that I think is unique in our market and may be useful for some of you too...at least the very brave...or the very dumb, sometimes I'm not sure which.
A few months ago I was reading the National Realty News that spams into my inbox on occasion and one of the ideas was from a gentleman in the mid-west who had his own real estate radio show. I did some searching and the only other example I could find in the NorthWest was in Seattle. Interestingly enough, hosted by two Mortgage professionals!
I thought this might be something worth doing and I started looking into it. I approached the local Clear Channel affiliate and they were very un-encouraging...and didn't seem interested. I ended up, through my local Rotary Club, meeting the owner of the other popular AM station in the area and mentioned to him what I was interested in doing. KGAL is a Local and Independent radio station and the owner said it sounded like an interesting idea, and wanted to bounce it off his staff.
A few weeks later I got a call and we began putting together Real Estate Talk. We aired our first show in January this year and it has been steadily gaining in listenership. I'm excited about the propsects for both helping to educate the local listenership about all things real estate, and for my business. When talking with propsective clients it is a real kick when you can mention something like..."You know, we are going to be talking about that exact subject this weekend on my radio show...you should listen."
The show has 4 segments. We start each Saturday morning with the Market Update, an Interview/Discussion on real estate topics, The E-Mail Question of the Week, and finish with the Real Estate showcase. Both the interviews and the real estate showcase bring in other local real estate professionals, to broaden the perspective of the information, and to generate good will with other professionals. I figured that, if I can get my fellow REALTORS to listen, they will get their clients to listen...and it also helps the radio station in selling advertising on the show :)
A word of warning though, it IS a lot of work. I spend an average of 1 full work day each week (split up over the week) putting the show together, lining up guests, cutting the promos. I am also committed to that 1 hour live each Saturday morning. This is not a project for the faint of heart, or those with poor time management skills...but it has been a real positive for me in raising my visibility in both the local real estate community, and in the general local area.
If you are interested in doing something like this, please feel free to contact me. I'd be happy to give you my insights...and I'll try to keep you posted here as well on how its going.
Dave
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