A radio tour and a stack of sticky notes
A client's spokesperson does a regional radio tour for a road safety survey: eleven stations in a morning, some live, some pre-recorded for later bulletins, booked by an executive over two days of phone calls. The bookings are in her notebook and a calendar. After the tour, some stations send a link to the segment, some air it in a bulletin nobody hears, and one pre-records a piece that airs the following week at 6am.
At month end the coverage book needs every appearance with station, programme, time, audience and a clip. The executive rebuilds the list from memory and her notebook, finds audio for six, and describes the other five as aired, details to follow. They never follow.
Why broadcast is the weakest part of the record
- Bookings are made by phone and live in personal calendars.
- Air times shift, and pre-records air days later without warning.
- Monitoring services cover some broadcast, not all, and at a cost per clip.
- Station catch-up links expire.
- There is rarely a transcript, so messages cannot be checked.
Broadcast monitoring services such as TVEyes and those offered by larger media intelligence providers help a lot where you subscribe. The gap is everything outside them and the link between booking and result.
Why it matters to the client
Broadcast is often the most visible thing a spokesperson does, and the one the client's own leadership hears about from friends. When it is missing from the report, the client wonders what else is missing. Spokespeople also want to hear themselves back to improve, and a lost clip is a lost chance to do that.
How we build the broadcast log
- Bookings are entered once in a simple form or taken from a shared calendar: station, programme, contact, live or pre-record, expected air time, spokesperson.
- The log creates a briefing list for the spokesperson for the day, in order, with dial-in details and the producer's name.
- After each slot, the executive marks it done in one tap on a phone. For pre-records, the log sets a reminder to confirm the air time with the producer.
- Clips arrive by several routes: a link sent by the station, an upload from your monitoring service, or a recording made where your licence allows. Each is attached to the booking.
- Audio is transcribed with a speech-to-text service, so the segment can be checked for key messages like any written piece.
- Confirmed appearances flow into your coverage record and the coverage book, with the clip or a note saying why there is none.
| Stage | What is recorded |
|---|---|
| Booking | Station, programme, time, format, spokesperson, contact |
| On the day | Done, rescheduled or dropped, with a note |
| Air | Confirmed air time, especially for pre-records |
| Clip | Link, upload or recording, with expiry noted |
| Transcript | Text for message checks and quoting in reports |
After the next radio tour
The executive enters bookings as she makes them. On the morning, the spokesperson gets a running order on their phone. Each slot is ticked off as it happens. Two days later the log reminds her to check with the station that pre-recorded the piece, and she gets the air time and a link.
At month end every appearance is listed, most with clips and transcripts, and the three with no clip say why. The account director can tell the client exactly what aired, not what probably aired.
Do you recognise this?
- Radio and TV bookings are tracked in a notebook or personal calendar.
- Pre-recorded interviews air without anyone noticing.
- Catch-up links in old reports no longer work.
- Broadcast appearances have no transcript.
- The coverage book says details to follow for broadcast pieces.