Sometimes you have to step in and shake things up. This is especially true when taking a flagging product that is being left behind by competitors because the historic value of its name is proving to be the deadweight pulling it down, “Radio St Lucia is one of the oldest radio stations in St Lucia,” General Manager Claude Emmanuel opens up, “And I was given the appointment as GM in October 2012 to not only increase and revitalize the listening audience but change the consciousness of the radio station itself.”

BRINGING Radio INTO SOCIAL

NETWORKING

WRITTEN BY DONNIE RUST

“I served as a director at Radio St Lucia prior to being appointed

as the general manager,” Mc Claude explains, “Which allowed

me the chance to get a very solid impression of where things

stood and what needed to be prioritized in terms of taking action.

Since then we’ve undergone a much needed transformation.”

As with all media, there is a life cycle for radio stations. Historically

they have always served as a voice for the listeners and has, as a

medium, seamlessly joined with the internet, standing its ground in

popularity. However, Mc Claude explained that lack of a fresh update

has seen Radio St Lucia falling into decline for a couple of years now.

“Radio St Lucia is known for information,” he elaborates, “And a lot

of young people have gravitated to more youth friendly stations. If we

were going to bring listeners back to Radio St Lucia we would have to

start with what we could offer people to listen to.”

A series of new programmes has been implemented to revitalize

the product. Since Feb 2013 a total of fifteen new, fresh programmes

have been launched catering towards all demographics.

“We have always had dedicated listeners and we were not going

to sacrifice them for the purposes of being seen as a purely young

station,” he explains, “The shows we have now include programmes on

youth, health, policing and policies, social securities, live guests and

interviews and entertainment news.”

He goes on to add how one of the important moves was to change

the on air personalities and in doing so brought a wealth of new

talent, experience and potential to the radio station, “We revamped

the entire manner in which we reach our audience,” he continues, “We

redid the website turning it into something that was engaging and

attractive and we established a new Facebook Page and Twitter Page

for us to directly engage our listeners. It’s important to them that

they are able to link directly with their favourite personalities, which

encourages stronger loyalties to our station and programmes.”

The changes were not purely to the airwaves alone. Understanding

that people always become a product of their environment over the

past year, over $300 000 has been invested into refurbishing the

plant, “The station had become a bit of an eyesore,” Mc Claude says,

“As a building it had not been looked after, which had a significant

“We have always had dedicated listeners and we were not going to sacrifice them for the purposes of being seen as a purely young station.”

RADIO ST LUCIA

The youngest General Manager in the history of Radio St Lucia, Mc Claude Emmanuel has enjoyed a diverse career that has not always been involved in radio. With his formal education being in economics and business management he admits to always having had an active interest in social media marketing, managing Facebook pages for company websites and developing an intrinsic understanding of the online topography which has been crucial for the new direction that Radio St Lucia has taken under his leadership.

effect upon the radio personalities themselves, after all how can

you feel like a valuable member of the team if your premises are not

valued?”

Some of the changes included repair of the studios and a new

newsroom. Other aesthetic repairs gave it a fresh feeling that suited

the new targets and motives.

Understanding what an employee needs comes naturally to Mc

Claude who comes from a human resource background, “Radio St

Lucia didn’t have any sort of HR policy prior to my appointment. So

one of the first things I did was to create a performance management

system,”

Through this every employee gets personal targets to achieve, to

help them develop and grow and to facilitate the development of an

environment where meeting targets is valued they have yearly formal

appraisals for each employee moving up the management chain.

These assessments are incredibly important to provide

benchmarks for people to strive to achieve on an individual basis and

it keeps everyone working together in the same director direction

towards a common goal. This has already had a quantifiable affect.

“Radio St Lucia had fallen significantly in the popularity polls since

the 1980s when lack of major competition had us at the number slot,”

Claude says, “But in 2012 the

station was in a better position

and was ranked sixth out of

sixteen on the island. In 2013 we

were ranked at number three.”

Much of the success has

come from their combined

efforts of hitting social media

like never before and Mc

Claude relates how the older

stakeholders simply did not

grasp the power and importance

of social networking for the

ongoing and future success of

their product:

“They used to feel that it was

social and not professional,” he

laments, “But the two are the

same and now we are big in all

media including newspapers,

FaceBook, Twitter and Youtube.

Immersion is the key,” he

continues, “We get stuck in with

the crowds with live broadcasts

from events keeping it fun and

lively. We also interact with

listeners online and actively

encourage everyone to get in

touch. The response to our new

format has been overwhelming

and we are very appreciative

of the support and want to give

back as often as we can.”

2014 will see a continuation

and a doubling of the efforts to

further expose and enrapture

new listeners through the media

of social networking, which will

include such developments to

further encourage and enhance

connectivity through the

Radio St Lucia radio app that is

RADIO ST LUCIA

currently being developed.

“The Radio App will make listening to Radio St Lucia incredible

easy and convenient and will also keep us on the cutting edge which

is exactly where we want to be if we are going to reach this top spot,”

The addition of new technology aside there is one key development

that will help push this radio station higher up the ranks and eventually

beyond the reach of the competition.

“The National Television Network (NTN) and Radio St Lucia will

be merging together to form the National Broadcast Network (NBN)

and will act as a major influence to the populace of the island,” Mc

Claude tells us, “The government feel that this is the best way to

create a synergy between the two networks. Bringing them under one

operational roof with one board of directors put in place to oversee

the day to day activities.”

As many of the other radio stations have forged relationships

with TV channels, this merger between the two government owned

broadcasters will create a powerhouse of activities that will open

up new possibilities and broaden their offering for advertisers and

marketing as well as giving them even more scope as far as audience.

“It is going to be a benefit to us all,” Mc Claude concludes.

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