What Is a Syndicated Show?
Welcome to the wonderful world of radio syndication.
Whether you’re a beginner, an experienced local broadcaster, a Web expert, or a content creator of any kind, you will love discovering the power of mass distribution that is possible with syndication. Your compelling content can move from a single point of distribution to a national or even worldwide platform, allowing you to inform, entertain, and influence millions. All while earning you good money.
Questions and Answers
As we begin, you probably have some questions. Let’s tackle three common questions about syndication right now.
Q: Is syndication a fast and easy process? How long does it take?
A: In most cases, it takes persistence and effort to succeed in syndication. But isn’t that true of most worthwhile goals in life?
That being said, there are some ‘syndication shortcuts’ that can help to accelerate the process. But you can expect that it will take at least a few months of steady effort before you start seeing real progress with your syndicated show.
Q: Is there any way to guarantee success in syndication?
A: There’s no guarantee in syndication—just as there’s no guarantee in any other business or personal venture. If anyone tells you they can guarantee you success in syndication, be very skeptical. But here’s some good news: By following the proper steps and avoiding common pitfalls, you vastly increase your odds of success.
Q: Is syndication an impossible goal for the average person?
A: Absolutely not! In fact, it may be easier for the so-called average person to syndicate a show than it is for a highly intellectual individual. Brainy people may over-think the process and end up talking themselves out of it. Ordinary people are busy right now, steadily pursuing their syndication goals and achieving them.
Knowledge + Effort = Success
Here’s the formula to follow for syndication success:
- Learn everything you can about the subject.
- Study and practice all the basics.
- Choose a specialty that interests you.
- Get advanced help when you’re ready.
- Find a good mentor.
- Follow the same steps that your mentor followed.
In fact, these steps can help you turn most any challenging dream you have into reality, whether it’s learning to pilot a plane, build a profitable business, become a winning athlete, launch a worldwide charity, or be successful in media syndication.
Why Syndicate?
Why even attempt syndication? One quick answer: It can help you to make a difference in the world, while earning you money.
Today it’s possible for anyone to leap from the crowd of unknown, voiceless people and step out onto the national stage. Once there, you can share your ideas and shape the views and opinions of millions of your fellow citizens. Or if you prefer, you can use the national platform to give others pure entertainment, or helpful advice and information.
How is it possible for just one person to achieve the far-reaching goal of connecting with millions? Through the startling power of syndication.
For the timid and meek, this may seem like a frightening concept. What crazy loophole in the system could possibly allow some nobody, especially one lacking elite credentials (such as an Ivy League education, blue-blood genetics, inherited wealth, or the proper set of opinions), to thrust him or herself into a position of influence and power?
Who Appointed Them?
In fact, some critics angrily point to individuals who seemingly have no right to such a powerful national platform. Some critical consumers have a hit parade of personalities whose views are out of line with theirs.
“Who appointed THEM to tell us what to think?”
Well, there’s no conspiracy. The answer is: Nobody appointed them. In almost every one of these cases, these people made themselves national media figures—with maybe a little expert coaching and an assist from a network, syndication company, or agent.
They simply pursued their dreams of syndication. With talent and persistence, they followed their chosen paths into radio or TV, or other media. And before you knew it, everyone was talking about them—fans and complainers alike.
Audiences Are Engaged
This brings up an interesting point about many of today’s syndicated media personalities. Millions of people have opinions about them.
Today’s audiences are engaged and involved, and they relate more than ever before to the personalities that they hear on radio, watch on TV, or see in other media.
Their voices, images, and words have the power to capture the attention of the nation. Syndication audiences can rapidly grow to massive numbers of deeply loyal fans. There’s room for all points of view and styles of presentation, too.
Countering the Mass Media
Today, many Americans have become distrustful of the media and journalism in general. They may wonder what they could possibly do to counter the spin they perceive in the media.
Of course, they could write a letter to the editor, which will get them some attention. They could pen an op-ed piece and hope it gets published. A column would give them slightly more exposure. They could go online and write a blog or create a podcast, and pray it gets noticed in the vast, ever-growing ocean of online voices.
But none of these limited approaches match the powerful impact of syndication.
When you host a nationally syndicated radio or TV show, or you make your content available in literally hundreds of places online via Internet syndication, your voice and your point of view have the potential to reach wide segments of the nation’s population and make a significant impact. There’s a good chance that an audience out there is interested in what you can give them, be it information or entertainment, or a combination of both.
So the question to ask yourself is a simple one. Are you willing to give syndication a try?
The People Are There
Every day, lots of people are focused on the media. The power of all those people listening to you, watching you, or reading your words can be immense.
If entertaining and enlightening others is your style, we’re guessing you may have already had a taste of this on a smaller scale. Perhaps you already host a local radio show or podcast, or you write a blog.
If a certain musical genre or style strongly appeals to you, that might be your path to radio syndication. If you have an idea for a clever new TV show, that might be your doorway to national fame.
Maybe you’re an author, public speaker, business owner, or expert in a certain field such as health, law, or finance. You might be a sports fan, or have a strong interest in a topic such as parenting, women’s issues, the Internet, food and wine, minority matters, self-motivation, marketing, romance, pets, Hollywood gossip…you name it.
If your goal is to reach a wider audience, AND earn money doing it, syndication can make it happen.
Success in syndication does not require wealth. More important than money is persistence. You must keep the vision of what you want to achieve always in mind, until it becomes reality.
The Power of the Towers
Let’s say you do a local radio show or a podcast. You put a lot of thought and dedication into creating it. But until you syndicate it, you won’t begin to understand the Power of the Towers—the magic effect of broadcast syndication.
It’s what causes your show to transcend local, limited, narrow distribution. Broadcast syndication can give you blanket coverage — coast-to-coast coverage of the entire nation.
Imagine your voice, your ideas, your enthusiasm, and your passion being transmitted over the air by dozens or possibly hundreds of broadcast towers spanning the nation. When this happens, countless numbers of people may be moved by you, entertained by you, and informed by you. The result is, they respond to you! At the same time, advertisers become willing to partner with you, and pay you money so their messages can reach your audience.
Old School and Still Growing
Traditional broadcast media is sometimes considered “old school” in today’s digital world. But it remains an incredibly powerful force. A New York ad agency leader recently stated that advertisers vote with their pocketbooks, and they keep putting their dollars into “old media” for two reasons. First, many consumers trust it, and second, it is still the best way to reach a mass audience.
That’s why radio and TV continue to have banner years in advertising revenue. Consumers seem to agree. For example, radio listening is still growing in this second decade of the 21st century. As of this writing, over-the-air radio has risen to a weekly audience of 242 million Americans, or about 93% of the population.
Suddenly, You’re Everywhere
The Power of the Towers can put you into virtually every nook and cranny of this great nation. People will take you with them in the car while doing errands. Truckers will follow your words as they cruise the interstate. Weekend warriors will listen on headphones while exercising or doing chores. Office workers in their cubicles will tune in online.
If you choose to syndicate to TV, viewers may tune you in just about anywhere, since television screens are ubiquitous these days. The same goes for Web syndication, with desktops, laptops, or mobile browsers always within reach.
Media is pervasive in America. Radios are found in most cars, as well as in 98% of homes. Many radio stations also stream their content online. The vast majority of homes have TV sets. Cable TV reaches 60% of the population. Many homes have TVs in the living room, kitchen, and bedroom.
When you are syndicated, you become a part of the nation’s hardwired, all-encompassing communications grid. There’s really no imagining how many places you might turn up.
Online Is Big Time
According to Internet Live Stats, as of this writing some 286 million Americans, or over 90% of the U.S. population, use the Internet.
Dig deeper and the statistics are even more staggering.
The massive growth of the Web means good things for syndication. Internet content syndication, full content syndication, opt-in syndication, and viral syndication are just some of the powerful ways to harness the power of the net to achieve a major impact. These Web tactics, and others, are also worth considering.
Still Skeptical?
You may still be convinced that traditional media syndication remains an out-of-reach dream for the everyday person. The doubters might point to recent trends—for example, corporate consolidation in the broadcasting industry—as signs that it’s now harder than ever to syndicate a show.
At our company which specializes in radio syndication, we can tell you that this is definitely not the case.
To cite the example above, radio stations owned by virtually every company in the business, including the corporate giants, happily carry the syndicated content our company offers. It’s extremely rare to hear of a corporate edict that tells station managers they cannot accept independent syndication. If and when such a command comes down from above, it’s almost always temporary in nature.
The fact is, stations want and need quality syndicated content more than ever before. With tight programming budgets, syndication helps stations broadcast the content they can’t produce on their own. This in turn helps stations save money, sell more commercials and boost their bottom line.
Learn More About Us
Since our founding in 1993, Syndication Networks Corporation (SNC) has been a leader in radio syndication. We offer quality shows to stations on a barter commercial basis. Our products are carried by nearly 2,000 stations across the nation, including most of the top 50 markets.
When we syndicate a talk show or music show we, in effect, build a radio network for that show one market and one station at a time. There are 212 different Nielsen-rated markets in the US, and some 9,000-plus full time radio stations within those markets. The markets are ranked by size, for example New York is #1, Los Angeles is #2, Chicago is #3 and so forth.
The network we build for a show will consist of a lineup of stations from as many as possible of the 212 different rated radio markets in the US. The objective is to secure the strongest possible stations and largest possible listening audience.
Our established relationship with stations, along with our reputation for quality, gives SNC a definite edge over other syndicators.
The key to working with stations is to provide high quality content, and make delivery of the content as turn-key as possible. The easier we make it for them, the more inclined they are to carry the shows we offer. SNC prides itself on customer service to the industry. Stations love working with us because we never stop working for them. We have an excellent station support team and online services for the many stations that broadcast our shows.
When our company syndicates your show, you retain 100% ownership of your show and you keep 100% of the potentially lucrative back-end profits. You retain complete control over the content of your show, and you own the copyright and the name of the show. The SNC approach to syndication has allowed our clients to earn incomes from their radio shows. It’s a win-win formula that has worked well over the years, both for our show hosts and for our company.