At NAB this year I had the pleasure of listening to one of my favorite comics talk about his love for broadcast media, radio and TV. I wrote about it in my NAB Vegas 2026 Highlights article for Radio Update. Bargatze who came across significantly more intelligent and articulate than his average guy on-stage persona would lead you to believe he was, laid out the case for why broadcast boundaries are a good thing. Overall, the thing that impressed me the most was how strategic Nate had been throughout his career building his brand and how hard he’s worked to protect it. Throughout his rise in comedy Bargatze has never wavered from his decision to be family friendly and create comedy the whole family can watch and enjoy. The latest example of that is his new movie The Breadwinner which opened in theaters over the weekend. Ahead of the release the comic promoted a special ‘Nate Rate’ lowered ticket price he negotiated with some of the major theater chains to make the film affordable enough to bring the whole family. Which begs the question, could radio stations do something similar within their markets to create their own version of the Nate Rate? Absolutely, here’s some thoughts on how.
A promotion like this isn’t anything new. Many stations have created listener clubs or VIP cards that get listeners a discount at participating local businesses. The STATION NAME RATE would just simplify that process by taking out a hoop for listeners to jump through. Which also makes it easier to open it up to more businesses.
My suggestion would be to choose a month, maybe August as kids are headed back to school or later if sales needs more of a runway. Then contact every business currently advertising and ask if they’d like to participate and offer a special STATION NAME RATE for the entire month giving everyone 10% off their entire purchase (could be up to 20% but not 15% because that makes the math harder). After that contact new businesses asking if they want to be included by purchasing an on-air schedule. Tag all of the participating businesses in their own commercials telling people to ask for the “STATION NAME RATE at BUSINESS NAME for 10% off every purchase all MONTH long.” No card, no coupon, all they have to do is verbally ask for it when they’re about to pay. Businesses that sell online could also make it a promo code customers enter.
In addition to including that in every participating businesses’ commercial, make 30 second on-air promos for it that rotate mentions for a couple of the businesses in each. Then create a pinned webpost on the station website that stays at the top of the homepage. When clicked on it explains the promotion with lists and links to all the participating businesses. Finally, have all the on-air talent use their smartphones to record themselves stopping by one of the businesses to share that through the station social feeds.
If that all works well, repeat it twice per year going forward with about six months separation. Could be a great thing to do in between major book promotions to keep the momentum going and drive incremental revenue. Also, for multi-station groups it could be done group-wide as a GROUP NAME RATE instead.
What do you think? Have you ever done something similar or how would you tweak this to make it work even better in your market? Comment below or email me at Andy@RadioStationConsultant.com.