A syndicated show is programming produced and licensed for use by many radio or television stations throughout the U.S. Syndicated shows allow stations the opportunity to provide listeners shows that they could not create themselves or access to nationally-recognized personalities. Syndicated shows are usually offered to one media outlet per market.

Types of Syndicated Shows

What does syndicated show mean? Entertainment producers develop and create television and radio programming to fulfill listeners’ desire for content around the clock.

Three types of syndicated shows provide local media stations with many options to supplement their programming content.

• First-run syndication. First-run syndicated shows run for the first time on the syndicated programming’s affiliate stations. Examples of first-run syndications include: Wheel of Fortune, Wild Kingdom, Judge Judy (and the other “judge” shows), and Dr. Phil.
• Off-network or second-run syndication. These shows ran first on a network or major radio group. They are then sold to other stations to be aired as reruns. Among these are all-time favorites including Cheers, Seinfeld, The X-Files, The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family.
• Public broadcast syndication. This programming is produced for distribution on PBS or other community or public stations. Some PBS shows are classics over generations like Sesame Street, Antiques Roadshow, Nature and Nova.

MediaTracks Communications is a leading producer of public affairs programming that complies with the FCC’s requirement that all radio stations air syndicated programming to address their community’s needs and concerns.

How Syndicated Radio Shows Can Benefit Your Clients

Radio is one of the most effective and most affordable marketing formats available. Studies show that 82 percent of the U.S. population who are over 12 years old listen to radio every day. Despite other options including owned music (CDs or iPods), online listening, and satellite radio, an overwhelming majority of people listen to their car radio.

According to a Nielsen study, radio is still the highest audience of all mediums. The Nielsen study reveals that radio reaches 93 percent of Americans over 18 every week compared to television reaching 88 percent of people over 18.

Radio delivers on highly sought-out demographics too:

• Generation X (35-54) — 80.5 million listen to radio every month — an astonishing 97 percent
• Millennials (18-34) — 71.6 million monthly listeners – an equally impressive 95 percent
• Baby Boomers (55-64) — 41.2 million listeners each month – 98 percent of Boomers

Radio is more reasonably priced and offers the opportunity to target specific demographics affordably. No matter what demographic you need for a particular client, you’ll find a station that reaches your target audience. From Latino to Hip-Hop and from Hot FM to News/Talk Radio, there’s a radio format that matches your demographics.

MediaTracks Communications specializes in audio and radio services for public relations agencies. We help you identify the services and strategies that will work best for your client. Our team works with you to craft the perfect message. Then we work to ensure that you reach your target audience whether local, regional or guaranteed national placement.

Our two syndicated shows reach over 6,000,000 listeners weekly on over 1,200 radio affiliate stations.

And there’s no need to go outside for production. MediaTracks Communications offers audio production services in their state-of-the-art studio that includes a ProTools audio workstation, voiceover talent, music and sound library, FTP access and dial-in remote capabilities.

How MediaTracks’ Syndicated Public Affairs Programming Can Help Radio Stations Comply with FCC Requirements

MediaTracks Communications produces two weekly public affairs programs, Radio Health Journal and Viewpoints Radio (click here for sample). Each program is a 28-minute segment, providing the station with 2 minutes of local advertising time.

• Radio Health Journal explores two important health topics in each segment and includes interviews with doctors and scientists.
• Viewpoints Radio provides news about a variety of topics of broad interest — from business and education to the arts and pop culture.

Not only is your station or radio group required to provide this programming, you are required to identify issues of concern for your community. The FCC used to mandate that stations pick five to ten topics of community interest. The FCC no longer sets the number of topics to be chosen, but their previous mandated number seems reasonable for most communities.

The FCC requires a quarterly report, available to the public, on how you’ve addressed those topics of community concern. Stations face significant fines at license renewal time or during an inspection for failure to have those reports available for review.

MediaTracks Communications provide each affiliate station with a quarterly report that keeps you in compliance with FCC requirements. Their quarterly report contains:

1. A compilation of issues addressed during the preceding quarter
2. Title and length of each segment
3. Date and time of the program
4. Description of the topics and guest information

Our public affairs programming offers these benefits:

• No cost to your station — 28 minutes long to give you 2 minutes of radio time to sell and includes 5 contained national minutes.
• Easy set-up with log-in assigned for immediate broadcasting.
• Download from our website or via our FTP.
• Easy reporting to FCC public file database.
• High quality content to engage listenership.

Learn More about what we can do with Syndicated Shows

One call to MediaTracks Communications is all it takes to make your job easier. Whether you educate and entertain your listeners or get your clients’ content on the air as syndicated programming, MediaTracks’ team of skilled professionals are ready to help you.

Founded in 1989, MediaTracks Communications has been collaborating with public relations companies delivering with either board guaranteed placement or targeted demographics. Their use of proven reporting sources ensure results that make your clients happy. Our team includes award-winning writers and producers to reach niche demographics.

MediaTracks is the producer of the most widely distributed public affairs programming on U.S. radio stations, broadcast in over 200 markets — Radio Health Journal and Viewpoints Radio. Leverage social media opportunities with Facebook, podcasts and Twitter.

Call us at 847-299-9500 or contact us today to learn more.