With over 10,000 stations, you may not know all the stations that are located in your area. Radio Locator allows you to find stations by the post codes in which their signal can be heard. Narrow this list down to stations that primarily serve the region which you are interested in.
You should contact the radio stations to find out which demographics they serve. For example, generally speaking men listen to talk radio formats (in which sports and politics are the primary topics) much more than women.
However, these are generalities and your local station will be able to give you the specifics of their audience based on data from Arbitron or Eastlan ratings. Once you have data from the radio stations, figure out which stations have an audience which matches up with the customer base of your business. Asking your customers which stations they listen to can also very helpful.
Retail stores and restaurants can use radio ads very effectively . You can reach a potential customer when they are on their way to go shopping or thinking about where to eat that night. In short, radio can be very effective at driving traffic (pun intended) to your business.
If you are currently already advertising on other mediums, such as television or newspaper, radio can be a very powerful one-two punch. The potential customer hears a television commercial at night and in the afternoon, and in the morning a radio ad reminds them about your business.
However, if you have a complex message or the benefits of your offering are not easy to describe with words in a compelling way, radio may not be the best medium for you.