Do it with frequency

How important is it to have a radio station's frequency on imaging and branding?  I personally think that mentioning the frequency just aint important.  As Folder Media's Matt Deegan wisely told me the other day - "Listeners don't care how they receive your station it's what's on the station."  He is right, listeners are not interested in the technical way the radio station arrives at their ears it's all about what you do on the air.

Thinking about the way I listen to the radio I can honestly say I have not 'tuned' in a radio station by frequency for many years.  I lie a little bit as I do have an old Normende Globetrotter in the shed but that can now only get Radio 4 and Classic FM (must be something to do with its age lol) The car radio, the Virgin Cable all tell me the name of the station by flag or EPG.

I remember when I worked for Essex Radio in the 1980s we had four different frequencies (am and FM but we also mentioned the medium wave metre frequency along with the am KHz) that were split into north and south and it took nearly 15 seconds to do a station identification and mightily confused the poor listeners and created a north south divide in the county, which if you ever been to Essex you might agree exists but it did no branding favours for the radio station.

So don't do it with frequency do it with brand and of course content.