Ultimate Lead Guide - Finding TV and Radio Stations

Television and radio stations are next in our Ultimate Lead Guide series. Aside from our Winning With Marketing series, be sure to also check out:

The Introduction
Schools
Places of Worship
Medical Offices
Government
Office Buildings
Car Dealerships
Banks
Gyms
Residential Communities
TV/Radio Stations

You'd think with the age of the internet that the numbers of television and radio stations would have disappeared by now. It's hemorrhaging for sure. Between 2022 and 2023, television viewership has declined by 12.5% according to Nielsen. This accounts for only 20% of total screen time in US homes as of 2023. It's been on a steady decline for the past 2 decades. Cable TV was a threat and now there's eyeball competition from YouTube and other social media. 

So, why post about a dying medium? It's not dead yet. There are still lover 1,500 television stations within the US and 15,000 radio stations. Some of these still need cleaning. In addition there are TV studios and music studios everywhere that can use YOUR cleaning services. 

The reason I'm targeting this niche is more of an affinity more than anything. Back in my college days I worked for WAVY, which was an NBC TV-affiliate out of Portsmouth, Virginia. NBC hosted the 1996 Olympics when it was in Atlanta and the station needed extra marketing help. I was the guy using the outdated computers to assign 30 or 60 second local advertising slots to local businesses from the sales team so that the people in the basement using the equipment can select the right analog taped commercial to play at the right time around the national slots. It's almost a dry of a job as I described it. That was short-lived and followed a boss over to the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk to help them with their marketing. While I knew nothing about cleaning in my TV days, I did have an appreciation to the nighttime cleaning crew who kept my tiny cubicle workstation cleaned. 

Fast forward in time when I started in commercial cleaning sales in 1997 and the only commercial experience I had was in media. TV stations were among the first niches I naturally gravitated towards. In this Ultimate Lead Guide series, I share how to find leads. Right away I found my first TV station outside DC. It was an independent station nearby called WPXW which was later acquired by Scripps and called Ion Television. Once that sale happened, everyone was let go and our contract ended. Around the same time we cleaned a television studio used for America's Most Wanted in Bethesda, MD and continued that through the end of its broadcast. We also pulled in interest on Public Access Television (think Waynes World). We did a walkthrough for a facility with multiple studios. We lost that bid. They called us back a decade later and we proposed again without success. Our price was too high on both accounts.

As a reminder, this blog series is about finding leads, and not marketing to them. But I'll drop hints on the above examples within the methods below. That all said, we found TV/radio station leads in the following ways: 1) Google, 2) Networking, 3) Referrals, 4) Affiliations/Associations, 5) Federal lists, and 6) through our website.

Google

Usually with Google, Google Maps is my go-to. But this isn't the case with TV stations. All TV stations must be registered with the government and there are so many sources that aggregate this information. It's so easy to find a list online. Here's an example from Wikipedia for DC TV stations.

And not to be outdone, you can repeat the process for AM/FM radio stations.

Word of note for radio stations. They don't need all that much space for broadcasting and studio. Some studios are big but some are so small it's not worth contacting. Definitely prequalify your leads.

For TV studios, repeat the process for your search. There are many independent studios out there. Some don't take a lot of space. I was in a WeWork location in Washington, DC and found studios within that space. I bid a church and they had their own studio in there too. 

Networking

I talked about Networking as a marketing tactic but I found actual leads through networking groups, like our local Chamber. Specifically, I found WPXW just by meeting with their sales manager. I was looking to buy time with them but a convo led to another and another and another and eventually they asked for a quote. The local public access the first time around came to us in the same way. We were at a networking event. They pitched to me the idea of having a show. I didn't see the value and passed but I reciprocated the pitch and that led to a walkthrough, though we didn't win. 

Check out your local networking groups to see if any TV or radio stations are on there. 

Referrals

Referrals are historically our #1 source of leads throughout my 27-28 year history in cleaning. It's always been a great source. We pulled in America's Most Wanted. Their landlord was a client of ours and one thing led to another. We cleaned their original studio in Bethesda, MD up until we moved. Always keep those relationships going.

Affiliations/Associations

Ever listen to the radio or watch TV. Invariably they always state that they're affiliated with this association or that. Examples include National Association of Broadcasters, American Public Television, Independent Broadcasters Association, and others. If you truly haven't found your leads by now, this would be a good go-to spot to tie up any remaining leads in your service area.

Federal Databases

The Federal Communication Commission keeps a database of all radio and TV stations in the US. Their list is extensive. You can pull in any lead within the US, including TV and radio stations and search. You have all the info you need including contact info.

 If you click "Public Files" within each FCC record, you can find websites, addresses and phone numbers.

Your Website/SEO

This borders on marketing, but we did have the public access reach out the 2nd time thanks to SEO. They found us on the web, and then found our website and reached out for a quote. Keep up with your website and SEO. It's the best way to pull in leads sometimes. 

I hope this helps in your journey to find TV and radio stations that you can clean. 

Next on Deck: Pareto's Principle: The 80/20 Rule (Coming 2/5/25)