How to name Radio Show/ Station
Discover names for your radio station using this radio name generator
Naming & Branding Expert
Table of Contents
The Ultimate 8-Step Guide To Naming Radio Station
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In any case, brainstorming possible name ideas for your radio show is the best way to start. To guide you, I have come up with 20 radio show names.
- Pep Talk
- Sounds of Music
- Everyday Woman
- Street News
- The Late Chat
- Updates on the A.M
- Stephanie Live
- Gospel Runs
- Celeb Living
- Up and Talking
- Rush Hour
- The Traffic Radio Show
- Chat with Elle
- Family Time
- Hot Tea
- Politickin’ With Polly
- Joe Campbell Live
- Sports Weekly
- Rap News
- Talk It Out
Step 1: Outline What the Name Should Represent
When trying to come up with good radio show names, it’s important that you first think of them in relation to your brand.
What is in a talk show name? A lot is in a name, but what really stands out in any name is what it represents. It is what your show or station ultimately stands for. You want the name to explain to the target audience who you are and how your services can be of use. That will make the business easier to find and more appealing to potential users.
I assume you have created a list of possible names for your radio show as I did. The next step is to pick a handful of names (4 or 5) that are better than the rest. How do you go about this?
I am going to show you some questions you can ponder on, in order to make your selection process easier.
- Who is your ideal listener?
- What time of the day would you like to host a radio session?
- Do you want the radio station to be associated with your personal brand?
- What feeling do you want to convey to the listeners?
- What will the name of your radio show sound like in a conversation?
- Is your radio show name unique?
Bottom line: There is no magic formula for explaining what your radio show names represents. What’s important is to identify your target market and then focus on making positive and meaningful emotional connections with them. Find names that cannot in any way jeopardize that objective.
Step 2: Competitive Analysis
Your task in this step is to analyze local or international companies from same field and figure out what inspired their business name ideas. Then you can come up with strategies to do it better.
The big question is, “how exactly did they get their naming on point?”
An easy way to do this is to find a number of radio show names on the internet, evaluate their logo and positioning. This will tell you a lot about how each one derived its name and established a brand.
An exhaustive competitive analysis will give you an objective understanding of the competition’s strengths and weaknesses. That information will help you position your talk show names ideas in a unique way that outshines the competition.
How to Do a Competitive Name Analysis
How do you analyze competitors’ radio names and logo designs? Follow our simple template:
- Pick a few competitors (preferably industry leaders).
- Check out their name. What does the name say, and how does it relate to what they do?
- Analyze the logo. What does it represent?
- How do their name and logo contribute to their success?
To give you an idea of what we mean, please check out our analysis of these businesses:
Voice of America: this radio name suggests a station where daily broadcasts are made for every American. Its logo is the acronym ‘VOA’. Anywhere the logo is seen, an American recognizes it as the Voice of America network.
The Steve Harvey Morning Show: this radio show is affiliated with Steve Harvey the comedian. Once the name is mentioned, one expects a radio session filled with funny and empowering conversations. The brand logo of this radio show is the name “Steve Harvey” in bold letters, and “Morning Show’ in smaller letters. The logo shows you even from a distance, that celebrity media personality Steve Harvey, is in charge.
Science Friday: the name of this radio show simply means science reports every Friday. It doesn’t get more descriptive than that. The radio show name is abbreviated, in order to come up with a catchy logo. The logo consists of the words ‘sci fri’ written in orange text. This logo is great because it retains the name and meaning of the radio show, while showing a clean and simple design.
Marketplace: according to its name, this radio program is intended to update people on business news and economic stories. Its logo is similar to a graph of demand and supply. It is also shaped like an ‘M’, which represents the radio show name.
Bottom line: You can tell from the three examples that it’s by no coincidence that some radio show names become so relatable and memorable. The feel in the logo and the messaging in the name help the business stand out from the crowd.
Step 3: Gather a List of Your Business Name Ideas (Brainstorm)
The next step for you is to brainstorm possible talk show names ideas. Write them down as they come; do the weeding later.
When you have 20-40 business names that fit your niche and vision, and that can compete successfully with existing competitors.
Next, split your list of names into the 4 categories listed below. Let’s see a quick demonstration assuming you’re trying to come up with cool radio names centered on business.
- Descriptive names: In this approach, the name should describe the service or product of your business at first glance.
Here are 5 descriptive names we brainstormed for the purpose of this article:- Street News
- The Late Chat
- Updates on the A.M
- Rap News
- Sports Weekly
- Suggestive names: Suggestive names create a vivid image that resonates with the prospective user. Suggestive radio names hint at an underlying meaning to the name, instead of just putting it out there. You can go with this category if you’re trying to get creative.
Good examples for suggestive names are:- Pep Talk
- Celeb Living
- Gospel Runs
- Rush Hour
- Up and Talking
- Abstract names: Abstract names are memorable and catchy, but they don’t have any apparent connection with their services or products. The names are purely made up, so they easily establish dominance in the market. Google, Yahoo, Nike, and Skype are examples of abstract names.
Some abstract name ideas for radio station business are;- Hot Tea
- Family Time
- Sounds of Music
- Marketplace
- Buzz
- Legacy names: naming your talk show name with legacy in mind means that you want it to outlive you. If this is what you prefer, you can just name it after yourself or an organization you founded. The luxury sports car Ferrari, for example, is named after its founder, Enzo Ferrari.
We brainstormed these examples:- Stephanie Live
- Chat with Elle
- Politickin’ with Polly
- Joe Campbell Live
- The Steve Harvey Morning Show
Step 4: Generating Names
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All you have to do is type your word you want to include in the name in the search bar. In a matter of seconds, you will get talk show names ideas.
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Once you find the names you like, instant domain zone availability checker will show you what zones are available for registration. This AI based show name generator will also get you some logo recommendations based on the name of your talk show. This tool saves you a lot of time and the best part? It is totally free!
Ready to find your business name?
Step 5: Shortlisting your name ideas
It’s weeding time! This is where you prune and pick only the best names for your radio show. Your shortlist should have about 3-5 names off your initial list.
Picking your favorite radio show name may be tough, especially if you used our show name generator. There are a few things you need to consider when creating a shortlist.
- Keep it simple. Good show names should be unique, but mostly simple. Simple names are easily remembered.
- Check for linguistics and context. Do a quick google search of your names to find out what they mean in other languages- especially your target countries. If any of them has an offensive meaning in another language, it’s best to go with a different name.
- Sometimes owners choose names that later become controversial especially in overseas markets. Don’t make that mistake. Eliminate any chances of the name being misinterpreted as sexist, homophobic, racist, or offensive in any way to any community.
- Tagline check. If you haven’t come up with a tagline at this point, take a pause and do that. It’s important that your chosen radio show name aligns with your tagline, which is also your slogan.
It is your prerogative to decide the elimination criteria, but this checklist should help you shorten your list:
- Is the name culturally sensitive?
- Does the name capture the values and vision of your brand?
- Does the name align with your tagline? If you don’t have a tagline ready, you need to create it at this point and align it with your preferred app name.
- How relatable is the name to the target audience?
- Of the most relatable names, which ones are the easiest to remember?
- Can your target audience pronounce the name easily and accurately?
- How original does the name sound? You don’t want clichés and plagiarized names.
Having answered these questions truthfully, you may now proceed to pick the top 5 radio show names from your first list. The selected radio show names will pass through various other steps, until you arrive at the best name for your radio station.
Discussed below are the 5 chosen names from my list.
- Pep Talk: this name suggests a radio show that typically airs at the start of a new week, to motivate its listeners. It probably also offers solutions on productivity, personal development and conflict management. People who are stuck in an area of their lives are ideal listeners for this radio show.
- Everyday Woman: this name is great because it describes a radio show hosted by women and for women- on which they would cover health and social issues women face.
- Rush Hour: this name suggests a radio show probably hosted in the early hours of the day, when people are generally commuting to work, or in the evening, when most people are on their way home from work.
- Politickin’ With Polly: this radio show name gives an impression of patriots, nationalists or conscious citizens, rubbing minds on political matters of their state.
- The Sports Weekly: this name describes a radio show where sport enthusiasts call in during sessions to rant about their favorite sports, recent events in the athletic world and favorite sportsmen.
Step 6: Background Check
Once you have shortlisted the best radio show names, background checks are necessary. A background check might just save you from future legal battles and cases of misinterpretation. Here are a few things to do in a background check.
- Research Legality: You do not want to get in trouble with the law because you’re starting a radio show business. So, find out if your intended radio names and taglines are in accordance with the law of your home country. Do this for each name on the shortlist. If any of them does not pass the test, drop that name and move on with the others.
- Trademark Check: to avoid cases of trademark infringement down the line, find out if your radio name or logo is already trademarked by another organization. If it’s not, you have the go-ahead to register it as your own trademark.
- Readability: is your show name easy to read and understand? You can get an external opinion on the readability of your talk show name and tagline. If it’s not, you have the opportunity to fix that because you’re not creating it for yourself alone.
Step 7: Get some Feedback
You have narrowed down your 20-40 name list to 2-3 names at this point.
Simple step: It’s great to have the opinion of a third-party when you’re done with the primary checks. Their opinion may differ from yours, but it’s mostly objective criticism so that’s okay. You can show a list of your final 2 club names to;
- People who work on the radio.
- Your target audience.
If you’re asking your ideal audience, ask the first thing they thought of on hearing that name. Ask a radio station owner how they think an audience would interpret your radio show name.
Once you get feedback, go back and figure out if their response was in favor of your name or not. Ask yourself if the name evoked the thoughts, you had imagined it would.
Pro Step: If you want to go deeper with the feedback step you can reach out to opinion shapers, industry leaders, your ideal customers, linguists, and tech futurists for their opinions.
- Tech futurists will help you predict and reshape the future prospects of your new radio name within the global tech space.
- Linguists will advise on the name’s readability and lingual appropriateness.
- Opinion shapers and industry leaders will help you predict the radio show’s probable reception in the real world.
- Ideal customers will tell you whether the business name represents a need they would purchase.
Pro tip: Don’t rely too much on feedback from biased people, especially fans, friends, family members, and colleagues. Seek the opinion of brutally honest critics.
Step 8: Check if the name is available
You have come a long way in trying to name your radio show. Now, the final step is to check if your radio \ station name and extension of choice are available for domain registration. You can use our name availability checker to run a quick check after you have generated name ideas for your radio name. Our free tool shows you which domain extensions are available, and will recommend logo ideas that correspond with your business name. Or you can Google the shortlisted names to ensure that they aren’t plagiarized. Looking up the names will also give you an idea of what each name might mean to different internet users.
The radio name generator and availability checker are highly recommended, to make your name stand out from the rest.
Ready to find your business name?
7 Things to Avoid While Naming your Radio Show
- Complex Names. In a bid to come off as creative or different, a lot of people come up with names they shouldn’t be using for a radio or any establishment at all. You can get creative, but don’t complicate things for yourself and your audience by using names that are difficult to read and spell.
- Copying a Competitor’s Style. The competitive analysis is for you to study the marketplace, and get inspired with ideas that are original to your brand. Copying the style, name or logo of another show takes away the originality from your project.
- Skipping Background Checks. Do not for any reason, skip the background checks detailed in Step 6. That is, if you hate the discomfort of legal battles and run-ins with the law enforcement.
- Shortcuts. There are no shortcuts to success. Even when naming your radio show, you have to follow through with the recommended steps. Cutting corners may cost you more in the long run.
- Don’t limit the name to a specific language or geographical location. That will in most cases minimize the future growth prospects.
- Don’t use words that are too plain or cliché to outstand from a crowd. In the same breath, don’t choose names that too obscure, technical, or difficult.
- Don’t be too stubborn or biased that you cannot accept negative feedback for the names you like.
To save time, you can use our show name generator to quickly find good club names. Name ideas from the name generator are catchy, simple and unique to you.