In the car
Minutes before they buy
People hear radio on the way to the store, the job site and the appointment, right before decisions get made.
Radio advertising · South Bend, Indiana
Radio advertising in South Bend you can measure.
I help South Bend and Michiana businesses use Federated Media's stations as part of a plan that also catches the searches, clicks and calls radio creates, and shows you what it moved.
I'm a Senior Marketing Consultant at Federated Media. Radio is one of the strongest tools I have, but the plan starts with what your business needs, and I'll tell you if radio isn't the right first move.
Why radio still works here
Reach people before they search.
Most advertising waits for someone to already be looking. Radio gets your name in their head first, so when they do search, they're looking for you.
Frequency
Remembered, not just noticed
A steady schedule builds the kind of familiarity that makes your name the one people call when something breaks.
Local voices
Trust you can borrow
Host endorsements and station events put personalities your customers already trust behind your business.
The South Bend stations
Five brands. Different audiences.
Federated Media has been a family-owned Indiana company since 1952. These are its South Bend-market stations; the right mix depends on who your customers are.
100.7 FM · Country
B100
Today's Best & Most Country, adults 25–54
95.3 FM · News / Talk
95.3 MNC
Engaged, affluent homeowners
103.9 FM · Rock
103.9 The Bear
Home of The Jason Lee & Kluck Show
102.7 FM · Hot AC
Froggy 102.7
Elkhart County's own station
Stream · News / Talk
MNC Nation
News/talk, streaming
Radio is half the plan
Create the demand. Then catch it.
A spot that sends people to a website that never mentions the offer is money left on the table. Every flight gets a path to follow.
Amplify
The schedule
Drive-time weight on the stations your customers already listen to.
Be Found
Branded search
Search ads and local listings timed to the flight, so people who hear you find you.
Convert
A page for the campaign
One page that repeats the spot word for word, with an obvious next step.
Learn
Lift tracking
Website traffic lined up against the hours the spots aired, so you can see what moved.
How it starts
Three steps. No pitch.
Step 1
Take the Checkup
Seven quick steps. You get a brief on where your marketing is leaking.
Step 2
Talk it through
Thirty minutes on what you're trying to accomplish and what you're doing now.
Step 3
Get a connected plan
The right mix for your goal, and exactly how we will measure it.
Questions
What people ask first.
- How much does radio advertising cost in South Bend?
- It depends on your goals, the stations and how often your spots run. Most businesses start somewhere between a focused single-station test and a multi-station schedule with digital. Because Federated Media owns the stations, there's no middleman markup, and every plan is priced against the outcome it's built to produce.
- Which South Bend station should I advertise on?
- The one your customers already listen to. B100 is country with a core audience of adults 25 to 54, 95.3 MNC is news and talk with an engaged audience of homeowners, 103.9 The Bear is rock and home to The Jason Lee & Kluck Show, and Froggy 102.7 serves Elkhart County. Many plans use more than one.
- How long before radio advertising works?
- Radio builds familiarity through frequency, so plan in flights of several weeks rather than a few days, and judge it on what moves while the schedule runs: searches, site traffic, calls and walk-ins.
- How do I know if my radio ads are working?
- Give the campaign its own landing page and tracked phone number, run branded search alongside it, and use website lift tracking to compare traffic during the flight with the weeks before it.
- Do you write and produce the radio ad?
- Yes. Federated Media's production team creates the spot, and host endorsements are available when trust matters. The message is written to match your landing page and search ads word for word.