I’m not naming names, but someone leaked a confidential memo to a station staff that targeted women. It said: “Women like shoes. You need to talk about shoes on the air.”

“Women’s Talk” or “Women’s News” on radio has been tried time and again, with varying degrees of success. But as stations continue to launch with high hopes of attracting female listeners to the format, they’ve consistently missed the boat. That memo is a perfect one line example of why it hasn’t worked.

To program to women, it helps to understand them. What doesn’t work: watching Oprah, or “Sex and The City," then trying to emulate that approach. Copying without understanding why something is effective tends not to work. Take the example of shoes. If you’ve watched “Sex and The City,” you know shoes had a starring role. While some women may love shoes, what’s important is how a woman feels when she’s wearing those shoes. Women connect to experience. Some, when they wear strappy stilettos, feel taller, sexier, and more powerful. For others, putting on a pair of Nikes gives them that strong, balanced and capable feeling, as though they could run the marathon.

Men and women take in information differently. Brain science proves this. Visual descriptions are especially important to men. Research shows that men are more stimulated by visual details. Language that describes events with colorful visual elements makes them pay closer attention to a story. Sports announcers are the best in the business at visual description. They are mostly men, talking to men, in a way that men understand. The play-by-play announcers enhance the visual experience for these men.

WOMEN ARE EMOTIVE.

Women, on the other hand, are emotive. If a woman can “feel” an emotional connection to a story, she is more likely to listen closely. Powerful radio is about storytelling. Stories engage audiences. And emotion is how you get women. But that does not mean that women aren’t interested in politics, finance, sports or the general broad range of issues that affect all human beings, it’s the approach that makes the difference.

Women have traditionally done well in AC radio attracting female audiences because the personalities and the songs are emotive. The success of Premiere’s nationally syndicated personality Delilah is a perfect example. In Talk radio, Dr. Laura’s success was built on emotional content. It proves that women do want to hear other women on the air, but they want women they can relate to, and who have something to say. If you touch feelings, whether your topic is shoes or nuclear war, you will have women on board. However you feel about her politically, if you watch MSNBC-TV’s Rachel Maddow, you will see how she balances both an intellectual and emotional approach to the topics of the day that appeal to men and women alike.

Have you ever wondered why women love rock stars? It’s men showing emotion. For men to speak the language of women, it means taking a new approach. When crafting any topic, focus on the emotive angle or perspective. As a consultant, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of predominantly male morning shows seeking tools to increase their numbers with women. In Canada, after a few short sessions, Q107 Morning man John Derringer mastered these techniques and, within weeks, he had increased female numbers, reflected in the ratings.

Just as women are learning the visual language to engage more powerfully with male listeners, for men, finding an emotive angle on a topic will help you to engage and grow your female audience. One of our clients, who hosts a show on a female skewing station, found a follow-up angle on Whitney Houston—but it wasn’t about Whitney. The topic focus was: "Why is it that smart, gorgeous, talented, women pick these bad guys?" Everyone had an example or story from their own lives. The phones lit up and the conversation went for two days both on and off the air. The reason it worked? The personal is universal, and the engaging topic was about the listeners.

Cumulus’ WQRX Washington, DC host Jack Diamond never shies away from hard news or political topics, but he found he nearly blew out his phone lines when the topic turned emotive. A recent enthusiastic Facebook message from Jack: “Phone Topic of the day: What was “The Final Straw.” Something they did/didn’t do or said that made you realize he/she wasn’t the one, and this would never last. It could be a new relationship in the discovery stage, or one a few months or even years along. HUGE response and most stories were funny.”

With the upcoming U.S. Presidential election filled with issues of importance to women… Is Talk radio ready?