7 ways to successfully pitch TV

You keep calling that TV station, and the producers won’t pick up the phone.

You email them with intriguing and visually rich subject lines, such as “Summertime fun event,” and those snooty TV types don’t reply.

Rude people!

Or maybe the trouble is you don’t know how to get the attention of someone whose inbox is swamped with two dozen incoming emails an hour. In “Breaking into TV: A step-by-step guide to getting your message on TV,” Larissa Hall, digital content manager at 13WHAM in Rochester, N.Y., offers pointers that will make your TV pitch stand out.

Hall, a former Tribune Broadcasting producer, suggests these tips:

1. Be specific in the subject line.

The email subject line is your hook. Snag the producer’s interest with one that explains just what you are offering. Avoid retreads of clichés.

“You have to be specific,” Hall says. “I get a lot of ‘Mother’s Day is around the corner,’ and the ‘Tax day tips.'”

2. Tell what you want.

Hall is swamped with flowery, information-choked emails that don’t get to the point. Don’t B.S. her, she says. Unbury the lede.