A “thank
you” to RadioInk for including me in their
August 6th article, “Five Killer Questions for Five Great
Consultants.”
It was an
honor (and fun) to share pages with Gary Berkowitz, Alan Burns, Fred Jacobs, and Randy Lane...all smart, passionate about what they do, and generous in sharing what they
know.
If you don’t
know them yet, you should.
With just a bit of editing (particularly on the last question), here are my
responses to the questions posed by Radioink’s Editor In Chief Ed Ryan. Feel
free to share your thoughts as well.
What does it take to succeed on the
programming side today?
From a
product standpoint, focus on the user-experience. Spend a lot of time learning
everything you can about your listeners. Use your knowledge and creativity to
create a station that’s so fun, interesting, uplifting, informative,
entertaining, surprising, imaginative, interactive and ‘in the moment’ that
listeners want to listen to listen to everyday and every daypart whether they
can or not.
Spend a lot of time with your talent, imaging, music, promotions and listening critically.
Balance creativity with your overall strategy.
Spend a lot of time with your talent, imaging, music, promotions and listening critically.
Balance creativity with your overall strategy.
From a
management standpoint, prioritize and do what’s important first.
List 5
skills PD’s must have in order to win on the air today?
•
Strategic thinking with
both a granular and 10,000 foot view of what’s important at/to the station, but
also the ability to execute in ways that are creative, fun, timely, and occasionally out of the box
•
The ability to lead and
motivate individuals and groups of individuals
•
A coach that really
coaches to the benefit of the talent and the overall entertainment value of the
station
•
Strong organizational
skills to handle/prioritize the many demands of today’s programmer
•
The desire to know and
embrace listeners – not only in order to over-deliver satisfaction regardless
of platform, but also to anticipate new ways to surprise and delight
Where can
the young go to learn the tools of the PD trade?
Find a mentor. Ideally that’s someone you work with so you that access is easy, but if not, reach out to those who you respect. You’ll find many eager to share their experiences and ideas.
Find a mentor. Ideally that’s someone you work with so you that access is easy, but if not, reach out to those who you respect. You’ll find many eager to share their experiences and ideas.
A tremendous
amount of great thinking is available for the taking. And it’s not just great thinking
about radio, but great thinking about media, consumers, branding, marketing,
technology, demography and more. Thousands of very smart people freely share
their thoughts via blogs and Tweets alone everyday.
Identify
people on Twitter who can teach you something and follow them. With Twitter
it’s easy to quickly determine if someone’s Tweets are meaningful to you and to
find others who might contribute to your knowledge base as well.
Spend time
with listeners regarding their feelings about your station as well as their
other passions.
Deconstruct
radio stations and talent that are high achievers to gain insight into why they
are successful.
Read a
lot.
Write a lot.
Keep a journal of your discoveries, ideas and questions. Think about how the former could be
implemented and the questions could be solved.
How do PD’s
program in a PPM world and keep their jobs?
PPM didn’t change how people listen, only how they are measured. Gary Marince said that back in his Arbitron days and it’s valid to this point.
PPM and some
terrific researchers and marketers have helped us know so much more about our
listeners. We have more information on our audiences than ever and that
information is certainly an asset.
However we
also know that people like to be engaged, have fun, and simply feel good when
they listen.
There’s a
lot a PD can’t control - often the most frustrating can be panel-related. But PDs should be charged with - and immersed in -
creating a great listening experience, and given the support to make that a
reality.
Pick five
great PDs the young can look up to and follow.
This was the
toughest question for me because there are many PDs – famous and not so famous
– doing amazing work in their respective markets. I am privileged to work with
some of them.
While I did make a list, I was thinking, why a list just new PDs could follow? And for that
matter, why just five people to follow and and why follow just radio people
when there is so much great applicable thinking so readily available?
New PD or
long-time programmer, now is a time to inspire and be inspired.
Make a list if you like, but also aspire to be on a list because everyone wins when we
share what we’ve learned.
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