Beyond the Trophy: More Reasons to Enter Station/Personality of the Year Competitions

A while back I posted 5 reasons why your station should enter Station/Personality of the Year competitions (click to read).

Here are three more just in time for the Academy of Country Music’s Station of the Year and On-Air Personality of the Year competition which is open for submissions through December 6th (get information here or give me a call, text or email).

1.   As a programmer, putting together a ‘best of’ audio, ratings, and community service presentation makes you think about how compelling your station/show actually is. What are the stand-out aspects? Are there opportunities to further leverage your strengths and do what you do best even more frequently?   Does your talent shine and are they sufficiently showcased? What community efforts have you led that are so unique and meaningful to your listeners that awards judges will be impressed? How are your ratings vs. one year ago and beyond? Win or not, you can use the time you spend entering an award competition to help create an even better station or show – something that pays benefits all year long.

2.   Relatedly, use your presentation as a coaching and leadership tool to challenge the entire staff.  For every event in the coming year, challenge co-workers to help make it bigger, better, or improved in some meaningful way.  Remind the staff of the challenge throughout the year by using it as a theme for meetings or by publicly acknowledging co-workers for special efforts. You’ll reap a product benefit while making your next submission a true collective undertaking that all can take pride in.

3.   Re-purpose your presentation to create a multi-media sales piece. Add video from your talent, PD, GM and SM. You can even embed a sales contest at the end of the video to encourage viewership and interaction. Create an edited version and post on YouTube for listeners and fans.

It’s a great honor to take home the trophy of course. But you’re also a winner just by participating in the process.

I hope you enter.

Congraulations to KUZZ AM/FM, Bakersfield, the reigning ACM Radio Station of the Year/Medium Market. The team is shown above including Jerry Hufford (second from left), Tom Jordan, Toni-Marie, and Mel Owens along with Gary Allan.

And the Winner Is… A&O&B’s Quick Online Poll of Listener and Industry 'Takes' on the 2013 CMA Awards Show

Blake, Taylor, and Florida-Georgia Line were among those who took home multiple CMA  trophies this week, but the show itself was a winner too with listeners and the industry in our quick and admittedly unscientific post-show online poll.

And, just as I blogged  in our post-ACM Awards Show poll earlier this year, listeners were more passionate as a whole in their evaluations than the industry (radio) participants who weighed in.

Overall, 41% of listeners gave the show the highest score (5 on our 1 worst to 5 best scale) compared to 28% in the industry. That’s not to say radio wasn’t positive; they rated the show an average of 4.0 vs. 4.2 for listeners. Still, 88% of listeners rated the show a 4 or 5 vs. 72% of the industry. 

There was a good-sized gap in the desire for more performances on the show too, with about 1 in 8 listeners wanting more performances vs. 0% of the industry.  Meanwhile13% of listeners and 17% of the industry wanted more awards and less music.

There was complete agreement however on Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood as hosts. The pair scored extremely well with each group. 76% of listeners gave the hosts the top score compared to 72% of the radio panel.

When asked about specific high points on the show, 64% of radio cited the Alan Jackson/George Strait Tribute to George Jones. Other top moments (in order) were the Taylor Swift “Red” performance (29%), Brad and Carrie’s hosting abilities and content (21%), the Kenny Rogers Tribute with Jennifer Nettles (21%) and the Kacey Musgraves performance (21%).

Also receiving multiple mentions were Zac Brown both for the Luke Bryan hug as well as his performance with Dave Grohl, and Little Big Town for their performance of “Sober.”

The most negatives for radio (21%) were related to winner selection.  The show also got dinged for audio issues, length, some of the presenters, and execution.

Listeners agreed with radio regarding the top highlight; the George Jones Tribute was mentioned by 33% of the respondents. Other stand-outs for listeners were the Opening Monologue (24% with 5% mentioning the "Obamacare" piece by name), Carrie and Brad as hosts (17%), George Strait’s Entertainer of the Year Award/Speech (16%), and Taylor Swift receiving the Pinnacle Award (14%).

The positive comments outnumbered the negative ones though 10% of listeners reported not liking Eric Church’s song/performance, the George Jones Tribute being too short (7%), there being too much pop/rock on the show in general (7%), audio issues (6%), and disagreement over some of the winners (6%).

Overall our industry participants reported the feedback they received from listeners about the show was 83% positive (56% “very positive”).

That appeared to be supported by the TV ratings as USA Today reported that the Awards show averaged 16.3 million viewers which was up by nearly 3 million viewers over last year.

But back to the overall scores and the passion gap between listeners and radio - and the reminder to us that in our "been there/been backstage" world it's important not lose sight of the level of passion listeners have for country music and the artists that make it, and about the excitement that can be generated by three hours of TV that puts their favorite songs and singers front and center.

Have some personal thoughts on the show or feedback from your listeners you’d like to share? Feel free to leave a comment!

(Thanks to A&O&B's @BeckyBrenner for the photo)