Mike O'Malley's Blog

Trying to Turn the Titanic: What We Can Learn from Sears

2012-01-28T12:26:00.000-05:00

There’s no shortage of experts weighing in on what Sears should do following its announcement last month that it will close up to 120 stores.

I'm neither a retail nor financial expert. But I find Sears’ trials relevant because there is much to be learned from studying second-tier brands and declining brands but also because there are some pretty obvious radio parallels.

Analysts frequently pointed to Sears’ deep, ongoing cost-cutting as a major factor in the company’s steady decline. Others also cited management issues, lack of vision, loss of brand identity, not recognizing the changing landscape, and weak customer service.

Some experts see Sears’ problems as too big and having gone on so long that Wears will be unable to survive. Others who believe Sears can turn things around believe there brand assets that can be leveraged, and customer service can be dramatically improved. And doing both is critical to survival.

Brand Assets

Sears has assets to be sure: Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard and Land’s End are all strong brands themselves, potentially strong enough to revive the struggling Sears parent brand.

The great Jack Trout recommended Sears “take advantage of Kenmore's leadership, and position it as the No. 1 family of appliances in the end. They should do the same for Craftsman, which is America's favorite brand of tools, by far. Perhaps it's time for a next generation of DieHard battery that dies a little harder. Could their paints use some sprucing up? If they do a good job with their brands, more people will go to Sears.”

The Motley Fool’s Rich Smith noted that “Sears is Craftsman tools –high-quality wares, priced reasonably. Sears is also Kenmore appliances, a way to buy a Whirlpool washing machine (Whirlpool is one of the companies making the machines behind Sears' private label) at a better price. And of course, Sears also has a softer side, as represented by its Lands' End clothing line. At least, that's what Sears was "once upon a time."

Retail consultant Mark Freiman of Focus Management Group, a financial advisory and restructuring firm said, "They have got some iconic brands that if they had the capital behind them and the right merchants in the company, they could be turned around."

Most stations have assets to leverage: a wildly popular talent, a history of listener connectivity, unique stationality, our-of-the-box thinkers, geeks, staffers who excel in social media, a mascot, street team, heritage or newcomer, signal and more.

Take an inventory of your assets. Are famous (or could be famous) for something that’s not presently being exploited? As Jack Trout advises, if you have a meaningful position in the consumer’s mind, market it. Update, improve or reinvent once powerful assets that may be suffering from some tarnish.

Putting heft behind your biggest brand assets pays off.

The Customer Experience

Steve Hoch, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, was graphic in his description of Sears' brick and mortars telling Fortune Magazine, “The stores look like they are from the Eastern Bloc."

We've heard stations that fit that barren description.

A turn-off in one aspect of our product often hurts another. Shabby stores are damaging Sears’ online business. Same for on air.

If as Jack Trout suggests, an improvement in Sears’ brick and mortar stores could yield in-store time and more purchases, there’s a lesson here for us too.

If our on-air product was a store, what kind of shopping experience are we providing? What percent would be interesting, fun, and welcoming, that extended the experience and created a repeat ‘buyer?’ What percent is dated, cluttered or boring, that shorted the experience and failed to provide a reason to come back? What are we trying to sell that no one cares about?

Identifying and leveraging assets, and providing the best possible customer experience seem like an obvious strategy -- yet they're part of the problem facing the 10th largest retailer in America.

Let’s make sure they’re not our problems, too.

Albright & O'Malley's Annual Pre-CRS Seminar and You're Invited

2012-01-13T20:48:00.006-05:00

“What did you learn?”

That’s one of the questions most frequently asked of Country Radio Seminar attendees.

One of the more frequently-asked questions that Jaye, Becky and I get leading up to CRS is, “Are you doing your pre-CRS session again this year?”

Once again, that answer is “yes!” And of course you’re invited – Tuesday, February 21^st, 12:30-4:30pm at the Country Music Hall of Fame's Ford Auditorium.

There’s no charge for attending the Albright & O'Malley Pre-CRS Seminar but you will need an invitation which you can get here (it remains our policy that if we’re working in your market but not with your station/group, you’ll have to find out about things second hand – sorry!).

While you’ll read more about A&O’s Seminar in the weeks ahead, here are some of the people and panels we’ll cram into 4 hours:

·         Jaye, Mike and Becky reveal the results from our online perceptual, “Roadmap 2012.” This will be the first look at what will be our 7^th annual online study of Country P1s.

·         How hard is it for a country station to differentiate itself on music alone? You might be surprised by some of what you see in this exclusive presentation that BDS has prepared for A&O.

·         Tim Dubois is synonymous with the birth of Arista Records that launched the careers of Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn and Brad Paisley (among others!). He is also a Grammy-nominated songwriter, was awarded Pollstar’s Record Executive of the Year and named one of entertainment’s “101 Most Powerful People” by Entertainment Weekly. Tim will speak on branding and what it takes to uniquely separate your product.

·         Let’s Get Engaged: The Surprising Parallels between Ratings and Social Media Success - an Arbitron/DMR study that provides new insights into radio’s unique social media opportunities presented by DMR Interactive COO Andrew Curran. .

·         Win-Win: Programming and Sales in a Digital World. The Federated Media team from WQHK in Ft. Wayne will present multiple case studies that you can profitably replicate at your station.

·         Plus Talent Coaches Randy Land and Cliff Dumas and A&O’s Becky Brenner with an exclusive analysis of 50 country radio station websites that will stimulate your creative juices.

Broken Bow Records/Stoney Creek Records are our gracious sponsors and will supply our entertainment with a surprise artist.

Jaye, Becky and I hope that you will join us. Again, that’s Tuesday, February 21st, 12:30-4:30 at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Ford Theatre. And if you haven't registered for CRS yet you can do so here.

Then when people ask you, “What did you learn?” you can ask THEM, “You mean at CRS or at the A&O Pre-Seminar?”

Tweeting? #aopcrs

2011: A Very Good Year for Country Music

2011-12-22T14:14:00.001-05:00

This was a good year for current country music.

Actually, it was one of the best - at least when talking about year-end test scores.

Across our metrics, nearly all scores were better than 2010’s and some were the best since Albright and O’Malley began year-end analyses in 1998.

Songs in the top third of course score better in all metrics than those in the bottom two thirds. This year though the Total Positive gap narrowed significantly. Not only were the Total Positive scores better for the top tier (the best since 2001), the scores for all songs were the best since our first year of tracking this in 2000.

Second-tier songs definitely had softer Like-A-Lot scores but many had very strong Total Positive scores. In aggregate these are the best Total Positive scores since we began tracking them in 2000 – good news for stations needing Millennial Variety.

Artists with top testing songs looked like the winners’ list at a 2011 awards show with Millennial Artists dominating the top 1/3. 70% of A&O’s top third were from mid/late Millennial Artists with Blake Shelton and Jason Aldean each placing three songs inside our top 1/3.

2011 also saw the most number of different artists place songs in the top 1/3.

Despite the prominence of Millennial Artists it continues to be difficult for new artists to break into the top 1/3. In 2011 only two new artists (previously without a significant chart position) cracked the top 1/3: Thompson Square and Brantley Gilbert. 2007 was the last year new artists made up a significant percent (20%) of the artists in the top 1/3.

While the footprint of Historical Superstars is smaller by comparison and none had songs in the top 10, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Reba and George Strait all had music in the top 1/3.

If you’ve followed Albright & O’Malley's Roadmap data and blogs over the years, you’re not especially surprised. Earlier this year I blogged that the 2011 Roadmap showed that Top Millennial Artists are scoring well across the board but that listener passion is still very high for millennial music from pre-millennial artists like Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith and Alan Jackson.

Last year's Research Director Inc/Inside Radio study showed how a wide a demographic swath country cuts attracting roughly equal cume ratings 18-34 (16.6), 18-49 (16.5) and 25-54 (16.4). The broad strength of 2011’s currents is great news for a format where the cume ratings are nearly identical across 35 years.

While a stations will have differing strategies for this year's music, the good news of 2011 is that the benefit of a year of strong currents is not just immediate. Many will continue to live lives in recurrent and gold categories that can be leaned upon during times when the currents aren’t.

#accjms11: Smart, Passionate People Talking Radio

2011-12-09T17:49:00.003-05:00

Fill a hotel ballroom with smart people and have them talk about a shared passion for radio for 2 ½ days and you can be guaranteed there will be good take-aways.

Here are some of mine (paraphrased) from the just-concluded Arbitron Client Conference and Jacobs Media Summit for 2011 in Baltimore.

Tripp Eldridge, President/CEO dmr

Social success = helping create and strengthen relationships. Connect, enhance, encourage and facilitate relationships; make the community feel special.
“Likes” are like cume. Engagement is like TSL.
Games can develop community. Community is what drives success.

Glenn Enoch, VP/Integrated Research ESPN

Two of ESPN’s seven cross-platform principles: New media creates new strata of users; Best platform at the moment.
A heavy user of one platform tends to be heavy users of others.

Edison Research/ Melissa DeCesare, VP

Moms balance traditional and modern media. 89% listened to radio in past week, 53% learn about new music first on radio (vs. 29% on Internet; 9% on TV), 60% would keep smart phone and give up TV if they could only have one.

Edison Research/Larry Rosin, President

In-car landscape is increasingly complex; the good news is cars don’t turn over quickly. Traffic information is being attacked by emerging technologies. Does/should radio care?

David Lebow, President/Revenue, Group Commerce, Inc.

There is no such thing as deal fatigue.
Radio Brands have e-commerce assets including the size of audience, brand trust, strong local voice and relationships with advertisers.
Relevance runs amok when there’s no targeting.

Warren, Kurtzman, President, Coleman Insights; Bill Rose, SVP Marketing, Arbitron; Philippe Generali, President/CEO RCS & Media Monitors

93% of the lead-in audience is there at the end of a stop set (not necessarily the same listeners; includes listeners coming to the station during the commercial set as well as leaving it).
Commercial free sweeps may help the brand over time more vs. in the moment performance.

Michael Sheehan, CEO, Hill Holliday

Technology may be changing the game but people love great stories.
Radio needs to make music relevant – radio needs to re-assert itself as the relevant medium of discovery.
Relevance is the secret to sustained success. It’s the fuel to how far your content will travel.

Bob Pittman, Chairman of Clear Channel Media and Entertainment Platforms

We need to tell our story better. If buyers don’t understand the value of radio, we’re doomed.
Don’t let advertisers 'test' radio with sub par reach and frequency. Have the courage to tell people they're not spending enough to be successful.
Radio is the beacon for the tribe

James Cridland/Managing Director Media UK

Radio Brands are fragmented making it hard for journalists to write about radio whereas it’s easy to call Pandora who’ll be happy to tell you why radio is dead.
Improve the Internet look and feel. Radio needs to make the user experience look better, cooler.
Multi-platform is the right platform.
Why didn’t radio protect word ‘radio’ – Pandora isn’t radio. We failed to educate our audience that Pandora isn’t radio, it’s a music collection.
The only reason commercials are annoying is that they’re not relevant.

Ed Schultz/MSNBC’s “The Ed Show”

First question: is this talent killer-competitive.
Can they sell? Can they make listeners react and want what you’re selling? Can they sell themselves?
How connected with the clients are the talent? How often do they update their pages, site, feeds, etc.?
Expand your brand. Don’t let the show be small.“
Ideas are to be cultivated by people in authority.”

Jeff Pulver Chairman/Founder Pulver.com and creator of the #140 Character Conference

New media would like to have the audience of old media. “Now media:” fusion old and new media.
Social media teaches you how to interact; you connect with people – like radio.
If you don’t know something, anything and everything is possible.

Jim Farley, VP/News & Programming WTOP/Washington, DC

Listeners are always telling us what they want. Check what’s trending and talk about it instead of boring things and when there’s nothing going on.
WTOP itself is only one vehicle to deliver the brand.
Don’t give up on HD. It’s coming. HD icons on the dash board are going to save our ass.

Ron Rodrigues, Arbitron Marketing, Arbitron Radio

Political consultants know that their campaigns can be more effective if their media buys target likely voters, or voters of a political persuasion. That’s a great advantage for radio and all of its formats. Each of them represent a lifestyle, and a such each of them represent a distinct group of voters that would be of interest to one political campaign or another.
Candidates can target voting lifestyles by format.
Spoken word formats represent the most enthusiastic voters. Opportunity for music formats: wider spectrum of voters, register-to-vote, GOTV efforts.

Walter Sabo, COO Merlin Media

The biggest competitor is our own audience. (A child in school) can make a video and show to the world without anyone’s permission. And it’s free. And they can get 10-million views in a day.
A computer is there to interact with. If entertainment isn’t interactive, it’s dull. Media is designed to be social.
The secret of digital business is nobody knows anything. Just hit refresh. Don’t worry about analogue things like what song goes next to another. Just hit refresh.
Sell radio’s biggest number.
Make listeners co-conspirators.
Experiment.

Charlie Sislen, Partner, Research Director, Inc.

Finding places where you station does not meet format benchmarks can help you focus on ways to grow TSL.

Attend and have some take-aways you'd like to add?

Quick Checklist for A-B-ing Your Competitors

2011-11-30T17:35:00.000-05:00

This week we got a preview of a new study of PPM data from Arbitron in conjunction with Mediabase and Inside Radio which showed country stations, whether ranked first or tenth, had similar patterns of spinning currents.

Regarding the percent of top-10-charted songs played IR notes, “The percentages hardly vary whether the station is No. 1 in 25-54 (18% of spins) ranked No. 2 - No. 5 (17%) or ranked No. 6 - No. 10 (16%).”

There was less difference in the percent of songs spun that were charted between 11 and 20 and no difference in percent of played songs that had chart positions between 21 and 50.

No surprise.

When comparing country stations in a market I typically have a longer list of differences not related to current music.

Here are some common differentiating factors/branding elements to listen for when A-B-ing or looking for competitive opportunities:

1. Non-current music characteristics: Chronology, Tempo, Core Artists and their exposure

2. Commercials: Load, execution, quality. Are there differences listeners will readily pick up on?

3. Talent: Uniquely enhancing the listening experience or detracting for it or simply invisible?

4. “Feel Good” factor

5. The “Buffet Line:” What’s on it and what percent of it would I come back for/did I really want to consume?

6. Promotional activity

7. Stationality/Imaging

8. “It” factor: Intangibles that cause me to believe I’ve made the best/most relevant/best values-match choice.

9. Degree to which my pre-tune-in expectations were met.

Have something to share that differentiates your station or a competitor?

The Row-Five Test

2011-11-23T16:29:00.001-05:00

Gordon M. Bethune’s name was painted on the Triple-Seven at the gate next to mine.

Well-deserved!

If you’re not familiar with the name, Gordon Bethune was Continental Airline’s CEO during their turn-around and for a number of years after. During this time their customer-focused initiatives turned customers into real fans of the airline and the man running it (I’ve been a Continental evangelist for many years).

Gordon’s book, “From Worst to First” chronicles Continental’s about-face. It’s a fun read (especially if you fly) while serving up a good bit of management common sense – one piece of which, “The Row-Five Test” is the subject of this blog.

The Row-Five Test is simply about finding out what the customer sitting in Row Five values and is willing to pay for, and then giving it to him. At the same time, the Row-Five Test ideally prevents force-feeding customers things they neither need nor want - and then charging them for it.

Tom Asacker’s blog this week had a related take. Consumers determine ‘value’ based on what he or she “feels he is getting in exchange for his time, attention, and money" adding, "whoever develops and delivers the best evolving composite of value, for their particular audience, wins.”

What value are listeners placing on your station’s offerings?

Before the end of the year, take an inventory of what’s on the air. One at a time, evaluate each in terms of how listeners perceive its value. Will they feel it's worth 'paying extra for’ in time or attention, sitting through extra commercials or not hearing one of their favorite songs?

Lists will be different across stations and listeners themselves will have a different hierarchies of what they feel has worth. Populating a list is easy; constantly keeping the audience's perspective as you work through it is the challenge because it's so easy to mingle what’s valuable to us with what’s valuable to listeners.

The danger in doing that of course is that we could be “charging” listeners for things that fail the Row-Five Test.

ON SUBMITTING MP3s FOR THAT JOB OPENING YOU'RE PURSUING

2011-11-17T20:51:00.004-05:00

The company’s mission is to hire the best person for the job. Your mission is to BE that person. Don’t let application missteps become part of the equation.

Yesterday my partner Jaye Albright posted a ‘how to hire’ blog. This blog is about ‘how to improve your chances of being hired.’

With the help of Talent Coaches Tommy Kramer and Randy Lane , here are five ideas.

Lead with your strongest material.

The expression “there’s no soft opening in show business” couldn’t be truer when it comes to your audio presentation.

Tommy advises, “Put your best stuff FIRST. No "introducing" yourself or "building up" to your best stuff. Most people listen for about 30 seconds, and make the decision right then about whether they want to hear any more. (Just like listeners do.) I want to hear your WORK.”

Randy concurs, “The order of your content is critical. Be sure to put your strongest piece of content first to engage the PD immediately (just like in PPM).”

Songs on CDs are sequenced in a way to maximize the listening experience. Your submission should be too.

Showcase your unique talent and personality.

Come back to it several times. Your mission is to stand out. Help PDs to understand why you’re more uniquely entertaining.

Randy says, “If you’re going to demonstrate your skills interacting with callers make sure that comes through. Too often we hear demos that highlight great callers with little interaction from the air talent.”

Short is the new black

This is my favorite expression in so many instances, but it certainly applies to your submissions. Keep your air checks to around 3-4 minutes but have a full hour ready to send as a follow-up.

Tommy advises a short resume, too. “List the last job you had, and the two before that. Nothing else. I don't need to know what years you worked as a board op on a station next to a wheat field on Sunday mornings doing ‘The Manure Hour.’”

Demonstrate you can do the basics too.

Randy says,” It will help you to include a break selling the radio station in some way so programmers won’t think it’s all about you.”

Make it easy to find your material again at a later date by including your name in the name of the files you send (mikeomalley_resume.doc).

Fail to do this and the best case scenario is a PD has to search through a bunch of generic-named files to find yours (if he hasn’t gone through the trouble to rename your file for you in advance); the worst case is your Resume.doc file has been overwritten by someone else who also used a generic name.

And for me, please, don't make me track down links. I'm not going to do iit

If you’re someone who hires and have some additional recommendations or a talent who has a helpful experience to share, your comment could be instrumental in helping a fellow professional showcase their best work and get back to work.

And the Winner Is...You! 5 Reasons Why Your Station Should Enter a "Station of the Year" Competition

2011-11-12T07:55:00.000-05:00

So maybe you watched Wednesday's CMA Awards Show and wondered if it's worth your time to submit a Station of the Year presentation.

The answer is “Absolutely!”

Here are five reasons why your station should enter:

1. Assembling a Station of the Year presentation is a bonding opportunity. Whether you win or not, your station and staff reap the benefit of camaraderie.

2. Sharing your presentation inside the building is a reminder to our non-programming co-workers of how hard we work every day to create the best product in the marketplace, and ideally inspires them with a fresh take on what we do.

3. Radio as an industry and country as a format benefit when our best is on display. Recognition by the industry as being among the 'bes of the best' puts your company, station and you in a very positive light.

4. Assembling a presentation gives you a different perspective on your station and can spark new, creative ideas.

5. Competing with the format's top stations feels great and, should you ultimately be a finalist or a winner, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you will have frustrated, annoyed, demoralized or just plain pissed off your competitors.

Inspired? There’s no need to wait a year. You can enter the Academy of Country Music awards competition right now. Submissions are open November 14 through December 9, 2011. Winners will be announced the week of February 13^th, 2012. Learn more here (as you'll see there are other award categories as well).

Sure, entering will take some work. Yes, the competition will be steep.

But check the list - you’ve already a winner the day you submit your entry.

The Secret Sauce of Successful PDs and Stations

2011-11-07T18:26:00.001-05:00

How would you describe a successful programmer? What advice would give aspiring PDs? What’s THE secret to a successful station?

Radio Ink Editor-In-Chief Ed Ryan asked me these questions in last month’s magazine. Here’s how I answered plus a little post-interview elaboration. Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences as well.

#1 – How would you describe a successful Program Director?

PDs that can use both left and right brain thinking are apt to have very successful stations that are both strategic and fun.

Strategically a successful PD understands their station’s position in the market place and what drives listening to their station and their competitors. They know their listeners’ hot buttons and know the power of surprise and delight.

They have a thorough understanding of the ratings process down to how many diaries or meters or phone calls they need to grow cume to a certain point and how many occasions of listening are necessary to grow TSL/TSE. They have a plan for these and other strategies and tactics that they know increases their audience.

Successful PDs understand the importance of ‘fun’ and ‘feel good’ and know how to create a positive on air environment for listeners that becomes addictive. They keep the listening experience at the forefront of their thinking.

They are evangelists for their stations and their listeners. They have a great passion for what they do and are self-motivated to create great radio that not only captures the moment but becomes part of a listener’s lifestyle.

Successful PDs have strong leadership skills and are simultaneously coaches and cheerleaders. They’re highly engaged with their stations and the people that work there, particularly with talent. They ‘hear’ good talent and know how to encourage, coach and manage them.

They’re equally open to hearing and seeking out new ideas as well as sharing them.

Because PDs today are wearing more hats than ever, they need a love of learning and the organizational ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously without losing focus on what’s most important. They foster an environment where co-workers grow their skills to the benefit of all.

#2 – What advice would you give to those who aspire to be Program Directors?

First know that it’s the greatest job in the radio station. It is. Absolutely. Bar none.

Listen to your own station and to other successful stations and identify out what's working (or not) and why. Do the same for other businesses; figure out how they have succeeded and what can be learned from that success.

Begin programming now - even if it’s only a mental exercise. Think about what you'd do the same or differently at the station you're at and others you listen to. Could you heighten the listening experience? Put your ideas (including “what if’s”) in writing; be very detailed. Save them so you can go back at a later time and tweak them or see if they have other applications beyond your original thinking. Seek out people who you perceive as smart and discuss your ideas and observations with them.

Develop the habit of looking at things from multiple perspectives. You’ll get new ideas.

Volunteer for any work that you have an interest in and that you think might help you grow your skill set – even if you don’t see its application immediately.

Learn how to really listen to listener feedback.

Bring your "A" game to your show every day and ask to be critiqued if you're not being critiqued on a regular basis. Use these to improve your on air performance and to learn how (or how not to) coach others.

Become an expert in something that you believe is important now and will grow even more important in the future.

Find a mentor.

#3 – What is the Secret to Programming a Great Station?

If there can only be one ‘secret,’ it would be ‘balance.’

Balance all elements on the station. Specifically regarding music, create and maintain the appropriate balance across your core genres, styles, eras, tempos and type so that you build the greatest coalition and are ‘on’ your strategic plan.

Balance your thinking between left and right brain, between being inside and outside the box, between the 10,000 foot and granular perspectives.

Balance your time at work so that the most important things always get done and get done first.

Balance your life so that you’re not consumed by certain areas to the detriment of others.

I'd love do know how you'd answer!

Conversing With Listeners: Three Things to Talk Over Now

2011-07-30T06:40:00.004-04:00

Tastes, opinions and alternatives are anything but static. So if you haven’t had a conversation with your listeners recently, you should.

Here are three fertile and actionable talking points for your next listener panel or focus group:

Music Satisfaction. “Playing the best music” is always a top reason for picking one country station over another.

How is “best” defined by your listeners? If you’re a mainstream station competing for a leadership position in the market, “best” probably includes millennial music. But there are multiple segments within the millennial cluster and the appeal of each varies. What combination is optimal for your station? What music combinations would make you the best second choice (good if that’s your goal, bad if you’re shooting for leadership)?

Your brand. What do listeners say are the tangible and intangible attributes of your station that differentiate you from a competitor? Which of these are significant enough to influence listening behavior? What assets do your competitors own? Overall, how do you stack up in what matters?

Synchronization. Are the things that are getting substantial air time the same things that listeners want us to devote a lot of time to? How is the alignment between your music and talent? What’s your level of relevancy on a daily basis?

“The more you engage with customers the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing” is an oft-quoted line attributed to John Russell, President, Harley Davidson.

If you need a hand getting a dialogue going with your listeners, give a call, text or email.

And if you’d like to leave a comment sharing something that you learned from interacting with your listeners, you’ll be enriching us all.

Effective Morning Show Billboards: Two Examples

2011-07-22T07:59:00.004-04:00

Planning on using billboards to promote your morning show? Here's a quick checklist for your campaign.

Effective billboards are short, clean, targeted, attention-getting, and clever. They create desire, ask for action directly or indirectly, and leave an impression.

Here are two morning show boards that deliver on all these counts.

The Power 105 board is up now, the Imus board was up a while back and the shot is via WABC's Facebook page.

These communicate far more than the too common “Ken and Barbie Mornings, 6-10am.”

Seen some boards you’d like to tell us about or direct us to?

Alpha Boomers: What Their Country Station Might Sound Like

2011-07-16T21:25:00.004-04:00

With “Alpha Boomer” now one of Arbitron’s standard Tapscan demos, I revisited Albright & O’Malley’s Roadmap 2011 (our annual online perceptual of 10,000+ country listeners) to see how the appeal of the various Music Clusters broke out across 25-54 and the 55-64 leading edge Alpha Boomer demo.

The bars below represent the percent of ‘Like a Lot” (highest score) for eight music clusters. The blue bars are the responses from 25-54s, the tan bars 55-64s (for display purposes I selected one of the songs in each cluster to represent the entire segment).

55-64s give the Early Millennial cluster the highest passion score. Alpha Boomers also have a long “era tail” with the Boom and Late 90s music clusters outscoring some more recent millennial clusters.

Still, Roadmap 2011 revealed that the majority of 55-64s are extremely positive about how country music is sounding over the past 12 months. 86% feel country music is as good as or better than it’s been over the past 12 months with 94% listening either the same or more to their local country stations compared to a year ago.

Your mileage of course may vary. Hopefully this inspires you to check into how different segments of your audience respond to your individual music clusters.

Get Shorty: Communicating More Concisely

2011-07-05T07:58:00.002-04:00

This blog is intentionally under 500 characters; that's the threshold for the new messaging service Shortmail.

Its mission? Improve your relationship with email by eliminating time wasters.

Shortmail forces senders to acknowledge that attention spans are short and no one wants their time wasted. Emails are under 500 characters or they can't be sent.

Whether or not you subscribe to Shortmail, it's hard to argue against more concise, focused, and easily digestible communications on or off air.

Being In The Moment

2011-07-01T17:42:00.001-04:00

Here's a great example of being in the moment and scooping the marketplace.

Congratulations to all involved for being in sync with listeners' mindsets on the Friday before the 4th of July weekend!

As Max Media Norfolk Market Manager Dave Paulus says, "Everything matters."

Celebrating the Fourth: How Listening Changes During the 4th of July Week

2011-06-30T07:21:00.000-04:00

The Mill Pond “river walk” gets a makeover around Halloween for fright walks. Santa can be counted on to ride through every street in the borough on a fire truck just before Christmas. And there’s a town-wide garage sale each spring.

But the 4^th of July in Milltown is something else altogether with no less than eight events this year: a fishing derby, two runs, a near two-hour parade, free music and food plus kids' rides at Borough Park, Best Apple Pie and Most Patriotic House contests, and finally some pretty impressive fireworks to end the day.

If Milltown had a radio station, they’d be challenged to keep up with the borough.

Hopefully your station is not only keeping up with but playing a strong role in listeners’ lives this weekend.

Arbitron’s analysis of 30 PPM markets last year shows that the total radio listening (all formats) for July 4^th and 5^th dips below the year’s daily average while listening on July 1, 2, 6 and 7 exceeds that average.

The primary trigger of the drop is away from home listening that declines on the 3^rd through the 5^th while the amount of listening at home remains flat across the week.

However looking just at country, specifically among 25-54s in 5 randomly selected markets, holiday listening to the format is significantly more consistent across the week, staying relatively flat while the market's total listening drops.

How will you take advantage of a competitor who lays in an extra day of voice tracking, plays a syndicated special and calls it good?

Have a great (and proud) 4^th!

Special thanks to Arbitron’s Jenny Tsao for providing the data and graphs.

Making Fans "Off the Field"

2011-06-25T20:52:00.004-04:00

The big crowd at Yankee Stadium showed that they remembered him with something just short of a standing ovation as he walked to the plate. JasonGiambi paused just outside the batter’s box to acknowledge us by touching his hand to the brim of his batting helmet.

Then he promptly hit a rifle-shot home run to right. There was another round of cheers.

Coming to the Bronx in 2001 was not without its challenges. Giambi signed a big contract just three months after 9-11 and was replacing the much-loved first baseman Tino Martinez. But his performance as a Yankee, including his highlight-reel homeruns, earned him many fans.

I liked him as a player too, but it was something he did months before he ever played his first game for the Yanks that made me a Jason Giambi fan.

That event happened in December, 2001. Matt Lauer and the Today Show took a young boy who’d lost his firefighter father on 9/11 to Yankee Stadium where they met, among others, the newly arrived Jason Giambi. The boy was asked who his favorite Yankee was and replied “Tino.” Jason said he was sorry (to be replacing Tino) and began a game of catch with him.

Everyone, Giambi included, had tears in their eyes.

It was beyond touching.

It was that unguarded moment of compassion - that peek behind the curtain - that made me think that a player with this kind of heart would be someone worth rooting for. More than 10 years later I still remember that TV moment vividly; it was what made (and keeps) me a Jason Giambi fan to this day.

Listeners don’t forget talents’ actions either.

I’ve moderated plenty of station panels where listeners can recall in great detail how a particular talent remembered their name, asked about a family member or a circumstance they’d been told about months before, or how they just were open, engaging, real, and interesting.

I’ve also heard from listeners left with bad impressions because they thought a talent was aloof or too self-important because they sat at a table or didn’t make an effort to engage them in conversation.

Brands are a collection of personal experiences. Your daily performance on air is a huge part of that, of course. But so is what you do off the “field.”

Don’t miss moments to connect.

When News Breaks Out...

2011-06-18T13:42:00.009-04:00

Gord Eno, Program Director of 93.7 JR-FM (CJJR-FM) pens an excellent, weekly memo to his staff.

I received this week’s missive from Gord the day after having just completed a listener panel which included some discussion on where listeners go first for news (it wasn’t radio).

Gord graciously allowed me to post his memo here. Some will view this as another indictment of traditional media, but they'd be missing the point.

While watching TV coverage of the Stanley Cup celebrations inside the arena, CBC cut to video of a burning police car outside their studios. From that point on, I was scanning the channels seeking more information.

My mistake Wednesday night was not digging deeper than the #canucks and #nhlplayoffs hashtags I was following on Twitter for the game or searching Facebook for updates.

I defaulted to what I was watching on TV, the tried, true and dependable CBC. It appeared their coverage was struggling, resorting to sensationalizing events they couldn’t support with video. Finally, when I was able to find other sources, the images were of police were guarding empty intersections and video of stragglers trying to find their way out of the downtown core. One channel even included night shots of street cleaners peacefully making their way down Georgia.

Those images did not even come close to what I saw early the next morning. Nor did it have the impact of the aggregated videos and pictures that began spreading yesterday afternoon.

The real story of the rioting was portrayed online, much of it through social media. Thousands of images and videos were taken from hundreds of perspectives. In fact, there was criticism that the people who passively stood by to document the destruction and violence were part of the escalation.

As it turns out, the very same documentation that may have been a catalyst to the crime is now evidentiary in arresting the criminals. Blogs, Tumblr, YouTube and Facebook pages are posting the faces of thugs caught in the act in order to publicly expose and identify them.

It is working with a vengeance. The public has provided names, backgrounds, even phone numbers of the identified. Apparently some have already been arrested.

Now, today there are fears expressed that the vigilance has devolved to vigilante with inaccurate accusations and intense personal attacks on people whose status updates are deemed contrary to current popular opinion. Young Offenders Act infringements have also been cited.

But it was also Twitter and Facebook that created the ground swell movement to motivate hundreds of volunteers to team up and clean up the mess left by rioters.

Through this, a wall of positive reinforcement rose from the sheets of plywood covering broken windows. Heartfelt comments written by real Vancouverites, ensuring us and the rest of the world that the ugly Vancouver they were exposed to Wednesday night is not the beautiful Vancouver we all saw, experienced, and loved during the 2010 Olympics.

I suspect social media will play a big part in our understanding of what happened to us Wednesday night and how we will move beyond the tragedy and feel optimistic about the future.

Crossing Paths: Country's Millennial vs. Boom Era Music

2011-06-11T07:16:00.001-04:00

Albright & O’Malley's Roadmap 2011 (our 5^th annual online perceptual) continues to provide valuable insights into where country radio is at the moment and where it is headed.

One part of each study is devoted to music, more specifically, trending the listener appeal of various music clusters.

At CRS 2011 we revealed some top line data* that showed ascending passion scores for millennial music and a corresponding decline for Boom-era music.

I spoke about this with Inside Radio’s Paul Heine for his article “A Changing of the Guard at Country Radio” published Friday (06/10/11) which also included observations from, among others, Coleman Insights President/COO Warren Kurtzman (“The best country position in the market is the one based on millennial music.”) and Greg Mozingo, PD of WIL, St. Louis, (the market’s leading music station 6+) whose station is heavy into millennial music including Jason Aldean , Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert and artists Greg calls "superstars" and "great newcomers."

A&O's Roadmap clearly shows that these as well as other millennial artists are indeed scoring well across the board 18-54.

But, having said that, as the next chart shows, 25-54 listener passion is still very high for millennial music from pre-millennial artists like Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith and Alan Jackson.

While the data also shows that passion scores for Boom Era music have become noticeably softer over time, and that the best scores are coming from older demos, this isn't to say that all pre-millennium songs don't test well - plenty still test very well.

Nor is this a blanket recommendation that all pre-2000 titles should be purged from your station. Many of our own successful stations play varying degrees of the Boom era and late 90's music daily. The correct music mix for you depends on your competitive situation and may well be different from that of your competitors or from stations in other markets.

Rather, this is about how the passion for millennial music, from newer and established artists, spans such a wide demographic.

Last year Inside Radio/Research Director, Inc. PPM released a format study reporting that while country’s AQH composition is heaviest 35-54, country’s weekly cume ratings varied little across 18-34 (16.6), 18-49 (16.5) or 25-54 (16.4).

The broad strength of millennial music is, of course, great news for a format where the cume ratings are nearly identical across 35 years.

*Unless otherwise noted, all data is from Albright & O’Malley Roadmap on-line surveys of listeners recruited from station database and social media initiatives and as such is subject to any inherent biases

Upcoming blog teaser: Country and Arbitron’s Alpha Boomer demo.

Your New Favorite Filter?

2011-06-03T14:40:00.001-04:00

Here’s a filter to get a fast read on value of something: ask, “Does Anybody Care?”

One PD and I use this filter all the time. For the most part, items that pass the filter get on the air. Things that get a “Nobody cares,” don’t.

In our filter, “Nobody cares” is defined as unremarkable, lacking the ability to grab attention, or generate demand/tune-in, or create word of mouth. Our definition also includes ambivalence or indifference, or that most people don’t care about this element to the degree they might care about something similar or as much as they care about another element in the same category.

“Nobody cares” elements may seem neutral, but they’re not. They dilute the passion for your brand and are an invitation for listeners to seek out something they do care about. Too many "Nobody Cares" elements risk turning your station into a “negative brand.”

The purpose of a filter is to remove undesirable particles or keep them from mingling with the final product.

Try this one on your music, the break you’re about to do, a promotion you’re running, something you’re about to tease, or a long-standing element on your show.

“Does Anybody Care” is a tough filter, but it's effective and just might become your favorite.

4 x 2 = #1: Four Questions with Two Programmers Honored at CRS 2011

2011-03-10T20:42:00.002-05:00

Doing great radio is a reward in itself of course, but a public acknowledgement of your skills and successes is wonderfully exciting and personally fulfilling.

Two programmers for whom I have great respect, and whose stations are perennial number ones in their format and their markets, were honored in such a way last week during the Country Radio Seminar.

Beverlee Brannigan, Journal Broadcast Group’s Director of Country Programming and OM at KFDI, Wichita was named as one of Radio Ink’s 20 Top Program Directors of the Year.

Rob Kelley, OM at Federated Media’s WQHK, Ft. Wayne was named PD of the Year, Small Market by Country Aircheck.

I asked Beverlee and Rob to share some thoughts that I hope will inspire you as a programmer.

I also hope you’ll inspire us by adding your thoughts.

Mike O'Malley: If you had to live by a single programming mantra, what would that be?

Beverlee Brannigan: If I had to boil everything down to a phrase short enough to put on a t-shirt it would be: Build relationships with air talent. We succeed as programmers according to our ability to execute our (finger quotes here) “great ideas” ….through air talent. The individual relationships are very important.

Rob Kelley Always be open to new ideas and new information, even when it goes 180 degrees from something you may have recently thought or implemented. We live in a quickly changing world and the rules change all the time.

MOM: What’s the one thing or "it" you believe every programmer needs to be successful?

RK You need to surround yourself with people that are better than you at something you’re not especially strong at. With the number and level of platforms we have to operate on today there is no way one person can be a master of them all.

BB: Balance. You’ve got to be wise about balancing the management aspect of the job with the creative part. Both are absolutely necessary. It’s easy to fill a day with HR and meetings and reports and never make a single creative effort all day. It’s important to make time for silly thoughts, creative writing, brainstorming, and “what-if” conversations.

MOM: Would you share a great growth lesson? Perhaps it came from a failure or an unexpected success.

BB: Any career set back can be turned into your best launching pad. Use the set back as a time for self-examination.

RK: I know it may be tough in this economic climate, but make sure you are in a winnable deal. The people, resources, company and facility need to be able to get into the end zone, accomplish the goals and win. When you start operating in “hope mode”, you’re done.

MOM: How about a word of encouragement for new programmers?

BB: Don’t be scared if you don’t have all the answers. You don’t and you shouldn’t. Keep handy the phone numbers of all the smart people you know. Call them frequently and ask their advice and opinions. They’ll make you look smart, too. Never pretend you know something if you don’t. Ask questions. Others will respect you for that.

RK Don’t be afraid to take chances or let your people take chances. There seems to be a new normal almost daily and tomorrow’s new normal may come from you!

Love to hear YOUR comment, too.

CRS 2011: Art of the Schmooze

2011-02-24T03:20:00.008-05:00

The two parts of CRS I love the most: 1) the learning/sharing part and 2) the connecting with people I know and didn't previously know part.

New or veteran attendee, the first part is easy. The agenda here or cool new app for your Android here or iPhone here offers you plenty of learning and sharing opportunities.

And (shameless plug here), you can also check out the agenda for Albright & O'Malley's pre-CRS Seminar here beginning at 12:30pm Tuesday and ending in plenty of time for you to make the Country Radio Hall of Fame Dinner. It’s a great addition to your CRS experience and if you haven’t registered to attend yet you should NOW by emailing me mike@albrightandomalley.com or Jaye Albright jaye@albrightandomalley.com .

Now, for the connecting with people part.

If you a natural at meeting and engagine with people, you can skip the following links. But if you need some encouragement in the ‘business schmooze” department, here are a few links.

Master the Mingle

Mingle Like a Pro

How to Mingle and Make Small Talk

Show Them What You Know and Who You Are

How to Introduce Yourself to Someone You’ve Never Met

I really hope to see you at CRS 2011. And I hope our first meeting will be at A&O’s pre-CRS Seminar Tuesday at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Jaye and I would love to meet you, talk radio, and enjoy CRS with you.

Try out yor new schmooze skills. Or just use the fact that you read this blog as your icebreaker. ;->

Look at Me! Lok at Me! The Power And Value of Spectacle

2011-02-19T12:19:00.003-05:00

Professional wrestling, Lady Gaga and Jeopardy – they all “get” the power of “Spectacle.”

Spectacles cut through noise, attract attention, generate audience, and cause talk even if for just a short period of time.

Last week’s Jeopardy “Watson” spectacle combined myth (“man vs. machine”), familiar characters in unfamiliar roles (retired champions not only playing each other but a machine), tension, backstory, showmanship, someone (or thing) to root for (or against), plenty of advance promotion, and multiple iterations (in this case three episodes) to further build the story, hype and audience.

The Jeopardy spectacle was apparently enough to change a significant number of viewers’ habits as the show scored its highest ratings in six years, with the first night alone up some 25% over its average, finishing second for the day.

There may or may not be a lasting benefit for Jeopardy, but the point is the spectacle was a much talked-about change agent that resulted in a lot of people breaking their media consumption pattern even if for a short while.

If you’re not already doing so, think about spectacle as part of your audience-growing strategy.

WHY SO DOWN? 7 Tips for Scheduling Music in a Down Tempo Cycle

2011-02-15T00:21:00.000-05:00

Every year has music cycles where the currents are be too “something” – too fast/slow, male/female, poppy/twangy, etc.

We’re now in a cycle of down-tempo current music. More than half our currents are down-tempo and we’ve been ballad-heavy since at least the first of the year.

Still, there’s no reason for your station to take a tempo hit. There are plenty of good testing tempo songs to play. You may just need to tweak your scheduling system a bit.

If you’re looking for tempo, start with the class of 2010.

Albright & O’Malley’s Top 20 of 2010 was evenly split with 10 ballads and 10 songs that had a medium tempo or better. Looking at the top 1/3 of our testers of the year there’s more tempo; 57% were medium or up-tempo songs.

Additionally, more than 60% of the top 50 in Mediabase’s 2010 Country Year-End Chart had tempo.

2/3 of A&O’s top Recurrents today are medium or up-tempo.

Looking at the millennial era, the last time ballads out-numbered tempo songs in the top 1/3 was 2001.

Checking even wider, the tempo composition of the Top 25 songs in A&O’s 1st Quarter Gold Sort (all eras) is 10 slow, 9 medium and 6 fast titles.

If you’re playing these eras and still having trouble getting sufficient tempo, here are a few places in your scheduling system to check:

• Search depth: Gold categories can handle a deep search; just set your minimum separation to avoid tighter play than you wish

• “Tandem” rules: set one tight (like Tempo as a segue rule with minimal restrictions) and one looser (like Energy as a sweep rule)

• “Archaic” rules: these are rules that were valid at one time but not now may be unnecessarily keeping otherwise playable songs from scheduling.

• Review clocks and eliminate any over-scheduled categories.

• Suspend Clock Energy or Opener if you’re using either to make more songs available around the hour

• Temporarily suspend play of your lightest, slowest gold

• Run an audit/post-scheduling analysis to see if there are other rules that could temporarily be relaxed until the cycle shifts (make a note of these so you can revisit them later).

Regularly making tweaks to your system to accommodate changing music cycles is a natural part of the scheduling process. “Set it and forget it” will leave you with too many unscheduled positions or worse – a mix that’s not what it should be.

Have a question, need a hand with coding, rules or other scheduling issues, or want to share your ideas?

The Long Life Span of Kind Words and Dismissive Behavior

2011-02-09T21:12:00.002-05:00

Last week I got the chance to say thank you in person to Willard Scott for a simple act of kindness and professional courtesy that he did more than 20 years ago.

It was 1987 and I was the new PD at WYNY in New York City. That night at midnight, we’d flipped the then NBC-owned AC station to Country. The following morning on the Today Show, Willard finished up his forecast by unexpectedly congratulating us on the flip and wishing us, as NBC brethren, much success.

It was unnecessary. It appeared genuine. We were thrilled and felt like we’d made a new friend.

The camera then cut to Bryant Gumbel who made a sour face while saying something dismissive about the format.

It was unnecessary. It appeared genuine. We were disappointed and felt talked down to.

This past Groundhog’s Day, Willard graciously listened while I recounted the story and offered my thanks. He even indulged me with a photo op.

After all these years I’ve never forgotten the polar responses from these two broadcasters and how it made my staff feel. If you’ve talked to listeners, you know they too can long remember how a talent has treated them and how that made them feel.

What impression will you and your talent leave today?

It could last for 20 years.

OPEN WIDE: How To Be Welcoming To Country's Diverse Cume

2011-02-06T20:47:00.000-05:00

Country cuts a wide demographic swath attracting roughly equal cume ratings 18-34, 18-49, 25-54 and 35-64. In fact, the cume rating among 18-34s and 18-49s is slightly higher than even 25-54 or 35-64 (Inside Radio/Research Director Inc. PPM Format Norms 2010 Study).

Run an Audience Composition Report and review how your station’s elements are aligned with your cume distribution goals.

Are these elements and their execution adding or repelling the cume you’re seeking? Are they improving the chances of converting that cume to AQH?

You'll want to look at more, but here are three to get you started:

Music: Strong music from artists outside our 'traditional superstars' is a trend that’s well under-way. “Core” or “Essence” artists are different by demo. How are you managing this?

Services: “What,” “how” and “how frequently” you deliver are equally important. Weigh these against what you know about your audience’s use (or non-use) of services. Are your services (content and execution) aligned with your target cume?

Talent: Content (relevant, unique, engaging, sticky, ‘must hear’) and delivery (execution, efficiency, style and platforms) – are these very or not very likely to attract and engage the cume you’re seeking?

Country is getting great sampling 18-34 and 18-49.

Are you as welcoming as you can be?

Albright & O’Malley's Pre-CRS Seminar Lineup Announced. Wow!

2011-02-01T00:13:00.000-05:00

I hope you’ll bet at CRS 2011 in Nashville March 2-4. It’s a great agenda so come prepared to learn and share.

And if you’re in Nashville Tuesday, March 1 (hopefully to attend the Country Radio Hall of Fame Dinner –yes it WILL be a special one), I hope you’ll join us earlier in the day for Albright &O’Malley’s annual “Seminar before the Seminar.” We’ll get underway at 12:30 at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Each year A&O puts together a lineup of industry leaders as well as those outside of radio to share their thoughts, often in never-before-seen presentations.

Here’s what’s in store for you this year:

Paul Jacobs of Jacobs Media will present the Arbitron/Jacobs Media Study, “Goin’ Mobile,” an ethnographic research project revealing how Americans use and are engaged with mobile devices. Through a series of video interviews, listeners reveal how their smartphones have become part of their daily lives, the degree to which their smartphones have impacted their consumption of other media including radio, the critical reasons why smartphones have gone from the “next big thing” to the “most essential thing,” and how the future of mobile devices will impact us all. Segments will be shown that weren't available when "Goin' Mobile" debuted at the Radio Show in 2010.

Larry Rosin, President of Edison Research, has presented his company’s American Youth Study 2010 to wide acclaim, The study, in conjunction with Radio-Info.com, surveyed the media habits of America’s 12-24 year olds. Now, for the first time ever, Larry will look at young country fans and reveal how they see radio’s role in music discovery, the impact of Pandora, how new competitors have changed their radio listening habits, what new challenges lie on the horizon, and more. This is a must-see.

Townsquare Media/A&O’s Ray Massie will present a social media workshop, “Facebook--The Freeway of Love.” Most anyone over 16 can use a freeway or Facebook. But like a 16 year old with a new driver’s license, crashes, near misses, and the flashing red lights of the Highway Patrol are part of most stations experience. Ray will show you what to post, how to post, and the secret algorithm formula Facebook uses to determine what appears in the newsfeed which will boost your ratings--if you find the right ramp.

In a different take on Facebook, Talent Coach Tommy Kramer will present a session called, "The Truth about Phone Calls, Facebook, and Twitter." Phone calls. Facebook. Twitter. You Tube. A little of each goes a long way, and the answer to "how much is too much?" is "less than you think." Tommy will show you what the difference is between reaching out to listeners...or trying to fit a bowling ball through a straw.

Jaye Albright will open the event by presenting the findings from Albright & O’Malley’s 6th annual “Roadmap Study 2011” – the nationwide, online poll of country radio listeners’ perceptions on music, the station of country radio and more. The study is currently in the field in over 50 markets in the US and Canada.

Mike O’Malley will conduct a one-on-one discussion with Tennessee Republican Committee Chairman Chris Devaney, about what radio can learn from political strategists. Topics will include building grass roots support, focusing on the few core issues that may define a campaign or candidate, the art of words/speech making, using social media, attracting attention and more.

And of course there will be music! Our sponsor UMG/Nashvlle, will present Kip Moore and Randy Montana who will close the event.

If you’re in radio and attending CRS (and not in a competitive A&O market – sorry!), you’re invited to join us. It’s free, but you will need an invitation. Just let Jaye (jaye@albrightandomalley.com) or me (mike@albrightandomalley.com) that you’d like to attend.

The Country Radio Seminar is all about sharing knowledge and ideas. So is A&O’s pre-CRS seminar.

I’m excited about them both!

You're Invited to the Seminar-Before-the-Seminar

2011-01-26T23:08:00.000-05:00

26 years of picking up my badge and welcome bag hasn’t dimmed my excitement about attending CRS 2011. Not one bit.

From panels to informal talks over a beer (or two), the give and take of ideas with others who share the same passion for what we do and a desire to be the best at it, drives my CRS experience each year.

There’s something else excites me about CRS: Albright & O’Malley’s pre-CRS seminar.

Once again we’ll be hosting an afternoon of ideas, interaction, never-before-seen research and our continuing series of presentations from people outside our industry who have experiences we can learn from (what this year’s non-industry guest has to tell us will be awesome!).

Over the next few days, we’ll announce our presenters and musical guests.

In the meantime, if you’re attending CRS, accept this as an invitation to joins us Tuesday, March 1st beginning at 12:30 pm at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Come early and tour the Hall. Stay after and attend the Country Radio Hall of Fame Dinner and Ceremony (see the inductees and get information here).

A&O’s pre-seminar is free to those attending CRS (non-competitive A&O markets, please), but you’ll need to reserve a seat by emailing me at mike@albrightandomalley.com .

New to CRS? Jaye (jaye@albrightandomalley.com) and I (mike@albrightandomalley.com) would love to answer your questions. Returning to CRS? You already know what I was talking about earlier. Feel free to leave a comment for others returning to CRS or attending for the first time.

I hope I'll see you at CRS and at A&O’s pre-CRS seminar. And come back over the next week as we share our line-up.

A Business Class from "Professor" Zac Brown

2011-01-23T07:17:00.000-05:00

The Zac Brown Band made the front page of USA Today’s Life section this week but it could have just as easily been the business section.

The piece offered a look at some of the band’s goals and visions which read like a “how-to” on how to please the fans you have and grow by attracting new ones.

Here are nine take-aways:

Have a vision. According to Zac, “We plan on going out and conquering every music lover we can find.”

Let your passion show: "We love to play," he goes on to say, "whether it's for 50 people or 15,000. If there's people we need to win over, we bring them in, play for them, feed them."

Think outside the box: Zac says, “We’re here to gather music lovers…I don’t know why everybody wants to put everything in a box. It’s almost like profiling.”

Use collaboration to foster greater creativity and originality. The ZBB has played/partnered with Alan Jackson, Jimmy Buffett, Kid Rock, CDB, Mac McAnally and Leon Russell.

Choose your partners carefully. “We don’t play with people we don’t like to play with,” stated drummer Chris Fryar.

Know and play to your strengths. “As long as we have four or five songs on every record that can live on country radio, we don’t plan on going anywhere,” says Zac.

Constantly find new ways to delight your fans. Eat and Greets give fans a chance to interact with their favorite performers on a different level, but the ZBB’s Eat and Greets go far beyond expectations. No soggy egg rolls or nachos; you’re talking beef filet and pork tenderloin. And then there’s the four-hour show. “The idea is to make the concert experience full-sensory and to make everyone really feel like they got their money’s worth.”

Be future-thinking. What can be done differently to endear a brand even more? The ZBB hopes to one day to control the concessions so they can offer everyone a high-end dining experience complete with family recipes.

Have a distinctive logo. Two words: stocking cap.

Inspired to find new ways to grow and delight your fans? Me, too.

I’m proud the Zac Brown Band plays on country radio.

Photo credit Josh F. Anderson for USA Today

On Being Boring, Interesting or Fascinating

2011-01-12T20:03:00.000-05:00

Facts are boring. Stories are interesting. Stories with surprises, twists and emotion and over-the-top presentations are fascinating.

Someone repeating what you’ve heard is boring. Someone sharing a new perspective or putting a unique twist on a familiar subject is interesting. Someone sharing a new perspective or putting a unique twist on a familiar subject and making you feel something that you want to share with others is fascinating.

It’s easy to be boring, which is probably why there are so many boring people on the air doing the same things as everyone else with no unique perspective and little creativity. Boring people to check-list shows: “Yeah, we talked about that at 6:40, check it off the list.” Boring shows don’t take chances. Boring shows don’t attract an audience or get them to spend time with you.

Interesting is the ante to not be boring, to have a chance of attracting an audience and getting them to spend time with you.

Fascinating is the most difficult of course. But when you’re fascinating, attracting an audience and getting them to spend time with you – over and over - is easy.

How did you treat the Ted Williams story?

Give the facts (boring)? Play audio (ditto)? Give a link (yawn)?

Or maybe you were fascinating and organized a spontaneous “random acts of kindness” event challenging listeners to give what they would have spent on this morning’s coffee to the homeless person they pass each day.

Or maybe you visited a shelter to see their needs first hand and then launched a help drive.

Or maybe you connected unemployed listeners with jobs?

Or maybe you solicited your listeners’ own uplifting “Cinderella” stories?

Most competitors are boring listeners with the same undifferentiated and uninspired facts, audio clips, links and other low-hanging fruit.

How will you take advantage of the opportunities other stations are giving you?

Better Than Resolutions: Three Words for 2011

2011-01-02T11:10:00.000-05:00

I was never into the resolutions thing. Resolutions are too restrictive, too negative, and too artificial.

However Chris Brogan’s recent post about picking three words and using them to help focus your (our your businesses') actions for the coming year struck me as practical, positive, and encompassing, promoting self-improvement, growth, forward progress and experimentation.

Here are three words I like personally and professionally for 2011:

Ship – from Seth Godin, became one my favorite verbs of 2010. Write it, learn it, send it, share it, try something new, make a difference to yourself or others. Get it on the air or into the hands of an advertiser or client, move it out the door, just do it, now. Next! Carpe Diem 2011.

Distill – constantly consume pertinent, interesting, relevant and potentially "actionable" material. Extract the "so what" to fix, grow, change, bond, entertain or improve. Make sense out of complexity, clarify cause and effect, use new knowledge to try new things. Net it out, share an opinion, relate, tell don't recite, start with the finish; be interesting, fun, different, addictive and valuable. Make a difference. Matter.

Delight – exceed expectations. Often it's a relatively small distance from meeting to exceeding expectations: a little more thought, value, empathy, effort, perspective or preparation could move someone from satisfied to delighted, from customer/advertiser/listener to evangelist. You know how good it feels when something exceeds your expectations. It feels even better when you're on the giving end.

Impact, compel, engage, empower, achieve, results, grow, consistent, loyalty and happiness are also pretty good one-word guideposts, too.

How about some you’d like to add?

Growing You Audience in 2011: Try a Wii Bit of Subtraction

2010-12-30T14:08:00.000-05:00

When we think about growing audience, we often think about adding things. In fact, subtraction is often a better strategy.

I thought about this as I read a post-Christmas Tweet from someone expressing disappointment that their Wii didn’t play Blu-rays.

Granted, a Wii with a Blu-ray player could be useful for some owners, but having that ability isn’t central to the Wii’s core benefits. And, if the Wii were to retain its price point, what would have to be sacrificed to add this feature, and how would that sacrifice negatively impact the Wii’s overall experience in terms of its primary appeal?

Most radio perceptual studies include a segment on music as a tool to build audience. Usually it involves identifying a popular music style and then adding, one at a time, additional adjacent music styles in order to increase the size of the audience. At a certain point however, the addition of too many adjacent styles begins to shrink rather than grow the size of the coalition as these additions off-put more listeners than they attract.

Over time, a station can accumulate any number of additional, adjacent components. While some of these “augmented benefits” could induce some additional buying, some may be repelling it.

Periodically review your product, subtracting things that compromise your “core competencies” (why listeners choose you over a competitor), create barriers to increased consumption, or that actually contract the size of your audience.

Enabling the Wii to play Blu-rays could conceivably sell a few more devices, but if those sales come at the expense of the gaming experience or the brand position, it’s a bad strategy.

Gen Y's Top Artsts

2010-12-22T20:11:00.002-05:00

The end of the year always brings lists and quizzes. Here’s one of interest: Gen-Y’s Top 77 singers/bands/musicians.

Anderson Analytics polled 1000 college students (survey limits noted) asking, “Who is your favorite musician/band currently?”

Want to guess how many country artists are on the list? How many are in the top 20? Who they might be? (Continue when you’re ready).

The answers are: six acts in the top 77 and four in the top 20: Taylor Swift (1), Jason Aldean (13), Rascal Flatts (16), Miranda Lambert (20), Carrie Underwood (38) and Brad Paisley (58).

This is a diverse Top 10 list (see it here) which includes Linkin Park (2), Lady Gaga (3) and the Beatles (#6).

Music Marketer Greg Rollett says of Gen-Y’s music tastes, “The hybrid of music is here to stay. The millennial generation, along with the younger teens and tweens are living in a society that is multicultural in nature, not knowing a country divided by race for most of the rural and even urban cities…the message is more important than the race or ethnicity of a person”

With Gen Y’s making up a good portion of 18-34s, about 1/3 of whom cume country, their interests warrant attention.

As Anderson’s Top 77 list certainly points out, age isn’t the sole indicator of taste.

Thanks Gerry House - You've Helped Us All Build a Stronger "Foundation"

2010-12-16T21:05:00.002-05:00

Thank you, Gerry House.

For 3 decades you’ve showed us how to craft shows that compel listeners to be willing, habitual consumers.

Content "foundations" of the House Foundation included a balance of humor and heart-tuggers, country and mass appeal content, authoritative and self-deprecating content, and stories that were both personal and universal.

Shows were peppered with memorable stories and (sometimes) improbable characters that rang true because they were rooted in our own lives or in the stereotypes we’ve either encountered or imagined we might encounter at the Walmart or some country bar near us (can’t you just SEE Mack Truck?).

Tonight I'm imagining Gerry’s huge local following, many of whom I perceive are facing mornings with the same emptiness one might feel after looking in the mirror knowing that earlier this week you had one of your front teeth extracted.

So I can’t help but wonder tonight why, less than 18 hours after such a significant page in Nashville radio history has been turned, can Gerry’s story possibly be the THIRD story on the WSIX website flipper?

Note to programmers (with no disrespect to anyone): Move at the pace of your listeners. Be neither too far ahead nor ever behind where your listeners are. Whether it’s music or major station events, be in sync with your audience. Today’s hot news/songs/artists/contests will moves to the ‘back page’ fast enough. Make sure you get your money’s worth before you too move on.

Note to Gerry: Like so many of us in radio, I’m both a fan and a debtor - appreciative of your contributions to radio as a whole and our format specifically.

And if you DO decide to come to New York for a vacation, I’d be honored to be your tour guide or at least make a few restaurant recommendations.

Oh, one more thing - here in New Jersey, we have a different definition of "God speed;" 75% of all limited access highways have a speed limit of 65.

The "Best" Or "Most" Wasn't Enough

2010-12-14T13:39:00.001-05:00

Sometimes it's not about the “best” or “most” or any superlative. Sometimes it’s not about anything tangible at all. Sometimes it’s just about how you “feel.”

Like Cliff Lee’s decision to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies instead of going for the (presumably) best location (closest to home) or the most (no presumption here - 7 years’ worth of it) money.

Along this road to Citizen's Bank Park there was plenty of spectacle - although these didn’t stem from the physical either. Instead, it was silence-driven, suspense fueled talk and theories that drove attention to the sport, the teams involved, and Lee.

Listeners love stories, spectacle, and content that makes them feel something. This story had all that plus a surprise ending.

Baseball may not be your listeners’ passion, but the Cliff Lee saga contained the tenets of what makes a great radio story: a journey that unfolded a chapter at a time, engaging listeners, stirring passion, creating mystery, and causing talk.

Oh, and one more thing – it temporarily took the spotlight off the New York Jets.

Why FOX Likes Radio

2010-12-10T11:18:00.000-05:00

If you’re outside the industry, it seems almost fashionable to find reasons not to like “heritage” media like radio.

But Wednesday, at the Arbitron Client Conference/Jacob's Summit 15, Yvonne Lacey, FOX Broadcasting’s Media Supervisor, took the opposite position. FOX like radio – a lot.

Pointing out that the FOX Network originally launched exclusively with radio and in so doing created the TV spending category for radio, Yvonne shared some reasons why FOX finds radio a good partner, as well as the network’s perception of radio - pro and con

Here are some highlights.

Why FOX Likes Radio:

• Works well with other medium, enhancing buys on TV, cable

• Allows creative ways to promote; can mirror their products’ image

• Longer-length spots drive critical messages while shorter length spots solidify image

What Radio Does for FOX:

• Elevates awareness and promotes tune-in for FOX shows

• Includes on-air and on-line elements in a unique way (such as Glee audio via ftp site)

• Can mobilize listeners, particularly for FOX casting calls

• Can leverage talents’ passion for FOX shows and, in a quid pro quo, FOX supplies the talent with exclusive content, interviews, swag and more allowing audiences to perceive the talent as the expert on popular shows

• Utilizes on air and online for creative, multi-platform promotions and special content spots plus online banners, streaming and e-blasts to ‘accessorize’

• Unique promotional prizes and contest fulfillment

FOX also had some advice for radio, including improving digital accountability, making commercials more engaging, better integrating spots and marketing efforts, and taking a hard look at commercial-free policies.

But back to what FOX likes. I’ll bet your station has clients who can cite these and other benefits from their affiliation with you. Share those stories.

Or perhaps these bullets will stimulate addition thought on ways to serve an existing client, present your station to a potential new client, or create or enhance an on air or online programming element.

Feel free to share here. Your reaction, stories and ideas are always welcome!

Database Membership: So Few Contributing So Much

2010-12-07T22:42:00.001-05:00

For plenty of businesses (radio included), a small number of consumers account for a disproportionately large percentage of consumption.

So it’s not surprising that our database, texting and points programs are subject to the same principles.

Still, seeing the statistics on station database/club participation that DMR Interactive President and COO Tripp Eldredge shared today at the Arbitron fly-in are worth some consideration:

• Less than 10% of most stations’ database members have been active with the station in the past 6 months

• Only 6.5% of most stations’ database members are actively involved in their station's “points program.” Of those that participate, 21% drive 80% of the activity

• Just 13% of text club members drive 80% of the messages with the vast majority only text station once a month

Because people are constantly leaving databases (actually or virtually opting out), “growing” membership may really mean standing still.

So here’s a thinking point: how active (or even how large) your database is, is at least in part a function of the value members feel they receive vs. the time they invest to participate.

Music panel participation rates dwindling? Not getting the response you once were to your emails or text clubs or other database-related outreach? Database not growing?

Consider increasing the value to the listener for their time invested.

Increasing the value of your website content could improve activity there, too.

Yes, But...

2010-12-02T16:54:00.002-05:00

If you only look at the AQH Persons composition, you could write country off as an older-appeal format. Yes, the largest AQH cell is clearly 45-54 and yes, the 18+ AQH composition ranges from a low of 9.7% 18-24 to a high of 21.6% 45-54.

But the data released this week by the Research Director, Inc. and Inside Radio also shows that country has strength on the young end too, particularly in cume.

Unlike AQH persons, the cume rating by demo varies only slightly – about 4% -- between the data’s polar ends of 18-34 and 35-64 – much more homogenous than the data released so far show other formats.

Again, looking at the young-to-old variance but this time in shares, there’s only about a 10% difference from the polar ends – 3.6 to 3.9. The share differential is much greater across gender than age.

While the format (all stations combined) has a higher market rank as age increases – 18-34 (6th), 18-49 (5th), 25-54 (4th) and 35-64 (3rd) – individual stations rank best 18-34 then rank progressively lower through 25-54: 18-34 (6th), then 18-49 (8th) and 25-54 (9th). Even the 35-64 ranker has country 7th.

There’s a lot of data additional in the report including the impact of P1s (50% of country’s AQH comes from P1s which is a higher percent than any of the four other formats released to date including AC, Urban AC, Rock and Classic Rock), and that country’s P1 TSL is lower than all these except Urban Contemporary.

Plus, as CBS Radio VP of country programming Jeff Garrison observed in Monday’s Inside Radio, country is nearly a non-ethnic format (only 9% Black and Hispanic). That’s a factor now in urban markets and could be more so in the immediate future when the 2010 census is incorporated into Arbitron estimates.

But back to the format’s broad, healthy cuming: the most successful country stations will be those that best serve three generations of listeners with engaging, common denominator content, songs with passion across demos, relevance and in an environment that “feels good” every day and daypart.

“Black Friday” Radio: Urgency, Anticipation and Mood

2010-11-26T19:15:00.000-05:00

Ask a consumer psychologist about the factors that drive Black Friday and you’ll likely hear about urgency, anticipation, and the shopping experience.

Urgency – Stores' short, special sale hours, promotions, limited supplies and real, artificial or implied scarcity driving consumer feelings of “get it now” or “miss out on today and you’ll be sorry."

Anticipation – Store strategies that have consumers looking forward to and planning Black Friday visits, in effect making time-specific appointments with shoppers and promising pay offs big enough to change their habits.

Shopping Mood/Experience – Smart retailers knows that Black Friday shopping is emotional and "part of an energized movement.” They may subscribe to the convergence theory of like-minded people gathering for a common goal or to a self-feeding theory on crowds, but ultimately stores that hat engage their customers through multiple channels and provide a strong shopping experience will compete at a different level than those that simply conduct transactions.

Thursday of course is the day most stations focus on.

But what if each component on our station was an individual brick and mortar store whose success or failure was largely driven by urgency, anticipation and mood?

How would we have done on Black Friday?

A + B = $

2010-11-23T10:45:00.000-05:00

It’s one thing to use social media to market to people who are aware of who you are and what you’re selling.

But what about those who don’t yet know about you or don't yet know that they need your product?

That’s the subject of this Chris Brogan post, “Two Sides of Marketing,” which could be a great topic for your next sales meeting.

Here’s a snippet.

“Some marketing is designed to convince you that your life would be better if you had this (we’ll call that the A side). Other marketing is designed to find the people who are actually seeking that and give them more education to help them make a decision (this, we’ll call B). When I look at how we use social media more often than not, it’s for B and not A. We usually use social media to listen for the people who are expressing an interest in a product or service that we offer, and then we give them content like blog posts and videos to help them better understand how much better the world would be once you really get the product or service that you want…The A-side of marketing, the “ADVERTISING” side of marketing, still has to sneak in between what we know and what we NEED (being bombastic and smirky here) to know, so that we can then help educate people (the “BRIDGING” side of marketing) that it’s what they want.”

I’ll bet you can find some businesses in your market that would benefit greatly from adding your “A” to their “B.”

CRS 2011: What Will You Take Away?

2010-11-17T14:12:00.002-05:00

CRS, the Country Radio Seminar, is one of the great learning conventions. The 2011 agenda has relevant sessions no matter where you are on the “experience continuum.”

Have a conversation about CRS and it won't be long before the discussion turns to a specific panel, keynote or take-away that had a positive impact on the attendees job performance or perhaps even life experience.

One of the most memorable and meaningful sessions I've attended was Lou Holtz’ 1997 riveting keynote, “What’s Important Now.” Whether you're pursuing a personal (improving your life) or professional goal (like meeting a deadline, coaching talent, moving your station forward, or working to deliver the highest possible quality product), doing "What's Important Now" is a simple yet powerful plan of action that keeps you focused on achievement.

I’ve been inspired by Lou’s speech for years. That hour alone was worth the entire trip and I'm so glad I didn't miss it.

I hope you don’t miss CRS 2011. I also hope you don’t miss the discount rate of $399 which is good through Friday. After that it will cost you $100 more - which is still a bargain.

Finally, in the CRS spirit of sharing, I hope you'll leave a comment about a Seminar experience that still resonates with you.

Just A FEW More Awards From Last Night

2010-11-10T23:11:00.001-05:00

Was that a great CMA Awards Show or what?

Unfortunately, just like Thanksgiving dinner, there’s so much hype/anticipation/excitement/work that leads up to it that it’s over all too quickly.

Just like any good holiday meal, there ought to be a few ‘left-overs.’ So in that spirit, here are my left-overs: the “Post-Show Awards.”

Feel free to add your own!

Of COURSE Country Singers Can Sing Live Award: Zac Brown Band and Alan Jackson/As She’s Walking Away. Multiple runners-up, notably Carrie Underwood, Lady A, Dierks Bentley and (insert up to three of your favorite performances here).

Performance With A Purpose Award: Taylor Swift in a very mature setting playing piano with strings as accompaniment. Nothing says ex-cheerleader like this.

Fastest Costume Change Award: Jennifer Nettles. Less than a second.

Best Hat Award: Kristian Bush: For his top hat. He wore a different one for Sugarland's "Duo" acceptance speech. Honorable mention: Kid Rock and Zac Brown (OK, Zac didn't really wear a ‘hat’ per se, but “Best Head Covering” – while more accurate - is just too cumbersome for an award title).

Most Gracious Acceptance Line Award: Lady A’s Dave Haywood: “We love you all and it's an honor to be in the category with you."

Best National Commercial: Taylor Swift CD. Honorable Mentions: Chevy (a Dog and A Chevy) and HP (baby going 70 mph wheelie-thingy).

Sigh of Disappointment Award: ABC’s The Middle “CMA Salute” promos. Nice Awards show but you still don't get it, do you?

You Lookin’ At Me (and not really a camera) Award: Reba during her performance. Does she get the most out of a camera or what? Wow.

Performance That Exceeded (REALLY Exceeded) Even High Expectations: Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson (DAY-um!)

Best 20-second Cover: Little Big Town covering Taylor Swift

Best Performance of a Country Song Disguised as a Rock Song: “Born Free”/Kid Rock

Best Hug By A Fiancée: Miranda Lambert after Blake was announced as Male Vocalist of the Year

I’m Really Torqued They Didn’t Get To Sing their Whole Song Award: Band Perry (I played “If I Die Young” during the next 3 commercial breaks and it STILL didn’t come close to make up for having this GREAT song and performance cut short) 

Mispronunciation Award: Sheryl Crow. Everyone knows that Loretta Lynn taught us that the correct pronunciation or “washboard” is “WARSH-board” (just like "tired" is correctly pronounced “tarred”).

Best Line of the Night: Miranda Lambert on being named Female Vocalist of the Year: “I just told Blake I think we need to go to Church.” Runner up: Brad Paisley on Joe Galante.

Can't wait till next year!

Take 10: 10 Show Strategies and Tactics You Can Use Right Now

2010-11-09T10:18:00.000-05:00

You know how when you’re reading about one thing and you’re struck with how the concepts also apply to something else?

That happened to me as I was reading 10 Steps to More Scientific Social Media Marketing by Dan Zarrella . While I was reading about Dan’s topic, I was thinking how each of his 10 points also applied to preparing a winning show.

I’ve paraphrased Dan’s 10 points and changed the topic from Social Media Marketing to Show Development. See what you think (and be sure to use the link above to read Dan’s original article).

1.Iterate what works. Do this both for benchmark-type elements of the show (to keep existing benchmarks fresh, evolve old ones, and create new ones) and for your daily content (have multiple “takes” on the same subject).

2. Audience size matters. Obviously pleasing fans is important, but also be cume-aware to keep your show from becoming overly fan-centric and at the expense of growing cume.

3. Find and target influencers. In politics, estimates are that social tools connect with 1% of the voters who are most engaged in your message and that these in turn will influence another 9%. While our ratio may be different, embracing and empowering fans pays dividends.

4. Bigger and louder works – to a point. I’m all about being an occasional spectacle, but great content is the key to loyal, recurring listenership.

5. Personalize. You and me, in your car, on our way home from work – that’s the litmus test for how we talk and what we talk about. Also, “I’m talking about what you’re talking about” only from a more creative, entertaining, fun, interesting, etc. perspective that compels you to listen daily.

6. Don’t wear your audience out. Don’t allow your “content” to be dominated by “do this,” “go here,” and “call now.” Most listeners came to be entertained, not to have new tasks added to their day.

7. Help your audience look cool. What are you including in your show today that will make me smarter, more clever, look better in my friends’ and co-workers’ eyes?

8. Be the authority. Be out in front of everything you can.

9. Avoid too much talk about yourself. Engage others; let listeners see themselves in the stories you tell. Listen more. Same for your social media efforts; make it a conversation not just an oratory.

10. Don’t forget calls-to-action. Use appointments, deadlines, promote-aheads of exclusive content, urgent language, and social media to engage listeners in current and future shows.

Are any of these working for you now? Have any others you’d like to share?

Fall Rituals: Raking and Writing

2010-10-30T09:17:00.001-04:00

Fresh, fun, topical imaging on your station stands out like a just-raked yard in fall. And this time of the year provides plenty of opportunities for writing (and raking).

What will you write for: Halloween, Election Day, the change from Daylight Savings Time, Veterans’ Day/Remembrance Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve/Day?

Plus weekend chores, 4th quarter movie releases, and likely a number of local events.

Put a stationality spin on your writing, have fun, attract attention. Sound real and listener-focused. Communicate core values. Be brief, sincere and creative.

Just don’t miss the opportunity.

Radio 2010: Listening and Lifestyle Profiles...and Coaching Tool

2010-10-15T05:48:00.000-04:00

National ratings data and lifestyle information on the major formats is again available for free in the newly released Radio Today 2010 pdf from Arbitron. Download it free here.

There's lots of good news for country:

• Fall 2009’s combined (PPM and Diary) country share was 13.4% (4.4%/4th in PPM markets and 14.1%/1st in diary markets). That’s the highest share the format has delivered since spring 2002.

• Country radio’s reach is second only to AC.

• The format was number one in every daypart except mornings (#2 behind New/Talk/Information). It was also #1 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54. It was #2 18-24, 55-64 and 65+. 18-24 was the “growth demographic” and has been “up steadily in recent years.”

• 26% of the AQH audience is 18-34 and 42% is 18-44. 18-34s aren’t just cumers; their TSL of 6:30 is just under the 7:00 average 12+ and close to the 7:00 for 25-54 and 7:30 for 35-64.

Non-ratings information on the country audience includes education (half have attended or graduated college), earnings (half live in households earning $50,000 or more), home ownership (70%) and interests (country audiences index high on outdoor activities and slightly above the norm on texting).

For programmers, one of the most useful pieces of data in any Arbitron report is the Audience Composition graph (the Radio 2010 AQH Composition for country is shown). Running graphs for cume and AQH give you a 'big picture' look at both plus the relationship between them.

After checking rankings and PPDV/PPM Weight, Audience Composition is usually the next place I go when breaking out ratings.

My expectations are that the 'comps' will roughly mirror our targeting (usually it does). But when it doesn't, it triggers a series of questions: from 'Is this an aberration?" to an overall evaluation of the relevance and ‘welcoming-ness’ of key station elements.

An Audience Composition graph can also be a talent coaching tool, particularly if you're concerned that a show isn't as aligned with the audience as it should be. Compare a multi-book average of the station's and the show's Audience Composition. If there are undesirable differences, challenge the talent to cite the specific audience appeal for the show overall as well as its specific features and content pieces.

Comparing their perceived targets to the show’s Audience Composition might be what you need to offer congratulations or to shake things up a bit.

Like THIS for Example

2010-10-10T14:11:00.001-04:00

Sometimes a good example is the best way to make your point.

That was what Jon Robbins, Operations Manager/Adventure Radio Group/Savannah thought when he used a Mediabase monitor to issue a “What content do you have planned for Monday’s show?” challenge to his morning shows.

Jon told me, “I saw (the WMJI/Cleveland show highlights) on Mediabase and thought WOW, look at all this great ‘compelling’ content that this show covered in ONE morning. I wished that I had listened – this makes me want to listen – so I decided to share with my Morning guys and ask them what do they have planned for Monday? Cause this is what it will take to get to #1 like John Lanigan.”

Here’s the content Jon shared:

* A new study shows that one in 10 residents of New York City have bedbugs.

* Hosts discussed details of the recent news story about three Florida kids, ages 15, 13, and 11, who saved their babysitting money, bought airline tickets and flew Southwest Airlines to Nashville, Tennessee to visit Dollywood, which is actually in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

* A 27 year-old London man parked illegally and found his car “clamped” and was ordered by police to pay the fine and the towing fee, even though the car had not yet been towed. So, knowing they wouldn’t tow the car with a passenger in it, he sat inside the vehicle for the next 30 hours.

* LeBron James was on the cover of “GQ” magazine, and in the interview, spoke about a city rivalry between Akron and Cleveland.

* A couple who went on vacation is suing their realtor for using their house and their possessions while they were gone for “unauthorized sexual escapades,” resulting in stained sheets, furniture, carpets and other surfaces. Century 21 paid $7,000 in repairs, and the agent was fired.

* President Obama was scheduled to come to Columbus on monitor day to encourage voters “not to give in to fear.”

* Hosts discussed the latest round of political commercials, specifically, Ohio state politicians.

* The trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich had ended with the jury deadlocked on 23 counts. He was found guilty on one count of lying to the FBI. Blagojevich was planning to appeal the conviction and the state was planning to retry him on the other 23 counts.

* The West Wing of the White House is currently covered in a white tarp. Hosts wondered what was going on under there.

* President Obama’s approval rating has dropped to 44%, the lowest of his presidency so far.

* A twice-convicted murderer has been turned down for parole again, after letters surfaced that he had written to the family of the people he murdered, detailing how he would kill them too as soon as he was released.

* A listener poll was underway on the station’s web site. Listeners were asked to visit the site and answer this question: “Who would you rather see back in Cleveland first, Art Modell or LeBron James?” Hosts discussed each of the men.

* John read several listener emails, one from a Cleveland listener who moved to San Diego and now listens online. Other emails referenced topics of conversation from earlier in the current Morning Show.

* Hosts discussed several of the newer TV shows, such as “Hot In Cleveland,” and “Rubicon.”

* A bicyclist was seen, wearing nothing but a helmet. Police want to know his identity.

* Laurie read several listener emails regarding the Florida kids who flew to Nashville, with various responses.

* A “Newsweek” article, “The Best Countries in the World,” lists the Top 10 countries in which to live as: #1 Finland, #2 Switzerland, #3 Sweden, #4 Australia, #5 Luxembourg, #6 Norway, #7 Canada, #8 The Netherlands, #9 Japan, and #10 Denmark.

From Audience Killer to Great Radio in Two Steps

2010-10-05T20:31:00.002-04:00

The well-intentioned representative from (insert name of local charity here) comes to your studio and wants to tell you in great detail how your listeners can help out or make a donation. Unfortunately, a lot of listeners didn’t hang around for the specifics because they were never motivated to participate in the first place.

An artist is your guest and usually wants to talk about their latest CD, upcoming show, or something else they have going on right now. Listeners, disappointed they didn’t something personal or ‘behind the scenes,’ drift away as you play and the artist talks about his previously unheard song.

Both of these are audience killers.

You can’t blame your local guests; they’re rarely professional communicators. They don’t know what to say to make people respond. You can’t blame the artist; they’re in the moment and often just trying to get through yet another radio interview from another jock that really isn’t prepared beyond a few basics.

But here’s the thing: you can turn each into compelling radio if you 1) control the agenda that 2) finds and focuses on the Emotional Center.

Your agenda for the local guest is to find the Emotional Center in the story and use it to make listeners WANT to participate. Listeners can figure out HOW later. But if you don’t get me to WANT, you surely won’t get me to HOW.

Here’s a real example: a hospice spokesperson appeared on a morning show and spent 3 minutes talking about the responsibilities, requirements and sign-up procedures are for becoming a volunteer but never once gave listeners a reason to WANT to do this.

Audience killer.

But imagine the listener reaction if the interview started with and stuck to an Emotional Center: perhaps how spokesperson witnessed the daughter of a terminal patient put her arm around a hospice volunteer and, with a smile and a tear, told the volunteer how much she’d meant to her dad these last weeks, how much her kindness was appreciated, and how she’d always be a member of their family.

Find and tell a story like this and you’ll have great radio and a line of volunteers.

Similarly, while an artist may want to talk about a single or a new CD or an upcoming show, you have the chance to make if far more of an event for listeners if you create an agenda that includes mystery, a look behind the scenes, or that engages the artist in a way that reveals the artist as a person behind the star - itself an Emotional Center.

That’s the agenda Steve Stewart, WTNR/Grand Rapids’ OM/AM host of Scrubs in the Morning used for his Tuesday morning interview with Toby Keith. They got around to the new music, but not before Toby was talking like the golf playing, football-loving guy next door. You can listen to it including a feature called the “30 Second Meet & Greet” where a listener gets to end the call with 30 seconds to ask or tell the guest whatever they want.

Have an Agenda/Emotional Center interview story to share?

The “Sooner or Later” Tightrope

2010-09-07T21:45:00.002-04:00

One of the highlights of the Management Circus is the high wire act – the one where the “needs of now” on one side are deftly satisfied while one the other side," longer term objectives" are being accomplished.

If you’re walking this tightrope on a daily basis (as so many of us are), Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi and Saatchi says you need two things: a plan and a list.

The plan is a “100 Day Plan” - an aid in helping you accomplish what is important over time. A 100 day plan says Roberts, “lifts your eyes, mind and heart up off the pavement and out to the horizon. It cuts a path through detail swamps and meeting deserts to create action…(to) help you keep on track with what’s most important” vs. what’s just urgent.

Hyperbole notwithstanding, this is good advice.

Get started by listing 10 things you need to accomplish in 100 days or less. For each item on the list, Kevin recommends starting with an action verb and using no more than 3 words:

“Win vs. France, Rehab left knee, Win US Presidency… Make sure each action is measurable and that each one is a stretch. You’ll know when something is a real stretch and when you’re just creating a list with things you can tick off. Review your list every Friday morning. When the 100 Days comes round, the goal is to have each item checked off.”

The second suggestion is maintaining a simple to-do list.

Don’t scoff.

The simple “to do” list was a tool of Thomas Edison (among others) who said it helped him avoid being “consumed by the urgent at the expense of the important.”

The 50 Minute Oil Change - 50 Ideas for Your Morning Show

2010-07-22T08:20:00.000-04:00

Thanks to all who attended the standing room only panel Tommy Kramer and I presented Friday, 7/16/10 at Conclave 35. And a very special thanks to all the great morning show talent who so generously gave of their time and creativity and created a video for us to share (you're credited in the list below). Your efforts were appreciated by us all!

In creating the panel, Tommy and I wanted to share not only just great turnkey bits, but techniques and philosophies that could make you think differently about your show.

It’s no surprise that we couldn’t fit everything into our 50 minutes, but you can download the complete list at http://albrightandomalley.com/.

Here are a dozen to whet your appetite. And, in the spirit of sharing, it would be great if you could leave an ideas too!

1. Developing an Alter Ego enables you to expand the boundaries of what you can do on your show (Kevin Matthews/WLAV)

2. Keep a diary and share it with other players on the show, using it as a jumping off point for content ideas. For bonus points, have artists who visit your studio make up a song based on your journal/diary entries (Wally , WAY-FM Nashville—using his 6th grade journal.)

3. I am T-Pain iPhone AutoTune App: hilarious for you or listeners to “sing” a song about virtually anything.

4. Your own family traditions can be the inspiration for large promotions (Tim Leary/WCTK)

5. Take the show outside the studio for the betterment of the community/world (Cliff Dumas/KSON and Bob Rivers/KZOK)

6. What’s a guy thinking (male talent gives absurd rationale for dumb things guys do)

7. Just before the break, hold a 5-second huddle to remind yourselves of you point, your close, and how you’re evolving the break

8. Brainstorm with others in the building; you’ll get different subjects and different perspectives on the same subject

9. Morning show team members: listen to each other for potential material (J and Julian/WBBM)

10. Study the art of storytelling and learn to be good at it; this is a life as well as a career benefit.

11. The new rule for evaluating phone calls: “too good not to air” vs. “good enough to air.”

12. Courage is essential if you’re going to go from “OK” to “great.”

Don't forget to download all 50 here and, if you'd can, leave one of your own ideas.

Have a great show!

The 50 Minute Oil Change

2010-07-20T07:21:00.000-04:00

Thanks to all who attended the standing room only panel Tommy Kramer and I presented Friday, 7/16/10 at The Conclave. And a very special thanks to all who created a video for us to share (credits in parentheses). Your efforts were appreciated by us all!

In creating the panel, Tommy and I wanted to share not only some great bits, but techniques and philosophies that could make you think differently about your show.

It’s no surprise that we couldn’t get to everything in our 50 minutes but you can download the complete list at http://albrightandomalley.com/.

Here are a dozen to whet your appetite.

1. Developing an Alter Ego enables you to expand the boundaries of what you can do on your show (Kevin Matthews/WLAV)

2. Keep a diary and share it with other players on the show and use it as a jumping off point for content ideas. For bonus points, have artists who visit your studio make up a song based on your journal/diary entries (Wally , WAY-FM Nashville—using his 6th grade journal.)

3. I am T-Pain iPhone AutoTune App: hilarious for you or listeners to “sing” a song about virtually anything.

4. Your own family traditions can be the inspiration for large promotions (Tim Leary/WCTK)

5. Take the show outside the studio for the betterment of the community/world (Cliff Dumas/KSON and Bob Rivers/KZOK)

6. What’s a guy thinking: male talent gives absurd rationale to defend dumb things guys do

7. Just before the break, hold a 5-second huddle to remind yourselves of you point, your close, and how you’re evolving the break

8. Brainstorm with others in the building; you’ll get different subjects plus different perspectives on the same subject

9. Morning show team members: listen to each other for potential material (J and Julian/WBBM)

10. Study the art of storytelling and learn to be good at it; this is a life as well as a career benefit.

11. The new rule for evaluating phone calls: “too good not to air” vs. “good enough to air.”

12. Courage is essential if you’re going to grow from “OK” to “great.”

Have an idea, technique, bit or philosophy you'd like to share? Post a comment.

'Clave Rave

2010-07-18T12:45:00.009-04:00

I've blogged previously about the great learning experience that is the Country Radio Seminar (CRS). But the Conclave too gets terrific marks for its learning conference - this year dubbed “i35 – Freeway to Your Future” - which concluded yesterday.

I was there as both a presenter of a morning show development panel with terrific talent coach Tommy Kramer (download notes from our session Tuesday afternoon at http://albrightandomalley.com/) and also as an attendee – mostly the social media and Internet-related panels.

I answered Art Vuolo’s question on the value of the Conclave by saying it’s about sharing what you know with others while being exposed to new ideas and experiences in return.

In that spirit, here are some ideas I shared and some others I'm passing along:

The number one enemy of any show is irrelevant content.

“Curation” is a big opportunity. People like someone – including a friend – to tell them what’s important, relevant and valuable.

Follow people who follow you on Twitter; reciprocation makes people feel more engaged with you. Thanking people for following you makes you visible to that person’s followers as well.

The new success formula for advertisers is “empower, demonstrate and involve/engage;” these replace the old formula of “inform, persuade, and remind.”

Podcasts = action. 71% of a podcast’s listeners will visit a website, 62% will consider a new product or service, and 60% will gather more about info about product.

Yes, DO think of digital platforms as more than just new avenues of product distribution. And DO think about new ways to delight users with platform-specific content. And DO be aggressive in creating apps that people actually want. But first, fix your stream!

Thanks, Conclave for inviting me to present a panel this year – and to leave with some new ideas to share with others.

Anything YOU’D like to share?

Six Attributes of Premium Brands: How Many Does Your Station Have?

2010-07-09T15:56:00.002-04:00

I really like Starbucks' coffee.

I seek it out (fortunately that's not usually difficult) and willingly pay more for it.
To me it's a unique coffee experience (especially the rich, earthy, smoky, intense and satisfying French Roast) that's well worth the reasonably higher price.

I like to share my Starbucks experiences with other Starbucks fans and in turn hear what they enjoy.

Even outside of the coffee, I like Starbucks as a company – their history, initiatives, new products and promotions.

Uniqueness, customer loyalty, higher price point, distribution, promotions and back story: these six attributes that make Starbucks a Premium Brand for me are in fact characteristics shared by most Premium Brands.

How many of these Premium Brand attributes does your station have?

Uniqueness – From packaging to process, Premium Brands have clear elements of differentiation. They also introduce unique new variations of their basic products. Remembering that nuance is lost on most listeners, what most clearly and positively sets you apart from competitors? How are you promoting/exploiting it? What new, unique features or listener-experiences have you launched recently?

Customer Loyalty and Evangelism – Premium Brand customers demonstrate their brand loyalty by sharing their stories about your brand and hearing similar stories from fellow Premium Brand customers. “Pull marketing,” word of mouth, and public endorsements/consumption are part of the core marketing strategy. Are you making it easy for listeners to spread the word about you and interact with you and others about what you’re going?

Higher Pricing – customers expect to pay a realistically higher price, but consumers of Premium Brands still need to feel that they are getting value and receiving a premium experience. The higher the commercial load, the stronger the entertainment value must be. But price is not limited to just commercials; consider costs like the monetary investment or extra steps necessary to listen to your product on other platforms. Is the end experience worth the cost?

Distribution: Speaking of platforms, Premium Brands are widely available. Is your station missing any distribution channels?

Promotion: Many Premium Brands support or dominate niche events (like Red Bull’s involvement in extreme or dangerous sports). Others engage in particularly creative promotions (like Mattel’s Barbie dressed in designer clothes and walking the runway during New York City’s Fashion Week). Starbucks is involved in multiple community and global initiatives. Are there promotional or philanthropic opportunities in your market that you could own that would enhance your station’s brand image among your target listeners?

Back story: To tell a brand’s true back story, some have produced “promotumentaries” for the brand’s website or TV (Patron tequila has done a great job with its back story). A Microsoft study found that “...helping consumers build up their knowledge about a product is what turns casual interest into a premium sale”. What’s your station’s story? Why did it come about? What was your original strategic mission? Is there a powerful story you can tell?

Going Once...

2010-07-06T17:23:00.002-04:00

Just for fun, I went on e-Bay to see what $399 would buy (for a limited time, $399 is the cost of registering for CRS 2011). I found some cool things but none appeard helpful in furthering a radio career.

A pair of binoculars (90x80 Professional) – techy, yes, but they won’t help you see the future of our industry.

A GPS device for golfers – it might help you find your lost ball, but it won’t help you find new listeners.

A pair of Bruno Magli Raging Venetian black loafers (10 D, pre-owned) – I suppose looking like a "raging Venetian" could help you appear successful, but these probably won't do too much to help you actually BE successful.

A pair of Chanel classic patent gold logo pumps (ladies size 11.5 – new with defects). Really? $400 for defective shoes?

$399 worth of services from a resume writer – which you won’t need because of all the impressive ideas you’ll bring back to your station.

A La Perla Black Label Litterae Bra/Thong 36B/M (no, really, they're for sale for $399).

You can check e-Bay too, but my suspicion is that the $399 you spend registering for CRS, March 2-4, 2011, will be money well spent on your career. Register here. Don't worry, you won't be outbid.

Spending time with your fellow broadcasters, sharing ideas, and creating solutions to problems sounds like a far better way to blow your own horn than buying that $399 used saxophone.

Means To An End?

2010-06-21T20:43:00.017-04:00

I’m all for any advance that will improve ratings accuracy and preciseness – starting with sample/panel size – so I’m certainly not dismissing Arbitron’s announcement of its PPM 360 technology out of hand.

Instead, I’ll share this December post from former Arbitron Senior Vice President, Ratings Services, Jay Guyther and hope that this news – and more importantly and also announced today, the news that Arbitron has purchased IMMI’s cellular phone-based technology that captures consumer cross-platform media usage – is all a means to a good end: larger panels at lower cost.

As radio audiences continue to fragment, there will be an increased demand for larger sample sizes. In the U.S., Arbitron’s PPM panels are one-third the size of the previous quarterly diary sample…

"For continued success, development of new generations of meters must be continuous and come much faster. The costs, both the equipment costs and the system operating costs, must be greatly reduced so sample sizes can be substantially larger making electronic measurement more attractive and affordable to more markets.

“The ability to efficiently and inexpensively embed signal identification technology into a consumers existing personal electronic device, while maintaining the necessary research quality, is the only solution to building large cost-effective panels…

I’m hoping that today’s steps are two of many that will be quickly taken to that end.

Horn Of Plenty

2010-06-17T15:38:00.001-04:00

I was brainstorming with a morning show this past Monday about the World Cup when the discussion turned to the fun potential of the vuvuzela as content.

We considered its radio applications…

…improving a song or two by adding a few, inappropriately placed vuvuzela riffs

…using it as a contest sounder, for a right answer or wrong answer, or when someone on the show agreed, disagreed or got tired of a team member’s content

…as an alternative for a song that has high burn; spending just a few seconds at the online, commercial-free radio station playing all vuvuzela all the time on line might do a lot to lower “tired of” scores.

We considered its household potential…

…a very large drinking vessel (remember those ‘yard of beer’ glasses?), an alternative to a tripod, a waffle ball bat (with a large bat handle), as a golf club/polo club/javelin substitute

We considered it as a device for public safety…

...as a handy device to alert the bus driver that you want to get off at the next stop

…having a member of the show blow it at railroad crossings as an added alert to commuting motorists that a train was coming thinking that you might miss the flashing red light but not the vuvuzela

And we considered possible variations on its original purpose as a communication device…

…as a ringtone (at least 750,000 downloads have already happened)

…or for expressing your approval of a point made during next Sunday’s sermon

While search engine analytics suggest that the topic’s high point could have been reached yesterday, for a short while this was a talk about with good potential for fun (feel free to share anything you did).

Great shows are always finding content in the next talk-about – content they make uniquely their own with brilliant brainstorming.

Just ask if you need some brainstorming tips.

I’ll send them out as soon as the noise from the vuvuzelas dies down and I can concentrate a little better… ;->

photo credit: Flickr

Trash Talking

2010-06-15T08:02:00.028-04:00

There are people who should ignore everything I say. For their own good, they shouldn’t even bother to strike up a conversation.

Like the restaurant I went to recently that wanted me to take a survey about my dining experience even though at best I won’t be anything more than a once a year customer. Why should they care what I think?

Similarly, a cruise line should stop trying to build a relationship with me. The idea of being trapped on a ship, taking days to get to where I could have flown to in hours, sounds tortuous to me. No offense to those of you who love this sort of vacation, it’s just not me – now or ever.

And just an hour ago a discount store wanted me to take a survey and in exchange would enter me to win a $5000 gift card. Why are you asking for my opinions? My wife is the one who shops here; I just stopped by to pick up a pair of socks. Even if I was tempted by the incentive and took the survey, how valuable (or misleading) would my answers be?

Hopefully the listeners you survey are the ones that matter, that will help you and your station achieve your goals. Hopefully because paying attention to spurious feedback, no matter how well intentioned, could be the ultimate trash talk.

With everything on our plates, it’s easy to let the chore of database maintenance wait until tomorrow. But garbage in/garbage out is a real problem.

Here are five things to do right now:

Make sure your sample matches your target. Study who’s responding to your questionnaires. Are they your target? Are you inviting feedback from people who can’t help you reach your goals? On one of our Albright & O’Malley Client Wide Conference Calls earlier this year, Presslaff Interactive Revenue’s Ruth Presslaff urged stations to regularly check their database metrics including demographics and their opt in/out rate.

Drill down to find listeners who have the deepest level of engagement with you and be sure you are including an appropriate number of them in your sample and reward them after the fact. Sharing some top-line results and recognizing those who regularly participate are two ways to keep hearing from those who are important to you.

Because attrition make a panel less representative, continually look for ways to build the panel with targeted persons and eliminate factors which increase opt out or non-participation rates. Be creative. Distribute information about the panel in places where your most regular listeners are likely to visit – from websites to appearances.

Limit the number of times you ask a panelist to take a survey. Over-sampling is one cause of panel erosion.

Use reminders to improve response rates. Even a single reminder can significantly improve response rates.

One man’s trash may be another man’s treasure – but not yours.

"When You Come To A Fork In The Road...

2010-06-03T17:56:00.007-04:00

…take it."

It’s one of the great Yogi-isms of all times: When you have a decision to make, make it.

Even if no one has ever made that particular decision before. Even if it goes against long-standing traditions. If it’s the right decision to make, make it.

Forks in the road come with three choices and three sets of consequences. Take the correct fork and your journey – real or metaphorical – likely moves on to its next fork with minimal or lesser consequences than if you made the wrong decision where you’ll likely suffer some consequences but, if you’re fortunate, have chance to retrace your steps and make a better choice.

Not taking a fork is the worst “decision” of all and carries the most severe consequences. Making no decision means you’ll have no chance to make the right choice - or to recover from a bad choice. The immobility of a non-decision makes you target practice for those who came to a fork and took one.

Brands (recently Tylenol, Toyota, BP, the federal government) are always coming to forks in the road. How a brand responds (or doesn’t) often has significant perceptual impact.

Today’s era of transparency includes owning up to and correcting an honest mistake; it's both expected and rewarded.

Umpire Jim Joyce chose such a fork last night by acknowledging he blew the call that cost Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game. The consequences of the choice to admit this earned Joyce no small amount of respect from all sides.

"The guy had every bit of integrity. He faced the music. He stood there and took it…” Tiger’s manager Jim Leyland said of Joyce adding, “I'm taking about sincere. There was nothing phony about it. This guy was a mess. My heart goes out to him."

Armando Galarraga of course was at his own fork in the road. His choice was adopting a spirit of forgiveness which he publicly demonstrated by bringing the lineup card out to Joyce before today’s game. The consequences of that choice: applause from the fans (a nice choice of forks for them, too) and a tear from an emotional Joyce.

At 2:43 pm today, I was encouraged to learn that the brand called Major League Baseball which has come to a fork in the road because of all this, has promised to take one.

Personally I hope the fork that's ultimately taken (following an investigation – puh-leese make it quick) will be one that retroactively awards Armanda Galarraga a perfect game. Choosing this fork doesn’t mean I advocate instant more replay (I’m don’t) nor do I think that in the grand scheme of life this is a bellwether moment. It would however mean a lot to two people and (in my mind) a lot to the game and the MLB brand.

Still, choosing that fork will be a courageous, controversial, and one that goes against long-standing traditions.

But then that’s the nature of forks in the road – some are hard (especially it seems the ‘right’ fork). But business or baseball, when you come to a fork in the road, you have to take it.

Thanks, Yogi for the reminder.

To Tell A Story, Peel An Onion

2010-05-31T09:55:00.002-04:00

I like stories. I like to hear them and I like to tell them. Because I know they're a powerful way to communicate, I've presented storytelling workshops to stations and at conventions to help people become better storytellers.

Stories make you memorable and make what you say sticky. Stories are personal, interactive and engaging. Storytelling enables the quick, holistic understanding of a message without the listener having to absorb a mountain of facts or stream of data points.

Jeffrey Hedquist of Hedquist Productions, Inc.likes storytelling too - especially when the stories morph into effective radio ads.

Jeffrey who counts Clio, ADDY and EFFIE among the many awards he has won was a guest earlier this month on one of Albright & O'Malley's regular Client Wide Conference Calls. On the call Jeffrey shared his techniques for finding stories (look to your own past) and crafting them into effective ads (emotion is the key to a powerful story).

Jeffrey's story-to-ad process often involves what he calls "peeling the onion" - uncovering the emotional problem the product/business solves, noting "the more you peel the onion, the more powerful your commercial will be."

There's a wonderful scene (one of so many) in Mad Men where Don Draper (Jon Hamm) has been challenged to create an ad for a new piece of slide projector technology - the "wheel." The clients are expecting something quite different than what the get as Don peels the onion and delivers a powerful, emotional story about the real problem the Kodak Carousel solves.

Watch it here and be inspired to become a great storyteller for your clients.

The Art of Falafel: Recipes for Exceptional Performance

2010-05-13T14:37:00.001-04:00

The ubiquitous New York City street vendor. Whether serving up franks or falafel, these entrepreneurs compete for your attention and your business in a very crowded marketplace (think 3000+ competitors).

Yet many have a very loyal clientele and each year a few are awarded as the best of the best at the annual Vendy Awards - New York City’s annual awards for the Best Street Food Vendor (or, as Chef Mario Batali called them, “The Oscars of food for the real New York”).

Here are seven “not necessarily secret ingredients” Vendy Award winners know about pleasing customers along with some of the most frequently mentioned observations and accolades from the winners’ fans.

Product Superiority

Significantly better product quality was the most mentioned attribute. Fans used phrases like, “phenomenal,” “out of this world,” “unbelievable” and “not just a product to be sold but an experience.”

Good? That’s not nearly good enough.

People go out of their way to buy from them

One customer checks Twitter daily for their location and “…if they’re even remotely close to where I am, I’ll find them.” One loyal customer has his favorite Upper East Side food cart on his speed dial and thinks little of walking blocks in the rain to pick up lunch. Another customer cites a “loyal and intense fan base.” Still another says he’s “addicted” and can’t help himself from coming back.

Street vendor or radio station, daily consumption is a significant measure of success.

Entertainment Adds to the Experience

Many loyal customers said their favorite vendors were skilled in the art of performance. One cart king was referred to as “the most entertaining vendor in town.” Another said, “Watching them work is like watching a ballet...” and, “These guys are such characters that it adds just as much flavor to your meal as their secret hot sauce.”

How’s your entertainment quotient? Would a little more “spectacle” be beneficial?

Anticipation is Part of the Experience

A number of people think about the experience long before stepping up to the cart. “I actually find myself sitting at my desk daydreaming about it.” Another noted that he waits all winter for his favorite summer street vendor to return and as soon as you’re done with your plate, “you are already planning your next trip…for another one.”

As DMR’s Tripp Eldridge pointed out in “31 Moments of Truth,” what audiences think about your radio station brand when they’re NOT tuned in is critical to their future listening decisions.

There’s Something Surprising, New or Unique on a Regular or Even Daily Basis

“Always changing” and a “constant introduction” of items were also hot buttons.

Rolling out product upgrades and innovations is a common tactic particularly among smaller brands.

Social Media is Part of their Business

The King of Falafel, Fares “Freddy” Zeidaies, a Vendy finalist for 3 years, tweets, is on Facebook and has a website that includes video of a TV interview, menu, map and a guest book where submissions include “you have truly become a vital part of the neighborhood,” and “I cook my first arabic (sic) meal thanks to you.”

Vendors tweet their specials, update their arrival times if they’re running late, and just simply communicate regularly with their fans. Kenny Lao’s Rickshaw Dumplings claims to have 5000 followers; he also has a website that includes the history of dumplings, locations, a menu, and recent press coverage. You can see similar efforts from many Vendy winners including Wafels and Dinges and the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck both of whom sell merchandise with Wafels also offering products for sale.

It’s More Than Just Cooking, It’s Connecting

Many comments referenced how the community was a better place because of a favorite vendor – not because of the cooking but because of the connections that had been forged between vendor and customer.

“She is a wonderful, cheerful person who knows everyone in the neighborhood and takes care of them like family,” “He’s a great guy, humanitarian and environmentalist” and, “If money is scarce, you can get a meal from him and pay later.”

Neil Ducoff, Strategies founder & CEO and author of No-Compromise Leadership writes, “Demonstrate a sincere interest in discovering my needs. Remember those needs. Respect me. Listen to me. Give me your best – not something less. Earn my trust and you’ll have my loyalty. As a customer, these things are important to me. The more of these you fulfill, the more your business earns my loyalty and respect – and my praising referrals. The less you do, the more your business tells me how average it is.”

GROWING SECOND TIER BRANDS

2010-04-25T09:07:00.000-04:00

All brands are not created equal. If you are part of a large cluster, you may know this first hand. Some stations in your building, though they are profitable and deliver a quality product may, because of their position in the cluster, not have access to the resources available to their sister stations.

Lack of funds – at least compared to their larger counterparts – is among the difficulties in growing second-tier brands (this is also true for “Challenger” brands although these brands have other dimensions, issues and strategies than second-tier brands).

From electronics to airlines, there are many second tier brand success stories. Here are two from the food industry that absolutely have radio relevance.

Parsippany, New Jersey’s B&G Foods has assembled a portfolio of quality, second-tier food brands that were languishing at bigger companies. B&G has been quite successful in reviving old product lines and revitalizing newer ones, growing sales from $293-million in 2002 to $487-million in 2008.

Here are five strategies B&G uses to grow their brands:

1. Escalate the roll-out of product innovations
2. Use promotions and events to further improve distribution and promote trial
3. Ride the coattails of a consumer trend or of a bigger brand’s marketing campaign
4. Leverage your stronger brands’ access to improve the distribution of your smaller brands
5. Agree that being number two in a category doesn’t mean you are a bad brand – nor does it mean you won’t be profitable

The former Aurora Foods Inc. (now Pinnacle Foods Corporation) marketed their brands heavily but, a second critical part of their brand strategy was product-related including introducing new products to existing lines, reformulating others and developing new packaging to attract consumer attention or more closely marry the packaging to the product.

If marketing isn’t an option for you right now, what product innovations, promotions, packaging, or distribution changes can you launch to reignite interest in your brand - no matter what its tier?

Random Observations from a "Super" Afternoon of Football

2010-02-09T00:10:00.004-05:00

OK, baseball not football is my game. Still, watching the Colts and the Saints on a TV far, far, from home, these jumped out at me …

Play hard all 60 minutes.

• Down 10-0 as the underdogs, it would have been easy for the Saints to succumb to the “Oh well, we’re the underdog anyway…” One phase/month/week/show does not make you a winner (or loser). Have a plan for your whole game. Unconventional thinking can lead to powerful plans.

Take a risk and then pursue.

• The Saints’ onside kick to start the second half would have been long forgotten (or criticized) if New Orleans hadn’t put the ball in the end zone on that drive. Whether you create opportunities or simply identify them, recognize the importance of pursuit and go all out to capitalize on them. Often the difference between recklessness and brilliance is the quality of the pursuit of an opportunity.

Immediately respond to an opponent’s score with one of your own.

• Any points you can put on the board immediately after a competitor scores disproportionally diminishes his gains.

Know who you’re doing it for.

• Nearly 4 ½ years after Katrina, the Saints were playing for more than themselves (at least in the minds of their fans) – and THAT’s important.

Trust your marquis players.

• Drew Brees at one point completed 10 straight passes tying a Big Game record. Empower your best people.

Limit your mistakes.

• Your opponent taking it from you is one thing; helping them to take it from you is another. Consider your best and worst case scenarios when planning. Anything need adjusting? And if something changes unexpectedly, take a moment to reassess the situation before proceeding.

Every play (break) matters.

• How many games have you seen turn on a single play? Momentum is a factor. How can you/your team keep or change the momentum so that it’s in your favor?

Step up and Lead.

• Any doubts that Drew Brees is a leader too? And how about Sean Payton? Can you be an unconventional problem solver?

I’m glad that I was one of the 106.-million that watched a great game. And now more good news! It’s just 10 days to pitchers and catchers. 

Old Yeller

2009-12-23T15:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I took a challenge.

Inspired by Roy H. Williams’ Monday Morning Memo about the decreased value of an online Yellow Pages listing vs. radio advertising for acquiring new customers, I Googled three generic business categories in twelve client markets to see what came up. Specifically I was looking to see if I achieved the same results as Roy suggested I would - a relatively low search engine ranking for online Yellow Pages ads. My assumption was that, if true, this might be helpful in a station AE’s next presentation.

I chose as business categories restaurants, plumbers and jewelers and preceded each Google search by the city’s name. The results varied by category and market but only once in the 36 searches did the Yellow Pages link rank in the top 5 (5th for jewelers in one market).

Across the 12 markets, the overall Yellow Pages search engine ranking averaged 9th for plumbers, 16th for jewelers and 27th for restaurants.

The restaurant search had the widest Yellow Page variance, ranging from a rank of 10 in one market to 92 in another. Only four markets saw Yellow Pages rankings for each of the three businesses within 10 positions of each other. No market had a top 10 Yellow Page ranking for all three business categories.

If you have prospects citing their digital Yellow Pages listing a a reason not to buy radio, you may want to check their YP search engine rankings. Your findings might support Roy’s assertion that many people aren’t seeing online Yellow Pages ads and that “…money spent in the Yellow Pages (and their associated websites) is basically wasted.”

Some "In The Box" Thinking

2009-11-29T18:48:00.004-05:00

The best place for some of our Christmas decorations is back in that box in the basement that they’ve been stored in.

At our house, Christmas decorations generally fall into three categories: 1) those, new or old, that evoke memories, look good on display and compliment/enhance our home’s holiday feel, 2) those that evoke memories but have seen better days; too precious to throw away, they’re usually taken out, reminisced about, then returned to the box until next year, and 3) those that since last Christmas are now too dated, faded, or otherwise impaired and are, at last, ready for that final sleigh ride to the landfill.

Christmas music on the radio falls into similar categories: 1) songs, new or old, that listeners look forward to, that fit within the overall context of your station, and enhance the listening experience, 2) songs (or artists, styles, lyrics, production, etc.) that may at one time been an important part of the holiday programming but now simply ‘take up space,’ and 3) songs that no longer have relevance or make sense given the larger station picture.

Last year we conducted an online test of almost 300Christmas titles. Scores for songs in the top third averaged 23% higher than scores for songs in the middle third and 63% higher than song scores in the bottom third.

Any holiday songs or imaging or programming on your air that would honestly be better off in a box?

Of Politicians and Programmers

2009-11-17T12:19:00.001-05:00

Smart programmers are like smart politicians.

This month’s gubernatorial election in New Jersey (insert joke here) saw incumbent Jon Corzine unseated by Republican Chris Christie. Some post-mortem election quotes and observations from the Newark Star Ledger included:

“Despite spending millions, Corzine’s inability to connect with the core was his downfall.”

“…Corzine was badly crippled by a failure to marshal forces including a failure to get out the vote in places…typically key” to victory.

“You just don’t get the vote out at election time and be successful. It has to be a year-round communication, a year-round interaction.”

“He was totally isolated... and surrounded himself by people who were totally isolated…”

Areas of Corzine support in the last election “…were turning away or worse – not turning out at all.”

Exit polls showed that the former Governor “…lost the confidence of too many voting groups his campaign had no expectation of losing.”

Ouch! Could any of this be said about our relationships with our listeners? Or are we more like…

Obama Campaign Manager David Poluffe, whose strategy memo cited as advantages having “the largest and most committed grassroots organization in the race,” an “enthusiasm gap” between Obama and other candidates, and a candidate who is “most clearly synched up with the electorate”

Karl Rove, whose strategy included a “careful identification of Bush voters and continuing contact” to increase the number of people who identified themselves as Republicans thus building a support base incrementally, and then firing that base up to take action.

Hillary Clinton who, when her husband was still considering his Presidential candidacy, felt it was extremely important that Bill be perceived as involved, not isolated from voters. "Bill and I have lived in an extraordinarily personal political environment," she said. "We love the opportunity to go out there and talk to people and listen to them. If a campaign does not teach the candidate, then how can people feel like they have any part of it?" As Matthew Saal wrote in 1993, “What Clinton had that was special was an ability to make a personal connection with voters.”

Business and executive consultant Peter Cicero sums his marketing/sales strategy this way: market to people by understanding who they are, sell them by knowing what they want.

Sounds like what succesful politicians and programmers do.

If you don't have something similar in place already, adopt a “political strategy” for 2010 that includes furthering your understanding of your prospects’ values, lifestyles, and tastes; connecting and communicating with them in evermore regular and meaningful ways; and empowering and mobilizing your base.

Yes we’re busy and no we don’t have a big (or any) research budget, but with 60-70% of most stations’ AQH coming from P1s, making connections with our constituents and leveraging in-house resources a priority will absolutely pay off.

If you need help developing your plan, just give a call.

It’s almost always much more fun to make a victory speech than a concession.

One Video, Four Benefits

2009-11-03T09:56:00.000-05:00

Doing good for others. Having fun. Getting noticed. Enhancing your brand.

One well-done video. Four big benefits.

PM in the AM and PM

2009-10-24T15:57:00.003-04:00

There isn’t much in life to which a baseball analogy can’t be applied. I was reminded of that as I read Paul Jacobs’ recent post on Life Lessons from the Detroit Tigers.

The Minnesota-Detroit playoff game proved to be the first of what so far has been a terrific post-season of lead changes and momentum swings - which brings me to the topic of Psychological Momentum – the perception that one or more factors, positive or negative, help create a particular outcome.

Jim Taylor’s and Andrew Demick’s “A Multidimensional Model of Momentum in Sports” defines “PM” as a “positive or negative change in cognition, affect, psychology, and behavior caused by an event or series of events” that together bring about a positive outcome. They point to a six-part “momentum chain:” a precipitating event; changes in cognition, physiology, and affect; a change in behavior; a change in performance; a contiguous and opposing change for the opponent; and a change in the outcome.

(If you want a quick read on this and more on PM in general, check out this terrific piece from Dan Peterson.)

If you root for a team, you’ve probably felt more than once a true-or-not intuition that one team now has things going “their way” and seems to be playing with more confidence while the other team is back on their heels appearing more desperate than self-assured.

To be sure, PM also has critics who can cite studies that refute the theory.

But I’m on the same side of the fence as sports psychologist Jeff Greenwald who, in “Riding the Wave of Momentum,” says momentum gives players a “heightened sense of confidence… the most important aspect of peak performance” and that this improved self-efficacy can help take “the ‘performer self’ to a higher level.” Greenwald suggests that champions not only capitalize on momentum, they ratchet up their game. He also notes that great players more quickly perceive when momentum begins to shift and make adjustments before their opponents.

Perhaps you’ve seen PM at your station. A precipitating event like a new hire, a great promotion, or some highly effective occurs that elevates the perceptions of employees that causes a change in behavior and performance. Suddenly the staff is working with more intensity or creativity, displaying a greater level of confidence, and delivering a noticeably improved performance.

These are the times, as Greenwald suggests, to “pour it on.”

In 1996, while playing with the Yankees, Mariano Duncan coined the phrase, “We play today, we win today. ‘Das it.” The phrase became a mantra for the Yankees with many players wearing it on t-shirts under their uniform. That was the year the Yanks came back from losing the first two games of the ’96 World Series – at home – to the Atlanta Braves before turning it around and winning the next four and their 23rd world championship.

Whether or not you buy into PM in sports, I’ll be you’ve heard and seen something special in stations whose people believe they have PM going for them.

Can you create some Psychological Momentum today?

How To Wynn In Vegas

2009-10-17T11:52:00.001-04:00

Garth is coming out of retirement.

Cool.

Beginning December 11 and running through the end of February, he’ll do 15 one-man weekend shows at the Wynn Las Vegas at $125 a pop.

A few fast facts on Garth…

...Garth has sold over 128 million CDs.

...In 2007, he passed Elvis to become the top selling solo artist in US history.

...His 2008 release, “The Ultimate Hits” finished 10th on Billboard’s list of best selling CDs for the year.

...In our last A&O Gold sort, Garth had eight songs among the top 100 testers.

I’m always excited when country grabs headlines and when one of our acts gets on a marquis (check out the Wynn’s home page).

On your gold list or not, and without any current music, I’m glad to hear that Garth’s performing again.

Curious Times

2009-10-15T21:38:00.005-04:00

In a 5-year study of more than 7,000 growth companies, author and former CEO Keith McFarland found that a common characteristic of the best performing companies was that they employed people who were curious.

Curious people are generally interesting people. They’re problem solvers, idea generators, innovators and experimenters. They draw others to them because they help us to see our world through fresh eyes.

Jim Canterucci, author of “Personal Brilliance” says curiosity is “actively exploring your environment, asking questions, investigating possibilities, and possessing a sense of both wonder and doubt.”

Curiosity includes a love of learning, growing and self-improvement, a willingness to break routines and try new things, a fascination with alternative points of view, the ability to recognize things that are worthy of further consideration and thinking about things from an unconventional perspective.

Albert Einstein said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

I’ve always considered curiosity to be an important trait of a great talent (and an equally important trait for leaders in radio or any industry).

Curiosity is not inborn. While it may take an initial conscious effort, you can cultivate your curiosity in the same way you can develop a new habit.

Here are a few ways to increase your level of curiosity:

• Don’t take things for granted or at face value. Ask “What if…” The better the quality of your questions, the more interesting the answers will be.
• Try connecting things that aren’t normally connected.
• Think about something from three different points of view.
• Break a routine and note your experiences.
• Deliberately study your (and your listeners’) world each day; as you go through your day, look for life’s oddities and trivialities that would make for an interesting conversation. Practice turning these into stories.
• List things you feel you ought to know about and make a commitment to improve your knowledge.
• Spend time with other curious people.

Positive Psychologist Chris Peterson has found that along with gratitude, zest, hope, and the capacity to love, curiosity is one of the strengths most closely related to greatest life satisfaction. It has also been found in at least one study to be associated with a long life.

Walt Disney said, “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Sounds like an exciting way to live on AND off the air, don’t you think?

The Next Torchbearer

2009-09-12T17:05:00.004-04:00

I was at the Stadium Wednesday night when Derek Jeter tied Lou Gehrig’s record for most hits as a Yankee. And I watched Friday night as the Captain became the Yankees’ all time hit leader.

I never saw Gehrig play of course, although his story is well documented and his place in Yankee (and baseball) history secure.

Still, I was rooting for Derek to break the record because Jeter is in the generation of players I’ve seen, heard and rooted for.

Gehrig was my Dad’s (and his Dad’s) superstar.

Each generation wants its own heroes, people who will speak for them.

This is certainly true in music, too.

Who are the artists your current generation of listeners are seeing, hearing and rooting for?

Promotional Opportunism

2009-07-17T06:45:00.003-04:00

“Chance favors the prepared mind,” was how Louis Pasteur saw his abilities to invent and innovate. Dr. Richard Hamming, a scientist at Bell Labs told his colleagues, “The prepared mind sooner or later finds something to do and does it.”

How many times have you seen or heard you something that was right before your eyes but you never previously noticed until someone opportunistically embraced and exploited it?

Similarly, some of the best promotions are born of opportunistic circumstances. Just in time for today’s economic realities and courtesy of Trend Central are three ideas for fun-on-the-cheap - one from a corporation, one from a group of friends and one from an individual.

• Dumpster Diving. This has taken on a new meaning in Brooklyn, NY as Macro Sea has converted old dumpsters into urban swimming pools – complete with decks – and set them up in empty lots and backyards for no charge fun. The dumpsters have been cleaned and lined to keep their past history from seeping into the present.

• DIY Art Show. Some Brooklyn-based artists set up a display of their sculptures on a rooftop where their friends could make like the upper crust at an art show only without the expensive formal wear and toasts with 40s instead of Champaign.

• Make your own home Tiki bar. Or maybe ‘tacky’ bar would be more like it. One man’s night out at the bar is another’s stay-at-home good time. His basement bar was constructed from used/discarded wood and bar stools, Christmas lights, an old TV that plays an amateur loop of fish swimming, and various thrift store decorations.

Observation, timing, the ability to shelve existing plans, and recognizing that "random forces often conspire to make things ridiculously easy just as often as they conspire to create hurricanes and earthquakes…” are traits of an opportunist.

What do you see around you that could be the spring board for a talk-generating, opportunistic promotion?

Rules of the Road

2009-07-10T16:16:00.004-04:00

I’ve owned a few Chryslers and Dodges in my time so the FastCompany.com slideshow “Chrysler: What It Was, What It Is, and What It Could Have Been” caught my eye.

The slides feature Chryslers new and old, and the accompanying text recounts some company highs and lows.

Scrolling through, several recurring themes jumped out at me.

• Rushing things to market by cutting corners usually results in failure.

• Maintaining the status quo not only forfeits a chance at leadership but
allows competitors to leave you behind.

• Getting things “half right” doesn’t make you “half successful.”

• Create what people want to buy. Developing high-demand products for previously un- or under-served segments of the marketplace pays big dividends. Of course this requires intimacy with the market.

• While “new for the sake of being new” may satisfy some internal company goal, it’s “timely innovation” (the right idea at the right time for a receptive consumer) that brings flush times.

• There’s a success/failure cycle: innovate, maintain the status quo, be outmoded (repeat cycle).

• Innovation is frequently rooted in simplicity.

I’m especially excited about the last bullet.

Are you, like me, encouraged to review all aspects of your product looking for simple innovations?

Where will you start?

Faces of the Fourth

2009-07-05T10:16:00.004-04:00

We were first attracted to Milltown, NJ as much by what wasn’t here as what was. And what’s still missing remains one of the appeals.

There wasn’t/isn’t much crime or chains or traffic or industry or high-rises. To date our borough of about 7000 still doesn’t have a Wal-Mart, a movie theater, a McDonald's, or a high school. You can find all these within a few miles of course, but they're not here in Milltown.

What we do have is a barber shop, a hardware store, a taxidermist, and a place to buy an ice cream cone on a summer night. There are streets with sidewalks, several good sized parks and paved path which winds along the lake/river that cuts through the middle of town.

But Milltown is at its Norman Rockwell best on the 4th of July. There’s a fishing derby, a fun run, and a parade featuring Veterans’ groups from Milltown and neighboring towns, local boy and girl scouts troops, antique cars, and what must be every fire truck and emergency vehicle within a 20 mile radius that has a working siren.

Post-parade, the colors are presented at Borough Park and an afternoon of entertainment, kids’ rides and free hot dogs and birch beer continues until the fireworks start at 9:30.

This year, I captured a lot of the day in pictures. Not surprisingly, the most interesting photos were of people.

I took one shot of what might have been a middle-aged woman and her 20-something daughter, laughing hysterically while riding on a spinning carnival ride clearly intended for kids. I imagined one dared the other with some back and forth dialogue like, “Remember how much fun this was when we were kids?" and "I don’t care if someone laughs, they won’t be laughing harder than you and me!”

There’s one of a guy juggling while riding a five foot unicycle and trading barbs with onlookers. What possessed him to want to do this? How do you practice to be good at this? His legs must be tired; there are hills on the parade route! And he’s cracking jokes, too!

I took some shots of the Mummers that marched, wondering how much their elaborate costumes must weigh (and cost) and how hard they must be to care for.

And then there are my two favorite pictures – one of a pair of long-retied firemen, in full dress uniform, sitting in the shade outside the Main Street Firehouse, talking quietly amidst the activities swirling around them. Perhaps they were recalling past moments of bravery or fellow firefighters now long gone.

But my favorite picture was of a Milltown Vet/Legionnaire, returned from marching at the head of the parade, now sitting and taking in the rest of the procession with his kids and what I assume were his grandkids that was my favorite. There was enough in his face and eyes to fill a book – or a several incredible breaks on a show the Monday after the 4th.

I tried to be extra observant yesterday because knew I wanted to blog today about my 4th of July (that's also what I would have done if I was going to be on the air tomorrow). I wanted to have some interesting stories to tell when people ask, as they will, “How was your 4th?”

I wanted to be ready to participate in what is going to be the number one talk about for many. I wanted to be prepared to share some stories to share about my town, its people, and the way we celebrate Independence Day. I wanted to think about how to frame them so that you'll readily recognize YOUR town and YOUR experiences in my stories - you versions of memorable people and their stories because I'm certain that there are a lot of interesting citizens and stories in your town that I too would find interesting and relatable.

Reports are about facts; stories are about feelings. What interesting stories will you have prepared to share with your friends and listeners about your 4th?

Book Packagers. Who Knew?

2009-07-01T07:27:00.004-04:00

I’d never heard of a ‘book packager’ until I read Seth Godin’s blog Monday.

What struck me about the packager’s job description and skill requirements was how applicable many are to being a great air talent.

“…find isolated assets and connect them in a way that creates value, at the same time…put in the effort to actually ship the product out of the door.”

“The skills you bring to the table are vision, taste and a knack for seeing what's missing. You also have to be a project manager, a salesperson and the voice of reason, the person who brings the entire thing together and to market without it falling apart.”

If you have an air staff that has or will embrace these skills, I’m thinking you have or have the makings of a strong group of talent.

If you’re intrigued, read the whole blog especially numbers 3, 5 and 8 of Seth’s 9 rules of thumb.

Speaking Like the Prez

2009-01-26T16:55:00.002-05:00

Communications coach Steve Adubato analyzed President Obama’s inaugural speech and offered his thoughts/take-aways. I distilled Steve's column to six bullets – many of which are common areas of growth for talent:

• Be focused; have a clear theme
• Be brief; don’t confuse quantity with quality
• Disagreeing is OK but being disagreeable isn’t
• Own your content; speak from your heart rather than someone else’s script
• Challenge the audience to look inward/become emotionally involved in what you’re saying instead of just talking at them
• Speak with confidence; share what you care about in a way that makes me care too

Listen to your airchecks in light of these bullets to see if any of the President’s techniques would improve your communication skills.

This Year We Gifted a Goat

2008-12-20T12:53:00.001-05:00

What’s the best gift you’ve ever given? Chances are it was something that the recipient truly valued – perhaps even something that changed their life.

Like maybe a goat.

My wife and I were recently introduced to Heifer International - an organization that purchases animals for impoverished people with the goals of helping the recipients feed themselves, earn a living through livestock, and care for the world.

Their online and their direct mail pieces feature nearly a dozen different animals you can give along with pictures and stories of the life-changing potential of these gifts. The direct mail piece featured a different (and high-powered) celebrity endorsement accompanying each animal while online you could watch celebrities in informative videos.

It was a compelling presentation and we were moved to gift a goat and a flock of chicks.

Yes there are radio parallels here – the power of a positive, heart-touching stories, words that paint pictures, multi-platform strategies, the use of endorsements – but these are for another blog.

Today I just wanted to share our ‘discovery’ with you.

Who knew a goat and some chickens (or a pig, llama, or water buffalo) would wind up on our ‘best gifts ever given’ list?

Merry Christmas!

Connecting and Celebrating YouTube Style

2008-11-20T08:06:00.005-05:00

YouTube Live is coming to a computer near you Saturday, 11/22. Reflecting the "scale and diversity of content on YouTube” it will feature approximately 50 performances by Internet born stars as well as Grammy award winners.

A common thread among these diverse performers is a massive following on YouTube.

A common thread among the attendees is the desire to connect with and celebrate each other (which will no doubt will yield new videos they will share and star in).

Many of our client stations have embraced uploading digital video including multiple stations uploading terrific videos of their Nashville/CMA activities.

But because YouTube means being seen as well as seeing, let’s think about creating opportunities for viewers of our videos to be the stars of them as well.

What’s coming to your market that many of your core users will be excited about, and how can you create a “see and be seen” video event out of it that will encourage listeners to connect in a meaningful way? What events could you create to connect communities of listeners who are pet lovers, hunters, skiers, etc. What sponsors could be brought in to enhance these experiences and generate revenue?

Here are thinking points about YouTube Live including who will participate and why and how advertisers are being integrated into the event. There’s also a quote from YouTube CMO Chris Di Cesare on the relationship between YouTube Live, its attendees and sponsors.

Hopefully you’ll be inspired to create a vehicle for connection and sharing – whether it involves blogging, chatting or something more ambitious like video (read the full Brandweek article here).

• YouTube Live is about connection and self-celebration of the YouTube community

• Planned events reflect the community’s core interests. For example, Guitar Hero is one of the community’s favorite themes so live Guitar Hero events were created.

• Participants are being empowered to share the celebration with others

• Sponsors are natural fits with YouTube and/or are providing something of value to enhance the experience. For example, sponsor Virgin America is handling some of the travel arrangements while Pure Digital is providing some attendees with free, branded Flip Mino camcorders to record the event.

• About YouTube and advertisers CMO Chris Di Cesare says, “YouTube is less than 3 years old and the site's phenomenal growth has been spurred by keeping the users first in everything we do. While it is a delicate balance, allowing advertisers to participate in an additive way benefits all involved. YouTube Live is a great example of that. This is first and foremost a community event but sponsors are participating in a way that shows they value the YouTube community. If users look at the sponsors as heroes given their participation and value to the event, everybody wins.”

Di Cesare also noted that pre-roll ads for long form, online content are both “expected” and accepted by the community and that YouTube is continuing to experiment with other models as well.

The Voice of Everyman

2008-11-03T08:01:00.002-05:00

By Mike O'Malley

Studs Terkel died last week.

Studs was a National Book Award medalist, activist and Pulitzer Prize winning author. Over his 96 years he was also a stage and radio actor, disc jockey, Chicago and later nationally syndicated radio talk show host and TV star.

Studs’ writing “celebrated the common people he liked to call the ‘non-celebrated’.” His stories were about how ordinary people live, the little aspects of their lives, what divides and unites people, how people feel about their jobs, and “people who give us hope and through them we have hope.”

Speaking about crafting his stories, Terkel likened it to first extracting a small amount of gold dust from tons of ore, then using forms and molds to craft that dust into jewelry.

Personal, connected to the audience, relevant, observant, interesting, encouraging and self-edited. What an inspirational checklist for talent!

I don’t know all I should about Studs Terkel, but I’m going to learn some more. I’m going to read some of his works to see what I can learn about telling wonderfully interesting stories about the lives of everyday people.

Traits of Market Icons

2008-10-20T21:30:00.004-04:00

by Mike O'Malley

This weekend I was part of the reunion of New York City country radio broadcasters (starting from my left are the killer former WYNY staff: Bill Rock, Shelli Sonstein, Dan Daniel, Randy Davis and Jim Kerr).

I’m not big on reunions – I’d rather talk about the future than the past – but this one was something special because it was a chance to see again some great talent and friends that I had the privilege of working with for 5 years.

On the commute home I thought about what it takes to be a market icon as so many of the talent at this gathering were:

• Consistently delivering a show that has strong horizontal attraction; that is, that has an audience that tunes in everyday, not just a few times a week or month, but 4-5 times a week because they want to. While the reasons why listeners tune in on a daily basis may be different with each talent, the best have the ability to leverage their strengths to command a daily following.

• The ability to attract new listeners over the years, not just hold on to an aging core, by evolving, staying relevant and fresh, and communicating in ‘today’s’ style

• The art of self-revelation done in a way that draws people to them rather than repelling them by being self-absorbed.

• An outgoing personality that initiates relationships with listeners

• Thoroughly understanding your listeners and how and why they use you and your station

• Being well-versed in things that their listeners care about and being able to communicate that interest in the same way that two friends would

• Being passionate about and a proponent of their format and station - whichever one they were working in at the time

• Being accessible, touchable, and humble, and maintaining a sense of ‘every man’ despite being larger than life at times

• Having a sense of humor about life

• Loving what they do and letting it show

Market icons work hard at their craft on and off the air. Are you up to the challenge? Do you have more observations about icons in your market you’d like to share?

This Is Really A Short Blog Because...

2008-10-16T21:02:00.004-04:00

A lot of people have the same attention span as a goldfish - about 9 seconds.

No, really.

This makes me want to think about promos and imaging, talent breaks and newscasts, all content on air and online.

Are they attracting and retaining listeners’ attention? Would they be better and more powerful if they were more concise in the same way that a tablespoon of orange juice concentrate is more powerful than a tablespoon of orange juice because the water is removed?

Lead with your point. Add only what increases the entertainment value, engages me and/or stimulates my interest. Evolve, don’t repeat. Include a lot more feelings and a lot fewer facts. Make me want something first; I can figure out how to get it later. Be relevant. Make me see myself in your content. Surprise me. Be emotional, passionate even. Be a personality in 9 seconds.

Still got your attention?

Business Advice from an 18th Century Potter

2008-10-07T11:36:00.004-04:00

I was recently re-reading Seth Godin’s “Meatball Sundae” and the story of 18th century potter Josiah Wedgwood. The business advice Godin suggested Wedgwood might have given to his less successful brother and fellow potter seemed so appropriate for radio that I couldn’t resist adapting a few:

• Create special, unique programming elements that are so compelling that people will seek them out and talk about them.

• Train your staff to perform in ways that are unique to your station.

• Have and live up to the highest quality standards in all you do.

• Since everything you do is top quality, prominently attach your name to your work.

• Display your product at every opportunity keeping both the display and product fresh.

• Regularly generate unique, premium content on a large scale.

• Program and market to heavy users while avoiding niche pressures.

Don’t these seven ideas form an appropriate check list for what PPM says are hallmarks of successful stations: compelling and timely content, repeatedly doing what works, and generating reasons for listeners to return often?

YOU’RE IN THE COCKPIT

2008-08-17T13:44:00.003-04:00

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…“

OK, as much as I love Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities,” that’s just a bit dramatic even for me.

Still, in one 48 hour period I had the best of times - an exceptional customer experience with Continental Airlines – and the worst of times - a terrible customer experience with American Airlines.

For me this was also a case of brand wisdom and brand foolishness because these experiences will have lasting impact on how I view these companies and how good a customer I will or won’t be in the future.

While on the road, to my complete surprise (and delight), I received a thank you from Continental Airlines for having flown one million miles with them. Inside the expensive looking box they sent was a personalized luggage tag with Continental’s million-miler logo, a new personalized Platinum frequent flyer card with the logo, and a nice letter from Chairman and CEO Larry Kellner.

The gifts were nice and certainly appreciated. But it was the letter meant the most to me. It seemed personal and heartfelt – even to someone like me who occasionally casts a cynical eye on such things. Reading it I felt honored and proud to be such a loyal Continental flyer.

But when I came to the part of the letter that said my perks would be extended to my wife as well, I was floored. Here was a company who really ‘got’ what it’s like to have to fly this much! Heavy flying not only impacts the flyer but extracts a big toll on those left behind. Here was thank you not only to me for flying but to Wanda for her sacrifices too. What insight!

I don’t know if I’ve ever had a better experience with an Airline.

At the other end of the week’s travel continuum was my experience with American Airlines and a cancelled flight.

I understand that cancellations and delays are a part of life and I harbor no hard feelings when these occasionally happen. But how the airline treats me in these instances DOES matter to me.

In this case American put me up in a second-rate (I’m being generous), non-business-travel-friendly motel that smelled of mold and stale cigarettes, didn’t appear to have been updated in decades, had no business facilities, and sat on the side of an Interstate with no opportunity to walk anywhere for dinner.

American gave me a $10 dinner voucher (when was the last time you had dinner for $10 that wasn’t fast food?) and of course it could only be used in the hotel that I already didn’t even want to take my shoes off in.

No one apologized for the inconvenience of the cancellation which, according to the hotel van driver said happened “all the time” and even asked me, “What did they say it was THIS time?”

Had American opted for a modest, business-friendly hotel in a location where one could walk to a restaurant and redeem a $15 food voucher, it would have gone a long way. Instead, I had to shell out for round-drip cab fares to downtown to find a restaurant that was open late, pay for the meal and for an extra day’s parking charge at the airport (all tolled about $75) and – most importantly - lose a half day at home which is so precious to a heavy flyer.

Whether American doesn’t understand what being a heavy flyer in 2008 is like or doesn’t care, I don’t know.

What I DO know is how each of these experiences made me feel. On the one hand I felt Continental tried to do the maximum they could for me. Meanwhile American made me feel that they were trying to do the least they could for me.

American likely doesn’t know that I fly 100,000 miles a year. Nor could American have known that I’m going to have to seek additional carriers this fall as Continental will no longer be serving some of the cities I regularly fly to.

Guess who won’t be first on my list?

In focus groups, listeners tell us similar stories all the time. “The DJs just stood around.” “No one ever came over to talk to me.” I thought they were rude.”

We also hear, “They made me feel important.” “They know my name.” “They just seem to love what they’re doing.” “They treated me like I was their friend.”

Which perception do you think will be more likely to generate listenership?

How do YOU want to be perceived?

You’re in the cockpit.

Your Performance vs. Your Plan

2008-06-19T10:24:00.003-04:00

Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot by watching.”

And you can hear a lot just by listening – provided of course you know what you’re listening for and that your listening is an active rather than a passive activity.

I recently spoke on ‘how to critically listen to your radio station’ at a group’s GM meeting The goal was to help them be better critical listeners of their stations by identifying key programming elements and creating a framework to help them evaluative what they heard.

Of course these ideas are appropriate for programmers as well.

Here’s a three-step plan for how to critically listen to your station. Use it to compare your plan vs. your performance, your intentions vs. your execution.

STEP 1: Create a listening plan.

“Critical listening” means evaluating what you hear. But because there are so many components to the final product, your critical listening will be more effective if you have a plan that will serve as a reminder of what’s important and help you focus your listening. It will also keep you from becoming sidetracked by any single thing, good or bad.

Later the plan will help you assess what you’ve heard.

Develop your listening plan with your PD so you’re both on the same page.

Start your listening plan by completing the following:

1. Broad and narrow target demos:
• Their Lifegroup Values:
• What’s most important to them this week:
• What are the needs/wants/likes of the station’s fans vs. its cumers

2. Music position and focus:

3. Specific ratings goals:

4. Unique value positions or ‘advantage(s)’ (maximum of 2):

5. Most important activities going on at the station this week:

STEP 2: Record specific evaluations and observations as you’re listening.

Make notes on how closely the on air product matches each of the items in your listening plan. Consider:

1. Overall, how aligned is the product to the target listener’s tastes and values?

2. Is the music position and focus is clear and reflective of the overall strategy?

3. Can you readily discern the station’s unique advantage(s) and core benefit(s)?

4. Does the imaging reflect the right attitude and communicate relevant messages?

5. Are today’s most important station elements and tactics receiving the most attention?

6. Is the execution in sync with ratings goals?

7. Evaluate the morning show as a cume magnet and as an important cog in the overall product.

8. What other factors (service, community commercial load, etc) are important to consider in your competitive environment?

STEP 3: Discuss what you hear and take any necessary actions.

Refer to your analysis for specifics in evaluating what you heard. Meet with your PD and discuss.

Did what you hear match your expectations? If it did, can the envelope be pushed further? What did we do well in one area that could be applied in another?

If not, did the problem stem form a lack of knowledge, difference in vision or interpretation, action/execution, or something else?

Write a few sentences to summarize what you heard and the actions you’re taking as incorporate them into your next critical listening session.

Brand O

2008-05-13T18:26:00.003-04:00

Eight years ago, about the time the Oprah magazine debuted, I wrote about Oprah as a brand and suggested these radio applications:

1. Discover what makes you special to your consumers and deliver that uniqueness on as many platforms as possible.

2. Only engage in those things that reinforce your brand’s positives. Never compromise your product or brand integrity.

3. Be relentlessly in your pursuit and maintenance of consumer trust.

Why reference an eight year old article today?

Because besides still being utterly relevant, our guest on today’s Albright and O’Malley bi-monthly Client Wide Conference call was legendary programmer John Gehron who is the GM of Harpo Radio and programs XM’s Oprah and Friends Radio channel.

John shared with us some tenets that make Oprah and Friends Radio special:

1. Know what your brand represents (for the Oprah brand, it’s “Live your best life.”)

2. Protect your brand. Examine tie-ins for potential damage and for what your brand will get out the relationship.

3. Understand and respect the audience. There’s a difference between women and “Oprah women.”

4. Put the product first. Go the extra mile for the audience; little things are noticed.

5. Understand that you are a product supplier. Find other distribution channels that your listeners use and put your product on them.

6. Encourage synergy.

What to be a great brand? Study Oprah.

Seeking Elmo

2008-04-22T23:33:00.001-04:00

Changing tastes, lagging brands, increased competition, evolving consumers, and increasing difficulty in attracting your target’s attention: sounds like this could be a list of challenges facing any number of industries including ours.

In this case though, we’re talking about the toy industry and Mattel and its Fisher-Price line in particular. Today’s Wall Street Journal noted the company had it’s first quarterly loss in more than three years and was hurt not only by the weak economy, but also by factors like a struggling brand (Barbie) and the lack of a hot, new item, like last year’s T. M. X. Elmo.

Innovation of course is one way to keep a brand prosperous. If you attended the A&O pre-CRS Seminar, you know that one of Starbuck’s brand traits is ‘staying fresh through innovation.’

However trying to deliver too much of a good thing can confuse consumers. Mattel’s Magic of the Rainbow” fantasy doll did so many other functions too (a remote control, CD-ROM game, button-activated fluttering wings) that, “‘Girls asked – is this a doll?’” according to Chuck Scothon, Sr. VP of Mattel’s girls division who admits, “We put too much in.”

The challenge for Mattel – and arguably other industries including radio – is to be “fresh and new” without being so overly innovative that consumers are left confused by what the core product actually is.

Brands are a promise of value and experiences. Violating your promise or delivering an ‘average’ consumer experience diminishes the brand’s power. Delivering on your promises and providing an exceptional experience strengthens your brand’s power.

Examine each item in your station’s brand folder and determine how powerful it is, considering relevance, customer experience, stand-out-ability, freshness, and its potential to generate new listeners on its own or via word of mouth.

• Is the listeners’ experience in synch with what they truly want? If not, how do they need to be modified?
• Are your true brand assets attracting your listeners’ attention?
• Is your station on multiple platforms? How is the quality of that cross-platform experience?
• How can you deepen your station’s brand experience?

“Something in the Air” author Marc Fisher, speaking at Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics listed ‘reinvesting in creativity’ as one of radio’s top ways to be innovative.

Consider doing just that in the next week. Spend a few hours with your creative staffers reviewing what on your station that can be evolved, updated, spun or reinvented to deliver not only a better brand experience, but one that causes listeners to tell others about.

In the process, you might discover your station’s next Elmo.