Brand O

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

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.

Lost and Found

Starbucks has been underplaying its expertise says CEO Howard Schultz (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120761010035596407.html?mod=mm_hs_marketing_strategy).

Somewhere between opening stores and inventing new Frappuccino flavors, Mr. Schultz says the company’s expertise in coffee selection and roasting – what the company believes to be a strong competitive advantage - was downplayed.

Now, with its new “Pike Place Roast” debuting today, the company will focus on its superior brewing and roasting abilities, joining McDonalds and Dunkin’ Brands in the battle for drip coffee consumers.

Those of you heard Starbucks Director/US Store Level Marketing Bill Black at our A&O Pre-CRS Seminar in Nashville, will remember Bill sharing that one of Starbucks’ goals was returning to its core business by stripping away distractions and asking questions like, “Who are we talking to?” “What do we do?” “What’s our benefit?” and “What unique attributes do we have that we can leverage?”

Touting their unique brewing and roasting skills then certainly makes strategic sense.

Imagine your station doing the same introspection. Would it help you insure that your strongest competitive advantages were being highlighted and not downplayed or hidden by the superfluous?

Try using Starbucks' questions to begin building a brand folder for your station. Then use that folder as a filter to refine what’s on your air. You may find some competitive advantages that have been lost.

Everything I Know About Radio I Learned From Baseball

By Mike O'Malley


OK, that’s completely untrue of course.

But baseball does provide endless analogies and, with Opening Day 2008 today, I was thinking about baseball axioms that can also apply to radio. Here are five.


If you have a good fastball, throw it

The fastball is the ‘mother pitch’ from which nearly all others pitches evolve. Pitchers who can command their fastball control the game. Fastballs help hold runners on base. Sinking fastballs induce double plays. Fastballs thrown to different parts of the strike zone keep hitters off balance.

Even when a batter knows the fastball is coming, they can be kept off balance with a two-seam and a four-seam version, and when the fastball is thrown to different parts of the strike zone.

Breaking pitches are great, but it’s the fastball that’s baseball’s number one pitch.

Think of your station’s fastball as is its true competitive advantage. It’s what you’re famous for, what sets you apart. It’s what you’re going to use to beat a competitor. It’s the pitch you know best, the one you’ve mastered, the one you should throw most often.

Throw your fastball when you’re in command of the game to hold down and demoralize the opposition. Throw your fastball when a game starts to get away from you and you need to go back to the basics and regain control.


While you may have a couple of other pitches you can throw, when you throw your fastball correctly, you’ll control the game.


A strong bench makes a big difference

Your superstars play nearly every day and usually get the majority of everyone’s attention. But over a season, you won’t be as successful without a strong bench.

The best managers make everyone feel important and useful. They keep them mentally as well as physically ready to contribute to the team’s success, and put them into situations where they can have personal success and help the team at the same time.

Every radio station has bench players: weekenders, promotional staff, and people in other departments whose contributions can make a huge difference. The time you spend with them – ideally one-on-one – will pay huge dividends. Keep them in the loop. Make them part of the programming community. Find reasons to deliberately insert them into situations where they can be successful and their contributions valued.


Nobody bats a thousand

Despite hours of practice, preparation and an incredibly strong set of skills, outs happen to great hitters. But each at bat that doesn’t result in a base can provide information for the next at bat which is why many players use digital video to study themselves and each other.

Studying the minutiae of mechanics or tendencies may be tedious, but it promotes understanding of what could be done the next time to improve the chances for success including, if necessary, making adjustments.

Our version of ‘game film’ is ratings data. Studying ratings data trends can help stations understand why their last performance was good or not, more likely to be real or a fluke. It can expose specific areas that either require attention to grow, or are significant contributors to success that must be defended.

Some stations have perceptual information which gives added perspective to ratings data.

Players who study themselves and opponents claim an advantage. Similarly, stations that have studied their game films know how they got to where they are have a much better chance of getting where they want to go.


Touch ‘em all

Don’t be so busy watching the ball go out of the park that you forget to touch all four bases.

Look at the big picture as well as the granular. Solely focusing on one to the exclusion of the other will lead to headaches of massive proportions.


Play country hardball

Baseball announcers seem to love this expression. They use it when a team is going all out, playing to the edges, scrapping, doing anything and everything to win.

Teams that play hardball believe that anything is better than losing. Teams that play hardball have players who give Herculean efforts, take bold chances, have a ‘take no prisoners’ attitudes, and – with their goal in sight – never, ever let up.

Every market has stations that play hardball. They never miss an opportunity. They’re relentless. They’re intimidating. They’re openly envied. They win. Hopefully they’re you.


Got some of your own you’d like to add?

Year-Round Programming

NBC is trying something different for network television: a year-round schedule of programming instead of what has become a typical lineup of 9 months of regular programming followed by three summer months of reality shows. Media Life reported,

"With TV ratings falling and an increasing amount of new media distractions competing for viewers’ attention, many think it’s impractical for the broadcast networks to effectively go dark for three months out of the year...Meanwhile, cable networks have had tremendous success during the summer, often with highly regarded scripted shows like TNT’s “The Closer,” USA’s “Monk” and FX’s “Damages,” disproving broadcast’s long-held belief that people won’t commit to serials in the summer."

It’s not unusual for radio – especially in non-continuously measured markets – to do our own version of ‘going dark’ with limited contesting, putting marketing on hiatus, or waiting until we’re ‘in a book’ to do talk-about promotions. Certainly economics is a factor.

Still, some stations will find this an opportunity to do something special in a relative vacuum.

Cable networks apparently are having success with this.

At your next brainstorming session, consider what original and audience building ideas you could institute at a time when many of our competitors are ‘dark.’

SOME PEOPLE APPARENTLY NEVER GOT THE MEMO

Living on the road, you wind up eating at a lot of chains. The primary reasons are that they are likely to be some in reasonable proximity to your hotel - wherever THAT may be. They’re often open later which is really helpful after a day of flight delays. And they’re highly predictable in that you pretty much know what you’re going to get (generally speaking, the fewer surprises there are on the road the better).

Beyond that, there’s rarely anything to get excited about. One is about as good as the other.

So I was a bit taken aback when I got more – no a lot more - than I expected from a visit this week to the Texas Road House in Richmond, IN. I wasn’t surprised that the food was good, cooked the way I asked for it, and was priced at what I thought was a relative bargain. I’d been there before several times and that’s what I’d come to expect.

What surprised me on this visit however was how every employee that interacted with me sold the experience of eating there.

Yeah, it’s a chain restaurant. But no one I came in contact with tonight apparently had gotten that memo. They were more of the mindset, “I’m proud of this place, I’m having a great time working here, and I really (no, really!) want you to enjoy your time here, too.”

It seemed to me (the occasionally cynical New Yorker) to be genuine. Servers laughed, had fun with customers, and really did sell the experience. And it was a good one.

Interestingly, I’d just that same day come from a radio station where that very same feeling permeates the hallways and the on air product. This staff – top to bottom, on air and off – apparently never got the memo that you could actually ‘get away’ with mailing it in.

They apparently never got the memo that said, “Radio’s not as much fun as it used to be.”

They apparently never got the memo that said, “You’ve got quite a ways to go to get to win this thing, so just do the best you can with what you’ve got and set your sights low.”

And they certainly never got the memo that says, “All stations sound the same anyway, you can’t make a difference, so just fly under the radar and you’ll have the best chance of continuing to collect a paycheck.”

Apparently this restaurant and this radio station got a different memo. They got one that says: “Create an atmosphere where people have fun, feel valued, and feel like they are part of something special and unique. Do these things and they’ll want to come back again and again.”

Now THAT’S a good memo – and one that I hope lots of people will get.

A "Taylor"-Made Reminder

I’m always excited when our artists receive national exposure, so I was thrilled to see Taylor Swift appear in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal (February 9-10, 2008). She not only had a great photo on the front page, but also a second photo and a near half-page in the weekend section.

The story was less about the music Swift makes, and more about the music she consumes.

Like many young music fans, Ms. Swift makes most of her music discoveries online, where she jumps among music categories on iTunes. ‘I’m definitely a country artist and proud of it,’ she says. ‘But I don’t think genres are going to be a huge part of how we categorize music in the future.’

While it’s interesting to read Taylor’s comments on five of her recent downloads (Keith Urban was the only country act), to me the take away is yet another reminder of the real-life way music is discovered and consumed by so many in our cume.

The Wall Street Journal ‘gets’ this and provides a link where you can listen to clips of Swift’s personal playlist.

What is your station doing to demonstrate you ‘get’ it, too?

A Thousand to One

If you were handicapping a sporting event and put a team’s odds at 1000 to 1, you’d be saying their chances of winning were a real long shot.

I came across my own thousand-to-one long shot last week while analyzing a fall book for a client. It was the PPDV (per person diary value) for a male cell and it came in at 1,052. That’s one diary equaling 1,052 people. 1052 to 1 if you will.

When I calculated the same cell for females, I got a second cell with a PPDV nearly as large: 987. 987 to 1.

Would you consider the reliability of the ratings for that demo a sure thing or a long shot?

PPDVs in and of themselves are not the sole measure of reliability, but they certainly are an indicator. Average 18-34 and 35-49 PPDVs have been noticeably on the rise since 2003 and, as of two years ago, had already approached 700 and 600 respectively.

Now it appears things are getting worse.

I contacted some fellow consultants in several formats including country to see if they’d begun seeing 1000 PPDVs. Unfortunately they had.

One national rep’s researcher even said 1000+ PPDVs are now “very common” and are moving out of the 18-24 cells and into the 25-34 and 35-44 cells, and for women as well as men.

I also checked with Mike Oakes who does a good bit of behind the scenes ratings research for A&O and he recalled a near-1600 PPDV for 18-24 males and an over 1700 PPDV for 18-24 females - and this was in a major market two years ago. He also recalled PPDV instances over 1000 for men and women 25-34 and one for men 35-44.

We’re already living with rankings where stations with the most, raw QHRs can rank 4th, 5th or worse in a market, and where stations with far less are the market leaders.

We’re already living with PD Advantage reports which tell us that, on successive books, our 10-year core audience is 20-30, then 40-50 and then 30-40.

Now it appears that 1000+ PPDVs could be the next big thing to play in your market.

I ‘get’ the enormity of the challenge of measuring an audience, and this isn’t meant to be a rant or a witch hunt. It’s a recommendation – and a warning - to you that if you’re not in the habit of regularly checking your PPDVs when you receive your numbers, you need to do so starting today. And if you don’t like what you see, you need to call for action.

If PPDVs consistently reach into the 1000+ range, the odds are that confidence levels in our ratings will posted as “long shots.”

Resolving To Be A Better Programmer

Eight years ago I wrote "25 New Year’s Resolutions for PDs and OMs." It generated a lot of positive feedback and many said they referred to it throughout the year.

Each December since then, I’ve made it a tradition to add five new resolutions to the original list. Now, as 2008 begins, there are 60 resolutions in the latest version A&O clients received.

In no particular order, here are 10 of my favorites and the year they first appeared. Try some that you think will have the biggest, most positive impact on your station and on your personal and professional life.

I hope you have a personally and professionally rewarding 2008! And sometime during the upcoming year, I'd love to hear how the resolutions you selected worked out.


1. Resolve not to manage by crisis. Create and adhere to a personal, daily schedule that insures each day's most important tasks -- the ones that will truly move the station forward -- will be completed. (2001)

2. Get out of the station one day per month and do a full-blown competitive monitor (p.s.: don't monitor at home). Critically compare targeting, uniqueness, imaging, morning shows, overall talent, music mix, and other key listener benefits and opportunities. Develop plans to attack your competitions' weaknesses and for shoring up your own vulnerabilities. (2001)

3. Program with immediacy, maintaining a mindset of, "How can I get this on the air right now?" (2002)

4. Don't stop at the first right answer; that's what most people do or expect. To stand out, keep thinking until you come up with at least three more ways to make things bigger, better, more unique, memorable, and fun. (2003)

5. Build a team, not a group of players. A team is more than the sum of its parts when 1) there’s respect for and appreciation of the many one-of-a-kind roles that make essential contributions to a team’s overall success; 2) each person recognizes that their individual performance impacts everyone else and accepts responsibility to always perform at their best; and 3) that everyone else realizes they are better as a group because of each other, not because of any one player including (and especially) themselves. (2004)

6. Increase your positive, creative stimuli. The more time you spend in this environment, the more positive and creative you will become. Seek out people, places, adventures, and media that will elevate and encourage rather than deflate and damage. Excuse yourself from negative discussions and individuals and avoid downbeat situations whenever possible. (2004)

7. Invest in talent training in a similar way you’d invest in sales training. Set a new bar for talent and replace those that can’t achieve what you need them to. Increasing the DJ entertainment value on your station will pre-empt satellite radio’s new talent focus and offer a non-duplicatable alternative to IPOD-like devices – not to mention other terrestrial competitors. Begin this in earnest now while we still have the critical mass of listeners and personality association. (2005)

8. Be a “Hijacker.” Find ways to put yourself in the middle of what everyone is talking about in order to steal the limelight. (2005)

9. Spend time with both your strategies and your tactics. Each is necessary for success. It’s tempting to spend an increasing amount of time on just tactics, but too much tactical focus can put your core strategy at risk. Additionally, failure to make tactics a coordinated part of your overall strategy can result in tactical underperformance. (2007)

10. Everyday, make a conscious decision to enjoy your job, to have fun at work and to create a positive environment for those around you. The attitude you choose each day will be reflected back to you from your co-workers. If you would really rather do something other than radio, you should do it. But if you're going to continue in our industry, don't live in the past, dwell on what you don’t have, or get dragged into the depressing lair and unproductive lamentations of malcontents. If you do, you'll be unable to see the opportunities that lie ahead. Even worse, you'll miss the magic, joys and triumphs that happen around you everyday. (2003)

Christmas Plans and New Year's Resolutions

What do people like to do most over the holidays? For nearly 2/3rds of adults it’s spending time with family and friends – that’s according to a Harris poll of 2,455 adults cited by Media Life Magazine. Next: going to holiday dinners and parties (9%), finding and giving presents (6%), and watching TV specials and hearing holiday songs on the radio (4%).

When it comes to New Year’s Resolutions, losing weight continues to be number one, although myGoals.com reports the percent of people set on shedding pounds (27%) is down from 31% last year. Other goals include personal growth and interest (15%), personal finance (15%), career (12%) and education and training (9%).

Consider these stats as you create last minute Christmas and New Year’s imaging and promotions.

Remembering (or not) Your Best Christmas Gifts

Reporting that 41% of people can’t remember the best gift they received last Christmas, a company called Excitations.com has set out to change that by selling gifts that won’t easily be forgotten. The company’s ‘experiential gifts’ – gifts that require active participation by the recipient – include balloon and helicopter rides, rafting and skydiving, high performance driving adventures, dinner with an NFL player, gourmet cooking, tea tasting and more.

That got me thinking about some of my own most memorable gifts – those given to me by others and those I’ve given myself. The first ones that came to my mind were ones where I was an active participant rather than a passive recipient. I recalled both my experience and the way that experience made me feel.

It’s not too much of a stretch to think that listeners’ positive experiences with us could improve their recall, too.

That would be a memorable gift to for everyone.

Doing Good and Getting Noticed

“Save the World” is one of the Six Tenants of Values Based Programming I penned a few years back when taking a long range look at what factors will drive future station success. Of course saving “the world” can be literal as in big corporation's Green Plans, or more local as in your listeners’ immediate environment.

I recently learned about CHASHAMA – a New York City arts organization that supports artists of all types by converting vacant properties into galleries, studios, window performance sites, etc. http://brandnoise.typepad.com/

Right now I’ll bet there are malls or strip malls with an empty store or two, or maybe even an unused kiosk. Wouldn’t you and the mall be heroes if you arranged a holiday photo or kids’ art display celebrating the joys of the season in your town, or even something more ambitious like kids’ school plays or local community theatre efforts to be featured in a window performance?

Making even a small corner of the world a better place and getting noticed for doing so is a big win-win.

Karl Rove, Radio Consultant

Former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff for President Bush Karl Rove lists five actions he feels Republicans must take if they are to beat Hillary Clinton in November.

Read the bullet points and see if you don’t agree that Karl’s recommendations are also relevant for our stations and circumstances.

1. Plan now to introduce yourself again right after winning the nomination. Rove cautions candidates not to assume everyone knows them or what they’ve done, and he encourages them to create a “narrative that explains your life and commitments.”
2. Stay authentic in terms of what you believe
   Highlight core convictions that help people understand who you are as a candidate, and that set up a natural contrast with Clinton “both on style and substance.” Authenticity is imperative.
3. Tackle issues families care about and Republicans too often shy away from.
   Understand voter concerns and be bold yet credible in how you will approach and address these issues.
4. Go after people who aren’t traditional Republicans
   Ask for everyone’s vote. Be seen as trying hard.
5. Be strong on Iraq
   Recast difficult questions about Iraq so that they encompass a broader picture of future leadership.
   

Authenticity, clearly conveying what you’re about and why you are different and special, understanding would-be constituents’ needs and wants and satisfying them, being accessible, visible and involved, and being perceived as a leader – these also sound like qualities of a successful radio station.

How Does Your Station Smell

Scientists (and retailers) know that smells, sounds -- even the color of the walls – make a difference when a customer is ready to buy.

Clothing stores for example that incorporate appropriately fun music, a pleasing physical environment and racks that are frequently replenished with the latest fashions sell more apparel at higher prices. Some might consider this nefarious but retailers say it’s just a way to provide consumers with an environment that makes them want to spend more time (and money) in their stores.

Consider the type of overall “in-store experience” your environment (music, staging, execution, talent and other basics) and merchandise racks (content of all types) are creating. If your station was a store, would your environment encourage or discourage shopping?

Retail Reports a "Dearth of Talent"

Today’s Wall Street Journal (August 1, 2007) featured an article claiming the “retail industry is suffering a dearth of talent.” http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118592195034983941.html

“Often, what retailing experts are talking about when they talk about lack of
talent is a growing – some would say excessive - reliance on management skills.
As in industries ranging from Hollywood to Silicon Valley to Wall Street,
tension has always existed…between creative types – merchants – and bean
counters: managers. In recent years, managers have gained the upper hand as
Wal-Mart-driven efficiencies…have pushed an ever-growing percentage of American retail space into warehouses touting little more than low price."

Similar “dearth of talent” laments certainly aren’t uncommon in our industry either.

As PDs spend more time in the “management” mode, it’s increasingly important that we help them set aside creative time so they can make full use the right side of their brains as well as their left.

Because the roles of programmers require both analytic and creative skills, let’s hire accordingly. And, having done so, let’s insure that our “whole brain” thinkers build into their schedules time to think creatively, time to translate those thought into actions so that magic can happen on the air, time to coach and cultivate personalities who enhance the magic, and time to create a station that listeners and advertisers put on their “must hear/must have” lists.

In the parlance of the WSJ, let’s help our programmers be both the creative “merchant” as well as the managerial “bean counter.”

“...it’s worth remembering…that Sam Walton was an exquisite merchant. He staged donkey rides at newly opened stores.”

Mmmm...talk-abouts

Gotta give it to Ben and Jerry’s. They’ve turned one talk-about into two, and in so doing, made themselves the center of attention.

Ben and Jerry’s will introduce a special donut flavored ice cream in honor of the Simpson’s movie that premieres this month. But don’t look for it in your store. The company says it’s only going to be out for one day and will only be available in one town (Springfield, VT).

As a talk-about, this is brilliant. And apparently the effort and expense in capturing the moment – and reaping the resulting publicity – are worth it to the company.

How much easier it is for us to capture the moment! We don’t have to mobilize a workforce to re-tool a factory in order to produce our consumable product. We just have to imagine it and talk about it.

When we talk about what others are talking about in a unique, creative, fun, interesting and interactive way, we create a sense of community where we’re talked about, too.

Of course the Simpson’s movie won’t be everyone’s biggest talk-about (although donuts and ice cream in the summer have a pretty universal appeal).

Besides, the real value of talk-abouts may be less about being “in the moment” and more about creating, on a daily basis, opportunities for listeners to feel connected to us and to each other.

Opportunistic talent find solid talk-abouts every day – from big ones like the release of the final Harry Potter book to little ones like a hometown hero, road construction, unusual weather, or the first day of school.

Want more people talking about you? Add a pint of Carpe Diem to your show (as well as to your imaging and contesting) on a daily basis. Pass out spoons to listeners and let them dig in.

Mmmm…good radio.

The Value of Speed

The turning point in last night’s All Star Game wasn’t a Barry Bonds blast (although his early drive to the warning track was a delicious tease). It was when Ichiro Suzuki’s legs shifted into over-drive resulting in the first-ever, All Star Game’s inside-the-park home run.

Speed – if not the factor – was certainly a factor in extending the AL’s unbeaten streak to 11 games and making Ichiro the game’s MVP.

Speed – or the lack thereof - can be a major factor in programming, too. It’s not just about beating a competitor to the punch; it’s about acting and reacting quickly to opportunities – especially the fleeting ones.

What’s hot today that you can capitalize on?

Harry Potter, Radio Programmer

As the Harry Potter saga prepares to conclude after 10 years, let’s consider a few things Harry learned at Hogwarts that could apply to how we program our stations (yelling “Expelliarmus” at competitor’s tower doesn’t count).

• Wonderful, magical things lurk just beneath the ordinary, but you must take an active role to bring them to light. Magic happens because you were prepared to make it happen. Have a deliberate plan to make magic happen regularly on your station.
• It’s not only your abilities, but what you choose to do with them that are the true measures of your character. Have a bias toward action. Until something happens, it’s only good intentions.
• People with whom you’ve built strong relationships will be there for you, often just when you them the most. Nurture relationships with listeners, co-workers, and friends.
• Doing the right thing can often mean doing the hardest thing. Leadership isn’t for the feint of heart. Be prepared to make tough decisions for the overall good.
• Practice ‘Legilimency.’ Past experiences can give perspective and insight to current circumstances. Take a moment to apply what you already know to better understand/interpret new challenges.
• The seeking and sharing of knowledge go hand in hand. Learn from or be an Albus Dumbledore.
  

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

What are the names of some of the people who’ve waited on you at McDonalds? Or the cashiers at the supermarket where you shop? Or the person who reads your water meter?

We see it all the time, but it’s still mildly shocking (and discouraging) to see the blank expressions on the faces of people in focus groups when we ask the radio version of the same question – “tell me the names of some of the DJs you listen to.”

In a recall universe, such memory paralysis is never a good thing.

Here are five ideas to help talent be more memorable:

1. Make content “unique-to-you” by approaching topics in a way other than the “first right answer” which is what most talent in the market will come up with. All penguins look pretty much the same.
   
2. Let listeners see more of the “real” you. It’s near impossible to remember what you don’t know or understand, nor will you make accurate recollections of things that are fuzzy in your mind. Same for things you don’t care about. Make me care about you as a person and I’ll be more likely to remember you as a talent I’ve listened to.
   
3. Similarly, use personal appearances and one-on-one opportunities (even on the phone) to deliberately engage listeners you meet on as personal a level as they will allow. The power of one-on-one is a double-edged sword; you’re going to be perceived as aloof or engaging. You pick.
   
4. Create benchmarks that are in line with listeners’ values, expectations, station image and you personally. If I’m listening to the station for something I like and the talent heightens that experience, I’m more likely to recall that talent – and in a positive way.
   
5. Become a more interesting talker. Replace “geek talk” (minutiae, execution, rules, etc) with phrasing that paints mental pictures, creates associations, or tackles topics in a fresh, surprising way. Imagine how you’d tell a friend about a great meal or funny experience you had, or about a most interesting person you recently met. You’ll cut through the wasteland of “DJ talk,” clichés and hype.

ASSET MANAGEMENT

Periodically reviewing your assets and how they’re being managed is good financial AND programming advice.

Listeners are often “top-line information” evaluators, being aware of only a limited number of things about your station and basing their listening decisions on these and little else. Hopefully what they know about you minimally includes your biggest plus points, those valuable station components that you nurture and leverage.

Here are six common assets you’ll want to manage to insure sure listeners know (and love) these top-line things about your station:


Talent – they’re friends who have a bond with listeners, real people they’d like to have a beer or a cup of coffee with, to talk over some of their commonalities, and let others know they’re on a “personal” relationship level. The morning show is strong, but all shows are always interesting because they’re always well-prepared. Listeners are given compelling reasons to tune in tomorrow because the content is always pre-promoted and occasionally episodic.

Music – the quality leader in your format, well-married to the targets’ tastes, consistent yet with good variety as defined by the target, and competitive in quantity.

Stationality – from creative, “fun to listen to” execution, to an imaging style all your own, to on-air talent camaraderie across all dayparts, there’s an “X” factor that is obvious when you turn the station on.

Listener Involvement – from letting the audience co-create content with you to allowing them to voice their opinions. This is very on-trend.

Quality Benchmarks – regularly scheduled, highly desired features which create tune-in and recall. For some stations this will also include services.

Station Footprint – this is the essence of your station: larger than life, a fun, compelling, “must-hear everyday,” high-touch, highly visible, community-immersed companion, always prepared.