Some Labor Day Thoughts and Songs for Those Who Labor In the Greatest Business in the World: Radio

Labor Day honors the contributions workers have made to better our lives.

It became a US federal holiday in 1894 – though 30 states already officially celebrated Labor Day.  In Canada, Labour Day (also celebrated on the first Monday of September) has been a holiday since the 1880s.

While we celebrate in song many occupations, radio jobs tend to be maligned - especially by those who apply rather limited evaluative criteria (read about that here).

But even for those of us who still find this the most exciting and rewarding career we could imagine - and are still amazed that we get to do this every day - the grind the industry extracts on us can take its toll.

Fortunately singers and song writers have left us inspiration to encourage us when the going gets challenging.

You no doubt have songs that personally inspire you; feel free to add them to this list by commenting.

Here are a few from the country format that remind us of why we continue to do what we do.

Your Impact on Others:

“What a difference you’ve made in my life. What a difference you’ve made in my life. You’re my sunshine day and night. Oh what a difference you’ve made in my life.”

"What A Difference You've Made In My Life"

Written by Archie Paul Jordan, © Universal Music Publishing Group.

In the hundreds of focus groups I’ve done through the years, talent is the subject that listeners most want to talk about.  

I’ve seen listeners express real appreciation for talent who remembered their names or the names of their children. 

I’ve seen them recall the impact of meeting a talent in person – perhaps years ago though they share in detail this cherished memory as if it happened last month.

And I’ve seen listeners tear up while recalling something a talent has said that touched them personally.  

As talent we have opportunities to ‘make a difference’ with every mic break.  Don’t waste a single one.

Your Work Ethic Matters

“Hey, I’m not bragging or complainin’, I’m just talking to myself man-to-man, this mental fat I’m chewin’ didn’t take a lotta doing’, But I take a lot of pride in what I am.”

I Take A Lot of Pride in What I Am

Written by Merle Haggard; © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

It’s easy to blow off a break or two (or not put your heart into a piece of copy you have to write, or to fall back on something safe rather than suggest something out of the box to a client, or to not want to do an air check session with your talent).

And sometimes it takes a conversation with yourself to bring about what you know needs to happen. Perhaps it's a personal pep talk or maybe reminding yourself that you have knowledge/ideas/creativity/talent that's worth sharing. 

Of course going ‘half in’ doesn't cut it.

Full throttle, wide open

You get tired, you don’t show it,

Dig a little deeper when you think you can’t dig no more

That’s the only way I know

"The Only Way I Know"

Written by Ben Hayslip, David Lee Murphy • Copyright © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

Lots of people around you will quit at "good enough." But not you; you know the benefits of digging deep.

The bottom line is that pride in your work is what will separate you from the rest of the pack.

“I Feel Like I Know Him/Her”

If you want to know the real me, just turn the page in my dirt road diary.

It’s right there for you to see, every kiss, every beer, every cotton field memory.

"Dirt Road Diary"

Written by Luke Bryan, Dallas Davidson, Rhett Akins, Ben Hayslip • Copyright © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

Ask listeners about talent they most connect with and you’ll usually hear something about being real, being an open book, etc. 

But what they’re really saying is that the relationship they have with you the talent is the same type of relationship they have with their best friends. 

That’s powerful.

Follow Your Dreams

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance....

Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone

"I Hope You Dance"

Written by Tia Sillers, Mark Sanders • © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

One of the greatest gifts you can give someone you care about is encouragement and support as they follow their dreams. 

Just like you did.

Take a Risk

I could have missed the pain

But I’d have had to miss the dance

"The Dance"

Written by Tony Arata; Copyright ©  Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

The performing arts are a risky business to begin with and today’s environment has only amplified that risk. 

Still, the risk-reward is something performers willingly sign up for knowing that there's a cost to bringing happiness/insight/entertainment with the world. 

Don't Forget to Enjoy the Ride

If you're coming with me you need nerves of steel
'Cause I take corners on two wheels
It's a never-ending circus ride
The faint of heart need not apply

"Mi Vida Loca"

Written by Jess Leary, Pam Tillis • Copyright © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Sure, other careers may pay more handsomely, have more security, etc., etc.  But probably none of your non-industry friends have met Garth, been on Luke Bryan’s bus, or had a drink with Blake Shelton. 

Unless they were your guest.

Why It’s All Worth It

The wealthiest person is a pauper at times

Compared to the man with a satisfied mind.

"Satisfied Mind"
Written by Jack Rhodes, Red Hays; Copyright (c) BMG Rights Management US, LLC, Carlin America Inc.

If it was about the money, we’d have done something else. But performers play by a different set of rules.  Sure, it’s about the applause, but it’s more about knowing that YOU made people feel something. 

Parting Thoughts

I laid in bed that night and thought about the day

And how my life is like a roller coaster ride

The ups and downs and crazy turns along the way

It’ll throw you off if you don’t hold on tight…

I love this crazy, tragic,

Sometimes almost magic,

Awful beautiful life.

"Awful Beautiful Life"

Written by Darrly Worley, Harley Allen; Copyright (c) Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Ten Ten Music Group Inc. 

Happy Labor/Labour Day!

Ten Take Aways from Hivio Audio Future Festival (20-Somethings and Radio? See #8)

Audience, content and platforms – notably podcasting – were some of the more frequently discussed topics at the Hivio Audio Future Festival 2016 last week (see Hivio word cloud).

Mark Ramsey Media's annual Hivio event is a “hive” of audio ideas and actions shared by people who normally wouldn’t collectively make up a typical radio convention agenda – from NPR to ESPN to content providers to podcast sellers.

Becky Brenner (@BeckyBrenner) attended the LA event in person, I watched via the online stream (thanks, Mark for providing that!).

Here are ten of our takeaways:

1. Commercials: be relevant, funny and clever. Tell a story with a surprise. 15-second spots scored better than any other commercial length (Mark Ramsey and Novoodoo).
2. Apply the “rat in a maze” approach – allow audience to shift platforms but keep them on your content (Howard Lapidis)
3. The goal is to translate the best of what is happening in the talent’s life to Radio, TV and the web. Make a determination on how best to distribute content - from podcasts to building what the talent needs (Chris Balfe, Red Seat Ventures)
4. The focus on digital has been transformative – radio is an amazing medium and we can still be vital and fabulous. Podcasting is not detracting from the Radio Listening.  It is actually growing the audience. (Anya Grundman, VP Programming and Audience Development for NPR)
5. Rise above the noise by creating your own wave or riding waves around you. (Todd Beck, Beck Media and Marketing)
6. Podcasts are generally too long, not “social sized,” and it is an increasingly crowded universe (1,400 new podcasts per week) David Silverman Co-Founder Clammr
7. There is stupid money out there right now for these types of projects in video and audio. Peter Kafka, Senior Editor, Media, Re/Code
8. I don’t have a radio at home. Radio is ancient – it is like having a laser disc – I have so many ways to listen to radio without having to have another device.  Convenient and compact is what everything needs to be, nobody wants excess baggage. (Heather, Millennial)
9. Podcasting revenue been highly underrepresented in the press…probably $85-$100 million last year and it is going to be exponentially higher this year. Sarah Van Mosel, Chief Commercial Officer, ACAST @sarahvm
10. Content, Content, Content.  You can’t say it enough, or focus on it enough.  It was lost in deregulation and it has to come back into focus. (Advice for radio from Traug Keller, ESPN Audio

Albright & O’Malley & Brenner’s Becky Brenner has full notes and slides in the Clients Only section of AandOandB.com.

Comments paraphrased.

How Political Analysts Can Help Coach Talent

Fivethirtyeight.com is full of interesting content. Sports and politics of course, but also science, economics and culture (read about the Batman-Superman bromance here). 

And now, FiveThirtyEight has a coaching tip for radio.

OK, not exactly.

But their recent post about the most frequently used phrases by Presidential Candidates Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders got me thinking about how quantifying talents’ most oft-used subject matter – the fascinating and the irrelevant – could be a handy coaching tool.

FiveThirtyEight’s Clinton-Sanders piece uses a statistical procedure call dtf-idf which compares the frequency of words or phrases in a document, a speech, a body of speeches, etc. to their use in general.

Reading about dtf-idf was fascinating if geeky, though I was looking for a less “math-intensive” alternative to use as a coaching tool.

Enter Document Classification often used in library science to assign a piece of work to one or more categories - geography, history, science, etc.  

Subjecting a show to Document Classification could look like this:

The process can be done via an algorithm (as in text classification used for spam detection) or intellectually (manually) through user-defined criteria – the latter being perfectly fine for coaching purposes.

Plus you can quickly turn your data into a visual to help you make your point. Two shows might break out like this:

Roadmap 2016 – A&O&B’s annual client online perceptual – again confirmed listeners’ top reasons for picking one station over a competitor: plays the best music, makes me feel good when I listen, fun DJs who sound like and talk about things like my friends.

Obviously some of the bars above meet the listener criteria better than others – and that’s the point.

One of my favorite “Radio Algebra” formulae is that EV > CL – that is, the “entertainment value must be greater than the cost of listening.” The greater that differential is, the more powerful your show and station are.

A Document Classification visual can help you make that point.

The Legacy Challenge

Like any good New York Yankees fan, I spent this past season trying to exceed the Minimum Daily Requirement of Derek Jeter.

Lately that hasn’t been hard to do, especially these last few weeks with all the videos - from the Re2pect commercial, to the Made In New York Bronx walk-through, to Jeter’s farewell to the crowd at the Stadium   

But the “Legacy” spot may be the best tribute of all, as players (kids and adults) paid their respects by modeling themselves after someone who inspired them.

That spot reminded me of why so many of us got into radio: because of a talent we connected with. 

Just like the players in “Legacy” we emulated our heroes’ styles, recreated what they were famous for, and perhaps envisioned ourselves doing their job along side them one day.

Admittedly I can find a baseball analogy for just about anything, but I frequently use this one about coming to bat and opening the mic.

No one in the majors is invisible when they come to the plate. Tens of thousands of fans are watching from the stands and ten times that or more are watching on TV or listening via radio. And they have high expectations. 

Perhaps because we seldom have the opportunity to make a visual connection with listeners while we’re on the air, it can be easy to forget that tens of thousands of our station’s fans are focused on us and what we say when we ‘come to bat.’

And they too have high expectations.

You can bet no major league batter walks to the plate without a plan. Yet, just speaking for myself when I was on the air, I know there were too many times when I opened the mic and wasn’t as prepared as I could have been.

I’d like to have those breaks back.

I’d like to have another chance to run as hard as I could to first on what inevitably was going to be just an infield groundout.

Being on the air is easy.

Being great on the air is not.

What’s your unique skill? What’s your plan for every break? Will you give it all you have, knowing that those listening could number between four and six figures, and that they're hoping for something great to happen when you open the mic?

What will you do on your upcoming breaks that will motivate today’s listeners to want to be a part of your show tomorrow… and perhaps even inspire others to follow in your footsteps?

That's the great Legacy Challenge.

PS: A tip of the cap to Paul Konerko of the White Sox – another great player who retired this weekend.  Here’s a nice piece on Paul from the Chicago Tribune.

The Fine Line Between Relevant and Ridiculous

We could be polite and say it was just one of those embarrassing moments. 

But the truth is, many listeners this morning probably judged the quarter-hour a lot more harshly.

As they should have.

It had already been snowing for an hour. And for the past 30 minutes it was coming down pretty good. And it was sticking on the roads. 

That was when the live talent informed us that the snowfall would begin later today. 

This of course sounded beyond ridiculous to those of us in our cars, navigating through the snow that was now coming down hard enough to make it obvious - even to fellow lead-footers - that driving conditions were rapidly deteriorating. 

Surely, I’m thinking, the next time the talent came on there would be a correction, an update, a ‘report’ – something to save face.

I waited through a song, a commercial set, a discussion on an unrelated topic, and a phoner, but there was to be no face saving this break. 

So I hit a button. 

This show on this morning was clueless (side note: How many times would I put up with this before I removed them from my morning station "buying set?").

That the show originates from a remote studio is no excuse in the mind of listeners. Without a plan (or with a plan but with a failure to execute said plan) the talent sounded foolish.

That snow (or name your local event) is coming is fairly predictable. When it will start is probably less so.  Which is all the more reason to have a plan that covers common contingencies.

Everyone looks bad when this sort of preventable thing happens: the talent, the station and radio.  It supplies more fodder for our critics.

Situations like this usually have only two outcomes: your talent and station come off as relevant or ridiculous.

Have you reviewed your response and information plans recently?

The NAB Crystal: One of Radio's Most Special Awards

I’m a fan of meaningful awards (meaningful being the key word). 

Ideally, they showcase the ‘best of the best,’ those who have risen above their peers. And as such, they not only shine in the spotlight themselves, they give the industry they represent that same opportunity as well.

Country is coming off a great night of awards Sunday; the Academy of Country Music Awards Show was a record setter in terms of audience.

Today the Country Music Hall of Fame announced three inductees.

A number of stations and personalities won awards at February’s Country Radio Seminar, April's ACMs, and last year's CMAs.

Terrific awards, all of them and a heart-felt ‘well-done’ to the winners and inductees.

Yesterday a special award was presented in Las Vegas: The NAB Crystal Award. The Crystal recognizes radio stations for their “outstanding year-round commitment to community service.”

Let that just sink in for a minute. 

Not once or twice a year, but year-round.

Not a special ratings or revenue-generating sales promotion, but something a station does freely with no expectations of financial or ratings gain. It’s something that when undertaken says, "We believe we live in a great community, among equally great people, and we want to use our resources to improve and enhance life here for all."

The Crystal is certainly one of the ‘meaningful’ awards. 

Congratulations to this year’s NAB Crystal Award winners including country stations KUZZ/Bakersfield and WYCT/Pensacola.

You make our industry and format proud. 

Read an earlier blog about the advantages of entering your station in an awards competition here.

When the Ratings Are/Aren't What You Expected: A Process for Uncovering What's Important

Ratings data is noisy.

Along the pathway to “is this real?” meaningful data rests alongside the spurious or even potentially misleading.

And usually when those results are better or (fortunately less often for our stations) worse than expected, there are questions.

Also usually within the data there are some (but likely not all) answers.

You'll increase your changes of finding the meaningful when you have a plan before going under the hood.

Use your ratings data and knowledge of what happened at your station and in the market to develop a list of as many possible scenarios that could be contributing factors. This list will direct you to specific areas of inquiry. It will also help give your investigation focus while still allowing you the freedom to go down some rabbit holes without the fear of getting hopelessly lost or sidetracked. 

Let’s look at one example – a big TSL swing – and some possible scenarios:

•  There was real change in usage because of something that changed on the station
•  There was a real change in usage not because something changed on the station but rather in the market or on a competitor
• There were more/less heavy radio users, regardless of format, in the sample with overall usage that deviated from the norm
• There were more or less heavy users of your format, station or a competitor’s station in the sample
• There was a change in the demographic composition of the sample overall or in the sample of your format’s lifegroup
• Proportionality was/wasn’t an issue
• Geography/zip code returns was/wasn’t an issue
• There was a significant change in the percent of employed fans of your station who are in the sample
• There was a change in occasions of listening or in vertical or horizontal cuming (revisit bullets 1-5)
• There was a single or handful of respondents that skewed a particular cell
• There was a station identification issue (diaries) or a crediting error

Some of the above bullets can be assessed with relative ease, but others require more investigation, time, and a strong working knowledge of your ratings analysis software.  Regardless, getting a handle on the ‘degree of truth’ in your theories will go a long way in providing insight (of course you'll want to develop a different line of hypotheses for other issues).

Wading through ratings data is time consuming and some of your efforts won’t lead anywhere (we did say the data is noisy). But if you're going to get as much of a handle as you can on things, you'll need to do a deep dive. Having a plan helps.

And yet, even with as much noise removed as possible, conclusions may still be a bit murky. Sometimes we’ll need to call on the recent past to help us interpret what we’re seeing and give us guidance for the future.

But finding and then spending time with the critical information will increase the probability of being closer to the truth.

Two quotes from Nate Silver’s “The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail - but Some Don’t” sum things up pretty well:

“…immersion in a topic will provide disproportionately more insight than an executive summary.”

And,

“…success is determined by some combination of hard work, natural talent, and a person’s opportunities and environment – in other words, some combination of noise and signal.”


PS - “The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail - but Some Don’t” is an excellent read if you live in a world where data-driven assumptions, reporting and forecasting are a way of life - or if you play poker, bet on sporting events, or simply watch the local TV weather casts. Finishing the book at a time when such a large amount of ratings analysis is going on here at Albright & O'Malley & Brenner inspired the camera angle for this blog. 

Listeners’ Picks for Top Country Songs of Summer: Want to Float a Guess at What’s Number 1?

Just for fun with absolutely no intention of being scientific, Albright & O’Malley invited our stations' listeners to tell us their favorite songs of summer 2012 by ranking the most played songs from Memorial Day to Labor Day (U.S.).

The hands down winner? Little Big Town’s “Pontoon.”

Here are the top five songs as picked by our respondents:

1. Pontoon/Little Big Town
2. Springsteen/Eric Church
3. Drunk On You/Luke Bryan
4. Come Over/Kenny Chesney
5. 5-1-5-0/Dierks Bentley

Pontoon received more votes for “number one song of summer” than the next two songs combined.  In a place for comments, one listener said of Pontoon, “I could listen to that song all day.”

Luke Bryan made a race of it for second, falling just short of Eric Church’s totals. Kenny Chesney and Dierks Bentley were further back but close to each other. 

We posted a similar survey for our Canadian stations that included CanCon as well as International songs released during the same time period. Here’s that top 5 list:

1. Pontoon/Little Big Town
2. Springsteen/Eric Church
3. Drunk On You/Luke Bryan
4. Good Girl/Carrie Underwood and Gloriana/(Kissed You) Goodnight (tied)

Gord Bamford/Leanin’ On A Lonesome Song got the most #1 votes among the CanCon titles.

(Quick respondent facts: both panels leaned female and were country P1-heavy; ages were fairly evenly distributed across 18-54 though the Canadian panel was slightly older).

We invited station personnel to participate as well. Though we didn’t get a lot of takers, our US radio folks made “Pontoon” number one while in Canada it was “Springsteen.”

As a passing observation, the top three songs' themes were summer-related: two in the present, one in the past.

Aside from ranking their songs, we asked these listeners how they thought this year’s crop of summer songs compared to previous years. Both US and Canadian panelists were bullish.  

In the US, 64% thought this summer’s music was a lot (23%) or a little (41%) above average compared to past summers; 6% said this summer's music was a little or a lot worse. Among Canadians, 70% thought this summer’s music was a lot (30%) or a little (40%) above average with 6% saying a little or a lot worse. 

All this is interesting of course, but here's a key point: while the informal poll gave stations a little data, it more importantly gave them a fun and timely way to engage their listeners.

Feel free to share how you've recently engaged your listeners... and if you want, let us know YOUR favorite songs of summer 2012 - country or otherwise.

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

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.

#accjms11: Smart, Passionate People Talking Radio

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?

ON SUBMITTING MP3s FOR THAT JOB OPENING YOU'RE PURSUING

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.  

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

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

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!

A + B = $

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.”

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

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

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.

Like THIS for Example

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

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?