Curious Times

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

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

“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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

“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

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

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.

"Resolving" to be a Better Programmer

Seven 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. This year's additions bring the total to 55.

Here are 5 of my favorites (you can get 5 more at www.albrightandomalley.com). Try some that you think will have the biggest, most positive impact on your station and on your personal and professional life.

Have a wonderful and safe New Years, and a personally and professionally rewarding 2007! 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.

2. Resolve to be "immediate." Maintain a mindset of, "How can I get this on the air right now?"

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

4. Spend more time in the “design process.” Too often, in the excitement of “doing,” insufficient time is spent in the “blueprint” phase. This can lead to too many instances of “this would have been bigger if we” or “we should planned for,” etc.

5. 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.

Now Arriving On Platform Three

Businesses that communicate well across multiple platforms are more likely to generate sales than businesses that don’t communicate as well.

That’s true of course for radio, too.

For businesses, platforms can include web sites, brick and mortar presence, ease of purchasing, physical and virtual catalogues, delivery, customer service and more. A sub-standard performance in any of these platforms can result in a lost sale.

Think about your own shopping experiences. How many times did a business lose your business because they disappointed you in just one of these areas?

Now think about all the platforms where listeners and prospects can encounter your stations. How is your performance in each?

Turkeys and Timetables

It’s a bit like the chicken and the egg question. Do the media drive consumers’ timetables when it comes to the holidays, or are consumers’ personal timetables simply reflected by the early holiday ads, sales and mass media content we see each year?

More importantly, what does this mean for the show you’re going to do tomorrow?

The holiday-themed marketing blitz has been going on for weeks. At our house it started with the grocery store’s “free Thanksgiving turkey” promise about a month ago, and was quickly followed by pre-Thanksgiving sales pitches, announcements about on-line specials that wouldn’t be available in stores, recommendations to shop before Thanksgiving and avoid the crowds, and the offering of services related to entertaining (or coping with) a houseful of relatives.

Of course it’s not just holiday marketing, it’s holiday content too.

Scanning the covers of the magazines at Barnes and Noble can make you feel like you’re judging some weird, roast turkey beauty contest.

Network nightly news programs feature stories about this year’s “must have” items, retail projections, feel-good holiday segments, and the obligatory piece about the increased cost of flying replete with last year’s footage of frustrated crowds at airports recounting their drumstick destination dilemmas.

Turn on your computer and more often than not you’ll find some sort of Thanksgiving content, from recipes to table settings to the history of the holiday.

Meanwhile on cable, the Food Network is behaving like the Weather Channel during a hurricane.

The point is, holiday content is everywhere and if it’s not already on your show, you’re behind your audience.

Big events, like holidays, are on listeners’ minds early. You’ll be the smartest talent in the market when your “content timetable” matches your listeners’ personal timetable.

Sometimes It's The Little Things

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the big difference. Ask the Detroit Tigers – a great team undone in large part by their failure to execute the basics when it mattered most.

While stand-out performances from big stars can be important, winning also requires executing the routine plays, the fundamentals, the mundane tasks that you don’t think about a lot because they’re taken for granted, they're not top of mind, or maybe just because they're not very sexy.

Radio’s highlight reel likely includes the spectacular contest, the coveted interview, the wild stunt, the knock-it-out-of-the-park bit. But winning takes more than a nightly web gem.

Here are some of radio’s “pitcher-to-third-base plays,” the basics, the stuff of champions.

...Having specific ratings goals, a well-thought out and highly detailed plan for achieving them, and a faithful adherence to that plan.

...Frequent and creative ways of identifying your station, and imaginative and distinctive imaging that helps listeners understand the difference between you and your competitors.

...A thorough awareness of your competitors and their strengths and weaknesses, and a plan for rebuffing the former and exploiting the latter.

...Music scheduling software monitoring and discipline in coding and adding music, and making sure what you want on the air is actually getting on the air.

...Promotions that sparkle in design, imaging and execution, that create talk, and make competitors’ efforts sound boring and insignificant.

...A strategy for the streets including where you are going, why you are going, and how you’ll surprise and delight the listeners you encounter.

...A website that’s always up to the minute, that anyone in the building can update on the fly, that has elements that drive traffic, and a frequent listener program that really IS worthwhile for a listener to be a part of as well as a valuable tool for marketing the station.

...A staff where everyone is on the same page and understands the target and the goals and all the station’s movable parts; where the talent is “game-ready” everyday and never mails it in, and where everyone on the team is made to feel valuable.

...An overall product that exceeds listeners’ expectations, that they feel ownership in, that makes them feel glad they spent time with you, and that leaves them looking forward to coming back repeatedly.

The Tigers will have to wait until next year to perfect the basics. You get to do that today.

Coaching Talent: Lessons From A Kindergarten Teacher

Karen Ginty knows a lot about coaching talent. She doesn’t know that, but it’s true.

Karen is a Kindergarten teacher in Monmouth Beach, New Jersey and she’s just been named the state’s 2006 Teacher of the Year.

Here are six of her guiding principles:

1 - Be a nurturer
2 - Provide a safe environment
3 - Address all the needs of all the students on a daily basis
4 - Roll with the punches
5 - Make it fun
6 - Teach respect and caring

“You’re not here for the money,” she says. “When you love something, that’s the perk…”

If Karen ever decided to work with talent, I bet she’d be awesome.

The Surprising "Real" Reason to Rehearse

We’ve all heard it. In fact we’ve all heard it too many times: a great idea that just doesn’t come off on the air as powerfully as it should have.

Sometimes a bit drags on far too long, lacking focus or a strong close, getting off track and struggling to right itself.

Sometimes it doesn’t go on nearly long enough. Ideas don’t get fleshed out, developed or exploited. The obvious is substituted for the extraordinary.

Sometimes on multi-person shows, some of the players don’t seem to understand their roles and either struggle to contribute or miss opportunities when it’s their moment to shine.

The result is too often the push of a button and the search for something more interesting and entertaining.

The bad news this happens a lot. The good new is this doesn’t have to happen to you.

You only need to do two things: learn how to rehearse properly and then rehearse faithfully.

Unfortunately merely mentioning the “R” word to many jocks causes eyeballs to roll and excuses flow. “I like to go with the moment.” “There’s no time to rehearse.” And my all time favorite, “I like to go for the reaction in the room and rehearsing would ruin this.”
(Oh, yeah. The reaction of one or two other people in the room is more important than the reaction of the 10,000 people listening right now on their radios.)

Actually I’m convinced that the resistance to rehearsal stems from a misunderstanding of the real reason to rehearse: to thoroughly stimulate your creativity, to enhance and enlarge an idea, and to grow your skills and the skills of those around you.

Rehearsing your content has nothing to do with memorizing lines and everything to do with discovering them. A great rehearsal is the opposite of “restriction;” a great rehearsal is about expansion and experimentation. A great rehearsal is about empowering talent to fully exploit his or her skills so that a raw idea can be transformed into an extraordinary piece of entertainment.

Now that you know the real reason to rehearse, wouldn’t you like to try it? Here’s a rehearsal routine you can start using today:


1. Summarize the bit in no more than two sentences including opening, body, conflict, and resolution.
2. Have a “discovery” time with your partner(s). As you share your concept with them, they share back with you how they can best be a participant, incorporating their characters into the concept and expanding on the original idea. Apply the same technique if you’re a solo performer, thinking about how the various aspects of your personality can be leveraged to fully develop the original idea.
3. Edit and block. Expand the strongest points and eliminate what doesn’t add to the entertainment.
4. Do a final talk-through of how this is going to play.


And, while it’s not exactly a rehearsal, listening back to and deconstructing a bit after it has aired will help you see what worked best/added to the bit (so you can do this more) and what didn’t work/detracted from the bit (so you can eliminate or improve).

Rehearsing will improve the execution and performance end of your show of course and that is important.

But the real reason to rehearse is about something much bigger. The real reason to rehearse is to experiment with new ideas, to transform the “average” into the “inspired,” to create stand-out content, and to expand your skills and the skills of the people you work with beyond where they are now – perhaps even beyond where in your wildest dreams you thought they could go.

Are you thinking about rehearsing in a new light? Are you inspired to give it a try?

Let me know how it goes.

Radio, The Box Office and Algebra

Which best describes your last visit to a movie theater: “Good bang for my buck” or “Disappointing?” “Worth every penny” or “overpriced and under-delivered?”

These reactions, according to the just released study “The Modern Movie Experience” conducted jointly by Nielsen Analytics and the Movie Advisory Board, could be paraphrases of the evaluative criteria would-be movie-goers use when deciding whether to part with their money and time to go or not go to a movie theater.

Even more than alternative platforms, the report determined the top reasons for declining movie theater attendances related to a disconnect between the would-be movie-goer’s perceived quality of the entertainment and how much they pay for a ticket both in terms of their money and time (more at http://www.rbr.com/epaper/pages/june06/06-116_hollywood1.html).

To me, frustrated movie-goers’ disappointment in quality coupled with high costs sounded an awful lot like some of the reasons we’ve heard from people who are spending less time with radio.

Several years ago for fun I invented five math formulae to illustrate the relationship between programming and listening. One formula was: EV>CL – “The Entertainment Value must always exceed the Cost of Listening.”

The greater the positive distance EV is from CL, the greater the potential for listenership, satisfaction, and ratings. Conversely, a minimal or even a negative distance has the potential to significantly reduce listening and open doors to declining ratings.

Some components of high EV radio include strong talent with compelling content, great imaging, the best music (if you play music), services, Values Based Programming, passion, and other elements that “surprise and delight” listeners.

Radio’s CL is increased by clutter, over-commercialization, poor production, imaging that is repetitive or that promotes non-important “attributes,” violating listener expectations, irrelevance, hype, and rarely straying from “the same old thing.”

And just like at the box office, your station’s real and perceived EV or CL has the potential to grow or shrink your audience. A daily EV that greatly exceeds the CL can make your station a “must listen” and your “ticket price” a great value.

You can download a PDF of the Five Formulae at http://radioconsult.com/articles/ao_fiveformulae.pdf. And for more articles, click www.albrightandomalley.com.

Sales Idea from the New York Yankees

Squeezing more cash out of a sold-out inventory is the anticipated outcome of the YES Network’s decision to sell a single, 90-second spot in each of its televised Yankee baseball games. This 90 is priced at a premium for being the only unit in the break and for having some “booth chatter” – presumably something resembling a billboard.

It won't be for everyone, but could a 90 second spot have potential for your station?

A single 90 could be offered daily in one or two non-peak hours (select hours between 10pm-4am and early on Sunday mornings for example) as an incentive to purchase an otherwise undersold daypart. Or a 90 may be useful for a station in the cluster that is having difficulty creating a unique selling proposition for itself. Or a 90 could be used for sponsorship of a long feature – like an hour of a countdown or a half-hour public affairs program.

Be sure to set production guidelines, such as forbidding 60/30 or 30/30/30 piggy-backs. And limit the number you sell to keep their value high; the Yankees are offering only one per day.

Staples' Formatics

Subtraction has led to a big addition at Staples. Last year, profits jumped 18% (Business 2.0, June 2006) at the office supply store, even though there’s a lot less to buy there these days.

Customer research led Staples to simplify their in-store shopping experience. Gone are some 800 non-core items like Britney Spears backpacks. In their place are larger signs pointing to highly desired items, more sales associates trained to direct shoppers to the correct aisles, and an in-stock guarantee on the company’s number one sought-after item – printer cartridges.

“That Was Easy” is now Staples’ campaign to describe their (pardon the phrase) “less is more” shopping experience.

Consider how the Staples strategy could make a positive difference in your programming. Remove items that make listening more difficult than it should be. Be sure you have ample “point-to” promos that highlight your key features and elements and direct listeners to them. And be sure everyone on the team – on air and off – understands the audience’s core expectations and is well-trained in how to deliver listener satisfaction.

A little subtraction could result in some additional ratings.

"Caring" As A Strategy for Managers and Talent

My visit to see my parents this past weekend included a couple of trips to Starbucks and some local radio consumption. Saturday morning I was listening to WIOD’s Aron Bender interview author A. J. Scribante (“Shelf Life: How an Unlikely Entrepreneur Turned $500 into $65 Million in the Grocery Industry) – not because I have designs on doing the same, but because it was what was on my dad’s car radio and I didn’t want to change his pre-sets.

The interview was interesting enough despite a few clichés at the end – one of which was, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

A few minutes later over coffee I opened my monthly email from “The Point” (http://www.bluepointleadership.com/) which contained a similar-themed article from Susanne Biro, a former barber-turned-executive coach who attributes her success as a stylist not to her scissor skills, but because she fostered a caring relationship with each client. She writes,

…My clients were no longer just clients but rather, we became two people who had genuine respect for one another. And above all, here's what I learned about leadership: more than anything else what we all want is someone to genuinely care about us - to tell us the honest truth, to challenge us, to stop seeing us as our predetermined roles (whether it be CEO or barber) and start seeing us as people with the potential we desperately want to see in ourselves. The key word here is care. When we believe another person genuinely cares about us and our success, we will grant that person concessions we will not grant others…

People are the business of leaders. Our main task is to treat others in such a way that they want to bring all their unique gifts, talents and discretionary effort forward to achieve a collective goal, the goal of the business. And so it is that each of us must master the art of effectively interacting with people in order to get things done. This, perhaps above all else, is the leader's real challenge.


Certainly this is a good reminder for those of us who coach our staffers, helping them to recognize and fully utilize their skills.

However there’s insight here for talent as well. The best talent are often seen by their listeners as having the same characteristics: understanding, respecting and caring about them. In other words, someone with whom they have a one-to-one relationship.

The next time you’re listening to a show, listen for what sounds like a personal conversation between the talent and the listener – a one-to-one dialogue built on mutual interests, insights, understanding, friendship and respect.

And if you want to read about a talent who was a MASTER at one-to-one, visit the articles and archives section at http://www.albrightandomalley.com/ and scroll down to a piece I wrote a few years back called, “42 Years On Top: Six Principles Behind The Success Of One Of America's Greatest Air Talents…Dan Daniel.”

Let me hear about your efforts!

mom


Susanne Biro is Director of Coaching for Bluepoint Leadership Development. She may be reached via email at mailto:%20susannebiro@bluepointleadership.com

Avoiding TV's Rerun Blues

It’s easy to simply blame new media competition for TV’s on-going ratings slump. But, postulates Media Life’s Kevin Downey (January 5, 2006), TV itself may be its own worst enemy by increasingly relying on reruns.

Downey notes that reruns used to account for about 15% of programming in the early 1980s. Now, amidst and ever increasing amount of media choices, TV’s reruns average 36-43% of non-sweep programming and 21% of programming even during sweeps.

In radio, it’s easy to fall unwittingly into the rerun trap. Elements get created and often hang around for months or even years without significant change.

Make a commitment once a month to listen to your station from a “no reruns” perspective and take appropriate action. Regularly re-evaluate benchmarks and replacing those with diminished impact. Continually freshen up imaging. Put new spins on franchise promotions. Capitalize on short-shelf life phenomenon and events. Regularly write new plotlines into shows.

Take a similar approach to music and regularly adjust category and liner placement in cocks. Sign up for quality artist specials. Be creative with artist drops.

Create web-only content – including variations or extensions of what you’re already airing.

Call or email and we can discuss these and other ideas.

Being proactive will help you avoid TV’s present predicament of “been there, seen that, I’m choosing another entertainment option.”

What If Ron Howard Produced Your Show?

I’m mostly a generator but I like playing the role of reactor, too. So after reading an article titled “Investing Lessons From Hollywood” (kathy kristof, LA Times, Kathy.kristof@latimes.com), I substituted “Show Development” for “Investing” and came up with the following. Thanks, Kathy for the idea (her words and those of associate producer Alan Haft are in quotes).


“Keep It Simple. When pitching a screen play, you have two minutes… That means all the classic stories can be boiled down to a simple sentence. ‘E.T.’ was about a group of children who help a stranded alien return home, for instance.”

Our bits, contests and features should be able to be communicated in a sentence, too. “The greatest birthday gift you ever received.” “Two McGraws in a row wins the 9th caller two seats for the show.” “Weather and traffic together every ten minutes in the morning.” Think compression and your show will have a faster pace and greater momentum.



“Work Carefully…great directors (use) dozens of takes to get a scene right. It might seem like a lot of time and effort for a few seconds of footage, Haft said, but the right shadow can mean the difference between suspense and boredom.”

The extra time it takes to pre-produce a bit, add compelling audio, archive phone calls, and edit those calls so only the best parts are used, separates a show from a shift. A shift is for assembly line workers – same thing different day. Shows are made fresh and different on a daily basis. Shifts don’t take any time or effort. Shows require lots of both. Shifts aren’t memorable and neither are the people that do them. Big, fat, interesting, engaging shows are memorable, and so are the people that star in them.



“Plan. After a movie gets the green light, its screenplay is broken into dozens of elements, and producers draw up a plan for each. This planning can take years…but it makes a better movie.”

The further out you can plan components of your show, the more likely they are to be compelling. Finding the right phone call, arranging an interview, preparing a stunt, locating special music or sound-effects, and transforming “wouldn’t it be cool” ideas into actual on air components takes time, but the results can be magic. Planning is especially important if you’re ready for the next recommendations, diversification and structure.



“Diversify…studios don’t bet the bank on one genre.”

It takes a lot of different, moving parts to create 20-25 hours a week of must-hear radio. These can include exploiting the day’s hot topic, presenting listeners with a different perspective on something that’s a daily part of their lives, creating opportunities to display a sense of humor or even laugh out loud moments, giving listeners a ‘peek behind your curtain’ perhaps letting them see that you have a heart, presenting information, telling stories, and letting listeners be the stars of your show.



“Don’t reinvent the wheel… many great tales have a common structural foundation.”

Two thoughts: 1) know what you’re best at, and do it as often as you can, and 2) work with a structure but keep pouring fresh material into that structure.

Think about ‘The Late Show’ or ‘The Tonight Show.’ Both shows are highly structured with a monologue, recurring features, and special guests. The dialogue, features and guests change nightly, but the structure remains. Fresh material is poured nightly into the same mold.

Both Letterman and Leno know what they’re best at and capitalize on their best skill sets. The interest comes because they apply their consistent skills to a changing set of circumstances. You can observe the same structural philosophy in any good ensemble cast from ‘Seinfeld’ to ‘Bones.’ The circumstances and plot lines change, but the interest comes from how the characters’ basic behavioral traits deal with these changes.

Understand your strengths and exploit them. Use planning meetings and assignment lists to insure you’re gathering enough content to give your skills ample opportunities to shine. And employ a slotting sheet or other device to keep your structural framework in place and make it easy to pour in great content.


See if adopting some of Hollywood’s thinking could give your show additional ‘blockbuster’ status. Or just ask yourself, “What would Ron Howard do with my show?”