How Your Station Celebrates Holidays; Or, Once You Get Past “God Bless the USA..."

Not surprisingly the most played gold titles on Country Radio yesterday (from Mediabase, July 4, 2013) were Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” and “American Soldier,” Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and Brooks & Dunn’s “Only in America.”

While there are generally a handful of songs that can make up a limited hit category for most holidays – these are good examples – your time might be better spent creating quality, original imaging pieces to compliment these few songs rather than scouring for more musical square pegs to put into round holes.

The best holiday imaging is more localized, "personal," and "in the moment" than a library title no matter how well it may fit or how good it might (or might not) be. Imagine how different and powerful Independence Day imaging might be this year vs. years past in Oklahoma or along the New Jersey shore.

Start working on your next holiday imaging by writing how you and your community celebrate - from your market’s iconic events and places to your listeners’ voices sharing personal experiences and emotions. Localize data (like this and this).  Or create a holiday theme or spin, again with a local camera angle.

(And while you're writing fresh material please, on your website, post obviously local and not a stock photos of fireworks or whatever is the appropriate celebratory expression. And use unique shots for each station. Yes, some New York City stations should be embarrassed).

For future holidays, consider how inspired imaging  - even more than your specialty song category - can make your station stand out and engage more by reflecting the local spirit and emotions of the moment.

The A&O&B team remind you that a holiday isn't a good reason to play a bad song, but it's always an excellent opportunity to create unique, engaging, brand-boosting imaging.

PD “Muscle Memory” – A 5-Point Filter for Evaluating Daily ‘Opportunities’

Using repetition to teach your body how to do something is a pretty simple way to think about muscle memory. Through repetition you can become very good (or in some cases, bad) at something – even if you go for a period where you don’t use those skills.

While muscle memory is actually a type of procedural memory (I learned that while writing this blog), it’s a convenient visual for how to deal with the daily ‘opportunities’ that have the power to impact our stations and brands.

Try using this 5-point filter regularly to help quickly determine the value of something to your station/brand.

1. Is this in sync with the brand strategy?
2. Does this enhance and strengthen the brand?
3. Is this tactically appropriate and is the tactic fully realized or exploited?
4. Will this surprise, delight and exceed user expectations?
5. Are there aspects of this that have the potential to tarnish the brand?

Promotions, programming elements, client requests, talent content, imaging, marketing, and social all can be run through this filter.

Some things won’t pass through the filter at all. Others will after some modification. And even those that do pass right away might be enhanced with some additional thinking on any of these points.

Filters fit nicely into a ‘muscle memory” analogy. Regularly thinking about theese points can help you make the right response when things come to you out of left field. 

Have some effective filters you use and would like to share?

Here's another one of my favorite filters.

The "Kings of Radio:" How Listeners Define A Great Talent

With Cousin Brucie, one of CNN's Top 10

As reported this week in All Access, CNN posted an article on the “Kings of Radio,” their Top 10 List of “All-time Great DJs” complete with mini-bios and audio clips.

Fun? Absolutely! It’s worth clicking just to hear one of Casey Kasem’s signature teases from 1963 and Howard Stern having fun at the expense of a traffic reporter.

Of course it’s impossible to get consensus on a list like this - just read the passionate comments about the omissions - because of the personal connection that a great talent develops with listeners.

Talk to listeners about talent they perceive as stars and you often hear these qualities:

• A good sense of humor
• They connect emotionally
• Are fun, interesting, and entertaining beyond anything else that is going on at the station
• A feeling that they ‘know’ the talent as a friend or even relative
• Listeners feel ‘understood’ by the talent who sometimes act as their spokesperson
• Feel the talent is sincere, honest, open, real, genuine, and shares their life on the air
• The talent talks in an interesting way about the things listeners care about or find important or fun
• Are passionate and have opinions
• Are unique
• They surprise you (in a good way) with things they say, do, or talk about
• Are people listeners want to ‘hang out’ with
• Are active in the community, generous with their time, and are often involved in charitable efforts
• Are larger than life
• Genuinely care about their listeners, often remembering their names or even the names of their children
• Are very informed about things the audience is interested in and know ‘what’s going on’  
• Always sound like they love being on the air
• Are people that the audience will not only go out of their way to listen to, but will tell others about including why they’re a fan

These of course are the end results of always being prepared, of being curious, aware and observant, of striving for originality, of knowing what is and isn't compelling content for their listeners, of self-revelation and sharing, of assuming the role of friend or advocate, of being visible, of taking changes, of reinvention, of aggressive editing, and of living an interesting life on and off the air.

Are you now or do you see yourself becoming a top-10 talent in your market? 

Are you coaching or managing in a way that develops “kings of radio?”

I want you to say 'yes' because stars generate love, loyalty and ratings - three things that are always in demand.

Sharing the Love: Connecting with Listeners by Expressing Passion for the Music

“Lovin’ on the Music” is a phrase we use at one station group to remind ourselves that we need to regularly demonstrate our passion for music just as our listeners do.

That we remind ourselves of this is both deliberate and strategic.

We remind ourselves because we recognize the distractions that come with working at a promotionally active station with content-filled shows and high profile personalities.

We also remind ourselves to love on the music so that we don’t fall victim to a ‘been there/done that’ attitude, or become blasé about our product while are fans are so excited about it.

We’ve already heard the newest music.  We’ve seen every act – from newcomers to superstars – in concert, often more than once. We’ve photo-opped with the stars and had drinks with them on their tour busses.

A&O&B did a quick poll of programmers and listeners the day after the ACMs.  Compared to Programmers and Talent, listeners rated nearly every aspect of the awards show higher – in several instances significantly higher.

• In rating the show overall, three times as many listeners as Talent and Programmers rated the show a “5" on a 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) scale.
• On the hosts, nearly four times as many listeners rated Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan a ”5” as did Programmers and Talent
• Listeners were more enthusiastic about the speeches and even the sets while being less critical of who won what award and the technical issues.

As professionals, we’re excellent at, of course, “professional opinions.”

Listeners meanwhile are experts at “Lovin’ on the Music.” 

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.

Making A Difference - for Better or Worse

How cool for country radio to have two of its artists- Darius Rucker and Randy Houser - featured on Saturday Night’s Making a Difference segment on NBCNightly News (watch that segment here).

Both are members of Musicians On Call (Chuck Wicks, Chris Young, Joanna Smith and Mark Wills are also among the Nashville-based volunteers) an organization that connects musicians with hospital patients and often results in bedside performances. 

The NBC segment featured Darius and Randy performing for patients at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Musicians On Call's executive director cited medical benefits of music while patients and parents voiced their appreciation.

This is a great example of doing good not only mattering but getting noticed.

Recently I was in a market conducting listener panels and the groups could not stop talking about all the great things that one of our morning hosts does for the community (he's also strong on the air). Without even needing to pause and think, the group reeled off half a dozen specific ways he’d made a difference in the community over the years.

They felt connected to him in a special, personal, and very positive way. 

Doing good and getting noticed.

Contrast those two stories with these.

A General Manager who, on pitching his station to an agency in New York City, was asked, "Morning shows...those are the guys that run around the building with underwear on their heads make dumb jokes right?"

Or (worse) the Todd Schnitt-Bubba the Love Sponge trial that drove the Jury Forewoman to vow, “I am never listening to the radio again.”

The choice to become a positive force in a market is a choice each station and talent can make.

And if it’s true that the media reports roughly seventeen “bad news” stories for every one “good news” story, it’s incumbent on us not only to find ways to make a difference, but to tell our story as well.

Start spreadin’ the news.

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. 

Welcome Back: Country Returns to New York Metro. What Drove Past Success

Something that’s been a long time coming happened yesterday (Monday, 01/21) in the nation’s number one market: New York City got a country station again.

Having launched WYNY as a country station for NBC and programming it from 1987-1992, I know that the New York metro is a great country market.  As with many formats, some pockets are hotter than others, but with 1-million-plus cume, there are lots of fans and potential P1s.

We had a number of firsts at WYNY including being the first country station to raise 1-million dollars for St. Jude. We had a cume of over a million with no sports affiliation to inject additional audience.

We had a staff of high profile personalities including the great Dan Daniel and Jim Kerr – two of the biggest names in New York City radio – and Scott Carpenter from KZLA, plus talent that worked (before or after) at New York's legendary CHR Z100.  

WYNY turned out to be a radio “Who’s-Who” whose staff also included the brilliant Steve Blatter (@Steve_Blatter) who is now the Sr. VP/GM, Music Programming SiriusXM.

We marketed.

We researched (continually) which helped us develop a unique brand strategy and a programming action plan that was built on totally on the New York/NJ/Connecticut country user.

We had a stellar promotions department that had a passion to find ways to put our amazing station and talent in the midst of listeners. 

We loved on the music and the artists, from Merle Haggard at the Garden to the Kentucky Headhunters at the Plaza Hotel (I’d love to tell you about THAT event when we see each other at CRS this year).

We hung with listeners every chance we could.

We embraced them and loved on their towns.

Over the years I’ve often been asked, “Why is there no country station in New York?” I’ve responded that three big factors are in play: signal, power ratios, and the corporate passion for the format.

Certainly one of the challenges for country in the New York metro is that big pockets of the audience live to the east (Long Island) and to the southwest (New Jersey). You can be talking in the neighborhood of 100 miles between the eastern and western pockets of the metro, so a signal with a big footprint is necesary if you’re going to be able to reach the maximum audience.

Obviously the revenue potential is a key consideration of any format decision, and formats have various power ratios (a power ratio of 1.2 means you can generally charge 20% above your ratings). These ratios vary across formats and across the country, so if the power ratio of one format is better than another, that would be a consideration. Recently country’s national Power Ratio was 1.07;   all news was a 2.0. 

That may or may not be what country is today in market #1.

And finally, yes, New York IS a different market for the format. The degree to which the plan is customized for the best prospects will make a difference.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not in any way advocating watering the format down – but New Yorkers won’t accept “medium” as an acceptable suit size.

Country won’t be a ‘gimmie.’

But I’m excited for the industry and the fans that country has made a return to a great country market - hey, Jason Aldean sold out the Garden in 10 minutes and Brett Gardner, outfielder for the New York Yankees has been playing country music as his ‘walk to the plate music’ in Yankee stadium for years. 

Plus there's the market's strong sale of country music.

The blueprints for success are well documented. 

The potential rewards are great. 

The bar is high.

And those who have gone before you are here as resources to help you succeed.

The degree to which that success happens will be what Cumulus will do beyond the ordinary, and how they will treat New York as the unique – and amazing – country market that it is.

Country Music 2012 Year in Review Part 2: How 2012’s Music Compares to Years Past

2012’s music has something big going against it: 2011.

2011 of course was a great year for country. We saw new high water marks for a number of our metrics including overall Like A Lot and Total Positive scores.  So any comparison to 2011 has to take that in to account.

Having said that, 2012 was a good year for country although, in aggregate, A&O&B’s year-end scores were a bit softer than 2011’s and we saw more metrics off than up. 

Let’s look at two: Total Positive and Like A Lot.

Total Positive scores increased in 2012 making this the fourth consecutive year of higher scores. The growth was fueled by improved scores in the bottom 2/3 that more than off-set a slight decline in scores among the top 1/3 (ending two years of growing scores there).  As a result there was some ‘score compression’ as the averages for the top 1/3 and bottom 2/3 are closer this year than last, and the second most compressed since 2000.

Meanwhile, while our Like A Lot final average scores for the year’s top 1/3 are a bit lower than last year, they were not far from the average of the past 5 years. And, again 2011 was an extremely strong year.

However taking all the songs into consideration, the decline in Like A Lot scores is greater. And, unlike Total Positives, the scores from the bottom 2/3 of the list were much weaker. In fact, the overall Like A Lot average for the bottom 2/3 of our testers was the softest we’d seen in a number of years. 

That our Total Positive scores continue to grow is of course great news. More disappointing though is that the overall Like A Lot score for 2012 – arguably analogous to ‘must hear music’ and by extension ‘must hear radio’ – was soft compared not just to last year, but to A&O&B’s 10-year average.

Were there great powers to play this year? Absolutely – the top 1/3 was certainly strong.  However the Like A Lot difference between the top 1/3 and bottom 2/3 was widest we’ve seen since 2008, making not playing the ‘right’ powers potentially more costly.

It seems somewhat silly to say, “Make sure you’re playing the songs listeners want to hear.”  But tracking spins as your primary source of music information won’t provide the same data as asking your listeners how they feel about the music you’re playing.

Each year we see significant differences in the 'most spun' vs. the 'best testers.'

If you’re not already doing so, an important programming resolution for 2013 would be regularly taking your listeners’ pulse on the music you play.

A&O&B offers client stations online music testing, free, as part of our full service commitment. We’ll be glad to answer your questions about how it works.

Click here for Country Music 2012 Year in Review Pt. 1 Is Luke Bryan Worth of All Those Awards and Kudos?

Country Music 2012 Year in Review Part One: Is Luke Bryan Worthy of All Those Awards and Kudos?

Oh yeah. No doubt. 

Fueled by Tailgates and Tanlines, 2012 was Luke Bryan’s year.

This month alone, Luke racked up 9 awards including Male Artist of the year and Artist of the Year on the fan-voted American Country Awards December 10th on Fox (plus, earlier this year, an American Music Award). 

He also was singled out as Overall Artist and Male MVP in this week’s Country Aircheck.  Again, deservedly so.

He’d have won the Albright & O’Malley & Brenner’s “Best Testing Artist of the Year” award as well if we offered it (note to Fox producers).

Each year A&O&B produces a list of the top testing songs of the year based on call-out and online listener research. And this year, Luke led the list.

Luke Bryan scored 3 titles in our Top 10 for 2012. This is the fourth time this has happened in the past 10 years: Blake Shelton in 2011, Zac Brown Band in 2010, and Toby Keith in 2003.

Good company.

Besides Luke, Jason Aldean and Eric Church were the only artists to have three songs in the A&O&B’s top 30. Blake placed two in the top 20 as did Lee Brice. Dierks Bentley was the only other artist to place two songs inside the A&O&B top 30.

That Bryan, Aldean, Shelton, and Church all had big years mirrors data the February data we reported in A&O&B’s 2012 Roadmap online perceptual study where the “New Songs from Millennial Stars” cluster (where these artists reside) was the #1 25-54 music cluster among the 12 we tested.  

In all, 90% of songs in our top 1/3 were from Millennial Artists and there were no artists in the Top 10 whose discography (major label) precedes 2000.

Meanwhile, Historical Superstars (defined here as current or previous ‘Essence/Core Artists’ who had multiple chart hits prior to 1997) placed no songs in the top 10 (second year in a row) and just two in the top 1/3 – one each from Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith.

“New Songs from Historical Superstars” as a music cluster still was one of the top four 25-54 clusters in terms of appeal in Roadmap 2012, and Kenny Chesney (4 songs), Toby Keith (3), and Tim McGraw (2) did place multiple songs on the year-end list while George Strait and Alan Jackson had one each. However the overall presence of Historical Superstars in the top 1/3 has been trending down since 2008.

While we had more artist diversity in terms of the number of different artists overall, the top third had less. In fact, this is the second “least diverse” top 1/3 since we began tracking this in 1998.

Artists that were new to this year’s chart had a smaller footprint as well. Kip Moore had the highest chart position for a first-time-on-the-charts-in-2012-artist; Hunter Hayes made it to the top 20.

So back to Luke and his three in the A&O&B Top 10 joining a select group of artists. Listeners responding so positively and passionately to "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye," "I Don't Want This Night to End" and "Drunk on You" puts a punctuation mark on what has been a great year. 

Next in Part Two: How This Year’s Music Compared to Previous Years 

Pandora Users And Radio's Opportunities

Ask Pandora listeners what they like most about radio and they’ll tell you it’s ‘feeling connected.’

Their big dislikes? Radio is boring and fatiguing.

Those are some of the findings Jeff Vidler, Sr. Vice President of Media and Entertainment Research, shares in a new Vision Critical report, “What Pandora Means for Radio.” The Canadian company surveyed more than 1000 US listeners 18+ in the September-October online survey where just under 1/3 identified themselves as Pandora users and 42% reported listening to some form of online radio.

Jeff shared a lot including the demographics of online listening (not surprisingly 18-29’s are the heaviest users), desktop consumption being more than that of smartphones and tablets combined and Pandora listeners spending more time with AM/FM radio than non-Pandora users (about 50% more - 19.1 vs. 12.7 hours).

That last finding got a lot of coverage (as an industry we're good at self-congratulation), but for growth and opportunity, this graph deserves our time and attention.  

The obvious first. The attributes Pandora most uniquely associate with AM/FM radio are “makes me feel connected,” “convenient,” and “easy” on the positive side and “boring” and tiring on the negative. Personal, local, live, and music discovery/curation were singled out elsewhere in the study as AM/FM attributes respondents valued.

While the distance between AM/FM radio and feeling connected is short in comparison to the other media shown. But if we were to draw ‘spheres’ of roughly equal size with Satellite and Internet Audio Services at the center, those two media are in proximity to a greater number of positive associations.

Imagine if radio were to occupy a slightly different space as in the graph below so that “puts me in a good mood,” “is for people like me” and “interesting” are also encompassed.

A&O&B’s annual Roadmap online perceptual has consistently showed the importance of “makes me feel good” and “DJs that sound like my friends” as core expectations/desires from AM/FM radio.

If you’re not already there, what will you do to move your show/station/cluster/group up and to the left?

Of Course I'm Going to Have A Great Show Monday: 20 Relatives Are Coming Over for Thanksgiving Dinner

It's going to be one of the most asked questions Monday: "How was your Thanksgiving?"

The majority of answers will be mundane - hardly show-worthy material. Yet there is a rich source of content that you can tap into simply by showing up for dinner.

A Pew Research Center Report from 2 years ago estimated that 89% of adults would be having dinner with family members present. 60% would have at least 10 family members at the table while a whopping 27% said there would be 20 or more relatives sharing the stuffing.

Get that many relatives in a room and with just a slight bit of exaggeration and embellishment you can expect to have more material than you can use. You simply have to be listening and watching for it.

That's the key.

A couple of years ago talent coach Tommy Kramer and I did one of those "50 ideas in 50 minutes" panels at the Conclave. Part of the presentation included video tips that some great talent around the country created for us.

One came from B96/Chicago's J & Julian who talked about the value of listening to each other as a way of finding content ideas.

That's good advice for family gatherings, too.

Thanksgiving leftovers can make Monday's show one of your best all year.

And we haven't gotten to Black Friday content yet.

Effective Billboards Part 2: Positioning a Show with a Word and a Gesture

The leaves have fallen and the billboards have risen. It must be the November TV sweeps.

Clean, minimal word count, attention-getting/stand-out-ability, asking for action directly or indirectly, and having a post-impression ‘afterglow’ are traits of effective billboards.

The bright yellow on this Fox 5 board pops, while the iconic gesture and the portmanteau (the “aaayyy” is implied) do an effective job in positioning Good Day New York against its national competitors.

Here's an earlier billboard blog which includes shots of two excellent boards for morning radio. 

And here are two creative and effective transit boards that also might inspire your next campaign. 

Hurricane Sandy: Radio Homepages Range from "All Over It" to "Absent"

Waiting for a hurricane is like waiting for unwanted company. You have to get ready, even though you hope plans will change and your company won’t show up.

No such luck in New Jersey today as Hurricane Sandy, arguably the state’s most unwanted guest, is at our doorstep.

With Atlantic City projected to be close to the landfall cross-hairs, I waited for Sandy’s arrival Monday morning by checking out websites for the majority of the market’s FM stations.

Yes, of course, it’s first and foremost about ‘what’s on the air.’ Still, with the potential historic nature of the storm, the appetite for information is already bordering on insatiable.  Some stations had strong online efforts augmenting their on air content while for others, online content about the storm was non-existent.

WSJO/SoJO 104.9 and WCHR:  devoted 2 ½ pages to Hurricane Sandy news and photographs.

WENJ, 97.3 ESPN: three of five flippers were dedicated to Hurricane Sandy content including a live video feed and storm photos.

While not an Atlantic City station, New Jersey 101.5 was heavily invested with unique pages for "Cancellations and Delays," "How Bad Will It Get?" (video that was also posted on a number of other websites), "Here Comes Sandy" (east coast story), "Sandy Ready to Blast New Jersey," "Share Your Storm Photos," plus about a dozen other hurricane-related stories and information pieces.

WFPG, Lite Rock 96.9 and WPUR, Cat Country 107.3: Each had a single, static, satellite photo of Sandy (still showing it south of Florida) that clicked through to links for live radar, headlines and evacuation news.

Two stations simply relied on their Facebook feeds; there were a few updates and photos but nothing approaching substantial.

One station website had a link to storm closings, but clicking there took me to a page of closings dated 8/29/2011. 

For seven others, beyond an AccuWeather.com (or similar) link, there was nothing on the homepage about the hurricane. Instead, it was the usual collection of flippers one might see on any non-extraordinary day: how to win concert tickets for shows (the shows ranged from December to April), plugs for weekend countdown and/or request shows, plus flippers for downloading the TuneIn app, booking a cruise with a personality (none of these activities I suspect were high on listeners’ ‘to do’ lists), and a couple or slides about winning a DJ poll or the last rating period. 

Then there was this listener poll question: “The best thing about fall is…” Hurricane Sandy wasn’t listed as one of the choices.

In today’s RadioInfo.com , New JerseyBroadcasting Association President Paul Rotella said, “…that’s what local radio is all about: being prepared, being nimble, and being informative, with real information our listeners need. It’s amazing how dedicated local broadcasters are, especially in New Jersey where local radio means so much to our state!”

Some of our state’s broadcasters clearly have embraced this attitude both on air and online. A salute to you and your staff and a thank you for your work and dedication during a very difficult time.

Hopefully too you've inspired others.

Can You Do A Show Like Taylor Swift?

On any number of levels it’s hard not to be incredibly impressed with Taylor Swift.

But watching her at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York do a ‘Live on Letterman' segment Tuesday night, I was way beyond impressed. 'Wowed' wouldn't be too much.

I want to be careful not to use the word ‘performance’ or ‘show’ in describing what I saw because the half hour or so felt far more intimate and personal. It was instead much like a feel-good gathering of close friends.

The relevance here is that, for the past 6 years, country listeners participating in A&O’s annual online perceptual study have placed a great deal of importance on ‘makes me feel good when I listen’ and ‘DJs who sound like my friends and not disc jockeys’ when talking about why they choose one country station over another.  

As they could relate to the next time you're on the air, here are some take-aways from Taylor’s performance:

• Choose your words carefully so that they sound careless.  How would you tell a friend about something that just happened to you? That’s the language you’re looking for.

• Be intimate. When you speak, strive to make it a personal conversation with a friend or group of friends. 

• When planning the show, intentionally create opportunities for these conversations to occur.

• Use body language, pauses and inflection to help make your points more salient and the conversation more interesting.  Yes, you can ‘hear’ body language on the air.

• ‘Love on the music.’ Tell a story that heightens interest in hearing the next song. Of course that works for spoken content, too.  

• Others players on the show can add power to your content. Taylor’s background singers didn’t just share the stage, they gave Taylor’s music additional power and punch with just the right amount of animation and interaction.

• Be so prepared you sound spontaneous.

• Be totally in the moment. Few at the Ed Sullivan Theater probably cared (or even thought about) Taylor’s day probably starting around 4am to prepare for a GMA broadcast. And even if they had known, their expectations wouldn’t have been any less high. Right now is what counts.

Effective Emails Start with Strong Subject Lines

The likelihood of listeners opening up one of your emails is improved with a great subject line.

Here’s a good one from 3-time ACM Station of the Year winner (and long time A&O partner), Cat Country 98.7 in Pensacola, FL.

Subject: OPEN this email and you might win Zac Brown Tickets

A subject line like this plays to a key reason why listeners join radio “Insider” clubs: access to special privileges especially concert tickets – from winning them to being able to buy them early.

The body then reinforced the subject line and the value of being a Cat Country Insider:

Just because you are a Cat Country Insider you have also scored a chance to win General Admission tickets to Deluna Fest to put your "Toes" in the sand with Zac Brown. The Cat Pak will announce the Winner on Wednesday Morning at 840a, but you can only win if you are a reading this email!

This was followed by a “thank you,” an invitation, and signature:

Thanks for being a 'full-time' listener to The Cat. Follow the Cat on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/catcountry987.                              Brent and Candy, The Cat Pack Morning Show

At the very end there was a pitch:

PS: You can buy single day tickets to Deluna Fest at http://www.delunafest.com

How effective was this campaign?

Cat Country’s Brent Lane says it was, “…pretty great. Considering the average 'good' campaign is about 10-15%, this one did 23% as of last check."

Presslaff Interactive’s Ruth Preslaff shared that when open rates jump, “(it) means listeners are just waiting for something to capture their attention and when it hits their inbox, they respond."

Here are six ways to improve your subject lines.

We'd love to hear some of your lines and your techniques.

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.

For Better Content, Treat Ideas like Runners in Scoring Position

“Runners left in scoring position” is one of those “relative” baseball stats.

If a team scores a lot of runs and wins big, RLISP (runners who were on second or third base and in a position to score but did not) is an afterthought. But if the game is tight or the team loses by a couple of runs, the number of runners who had the potential to score but didn't takes on more significance.

At its core, RLISP is a measure of missed opportunities, of something that began with great promise but was not brought to its ultimate conclusion. 

A lot of shows stumble with their own version of RLISP: good ideas that don’t get sufficiently developed and simply remain “in scoring position.”

To more get more interesting, unique and fully developed content, try this 3-step, “brainstorm your brainstorming” technique. We did this last week with a room full of morning shows but you can absolutely do this by yourself with great results.

First, we brainstormed the big topics:  things we believed listeners are or were going to be doing or talking about, things that are now - or would in the near future be - impacting listeners' lives, and things the group had heard or experienced that they felt listeners would find interesting. We wrote all the ideas down without judging. The first round is about quantity not quality.

Next we choose one topic from our list that the teams felt had the best potential and did a second round of brainstorming, this time on all the different ways the topic could be approached. Again, we wrote down all the different perspectives, angles, or “takes.”

Here’s what we came up with for our big topic: “school reopens next week.”

Lastly from this list we chose the three approaches the teams believed would be the most fun/entertaining to listen to, that provided a showcase for each player on the show, that we could do stellar execution on, and that offered opportunities for listener engagement and participation.  Then we brainstormed how we’d execute each with the goal of presenting the big topic three times over the course of the show, but each time from a different angle.

“Schools reopen” put the idea on base. 

Brainstorming the treatments put the idea into “scoring position.” 

Brainstorming the execution drove the idea home.

Your content will be richer if you approach your good ideas as if they were simply in scoring position and it was up to you to keep batting (developing and enhancing) until you brought them all the way home.