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I’m a radio brat. I was born into the broadcasting business.
My late father is in the Canadian Broadcasting Hall of Fame. My brother Gerry is one of the top morning men in the country; my other brother Gord spent 33 years in production and then sales management.
We never had Christmas. We had conventions. When you’re a radio brat your entire world is consumed by ‘radio’ 24/7/365.
The great part is that at very early ages the Forbes boys were exposed to great radio – great radio people and we’ve benefited from that for a full 139 years of collective time in the biz.
This past year I ‘semi’ retired (whatever that really means – ok it means only wearing a tie for weddings and funerals now) and I opened up a small consulting company called Radiowise Inc.
My non compete negated me from working in most Canadian major markets over this period so I focused on the ‘small to medium’ markets and I’m kind of glad I did because that’s where a lot of magic still remains in this business.
I’m working with young owners/young managers without restrictions from corporate directions many Provinces away.
Few layoffs. Few cut backs. Just an attitude from Management that "we will take a little less this year to not affect the final on air product."
I love it. I’m having a ball launching new stations and ‘mentoring’ young broadcasters in these markets.
Recently I attended a seminar in Phoenix Arizona, where I reside for half the year.
As a radio ‘brat’ I was taught to not just pay attention to the host/moderator/sessions during conventions but to the rest of the surroundings. (OK I ‘did’ get a little sidetracked at a few NAB’s but that’s expected.)
I was taught by my Dad that the worlds biggest rolodex eventually wins and to "talk to lots of people" whenever I’m at these sessions. – He reminded me to ‘observe" and "schmooze" - share stories with radio peers.
As such most of the content of the seminar was excellent. We all agreed that there was no reason to focus ‘backwards’ and that we were all here (several at our own personal expense) to help rebuild and refocus a ‘great’ business.
It was one minute of ‘negative’ and seven hours of ‘positive.’
Now I truly believe you can certainly learn from the past and that if we don’t get back to some pretty big ‘essentials’ in the business that it really won’t matter what ‘platform’ we listen to in the future (radio – streaming –mobile) because "great radio is made by great radio people" and top notch personality radio still has a place on the pre set.
Other than the zest of the day one major highlight for me was talking to a ‘radio legend’ in the business Rick Dees.
I found it interesting to note that other than the host/moderator only ONE person in the room walked around and talked to almost every one of the 100 guests (or at least he tried to) at the session.
It was Rick.
He never missed a moment during a break to make face to face contact with us all.
Rick, I’m sure after all his success in the past, could probably be sitting on a warm beach somewhere counting his money – but now he has ‘evolved’ himself into where the business is going…’apps’ and ‘mobile.’
Notice I didn’t say "reinvent" because what he has done so successfully is adapt his legendary countdown show so that it is available to the mobile platform.
He of the one name web site – www.rick.com (smart) – has an APP so that you can listen to his countdown show(s) and other products on line.
Smartly as well, ‘some’ of the content is free – while the full meal deal is ‘paid’ …which seems to me to be a pretty smart platform these days in ‘new media.’
The site is so ‘bang on’ for content that it is scary.
Great visuals. Easy click throughs. Downloads. Subscriptions. Lots of ‘video’. All hubbed by his legendary countdown show.
Rick had time for ‘all of us.’ Very Personable – he let us all take pictures together – and his business card (again smart) is a Two Sided Calendar.
I grabbed a few and posted them on my office wall in both cities that I work out of – One side is 2010 – the other 2011 – so it is the ONLY card I have that I know will be visual for a long period of time.
It got me to thinking when the last time I saw a ‘well healed’ morning guy work this hard at his craft.
Most ‘hibernate’ these days – satisfied with their lot in life.
However as more and more signals and more and more ‘distractions’ are available to our listeners how many guys not only are expanding their rolodexes but working on the next huge platform that is coming their way so that they don’t become redundant or outdated?
I don’t think many.
As I continue to observe and evolve myself I’m hoping to fully become a major‘digital dude’ - and I’m investigating every technical change that is happening to our business – yet I’m still counseling my radio clients to ‘make sure you are doing the day to day basics well every day in their markets’ and to think that the "glory days of radio" don’t have to simply be behind us because content truly will remain king – and distribution will be the vehicle to take great radio to the people forever.
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