Meet the Consultant...

What is the one thing that is universally concerning when you start a new relationship with a radio client?

Meaning A STATION client, right?  

Are they just asking, or do they really want different results? 

DON'T hire a consultant if you're married to the-way-things-are.

Or to have someone to argue with.

Or to experiment.

The strategy we derive is the-opposite-of-an-experiment. There's too much at stake to experiment.  

Recipe for frustration: cherry-picking only-certain-tactics which comprise a larger strategy the consultant maps-out.  Instead, "just do it," because tactics are inter-related, and "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts."

What has changed about the way you program today from when you started consulting?

With (unfortunately) fewer employees per station post-consolidation, there's less time spent in one-on-one coaching, and more time spent defining the station's appliance-like utility to the listener.

What are the key things that broadcasters should be focusing on?

1. How fragile attention is, the clear headline from PPM data we're hip-deep-in.  Accordingly...
   
   
2. Stating more-clearly how radio fits-into the-menu-of-media-options that listeners use during a typical day.  They're now accustomed to getting news, weather, music, and other former radio staples, from various devices.  Yet too many stations still assume the old real-time "appointment listening" consumption model.  Imaging is boastful and station-centric ("THE OFFICIAL TRAFFIC STATION" -- says who?) rather than offering a compelling proposition for using OUR platform ("BECAUSE ONE TRAFFIC JAM CAN JAM-UP YOUR WHOLE DAY, SET A BUTTON FOR WXXX TIME-SAVER TRAFFIC, FIRST THING IN THE MORNING, AND THROUGHOUT THE HOUR, THROUGHOUT YOUR BUSY DAY").
   
   
3. Quality Control/Quantity Control of commercial content.  Another PPM headline: There are no "stopsets."  It's all "programming."  

What is the one thing that you're most proud of (to date) in your career as a broadcaster and consultant to the broadcast industry?  

Actually it's two things... 

1. When talent we coach "connects," either by producing remarkable results in-place, or by graduating to bigger-and-better things.  I met Ed Schultz at KFGO/Fargo a dozen years ago, and he already had that twinkle in his eye.  And he was real curious as to what-the-consultant-was-hearing "out there."  People I managed at WTOP/Washington in the '80s, are on various networks now.  I'm proud to have signed their timesheets way-back-when.
   
   
2. Fashioning non-spot value for local advertisers.  Lately, much of my work is at-the-intersection-of the transmitter and the Internet, creating a handshake between listener and advertiser that contributes-to, rather than seeming-to-interrupt, programming.  

What would you like to be known for as a broadcaster?

Making people-who-work-inside-radio-stations more curious about the-very-different-way radio sounds to people-who-don't-work-in-radio-stations.  There's still a BIG disconnect.

What advice would you share with a first time program director who is entering the news/talk format?

1. As with any format, play the hits.  Talk about what-PEOPLE-talk-about, not just politics.
   
   
2. Aim for high call count.  It's called "Talk Radio" not "sit there and listen to me" radio.
   
   
3. As with any format, become a hero to Sales NOT-to-the-chagrin-of the listener.

Any additional thoughts on the state of radio today?

The News/Talk format saved AM radio, and it will save FM.