What is your top priority when working with a new radio station?
How to work with the resources we have in personnel, talent, web/new media, promotion, marketing and research. Every station usually has lots of needs in all of these areas to create a competitive and successful product. In today’s world competition for the audience’s time comes from a wide variety of sources aside from the other broadcasters in the area.
Building a brand that stands up to all kinds of new vehicles to entertain the audience takes more than just a safe list of songs, a voice on the air and some imaging between the songs. Building a strategy and an action plan within the resources that addresses all fronts is the biggest challenge we tackle.
What has changed about the way you program today from when you started consulting?
With the role of the Programmer often being extended to multiple signals in the same cluster along with their air shifts, extended promotional responsibilities, and the need to build communication with the audience through the web, Facebook, Twitter and their database you have to take on a role that goes beyond working with them to develop the strategy and action plan. You have to dive in, roll up your sleeves, and help them find ways to execute the plan if it’s going to succeed.
It might mean hours taking apart the music scheduling, developing a full promotion outline, doing more talent coaching, helping them interface with sales, doing extra analysis on the ratings, or any number of other tasks that they might not have the time for.
What are the key things that broadcasters should be focusing on?
- Building a full platform for communicating with the audience on the web and with their mobile device world. Your brand will have to have a presence in this world to remain competitive.
- The audience is changing in how they use our product and in how they communicate. Much of our research and communication systems with the audience are reliant on old technology – the land line telephone. We need to look at new systems to research and interact with them in their new web/mobile world. Over the last 5 years we have cut back on researching the audience to cut costs are we getting out of touch with them?
- The new demographic profile of the audience. While 25-54 is still the money demo the real picture of the audience is split between the Baby Boomer generation that is quickly becoming a 50+ aged world and a new Millennial generation now aged from 14-28 years old. The Millennial generation is just as big (if not slightly bigger) than the Boomers and they are obviously becoming a huge force in marketing and advertising. Yet radio has pretty much ignored this new generation and is in danger of being replaced for music and audio entertainment in their world. If we don’t find ways to build profitable products for this generation it will have a big impact on our future.
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?
Watching the programmers, air talent and managers you’ve worked with and consulted build successful products, advance their careers and grow and hoping that you helped them in some way.
What would you like to be known for as a broadcaster?
A coach who helps broadcasters build great brands and products.
What advice would you share with a first time program director who is entering the rock format?
Keep an honest journal that tracks your thoughts about your role and your product every week. You’ll be amazed at many of your observations on the audience, the talent you work with, and your views of the industry. Just make sure to go back every quarter and read your old observations – chances are you saw something that will help you in the days ahead.
Remember we learn from history and that it does repeat itself.
Any additional thoughts on the state of radio today?
The role of a consultant in the past often took one of two themes. One theme had a ‘format in a box’ like the old days of The Superstars Rock format, Classic Rock, Jack or any number of other packages. You came in with the magic music list, some imaging and a manual of execution and built it on the success the approach had in another market. The other theme was ‘the expert’ with all the answers laying out rules for programming and big picture analysis.
After years of being a consultant it seems the successful role in today’s world is more about looking at each station and market in its own world. The resources, talent, competitive landscape and the fit within the cluster are different in every market. Just coming in with a format in a box often doesn’t work and you are leaving key opportunities on the table that may not fit into the ‘format box.’ The role of the ‘expert’ is also not very helpful – you have to dive in and do a lot more than just view the market from above. We also have to get back to a world where the unique qualities of the community are reflected in the station. Just building a station that sounds like a successful station in another market is not the answer – each market and product in this world is unique and that is what has the potential to build a strong bond to the audience. |
