Are You Ready For Summer?

After a tough winter on many levels we are finally seeing the signs of Summer in the Northern Half of the Country and it's time to get your station ready.   Often we seem to push Summer off in radio programming.  The Summer book (if you have one) is usually not that important for business and the staff is usually taking vacations and laying back.  

But, Summer is one of the most important times for the audience and entertainment.  Radio has a real chance to shine as TV largely shuts down and our mobile medium has the advantage of being able to move with the audience.  As they spend more time outside radio goes with them to the patio, the car, out in the community and even to the beach/pool.  This is a time to hustle if you want to build your audience for the Fall.  

Here's a quick checklist of areas you can focus on to make your station shine in the Summer:   

• Festivals and Community Events: Every area has their events of Summer and your station needs to be center stage at as many of them as possible.  Don't just show up with the vehicle - make it an on air event somehow.  If you look into any event surly there is something you can really get behind.  It could be as simple as a dunk tank with local celebs at the local fair, or maybe a raft race at a water fest, setting the fireworks to music, or a rib cook off at the food fair.  Twist it and make it unique and you can be the star of the event, but you have to plan ahead to win.   
• Concerts: There are a lot more of them in Summer and it's time to look at your presence and involvement with the bigger shows.  
• Music: There is more new music available throughout Summer.  Are you clocks and systems up to to the task of introducing more new songs - this can be exciting if the artists are big.  You also usually have a few new artists pop up every Summer - are your systems ready to see them bloom?   If you are more library driven (and even if you are not look at your library) consider that Summer means FRESH to the audience.  The Heat brings a different tempo to them also.  Is your music up and hot?  Or dull and boring?  
• Think Mobile:  The audience moves around more in the Summer.  They spend more time in their cars, get out on the weekends, and get outdoors a lot more.  Is your team working this reality into their content, is the energy of the station matching the energy in the audience, and are you working in your imaging and presence to be with them as the get out?   
• Services:  Weather and Traffic take on a whole new world in Summer.  It's more likely that the real issues in both shift from Mornings to Afternoon.   In the Winter we get snows and school closings and many of the issues revolve around Morning Drive.  In the Summer it's thunderstorms and a bit lower traffic in Mornings.  For a lot of the service info this changes the whole game - are you ready.   Also do you have a full plan for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and other disasters.  They are different in Summer - storms can pop up anywhere in Summer, for big snows we usually have some idea what's coming a day or more ahead.   
• Sports:  It's moved outside and now the audience is more likely to be playing more sports also.  
• Brighten the Station:  Enjoy the Sun and have more Fun with the audience.  Make the station sound bright and hot every day.  

Summer is special - make sure your station is special this Summer.  It will pay off in the Fall. 

The State Of Classic Rock

Classic Rock started around 25 years ago as one of the first sub folders of the origional AOR/Rock formats of the 70s.  When you go back to the 80s most rock outlets had pretty much the same approach of 40% currents and 60% older songs dating back to the late 60s.  

As Classic Rock began to spread many AOR/Rock outlets became pretty defensive on the library side of their music mix.  It was a period when AOR was moving from it's dominance of 18-24s to having enough 25-40 year old listeners to start winning the all important 25-54 demo.   Of course a format that targeted just the 25-40s at the time was not just a threat to the 12 plus braging rights - this was danger to the bottom line in the sales department.  Many a GM and Owner issued the command to either join the format now or be prepared to win when it comes.  

By the time we hit the 90s rock radio had undergone a complete transition.  Now there were 4 emerging formats (Alternative, Active Rock, Classic Rock and the AOR/Rock as well as a few scattered Adult Alternatives).  In many ways the Classic Rock format was the golden one with strong 25-54 shares and the easiest for the sales deparment to work with for clients.   

But, where does it stand now?  When you look at the music mix most Classic Rock stations focus on rock titles from 1967 to 1988.  The average year is 1978 to maybe 1980 - 30 years ago.  If you were in High School in 1979 you are now 45 to 48 years old in the last phase of the 25-54 demo.  This group made up 2/3rds or more of the 25-54 demo in the 90s and now it's around a 1/3rd.   

A decade ago we saw the same situation with the Oldies stations.  While many had consistent strong 12+ ranks they had fallen too far down in 25-54s as their audience aged.  The format moved from being mostly a 50s and 60s world to a whole new era balance.   

The make over for Oldies in most cases forced a whole new position and often a name change.  The word 'oldies' meant Elvis to the late 60s to the audience and had to completely evolve.  Still the former oldies stations are still challenged in 25-54 and their audience is still aging out of the key demo.   They have put a finger in the dike, but the dam is still cracking. 

Classic Rock faces the same challenges.   For most of the audience the format IS the 70s and 80s.  When you try to move beyond Guns and Roses in the late 80s it's tough to convince the P1 audience that this is also Classic Rock.  

While there are still good 25-40 shares for many Classic Rockers and we even see good 18-24s once in a while when you get a few in the sample that like to play in mom and dad's record collection the days are numbered.   As you break out 25-34s and 35-44s you can see the down trends although they are often offset by the strength of 45-54s.  

How will Classic Rock evolve it's music mix to maintain it's 25-54 strength?  It's a big question and D-Day is fast approaching.    

Local Local Local

We hear it over and over that the key to success for the radio industry will come from it's local advantage.  Local is clearly our trump card as most of the new media is rather national or worldly in scope.   

One of the big parts of my travels is monitoring the market. For the 3 or so days the visit lasts the biggest task is absorbing as much of the market as possible.  Yet, when boiling down the monitor notes it's surprising that so many stations seem to ignore the local opportunity.  

The music list is often the 'national norm', the sweepers/imaging are a collection of stuff stolen from other stations, and jocks all seem to follow the standard patterns in their breaks.  The promotions are often copies of contests done elsewhere and even the logo or station brand can be found in many other markets (Jack, the X, Rock 102, Q92, The Fox, etc).   

When you do find a station that's embraced the local angle it's usually a long term success.  Just look at DVE, RIF, KSHE, and a host of others.  These stations are woven into their communities. If you look at the music mix on each of them you'll see some big differences.  DVE insists on playing The Clarks, RIF's list is often loaded with Michigan rockers, and if you do any music research in St. Louis you better be prepared to test some classics you've never thought of.  

These stations also hit the streets all the time.  They don't just show up at a festival in the summer with a booth - they create events that often make the festival a much bigger hit.  They don't miss a concert or a hot local sports team.  Their jocks talk about the community, know the streets, and are in touch with what the local audience is thinking about.  

It's not just covering a few local stories in the news or in the weather and traffic, it's a beat that's underneath the whole station.  Every market has a 'personality.'  You go to Springfield IL and you eat horseshoe sandwiches,  Milwaukee it's brats and cheese.  Every city has a street culture that's unique, even in the smaller cities.  

In some cases the great local stations have MADE events and traditions in the city.  The EBN Fireworks, the Philly MMR Cardboard Classic, and The Bear's Howler Halloween party in Edmonton.  

Some blame the corporate radio conglomerates, but DVE is Clear Channel, KQRS is Citadel, and FBQ is also Clear Channel.  

It also doesn't take a ton of money to become woven into your community.  It does take careful planning, creativity, and a huge effort from the whole staff.  Even if you are running with a syndicated morning show and just 2 jocks you can still build a huge local presence.  After all you have a big tower that talks to the whole community. 

All you have to do is use it.   

Getting the Staff Prepared Every Day

Formatic radio often ends up being very robotic.  We follow the same clocks day after day with the same 300 (or less) songs rotating around and read the same liners over and over.  

So what's to prepare for?  

Everyday is not the same for our audience and also every day is not the same for the station.  

These 2 points need to be at the center of every show every day.   

• What's important to the audience:  It might be the economy, Cramer was on The Daily Show, baseball started, the final 4, hockey playoffs or maybe the news that Metallica is coming to town.  It could also be that construction has started on the big freeway or any number of local issues that affect their lives.  

• What's important to the station: It could be very different from what's important to the audience.  The station may be having a big night to cap off the final 4 promotion at a local club.  You might be announcing that Harley giveaway for the Spring book.  The morning show may have pranked George Clooney.  

As you can see the 2 points are very different, but just as important when the air team hits the studio for their shows.  

Make sure they all know the 2 priorities and learn to build them into their shows.  It can make the difference from a station that just spinning the hits to one that is woven into their audience.  

Radio's Outdated Research Systems

We really don't have any index or measure of how many stations are doing any 'formal' audience research, but it's probably a safe bet that few are.  The days of doing an annual perceptual study and a full auditorium library test are most likely fading, or in many markets completely gone.  No doubt the economic slump isn't allowing the 'luxury' of gathering the audience's impressions of our products.  Clear Channel used to have a division (Critical Mass) with hundreds of people devoted to perceptual, call out and telephone marketing, now it's pretty much dismantled.  No doubt many in the top 50 markets are flying without any 'radar' looking out at the audience and gathering their impressions, preferences, and the reasons why they listen.  

Perhaps with all the data we have from PPM what do we really need research for anymore?  With PPM the game has changed from a recall strategy.  Now we actually see what the sample listens to minute by minute every day without any recall on their part.   We can see when they tune out and trace back to see why?  But, do we really know?  Did they leave because they hated the song or jock?  Or did they have to go to work and leave the car?  Did they pick up the kids and they flipped on another station?  

While we can finally see an accurate picture of what they listen to we really don't know why they listen, or why they don't.  We used to get some of the picture from perceptual and music testing, but we also had to tailor our research to the reality (from the past) that the audience had to recall their listening - not have it measured automatically.   Before we often won if the audience just remembered our call letters, frequency or slogan - now they actually have to listen for it to count.  

For many stations the perceptual and music testing has been taken over by the station's database.  The folks who are big enough fans to visit the web site, bother to sign up for another database, and wait for their mailbox to fill up with our newsletters.   We can test our music with them, ask a few usage questions, and maybe even find out who they think will win American Idol. But, these little bites of data we get from a small universe of very dedicated P1s is a very distorted picture of market and the audience.  We really can't see the much larger P2 groups or fans of other stations that could also be users of our product.   No doubt the low cost of doing music testing and asking a few questions of the super P1s in your database is worth it, but we have to realize it's not a very complete picture.   

The advent of PPM, the changes in the way the world communicates, and the economic realities are all combining, making the old styles of research outdated and ineffective.  

Spending 50K (or more) on a perceptual study that only reaches the households that will bother to answer the phone and hang with a 25 minute questionnaire are gone.  While we used to justify using the telephone with 'that's the way Arbitron does it' it doesn't work anymore.  Even Arbitron is trying to use address based samples to gather the sample and in PPM they pretty much keep the same panel for up to 18 months.   

Not only do we lack the budget in today's world - is the data still giving us an useful picture?  

In PPM we are now looking more at behavior - not recall.   To be effective we actually have to understand how they behave, not just what they remember or what we've drilled into their brains.   But, we've pretty much quit asking the questions in an organized and strategic format.   And it's happening at a time when we have a complete overhaul going on in the media landscape.  This is like shutting down all the weather monitoring systems in Oklahoma in February for 8 months - we'll just keep looking out the window for those pesky tornadoes.  

It's time to get our heads out of the sand and start listening to the audience again, but we also need a new model.   The perceptual studies from the 70s/80s are too slow, cumbersome and expensive in today's world.   On top of that we are still asking lots of questions that date back to the recall days of measurement.   

It's time for innovation in research, but is anyone working on it?  

Rock and PPM

With the news of K Rock in New York flipping to CHR from Rock there are some interesting questions on the format in general.  

K Rock launched 2 years ago as the news out of Philly's early days with PPM that Rock formats look to be gaining from the change in measurement systems.  The early graphs comparing the data clearly showed in Philly and Houston that rock radio's shares were a lot higher.  Back in the Fall of 06 both WMMR and WMGK in Philly were up over 70%.  

The thought was that with a broader panel that was in place for longer runs and able to be more 'controlled' for demo spread and the move to the meter, which didn't require writing it down or remembering listening would benefit rock.  Philly added a rock outlet and suddenly New York was back into rock with 2 stations added to the format.  

In the end PPM's benefits for rock may have cooled, but the reality here just may be that K Rock didn't do a very good job in launching the station and flat out failed.  Some of the likely reasons: 

• Morning show - Oppie and Anthony may have had some interest in NYC, but it clearly wasn't enough.  They may have had a chance to really establish themselves if they had been able to build on their gains leading up to the Sex for Sam bit that pushed them off the air.  But, the years waiting to come back and the dominance of Howard took much of that avenue away.  
• Music Image - In the end a lot of the station rode on O and A and tried to keep what audience they had to hang in there.  The problem is that O and A hurt any chance to develop a music image for KRock.  
• Music Strategy - What was it?  They played everything from Classic Rock stuff like Heart to the latest from harder rock bands like Shinedown.  Really they only played 1 current an hour for the most part and tried to wander to Alternative, some pop Active Rock acts, and a bunch of Classic Rock all mixed in.  With another Classic Rock in the market and now a 'Adult Alternative' what did K Rock really stand for?   They could have been a more pure Alternative or Active rock and focused on the 18-40 audience but they took a broad approach and tried to cross cume with the Classic Rock and probably also reacted to the launch of the Adult Alternative.  The launch with the K Rock Los Angeles team sort of 'passing on the playlist' and then a number of shifts as they PDs left the station.  The air staff also wandered around.  Really the only constant here was O and A with a wandering approach in all the other dayparts. 

KRock could have taken advantage of the gains PPM has to offer (by fairly sampling 18-49 Men) if they had followed some basic rules to making a great rock station:  

• BE LOCAL - This rings true more so in rock than any other format.  KROQ in LA is a very unique product that is tailor made for LA.   WDVE is different from most other heritage Classic Rock leaning stations - completely customized for Pittsburgh.   We could go on and on here.  You have to reflect your community in rock more than any other format.  This is really a street format and you have to come from the streets to build it.   Having an British guy in afternoons and a playlist mostly from LA to launch with really hurt here.  
• ESTABLISH A MUSIC POSITION - There was plenty of room to come on and be the loudest, proudest and in you face rock station in NYC.  It was obvious and last year was a great year for this approach musically.  
• A MORNING SHOW THE REST OF THE STATION CAN KEEP UP WITH - Not that O and A overshadowed the station by that much - but they made every day about them - not the station.  Also going with a Syndicated product that was in pressure for many markets as well as their XM deal really made O and A NOT a part of K ROCK.   They were from another planet beaming it into the biggest market in the country.   At least Howard earned a huge NYC audience before attempting to branch out.   
• MORE THAN BILLBOARDS - Yes they had lots of them, but building a rock community in NYC would have been a lot more valuable.  Building the club and concert scene, getting your team out in the streets, and making the station musically special on a regular basis would have helped build more than just some rock cume passing through.   

When you look at WAXQ (Classic Rock) on paper or through the speakers the playlist is very New York driven and the air talent has a long history in rock in the area.  This station has worked the streets for a long time and is first in mind for rock music as it was the only outlet to count on for much of the last decade.  They were hovering around a 3 share in the old diary system - now they are a full share stronger in the 4s.  As K Rock leaves they will likely go higher.  

There are great opportunities for Rock formats with PPM.  The audience is at a very strong point right now.  But, you have to do the homework and hit the street.  This is not a plug and play format.  

Pumping Up RADIO

As we watch another exciting plunge in the stock market and more reports on radio's economic picture for 08 and the first months of 09 - the news looks worse every day.   Here are a couple of thoughts that might help:  

A Message for ALL:

Here's a thought - think of all the commercials we ran for HD radio. In the Nielsen most played commercials 'charts' the HD campaign was in the top 3 for much of 08.   How about launching a new campaign across all formats and stations that goes like this:   

Hi this is your radio.  Yes I've been around a long time with music, news, sports, weather, traffic and witty comments here and there.  But if you look deeper you'll learn that radio can really help this economy and our community get out of these tough times.  Radio gets advertising messages out to 94% of our community and the whole nation every week.  The retailers of our area can get the word out on their products and get this economy moving again for very reasonable costs.   Radio is also easy to use - a few creative words and your good to go.  The message efficiently reaches our market area.   Radio - a part of your community, living here, working here, playing here and striving to make our area a better place.  

Of course a professional copy creator could probably do a better job, but our industry could turn this tough economy into a turning point for Terrestrial Radio with a well crafted message like this.  I know we didn't do a great job of selling HD radio, but this is a basic message we could sell to our audience and clients.  And the good news - it's true.   

Bright Spots in the Economy Dust Storm: 

There are some business and retail segments that are growing in this downtrend.  I gathered these from a bunch of stories from USA Today, CNN, CNBC, Yahoo and MSNBC:  

Movies:  The box office for 08 was off around 5% but for the first 2 months of 09 it's up 15%.  Just like in the depression when the  movie industry became a big industry.  Escaping the reality is worth a price.  

Fast Food:  Just about everyone is improving - especially McDonalds and Subway.  

Wal-Mart - Discount Stores: We're looking for bargains. 

Cell Phones - There's still growth left and lots of 'turf wars' over subscribers.  Give up your land line?  Why Not.   Turn in your Cell Phone?  Are you crazy? 

Used Cars - January was a strong showing for Used Car sales.  Maybe we can't go for the new cars, but that 05 Mustang looks pretty good.  Car dealers often make as much or more on their used inventory.  

Financial Services - From Tax prep firms, to credit assistance, to bankruptcy assistance.   It's a time for these services to grow.  

College and Trade Schools:  Plenty of people who could use new skills and now with college tax credits, more loans and some layoff packages offering re-training the local colleges are running at full throttle.  

Home Style Cookin:  Restaurants that are off the beaten path and offer 'comfort food' are gaining more customers.   Good news these are often local advertisers.   

Bars, Beer and liquor stores:  Biz is up here - we can guess why.  

Video Games:  Activision and EA games had record profits in 08 and were some of the best gaining stocks in January.  Game Stop is opening 300 or more stores this year!!!

Little Luxuries:  Flowers.com did a huge number this Valentines day.  So did Pajama Gram and Vermont Teddy Bears, with a lot of it from their radio campaigns.  Many higher end restaurants also did well.  We'll spend the money for love. 

Banks: They need to restore their trust in the community and get funds flowing into them.  They need to market.    

You can bet there are more business segments that will gain in this down time.  If you have any stories pass them on.   

Rebuilding Radio's Advertising Potential

After signing up for a daily Ad Age newsletter I started getting the weekly Ad Age magazine for some promotional reason.  Was roaming through it over breakfast this morning for their Super Bowl wrap up coverage, which was very interesting.   

One thing stood out - Full Page ads for both Val Pak and Newspapers posted above (sorry they didn't all scan in, but you get the picture here).   

We have 2 older type advertising media here.  The Cox owned Val Pak direct mail service, which Cox is trying to sell along with a few newspapers.  And one from the Newspaper Project, an industry alliance to help their cause.   

2 media that are way behind radio in reaching the masses.   While Val Pak is in many markets they don't have full coverage and still rely on the mail box - a tough delivery system.  Newspapers are falling in their reach and while they claim 100 million readers here - radio reaches over 230 million people 12 plus in a week according to the latest Arbitron estimates (mostly done with diaries - imagine what it will be with PPM in the top 30 markets). 

Looking at a number of Ad Age issues I only caught 3 radio ads or campaigns in the last 6 months.   1 came from SBS - Spanish Broadcasting - with a small ad in a special Hispanic section Ad Age did.   Another came from Entercom who ran a very nice full page ad that explained their properties and reach.  The only RAB ad was for their 'radio coverage' of the Ad Week convention last September.  It didn't talk about radio or any of our advantages, just that they had some kind of radio system set up to deliver podcasts and to broadcast live updates at the convention.  Gee - that really helps sell the media, we can talk about the latest Google marketing system or maybe cover the conference on the latest way to reach people on the web. 

While Ad Age may not be the best vehicle to promote our potential to market stuff to our huge audience what kind of effort are we really making here?   It's one thing to offer lots of sales training and come up with a few buttons that say Radio Heard Here.   It's another to rebuild the image of Radio as a media that reaches nearly the whole country on a local level with very affordable programs.  

We need to 'fly the flag' a lot more for our industry.  If you look through Ad Age's articles only one showed up on some form of radio - Did Mel Pay Too Much For Howard.   Even Ad Age seems to have forgotten all about our Cinderella story.   Maybe it's time to hitch up the pumpkin coach, get all dressed up and hit the ball.   I bet if we spent just 1/2 of the money spent in Washington trying to push for more consolidation on some public relations and selling our advantages we could have weathered this storm a lot better.    Radio could have the image as an efficient, huge reach, and economical way to market products.   Just the tool to un-freeze the customer without killing your budget.