Imagine if the Big 3 Worked Together

Ford and Toyota just announced a joint project to build Hybrid Truck technology where the 2 auto forces will come together to help develop the technology, lower the costs for consumers and bring it to market faster.  You can read about it here.

It all happened when the 2 CEOs ran into each other in an airport and started chatting.  For those of us in the cut throat and highly competitive radio world this seems sort of weird.  The auto world is very competitive and with something like 700 different car models out there it's a pretty cut throat world.  But somehow 2 of the biggest are getting set to build a pretty big project together.

Can you imagine CBS and Clear Channel or Cumulus or Cox or Townsquare all sitting down to work on potential answers to all the challenges we face in Radio?   It might be hard to imagine, but what if they did?  What could they work on?

• Our National Image - How about a full cooperative program to work on the image of our media.  Too often Radio is viewed as 'yesterday's technology' and even though we see strong Cume and national listening averages we still get stuck with - 'isn't everyone listening to Satellite Radio"  or hasn't the I Pod killed you yet?
• Spreading our Distribution - While many are streaming and there are pure play streaming systems built into the Clear Channel and CBS national streaming products are there more opportunities here?  Could we develop apps that zero in on Broadcast Streamers?  How about making up our own territory here and making it easy to navigate and use.  The new world of streaming with so many options will be tough to navigate at 70mph on the 405 or the Dan Ryan or Mass Turnpike - if we can get our world organized and localized as you drive around it could be a big help to us and the drivers.  
• Working with Social Networks and New Media - Are there money making opportunities if we all banded together here?  Instead of letting Google or someone else develop a system of working with local business' on developing Social Network strategies why can't we use the collective reach of radio to develop a real sell-able opportunity for us and a program to help merchants and service providers get closer to their audience's through ours?  
• New Car Radio Ideas:  Wouldn't it be great if we had an easy way to reprogram your car radio push buttons as you drove from market to market?  Instead of searching for the Rock or CHR or Country stations in Syracuse you could press a button and your car radio would lock them in.  This is one advantage of satellite radio and it will be a web/streaming wifi advantage that we should work on.  

I'm sure these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg - (if you have any more hit the comments and chime in). 

The opportunities to set radio up to be a much stronger media down the road are there.  Yes, we have the NAB and state broadcasting organizations and even the FCC to unite us - but are these organizations really getting to the 'big issues' and challenges that we need to face?   Maybe it would help if the CEOs would end up meeting in the Delta Lounge somewhere someday and decided to build a real actionable plan.  

Appointment Listening - The New Obsession!?

Programmers and the air staff have been adding new 'tricks' or 'techniques' for years to try and improve the performance in delivering audience (ratings).  Recycling the audience to other dayparts with cross promos, billboards to tempt listening through the stop set, big events to build huge tune in, daily features to build certain hours in the day (the Request Lunch), listening locations (at work) and also special programming days (All Music Mondays - 2 Fer Tues).

 

Over the last 5 years the new big tool has been Appointment Listening.  Making a specific appointment with the listener to come back.  While it may be similar to the 'billboard just before the stop set' it really serves a different purpose.  Really this technique stems from the 'Arbitron Listening Fact' that you have an 'average time spent listening' for the station for every time they tune in.   Say the average TSL with the station per tune in is 8 minutes - so they are in the process or already have spent 8 minutes - if you can get them back in 15 minutes you will probably get another 8 minutes.   So your total here is 15-16 minutes.  At the end of the 2nd tune in maybe you can hook them for another 8 minutes and end up with 20+ minutes in a 90 minute period.  

Instead of begging them to stick around through the stop set and hope they will hang for another 8 minutes now we give in to the 'law of averages' and shoot for them to come back later in the hour or maybe later in the daypart (at 12:30 catch the big Concern Announcement for U2).  

It's an effective tool and it has been shown in lots of data analysis to work.  Of course the best way to see it is in tracking the PPM meters where we can see real behavior in real time.  Who knows if any of these techniques is really accurately recorded in a diary?  Hence we now see the Appointment Billboard being the new big standout technique in the jock breaks in PPM markets and also making it's way to diary markets.   It's even bleeding into TV - just watch SportsCenter.    

The key here is to make sure you have real actionable appointments.  Just mentioning that 3 Doors Down's recurrent from last year is coming up in 15 minutes will probably not do much.  Make sure to make it big and newsworthy or entertaining enough to catch the attention of the audience.  

Today's 'Individual' Person

Before the end of 2011, or very early in 2012, we will surpass 7 Billion people on the planet!!!  Right now this seems like we have so many people here, and no doubt more to come with birth rates not really slowing down and the lifespan growing for many countries.  While it would seem logical that with more and more of us around that we would be growing more unified but if you took a look from the outside at us through our interaction on the internet you would probably conclude that the human populations in this world are really becoming a lot more individualistic.  

The web offers tons of tools to become more of an individual - or to at least make you feel that you are a special individual - even on a planet of 7,000,000,000 people.  It's easy to make lots of stuff in your world unique to you.  We can all think of examples from your music collection to the color of your screen saver.  Every product works to make it as 'personal and individual' of an experience as possible.

No one wants wants to be 'wearing the same outfit' in today's world and overall it's pretty easy to become so individualistic in your virtual/web world that even with 7 Billion you are an individual.  

As we go beyond 7 billion next year remember that the audience will be looking for more and more ways to preserve their individuality -- even in the face of the 1 in 7 billion odds.   Something to keep in mind as you program your station and hang with the local audience in your market.

The Air Aces

The recent passing of an old friend Allison Harte from Grand Rapids brought up a lot of memories of working with her and an amazingly talented team at WLAV.

At WLAV the on-air team were (and still are) named 'Air Aces.'   It was sort of a tradition that reflected back on the 60s tradition of naming the air staff.  You had 'The Good Guys' - 'The Boss Jocks' and a number of other names.  I guess the thought was to brand the air staff and build them as a team.  I bet Air Aces started as a sarcastic response to this Top 40 marketing ploy by a station that prided itself in not being anything close to the top 40s of the day.   We'll top their Boss Jock hype - we'll be Air Aces - way cooler.

But, the reality was that being an Air Ace at WLAV was a true honor and much like being a skilled fighter pilot it also required that you be very talented and serious about your craft.  Over the years the Air Aces became way more than just voices between the songs.  They cut through and bonded with the audience in endless ways.  Some of them like Kevin Matthews and Rick Rumble cut through with amazing comedic moments.  Others like Aris Hampers brought an amazing wealth of music knowledge and understanding.   Aces like Tony Gates dug into the community and the music and built a loyal following.

Allison was was sort of the 'sister' to the whole team of Air Aces.  A daring and bold Air Ace herself that always put the listener first, brimming with energy, a genuine love of the music and a big heart for the community.   She was also authentic and honest with the audience.  Her real name was Prudence - not a great radio name so of course it was changed to Allison Harte.  But, she didn't hide her real name or the fact that Allison was made up.  She was active on the phones, always looking to jump out of the studio into the streets, and not scared to stand out or take chances behind the mic.

Being an Air Ace went beyond just a branding gimmick.  The real key was that many of the Air Aces understood this more as a goal of bonding with the listener, the audience and the community.  They honed their talents and built their on air presence to ace the task of building a bond with the people on the other side of the mic.

While many reading this never heard Allison on the air, but you can still learn a lot from her work.  Next time you look at your show think of the qualities that made her an Air Ace and work on mastering the craft and art of entertaining an audience with just your voice and words.  Yes these are pretty obvious qualities, but how often to we really find them in today's billboard/liner/positioning phrase break?  The true Air Ace took their opportunity to bond to entertaining heights way beyond.

Thanks Allison - RIP.

A little add on to this post

Another Air Ace - Aris Hampers - posted some audio of Allison on his sound cloud in case you want to catch her in action.  Now this is not her best work on the air - it's actually a bunch of breaks with the music edited out and the commercials mostly cut out.  You pretty much hear when the mic opens and when it closes.  In these breaks Allison is in the studio but Aris is on Remote doing live spots for a local music store and their holiday cd/record sale in 1987.  There is some pretty interesting banter between Allison and Aris - notice how they each have contrasting roles here in their characters.  They build a bite and friendly feud here that has wit, drama, fun, and a bit of an inside view of the station.  See if you can find some of the qualities above woven into these breaks.  

Rock Is NOT Dying

The news that Randy Michaels' new Merlin Media is likely moving Alternative stations in NYC and Chicago to News Talk has promoted a bit of a debate on the health of the Rock formats and especially the ones that lean on Newer Rock in their mix.   

The first reaction came when John Gehron had the following quote in a Chicago Tribune article: 

"In many of the major markets, rock is struggling," said Chicago radio veteran John Gehron, who is serving as a consultant for Merlin Media. "It's not the dominant sound that it was in the '60s and '70s, when rock really was the sound of a generation."

This prompted an old friend and pretty much the founder of Rock Radio Lee Abrams to publish a piece in Radio Ink where Lee covers the history of the format and seems to conclude that the 'Rock Era' may have passed on - read it here. 

Really the news here is that 2 stations (both Alternative) in top 3 markets are shifting formats to News Talk.  Why?  Probably the 2 biggest reasons lie in the future of the very profitable news talk format on FM and the huge revenue potential at stake for the 2012 battle for the White House.  

Just look at the revenue opportunities in the last election and now with the caps off on letting special interest groups spend money for candidates and issues the flood gates will be open.  Randy is also a complete expert in this format.  PPM has been kind to AM News Talk outlets, but we also know that they live in a world where FM radio is still the dominate band for 30 years.  It's way overdue for FM talk to make a big impact.   Randy's assumed plan to re-enter radio with new FM News/Talk properties in 2 of the top 3 markets is shear genius.  His revenue picture will be amazing when he caps his first year in business with millions in campaign revenue.   

But, IS ROCK RADIO really suffering?  If we take a look at the 12+ shares in the top 20 markets the data I dug up below from shows lots of top 20 markets where the Rock share of the pie has increased in the last 4 years.  

Yes the rock shares are up an average of 18% - note that the comparison is indexed here and 100% would be no increase or decrease.   I did not include Puerto Rico in the list.  I also included Adult Alternative stations and added them to the 'New Rock' side of the ledger - since all of them do play some new rock.  Alternative and Active Rockers are considered New Rock here.   

The other big news here is that all of these markets shifted from Diary to PPM except Houston and Philly which were in PPM in Fall 07.  Note that those 2 markets rock shares are mixed with Houston off 17% and Philly improving 9%.   

In fact Chicago is one of the most improved markets with a 50% increase.  Much of this coming from stronger shares for the Drive, the Loop and XRT.  New York was up 56% with RXP and AXQ both showing higher shares in the PPM world.  

The other factor in the perceptions of the health of Rock right now lie in the glare of the music spotlight.  It's squarely on Pop, Rap, Rhythmic and a bit on Country right now.   New Rockers are lying rather dormant - but the tides will turn there.  We've seen these cycles before. 

Groupon - An Internet Fad or a Real Competitor?

The buzz on Groupon is pretty strong.  If it hasn't hit your market yet it looks like they will, or something very close will pop up.  Radio has also tried to package itself to meet Groupon 'at the pass' in many markets.

Yes, right now this is a 'hot topic.'  But, is Groupon poised to last?

On the 'Tech Crunch' website Rocky Agrawal, an entrepreneur and contributor to Tech Crunch, makes a very convincing case that Groupon will start to struggle as the hype wears off rather quickly.  As Rocky goes through the economics of the Groupon business model he pretty much ends up with a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.  He makes a very interesting argument that your sales team and probably a number of your clients should read.  Are all his facts straight?  I'm sure some holes can be found, but what he says as he digs into their business model is very interesting.  Check out Rocky's analysis here.


While Rocky digs deep into the mechanics of their sales pitch and business plan at Groupon what he doesn't cover is the ability to compete with Groupon.  Many of the local sales teams in Radio, TV and Newspaper are quick to counter with coupon plans of their own.  Other web competitors like Resturant.com and Living Social also have been quick to hit with their deals.  


We do need to take Groupon seriously on the sales side, their pitch right now looks very interesting to a lot of local merchants and national brands.  Radio does have a ton of advantages and can integrate some of the good sides of offers like Groupon.  Couple that coupon with the power to reach a ton of cume in the market quickly and you clearly have a winner.    

M Score and New Options in Measuring Audience and Music

As programmers and software developers have been playing around more and more with the new PPM data and lining it up with services like Mediabase as well as actual station logs it's starting to produce scores for the songs.  Suddenly we can see patterns of listening if we build the ultimate formula and now it's producing a number for the music.  

But what does the number mean?  That is still to be determined.  Recently I talked with Rich Meyer who developed Media Base back in the 90s to track song airplay.  Rich has now moved on to a new world creating Airplay Intel which is designed to try and make sense from all these numbers.  A number of stations already use the service and must subscribe to Media Monitors, M Score and of course Arbitron PPM to access all the data.  Rich has been working a building a reliable index to measure the data so we can capture a real audience score.  

You can read more about Rich's latest adventure at in his All Access Interview.

While Rich's work is ground breaking and the whole system very fascinating I think it's safe to wonder if this is real music research or not.  Are we tipping the scale too much in favor of PPM behavior over the audience's real like or dislike of the song?  

The Big Event

This weekend we have 2 huge media events that are probably more about HYPE and the media making something huge out of an event.  

The first is the Royal Wedding which by most accounts has somehow become more important here in the U.S. than in England.  Really the 'royals' don't rule the English Empire anymore.  The empire was largely split up in the 50s and the British government is not about the rule of the King/Queen.  But, the fairy tale of the prince and princess and a lavish wedding with the whole world watching has the eyes of the media locked down.

Really the only place to dodge all the coverage is ESPN.  But ESPN is itself involved in another marathon event that is probably way overhyped - the NFL Draft.   They have nearly non-stop coverage for 4 days as teams pick from the college ranks.  Exactly how many of these rookies will even see much field time in the NFL next year?  Yet if you listen to the hype - this is the chance for the Panthers to win the Super Bowl.   Forget about the potential of a strike next season -- which team will land Cam Newton???  Last year ESPN estimates that over 28 million watched at least part of the first round.

How does this relate to your radio station?   Well we all have special events (or we should have).  It might be that festival concert you do every year, an annual contest, or a big street/fair community event that you go all out for.  

The key to making them into HUGE events is a consistent build.  Look at the Draft - it started out has a meeting between the teams to divide up the college players.  Year by year the coverage grew and grew - now it seems to start around Halloween and builds to fill the time after March Madness.

The Royal Wedding was built for centuries with the fairy tales, Disney, and the legend/scandals of the 90s.

While you probably won't be able to turn the Chili Cookoff into a Royal Wedding you can grow it every year.  Look for new fairy tales to build from the event, new angles on making more exciting, and also look for new ways to build it up on the air.  

The key is not just to run way too many promos and and just pound it down the audience's ears.  You also have to keep it honest and authentic.  While you can embellish the sell on the event you have to watch that you don't over cook it.  The key here is having a plan and reviewing it every year to make it bigger and better.