Mason's Morning Minute

Advice From Walt Disney

Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends. - Walt Disney

Don’t you love it when someone makes a point simply and clearly? I guess the challenge comes in on the definition of “what you do well.” What does radio do well? What can we do that will cause our listeners to come back time and time and tell their friends about it?

Or perhaps more focused, what does your radio station do so well that it will cause listeners to come back again, and bring some friends?

Every station has to decide on it’s own what it does best, but I can tell you one thing.

It’s not creating share holder value.

The Kevorkian Strategy

In the 1960s, if you introduced a new product to America, 90% of the people who viewed it for the first time believed in the corporate promise. Then 40 years later if you performed the same exercise less than 10% of the public believed it was true. The fracturing of trust is based on the fact that the consumer has been let down.
Howard Schultz

“How do we monetize that?”

This simple question has been a major contributor to the slippage in radio. We aren’t asking how to make the station any more appealing, or how to build more audience loyalty any more; we’re asking how we make more money.

But it is a question that deserves an answer, so here it is. You monetize your radio station, and everything about it, by making sure you have a large, loyal audience. It’s not always possible to directly monetize everything that moves on the station. That’s what the big consolidators have done, and can anyone really say it’s been a success? Is there more revenue for radio, or are we seeing a reduction in revenue dedicated to radio. Are your radio stations really growing on a consistent basis, or is it a battle to stay on the top of an increasingly smaller hill?

I’m not talking about the few exceptions, like the way Jerry Lee runs his Philadelphia AC, I’m addressing all the rest of us, the majority players.

I refer to what the green-eyeshade boys with the Excel spreadsheets came up with since consolidation. We’ve let a bunch of glorified accounts lose to run our stations, and now we’re paying the price. They’ve got everything factored into their spreadsheets except the Human factor. Listeners don’t respond the way your Excel says they should, boys. You get cluttered with monetizing everything and they go away.

I call this the Kevorkian Strategy, because it’s clearly a strategy of self-administered suicide. We’ve created an industry where most are fighting to be the tallest midget, and few are trying to truly become giants.

How do we monetize our radio stations? How about we remember that the money comes from having a lot of listeners, and listeners want a quality product that engages them. Listening is no longer enough in a time when I can get all the same songs from so many other places. The listener needs to be engaged and involved with the station.

We need to make the maximum amount of profit or cash-flow, and even share holder value, but we’ve forgotten balance – that share holder value has little meaning to a listener, and your success all starts with the listeners.