Mason's Morning Minute

Efficient or Effective?

“Faster, faster, until the thrill of the speed overcomes the fear of death.” Hunter S. Thompson

Remember the old movie, “I’m Dancing As Fast As I Can?” Many of us feel that way these days, moving as fast as we can and being constantly in motion. We’re bouncing from task to task under the guise of multi-tasking, when really we’re not getting much more accomplished, or as I put it, we’re not putting points on the scoreboard. That’s because our total focus for the past eight years has been of efficiency. That’s a corporate euphemism for fewer people doing more work than ever before.

”This isn’t anything new, we had a term in the military involving elbows and other body parts that explained it very well. It means to be moving as fast as possible without thinking.

We’re confusing efficiency with effectiveness, and activity with accomplishment. Yes, it’s true we’re getting lots of things done, but how many of those activities are just keeping up with what has to be done, and how many of them actually make the station better or plan for a future of success? We’ve entered a zone of fewer expenses meaning less of a connection with the listeners, and less engagement. More efficient, less effective.

If radio is your career, you’re going to have to deal with it. The less effective we become at reaching and engaging listeners, the more you shorten your career. No one in corporate is going to care about it, they’re only interested in “shareholder value.” That’s another corporate euphemism, for “more money in my pocket,” and it isn’t going to help you.

It’s like the sign I used to have up in my office, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.

I’m Too Busy To Care About The Future

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” – Abraham Lincoln

Few would actually say to someone else that they’re too busy to care about what’s developing around them, but our actions seem to be speaking louder than our words.

As I travel around the country I see few people really looking ahead. Instead we all like to read the releases from research companies that indicate that, right now, radio is the primary source for new music, and still a strong and viable industry. Right now being the operative phrase. Like it or not, we’re in trouble.

The challenge isn’t coming from the listeners as much as it is from us. We use these research projects to justify lack of action and inattention, and we have “leadership” in the industry that continues to ignore that it’s the product that attracts the listeners, which in turn attracts the clients. We don’t put the radio research together with the fact that radio revenue continues to decline, year after year, and no one seems to be paying attention. We’re voice tracking as much as we can, even when it’s not necessary, which reduces the engagement with the listener. Being a good voice tracker is not the same as engaging the listener. Doing no research will not give you a better understanding of the changing attitudes of the listener.

As the Evil Empire companies continue to cut expenses, even to the idiocy of saying if revenue doesn’t improve they’ll start cutting sales people. And if the programming isn’t drawing listeners they’ll cut airstaff. Brilliant, huh?

But those guys aren’t going to do anything about it, only we are. Even if you’re stretched thin right now, and too busy to fit in one more thing, you need to find some time to investigate your future and do something about it. Along with all the changes we’re looking at come tremendous opportunity, but only the people who are looking ahead who will survive to take advantage of it.

What are you doing? Are you still driving by looking in the rear view mirror?

Making The Consumer Feel Stupid

We can believe that we know where the world should go. But unless we're in touch with our customers, our model of the world can diverge from reality. There's no substitute for innovation, of course, but innovation is no substitute for being in touch, either. - Steve Balmer


You probably missed this one, but according to the New York Times A new milk jug adopted by both Wal-Mart and Costco has no real spout, and its unorthodox square shape makes consumers feel like novices at the simple task of pouring a glass of milk. 


“The redesign, experts say, is an example of the changes likely to play out in the American economy as higher costs for energy and materials demand that many products be redesigned for greater efficiency. The jugs are cheaper to ship and better for the environment. Not to mention that the milk is fresher when it arrives in stores, and it costs less.”

Signs in the aisle at Wal-Mart laud their cost savings and "better fridge fit."

Here’s another one of the dumb things linear thinkers force on the consumers. Making people feel awkward or uncomfortable with your new design that fits your needs, instead of their needs, is not a great strategy, and I expect we’ll see the end of the square milk bottle before too long. Especially since the new design doesn’t lower the price to the consumer more than a few cents. That cost threshold isn’t enough to overcome the feelings of discomfort the consumer has.

How about your radio station? Are there things you’re doing that make no sense to your listeners? Are there things you’re doing that make it uncomfortable for the listeners to listen?

How's You're Community?

"Radio stations tend to stubbornly resist the idea that their audiences are communities with a common interest in the radio station and instead view those audiences as pawns in a game of Arbitronic chess. The way to move listeners is by facilitating and motivating their movement, not by "forcing" it. So, in other words, if you build a community worth participating in, they'll come. And if you don't, all the contests in the world will only nudge you along a path to progress" – Mark Ramsey, Mercury Research

My friend Mark Ramsey covered the use of video by radio stations in his blog many times, including the quote above quote, which is a topic all of its own.

How come a TV show called Oprah and a soap called Dove can create on-line communities, but radio stations don't? We marvel at the success of MySpace and YouTube, but we still stand on the sidelines and observe as this phenomenon continues.

It reminds me of my wish that stupidity hurt, and that most of us would be in pain of so. Radio used to be run and populated by cutting edge people who would embrace new technology and succeed with it. But the people in control are so short sighted their vision doesn't go past the next quarter. Worse, some of them don't care about the future of radio, and are instead planning their Internet strategies, which are bound to fail because they've missed one of the principle points of all this new technology - they're not in charge, the consumer is.

That thought strikes fear into the hearts and minds of many broadcasters. They've been thinking they're in charge for so long they either refuse to acknowledge it, or they just shake their heads in wonder.

Why am I not surprised that former Jack San Diego's GM Tracy Johnson is working on this, along with a few others? Like very few others, Tracy thinks and breathe innovation.

Not everyone can create a social network from their station, but many can. It works best for stations with a high level of P1's and a large cume. It may not work at all without an emotional connection with your listeners. Those are just some of the rules for facilitating a social network via radio. But they're enough to step off and make a decision to facilitate one.

Where are you? Are you planning your effort, or are you about to feel the pain of stupidity?

The P1's At Starbucks

“Brands need to communicate that they are along for the ride. They are made of flesh and emotion. That they are made possible by people.” Scott Bedbury former Starbucks executive

I was reading through the dozens of marketing-oriented email I get, and this one jumped off the page because of how well Starbucks handles marketing, and now much it sounded like a radio station battle.

To promote the individuality of it’s 5,000 plus possible drink combinations, Starbucks is letting people design their own branded T-shirts bearing their favorite drinks. At starbucks.com, visitors can handpick the drink elements, and choose icons to finish off the design. The cost and shipping are free.

It’s all about personalization and individuality,” according to Starbucks. It’s also about giving people yet another way to identify with Starbucks and show off their emotional attachment to them. Further, it’s about how well Starbucks understands is brand, and its consumers.

The funny part starts with the response from Dunkin’ Donuts, who has parodied the Starbucks experience in their own ads, thus adding to the exposure of the idea, and creating even more word-of-mouth about Starbucks.

Starbucks knows their P1’s are proud of being Starbucks drinkers, and they give those people every opportunity to bond with them, this time by putting the consumer in charge again, letting them design their own t-shirt.

When will we spend the time to get to know our “consumers,” so that we quit thinking of them in the one-dimensional perspective of listeners, and begin to look at them as participants, and even promoters, of our “product?”

Where Are You Heading?

"It makes total sense to put the customer in charge."—Todd Wagner, film financier

There’s something called a Chinese Dragon Boat, where the paddlers try to propel themselves forward while facing backwards. It works, but it sure makes it difficult if no one is looking ahead to see what’s coming. Sometimes I wonder if that’s our destiny.

Of all the changes being forced on radio by the listeners, the concept that we’re not in change any more is the most challenging. We’re all still so focused on the time when we used to have a monopoly in attention, that we continue to slip into a secondary media role. We’re still concentrating on push programming at a time when selectable Internet radio, social networking and iPods have the listeners are saying, “I program my media, it doesn’t program me!”

The answer isn’t really very difficult, it’s just outside our comfort zone. I’m not talking about saying, “Fine, you do it,” and walking away. Instead we need to find every possible way to honestly involve the listeners in our program. It can be voting on their favorite songs, or giving them a chance to share their favorite Indy artists, or having them take over a part of the week, or getting involved in their social networking.

Yes, this is very difficult, especially for those of us who have been around a while, and those suffering with so few resources. But the simple fact is that radio must keep pace with the public needs, or it will be left in the dust, a victim not of technology, but of the refusal to see the world as it really is and change with it.

A Peek Into The Future

"It is possible to construct a life of denial and avoidance." — Ray Bakke, Executive Director, International Urban Associates

Boy, is that true! Especially when you talk to many radio people today. They absolutely believe radio will be just as strong as its been for the past 20 years, and that new technology is just a blip on the radar screen. Basically, everyone’s waiting for everyone else to take a risk.

“Radio, which has been around forever and will probably be around forever, has a problem: There aren’t a lot of people who are willing to take risks.”

That’s one of the quotes from an interview with marketing guru Richard Laermer. You can, and should, read the entire article here.

But only if you’re thinking that you’d like a career in radio longer than the next five years, which is what one knowledgeable radio person told me he thinks we have until the tsunami hits. If you’re not worried, and think all this future trend stuff is crap, then don’t waste your time.

More Bars Than Anyone Anywhere

"When that authenticity is compromised, the brand enters decline." — Tim Manners, publisher, Reveries

So I’m driving along on the way home, talking with a client, and I hear the “boop-boop,” and it can mean only one thing. AT&T, with more bars anywhere, has dropped out again. love my iPhone, it really is light years ahead of any other phone in development of useful tools. But the people at AT&T, like may radio people, don’t seem to understand the concept of transparency.

If you read the fine print you’ll see that it says more bars and more coverage anywhere in the world, taking their international service into account. The problem is that I don’t care how good the coverage is in Brazil, I’m more concerned with Lincoln, California, where I live. AT&T would respond that they are strictly, legally correct because of the international service, as if that will make a difference the next time I encounter a dropped call.

It’s not that far off of the kind of thinking that says, “everyone else is running 16-18 minutes an hour of commercials, so I can too.” “Everyone else is voice tracking, I can too.” Forget that the people formerly known as listeners have plenty of options to choose from, or that it’s doubly difficult to connect and engage through voice tracking, everyone else is doing it so the radio consumer should understand.

Wow!

Where did things go so wrong, that we try to fool and manipulate the consumer? No wonder people change cell providers all the time, and there’s no loyalty. No wonder listenership and TSL is slowly planing down, there’s no loyalty. Like cell service, we’re in danger of becoming a commodity, where the cheapest (fewest commercials) radio service will be in the lead.

You can’t fool Mother Nature, and you can’t fool your radio consumers. It’s not 1965 any more, and you don’t have a monopoly in attention. There are too many choices out there, and if we continue to lower the quality of the “content,” we’ll soon hear our own “boop-boop” as the consumers tune way, not tune out, but tune away.

More Bars Than Anyone Anywhere

"When that authenticity is compromised, the brand enters decline." — Tim Manners, publisher, Reveries

So I’m driving along on the way home, talking with a client, and I hear the “boop-boop,” and it can mean only one thing. AT&T, with more bars anywhere, has dropped out again. love my iPhone, it really is light years ahead of any other phone in development of useful tools. But the people at AT&T, like may radio people, don’t seem to understand the concept of transparency.

If you read the fine print you’ll see that it says more bars and more coverage anywhere in the world, taking their international service into account. The problem is that I don’t care how good the coverage is in Brazil, I’m more concerned with Lincoln, California, where I live. AT&T would respond that they are strictly, legally correct because of the international service, as if that will make a difference the next time I encounter a dropped call.

It’s not that far off of the kind of thinking that says, “everyone else is running 16-18 minutes an hour of commercials, so I can too.” “Everyone else is voice tracking, I can too.” Forget that the people formerly known as listeners have plenty of options to choose from, or that it’s doubly difficult to connect and engage through voice tracking, everyone else is doing it so the radio consumer should understand.

Wow!

Where did things go so wrong, that we try to fool and manipulate the consumer? No wonder people change cell providers all the time, and there’s no loyalty. No wonder listenership and TSL is slowly planing down, there’s no loyalty. Like cell service, we’re in danger of becoming a commodity, where the cheapest (fewest commercials) radio service will be in the lead.

You can’t fool Mother Nature, and you can’t fool your radio consumers. It’s not 1965 any more, and you don’t have a monopoly in attention. There are too many choices out there, and if we continue to lower the quality of the “content,” we’ll soon hear our own “boop-boop” as the consumers tune way, not tune out, but tune away.

Co-Authoring Your Station

"We look to our consumers and let their tastes drive our decisions." — Ann Herrick, Strategic Music Alliances, Hallmark

In case you’re new to it, it’s called “co-authoring,” and it means your listeners are increasingly wanting to become a part of your radio station. Interestingly, most PD’s are doing everything they can to avoid it. As one said to me a while back, “I’m not going to let the listeners muddy my brand.” You’d be proud of me, I put the sarcasm back in my briefcase and noted that listeners have always created the brand. We create radio stations, and their response will determine the brand, whether we like it or not.

This is one of those change elements that many struggle with. We’re so used to “push programming,” where we decide what the listener hears, that we ignore the desire of the consumer to become more involved. That’s really interesting when you consider that by getting involved they become more engaged and more loyal, and by being a bystander they become more removed and disloyal.

Here’s the thing: branding is a noun, not a verb. That’s my polite way of saying that the consumer creates your brand, in their mind, not you. Your “branding campaign” is simply another marketing campaign that is probably a waste of money. I once read that consumers create a brand the same way that birds make a next, by picking up scraps and assembling them in one place. That’s what a radio brand is like, everything you do is a part of it, but some are “sticky” and some aren’t. The sum total of what the consumer finds “sticky” is your brand. It’s something that happens to you, not by you.

So in effect, the only people who can tell you what your brand is are your own consumers, who may have a very different perspective on the station than you do. Those who are avoiding all the different ways to co-author and get consumers involved and engaged are soon gong to be in trouble.
Meanwhile those who understand that we are only what the consumers make us will see growth and clarification.

It’s one of those “change choices” that’s going to happen one way or another. We’re finding that consumers aren’t as easily manipulated as they once were, so we either have to ride the horse the direction it’s going, or be prepared to be thrown off.

Are Those The Winds Of Change Or Merely Gusts?

"In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists". - Eric Hoffer

I don’t mean to, but somehow I always make people nervous, talking about change and what it means for their future. I keep hearing that rather than the winds of change what we’re seeing are merely gusts of change that come and go.

In case you still think change isn’t running amok, consider this; the top TV network for 2008 so far is Fox. Not NBC, ABC, or CBS, the big three networks who once epitomized TV. Now here’s more evidence of change - Fox was number one last year too.

I’m sure there will be discussions about Fox’s conservative lean, how the 1950’s makeup on the female hosts and it’s “fair and balanced” approach is simply better than what the big three offer. It’s also true that Fox has been carrying the Superbowl, and then there’s American Idol. But if you take out the Superbowl and American Idol, Fox still leads.

Like radio, the big three networks have acted as if their viewers have no alternative, so they keep changing time slots, running fewer episodes of new shows, and with the writers strike, creating an entertainment schedule so you never knew what was going to happen. I don’t know about you, but I’ve lost interest in several shows that I was watching regularly last year at this time. It’s too much work to find them in the weekly lineup when I can Tivo more shows than I could ever watch.

For you conservatives, change news of your own. It’s not the news department and it’s political lean driving the success at Fox, it’s an sarcastic doctor with the worst bedside manner ever, and something called “Moment Of Truth,” where you can ruin your marriage, and maybe your life, on primetime TV.

Overall the top TV shows have to do with engaging stories, top talent, and clear differentiation. The same things that make radio stations a success.

Do You Love What You're Doing?

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." - Albert Schweitzer

I was thinking about my dad yesterday, as I always do on Memorial Day. The military is the family business, and he spent 36 years serving the country, joining the Army in 1936 and switching over the to Marine Corps in the early 50’s. I think the first book I read was the Combat Infantryman’s Manual, and there were always uniforms around the house.

I learned many things from my dad, including to take pride in whatever you’re doing and do whatever you love. They did well by me when I was doing my own military service, and people were surprised when I seemed to really care about some of the dumbest things the Navy could dream up.

Those two principles have served me well throughout my radio career as well. If I didn’t love what I’m doing the long hours and high stress would’ve taken a huge tool. If I didn’t take pride in what I do I would be able to give the same level of service to each client I work with.

I’m afraid we’re in danger of losing those values in radio. We’re being driven so hard it’s hard to take pride, and sometimes difficult to love it. I can’t help but wonder what will happen radio if we do lose them.

Both are universal principles, whether you’re in radio, education or some other form of business. I’ve known people who voice track for other stations who take as much pride in it as doing a live shift. I’ve known people who pump gas who love what they do. Whatever the effort, if you love it you’ll do well. If you do it with pride, other people will recognize it. But even if they don’t you can be proud of it, because you know more than anyone whether you put everything you had into it.

So how about it, are you feeling pride in what you’re doing, and do you absolutely love it? If so, you’re the kind of person we need to change where radio is going. If not, find something you love as soon as you can, because time won’t wait for you to make up your mind.

Killing Each Other

"If we are together nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail." - Winston Churchill

Pew Internet is a highly respected firm who does continuous research in several areas, including media usage.

I only bring this up to provide their bona fides, so that I an reveal something from their latest study of the Internet and Consumer Choices. A part of their most recent study covering the greatest influence on “music buyers.” In it they say that 83% of music buyers find out about music from radio, TV, or in a movie. It’s one of the few things I’ve seen recently where electronic media out performs word-of-mouth, which came in at 64%.

So what? So why is the music so intent on punishing the radio industry.

I think I have an answer about for that too. It’s because their business model is just as broken as the Wall Street radio one, and their response to failing sales is to blame their biggest ally. And in a time of crisis, what you want most are allies.

The current course of action for Sound Exchange and the royalty fee people is simply to gouge us during our own time of chaos and change. I’m not sure if the music industry is looking, or even cares, but radio isn’t exactly producing record-breaking profits either.

The symbiotic relationship radio has had with the music industry is in trouble. It’s hard to interpret it any way other than greed on the part of a few, who may easily wind up hurting everyone else involved.

The Central Issue Is Never Strategy

"The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture, or systems. The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people." - John Kotter, Professor, Harvard Business School

It’s hard enough to get a radio station to understand and deploy strategy, but I realized over the weekend it’s not really about strategy. You still need a strong strategy, but there’s a perquisite to a successful strategy.

A secret about growth at a radio station - it’s not about hotclocks and playlists and morning shows, it’s about change. Stations who are having problems or aren’t growing often wind up putting their attention on the wrong things, when what they really need to do is figure out what needs to be changed, and how they’re going to change it.

I had an experience with a station like that recently. They’d been flat a the bottom of the market for several years, and wanted to gain more audience. What turned out, though, was that they wanted some “magic,” to be able to grow while still doing the same things that kept them at the bottom for so many years.

We’re all facing the white water rapids of change right now, but a lot of us are having a hard time letting go of what worked in the past, in favor of what’s happening now. PD’s get that deer-in-the-headlight look when I talk about co-authoring the station, or consumer generated content.

If you want to sustain or grow your success, the answer lies in embracing change instead of ignoring it.

A Change Manifesto

“It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.” - Josiah Charles Stamp (English Economist)

Last week, in response to my riffing about Wall Street radio, someone replied by asking me what the solution is. They pointed out that complaining without a solution isn’t very productive. So I’ve given it some thought, and suggest this 5 point Change Manifesto:

1. Give the radio station back to radio people. Your “Wall Street” model isn’t working. Radio simply can’t provide the kind of sustainable growth that Wall Street needs for success. Move the financial types aside and let the true radio people back in before it’s too late.

2. Put the listeners first. I never did figure out how ignoring the primary consumer was going to create a stronger industry, and it hasn’t. Why is TSL down across the country and we see so many reports of dissatisfaction with radio? Because we’ve forgotten that in order to provide value to the share holder we first have to provide value to the listener. Once we’ve provided value to the listener we’ll be able to provide value to the client. Only after those two constituencies have been satisfied will we be able to provide value to the share holder.

3. Allow us to sell radio as if it has value instead of “price per pound.” Your way has presented years of radio revenue downtrends, and it’s only getting worse. Unless you’re ready to take a major haircut when you sell the stations, you’d better let the salespeople know they’re valuable to your operation.

4. Invest in growing a stronger industry. Can’t the captains of the industry understand that if the tide comes in all boats rise, and that if we’d start working together we might accomplish more. You corporate MBA’s are supposed to be smart, so look up the word investment.

5. Quit blaming your people Whether you succeed or fail isn’t the result of an Excel spreadsheet, it’s because of the people you have on your team, at every level. So stop acting as if it’s their fault you’re failing. Didn’t someone once say that if you’re pointing your finger at someone there are still four fingers pointing back to you?

In researching this I found an article Eric Rhoads had published in December of 2001, a very tough time for radio. Perhaps more people should take a second look at it.

We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us

“There are no secrets to success. It’s the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” Colin Powell

Are we learning anything here? I opened up my Radio Ink email this morning, like I do every morning, and immediately spit my coffee all over my desk. In describing sagging radio revenue, one radio executive was quoted as saying. “The situation is being driven by the overall slowing of the economy, loss of liquidity in the financial services industry and the related slump in the housing market."

No doubt those factors have an effect on radio revenue just like they’re having on everyone else. However, the Wall Street Journal, in an article on March 5th, noted, “...radio advertising revenue dropped 2.6% from 2006, and more importantly, radio hasn't seen any big gains since the Internet began to take off in the late 1990's.  One analyst in the story mentioned the last time radio fell in multiple years was in the 1950's when it was challenged by TV....and projections are that it will fall 3% this year..one bright note in the story is the mention that non traditional revenue for radio, including the Internet rose 10% to $1.68 billion.”

In the same Radio Ink email is Farid Suleman saying, “If the revenue growth isn’t there, we have to reevaluate how we do business. You can’t continue to invest in programming and sales if you can’t get the revenue.” Did anyone else just have a chill run up their spine? Why does it seem to me those “radio executives” are blaming everyone else but themselves? When you turn radio into a commodity, and show the advertising community you don’t value your own inventory by constantly dropping rates, what would you expect? I’m hard pressed to figure out where the consolidation of the 90’s has really benefitted us. I suppose we’re more “efficient” now that we used to be. But part of that alleged “efficiency” has made us less effective.

We’re all in big trouble, but just like the alcoholic views their drink, the execs at the top of the food chain are refusing to see they themselves are the problem. It’s our version of “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” The WSJ sees the problem, and sees it as big as the challenge of the 1950’s. I wasn’t there for those, but it meant radio had to seriously reinvent itself and almost start over again. Fortunately there were change agents like Todd Storz and Gordon McClendon operating radio, and they weren’t afraid to take a chance.

As the cartoon character Pogo said many years ago, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Helping Manage Change

"Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that change is like death and taxes — it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm." — Peter Drucker, Management Challenges for the 21st Century (1999)

Few people like change, and fewer still actually embrace it. But those of us who do need to make sure we’re not doing more damage than good. From not understanding the importance of people, who the change really impacts after all, to the way different people have a different perspective on change.

Fortunately I found a great article on the biggest mistakes in managing change, and you can find it here.

Still, change is all around us, every day. From gas guzzling giants like the Escalade to the 40 mpg SmartCar. From Filofax to iPhone, from Churban to Rhythmic to Hispanic Rhythmic. I’d like to say the only time change doesn’t effect you is when you’re dead, but we all know about decomposition.

It’s not important how you feel about change, only that you understand how to deal with it, because if you can’t ignore it you have to learn how to deal with it, as it’s going to happen whether you like it or not.

The Great Jock Strap Giveaway

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” – Oscar Wilde

It was an interesting session at the Gospel Music Association last week, where Christian broadcasters from around the world had gathered for their annual convention. Author Jon Spoelstra, in leading a session on marketing outrageously, was talking about the need to examine ideas before we shoot them down. Not that it would ever happen in radio, right?

While he was GM of the New Jersey Nets, someone through out the idea of giving away jock straps with a player name on the back. Even I have to admit it sounded like the kind of idea that I’d pretty much reject. But as Jon says, it’s important to look at everything, especially the ones that we’re ready to reject out of hand. The world is full of naysayers, people ready to tell you why an idea won’t work.

We are pretty skilled at that in radio. Maybe we don’t say it’s a terrible idea, but we have lots of other ways of making it known. Like, “Where’s that being one right now?” for example. We’re much better a copying someone else’s idea than we are looking at our own. Which is a shame, because, as Jon pointed out, everyone has good ideas some of the time.

The challenge with accepting or at least looking at new ideas is that it goes against two facts we all seem to share, the dislike of change and the fear of failure. You come up with a new idea somewhere and it’s going to cause change somewhere down the line, and there is that chance it just won’t work. Who wants to take that kind of chance in this consolidated world of downsizing?

The jock strap giveaway never came about, but mainly because of cost, not “sanity.” Our business depends on ideas at every level. We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over, and we can’t simply copy others all the time. Sometimes we have to come up our own ideas, or at least be able to recognize good ideas from the people around us, but we can’t reject everything out of hand unless we want to accelerate failure.

Fighting Change

"Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up." — James Belasco and Ralph Stayer, Flight of the Buffalo (1994)

Ever notice how people hang onto something because “it’s always been that way?” Sometimes we start digging ourselves a hole because we’re so sure we’re right, and that the old way is the best way, we don’t listen well. Which brings me to a story.

KGW in Portland was a legendary Top 40 station in it’s day, knocking off a heritage competitor and rising to the top of the ratings. When I was programming the station I kept asking the engineers to look into why we couldn’t go to full power at night, since we were cutting power at sunset. For those newer to radio, it’s an AM thing, I’ll explain it some other time.

The engineers always responded that we couldn’t do anything because we were protecting a government listening station that was affiliated with the FCC. No matter how many times I asked the did nothing.

Then, a few years later, I came back as GM of the station, with a little more clout. I asked a whole new set of engineers to look into it, and got the same feedback, an FCC listening station and nothing we could do about it. But, of course, I’m known for being tenacious, so I kept on them to go all the way back and check all the facts. Finally one of them relented, and took it on as a project.

One day he walked into my office with a smile on his face, and told me the results of his three-month search. It turns out there was a listening station on 620 AM. But it had signed off the air in 1947. KGW had been low power at night for all those years because no one checked the facts, and was willing to take a new look at it.

What’s your “FCC listening station?” Do you find yourself, or someone on your team, has dug their heals in and is intractable, even when it makes no sense?

Change is hard for everyone, but as I always point out, history has shown us that the species who adapt and change survive, and the others don’t. So I guess the bigger picture questions is, which kind of species do you want to be?

Who's In Charge Here?

"Keep in mind that you cannot control your own future. Your destiny is not in your hands; it is in the hands of the irrational consumer and society. The changes in their needs, desires, and demands will tell you where you must go. All this means that managers must themselves feel the pulse of change on a daily, continuous basis.... They should have intense curiosity, observe events, analyze trends, seek the clues of change, and translate those clues into opportunities." — Michael J. Kami

I was out in the Philadelphia area for the weekend, helping a radio station through their first ever music test, and working wit them to understand that the audience really didn’t like every song they played. It was a huge amount of change management, but to their credit they understood and grabbed hold of the concept of turning the music over to the listeners. I was really proud of them for their ability to embrace change, even when it made them uncomfortable.

One of the most challenging, and least practiced strategies is to understand that the consumer is not in charge, not us. We can’t continue the long standing era of “push programming,” where the listener got what we wanted, whether they like it or not. The listeners are in control, and the more we fight that the more we will fall behind as an industry.

We don’t choose the music we play, the listeners do, because they’d much rather hear what they want than what we want. We don’t create brands, the listeners do, because whatever they believe we are is what we are, and what we must learn to deal with.

Of course, this is totally unacceptable to the accounts running so many radio companies. How dare the listeners think they’re in charge, when it’s the scions of the industry, with their calculators and bromides about “share holder value” who really understand the business.

But unfortunately for so many, it’s the accounts that are wrong. They are not the great strategists they think they are, instead they are ghosts of the past who don’t even realize their time is over. There are a few broadcasters, mostly small companies, who do “get it,” and they have a much better chance of lasting another five years than a Clear Channel, CBS or Citadel. These are companies that really do understand the change around them, and are preparing for the future instead of trying to hang onto the past.

So pay attention, you’re looking at an industry in change, lead by a group of people who see radio as a series of mathematical factors, none of which involve the Hu, or human factor. I don’t think it’s over for us, but I do think it’s over for some of us. But like the dinosaurs, their central nervous systems are so small that they don’t’ even feel the first signs of decay.

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.

And Now A Word From Chicken Little

You know, in the end, Chicken Little was right.

We all know about Chicken Little, the little guy who kept running around yelling, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling.”  It was a great childhood story about over-reacting.  A lot of people seem to be thinking Chicken Little has a new, digital evil twin, running around telling radio stations, “The sky is falling!” in terms of the growth of digital media.

In this story I’d probably change Mr. Little’s shout to, “The shares are falling.”  It’s unfortunately inescapable that people aren’t listening to the radio as much as they were.  They also aren’t watching Network TV as much as they used to either.  They key fact is that things are changing, and we simply can’t stop change from happening.  What’s going on with the Internet is going to impact radio, even if you don’t want to hear about it.

Even companies who are playing around in the new digital arena aren’t sure what’s going to happen, including Facebook and, of course, Microsoft.  The Seattle giant thinks that simply owning Yahoo will help them survive digital growth, but a recent post by Diane Mermigas on mediapost poses an interesting point.
It’s not that you’re digitally involved; it’s what you do with that digital involvement.

This is especially important to we radio people, who seem to think that pushing a radio station stream on the Internet is being digitally involved.  We somehow haven’t noticed that the popular sites are those doing something different.

Buried in the post is one more extremely important thought, staying true to your core.  Here’s where it gets even more interesting for radio.  Not only do you have to stay true to your radio core, but also your digital core.  If you’re ever lucky enough to get one, has it’s own complexion to stay true to, and it may not be the same as your radio core.

Let’s not forget that, in the end, Chicken Little was right, the sky was falling, but no one listened to him.

The Media Revolution

"There's a new communications revolution coming." — Robert Scoble, VP, PodTech.net

It’s easy to rationalize statements like this as self-serving and not reflective of the future at all.  Many think it’s just the future people involved in PodCasting and such .  It’s also easier, because then we don’t have to worry about it.  But if I’m reading the results correctly, even PodCasting has more future attraction than HD radio.

There are two things I’m convinced of:

1.    Terrestrial radio as we know it will not fade away and die.  It will be a viable choice of many, for many years to come.
2.     Technology is going to give listeners more choices than ever, which is bound to take time away from radio.

Here’s the key most people miss: It’s not about the technology; it’s about the people who are embracing the technology.  We spend all kinds of money and effort on pursuing technology, never quite connecting the dots between the technology and the people.

It’s not going to stay the way it used to be.  In fact, most trends over the past 30 years have started with the younger generations, and then been adopted by the older generations over time.  And that length of the word “time” is changing.  It used to mean decades, but more recently it’s been reduced to a few years.

If you’re at a radio station, and you’re smart enough to be planning, especially if you’re smart enough to be planning strategically, you’re ahead of 75% of the other stations around you.  But that’s still not enough.  If survival is important at all, you’ve got to adopt a bi-focal method of planning, so that you’re improving your position in the near term, with your terrestrial radio station, and at the same time be planning for a future with listener controlled Internet radio, iPod’s in the ears of grandparents, and extreme fragmentation.

I’ve always considered Albert Einstein a pretty smart guy, and well ahead of this time.  One of his quotes, from 50 years ago, is “Technological change is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”  Yes, the future is a little like Freddy Kruger.

The question is, will you allow yourself to see it, and if so, will you start planning now, before it’s too late?

Are You Ready For Change?

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. – Alan Cohen, author, Chicken Soup For The Soul

I saw an article the other day that I thought was interesting.  It was built around the movie The Queen, and how the way Queen Elizabeth’s reaction to the death of Princess Diana’s death.  If you saw the movie you know how the Queen endangered the monarchy by being so far out of touch.  It’s the cost of NOT being aware of change.  For someone with the title “Change Agent,” those lessons are important.  And change is all around us, from PPM to growth of the Internet to the “customizable” needs today’s radio listeners are showing.

Using the move an analogy, here are three important things to learn from the Queen:

1.  These changes aren’t going to go away no matter long you wait.  The Queen mistakenly assumed everything would return to normal in a few days. It didn’t happen. Radio isn’t going to be as it was, and listeners are what they are today, not what they were in the past.  If you wait too long, you’ll find yourself irrelevant.

2.  Sticking with “what works" doesn't.   The Queen’s strong sense of tradition put her at odds with public expectations. But a “that's the way we've always done it” rationale doesn't fly in modern life or radio.  They way you’ve always done it won’t attract listeners in the future.

3.  Staying behind the walls boxes you in. The Queen considered her emotional restraint a dignified response while her subjects interpreted her attitude as cold-hearted indifference. When she stepped outside her comfort zone and reached out to the people, she won them back. Likewise, you’re trapped inside the radio walls, thinking like a radio person.  That can keep you from hearing the news of change, but it can’t keep you from the change.

Change is never easy, but that doesn’t matter.  Change is inevitable – always has been, always will be.”  Those who continue to train “announcers,” still believe they are in charge and the audience isn’t, and put all their marketing influence on the music, face a very difficult future.

That's Not The Way We Do It

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.  - Steve Jobs, founder of Apple

You hear a lot of lip service and see a lot of nodding of heads when it comes to thinking outside the box, but do we really mean it?  Or is an unorthodox idea more likely to be met with pessimistic discouragement?  If you hear these phrases in your meetings, your station may actually be pushing people back inside the box, and killing innovation:

•    Where else is it being done?
•    Good luck with that one!
•    We tried it once and it didn’t work.
•    We don’t have the people or time for something like that
•    That’s not how we do it around here

Not only does this approach make the offending innovator feel stupid, it also stifles creativity and discourages brainstorming.  All those sentences starting with “Yeah, but…” are killing the industry.

For example, who doesn’t agree with the concept of “content is king.”  It’s more than a cliché, but we often just think of “content” as whatever comes out the radio speaker.

A great example is a PD I know of who says he’s already doing Pyromarketing, so we doesn’t have to worry about it, even though he isn’t.  Listeners already email him about how great his station is, so he doesn’t need to worry about some word of mouth campaign.  He’ll wait until, like another station we talked to, the tool is being used against him.  Then, like this instance, it’ll be “we have to get on that now!”

When you’re brainstorming or looking for ideas, is your mind already forming the “we can’t do that” answer, or are you listening?  Do you make the people who think different than you feel like idiots, or like a valuable contributor to the stations success?

Those people who are a pain with all their strange ideas, and don’t seem to understand that “we already tried that and it didn’t work” may be the future of your operation.

Memory Almost Full

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. - Alan Cohen, Author

I thought it was interesting enough that a new rap CD was released to video game before radio, and Paul McCartney’s new CD was released at Starbucks, but then I started thinking about the title to Sir Paul’s CD: “Memory Almost Full.”

I don’t know about you, but there are days where I feel my memory is almost full.  If I find one more change on the horizon I’ll have to reboot completely, or I’ll just wake up to nothing but Bill Gates’ Blue Screen.  It’s part of the cost of living in a digital, always-on world.

But perhaps there’s a solution.  Maybe we need to clear our memory cache from time-to-time, purging older, outdated information so that the new information will have room.  Then we wouldn’t need to cling to outdated information, and be more able to see what needs to be retired and replaced, and what still goes on.

Which do you think you’ll wind up doing?  Will you assess and accept change, resist and ignore change, or just wake up one day and wonder what happened?

Radio Sales On eBay?

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." – Alan Cohen, Author

The title on my card reads “Change Agent,” but even I was unprepared for the headline “eBay Mkes Bid For Radio, Stations Agree To Use Online Media Market”.

What it means is that you’ll soon be able to buy radio time from eBay. It’ll include inventory from Clear Channel, among others. I think it’s a good idea, but whether it’s a good idea or a bad idea isn’t the point with me. Change is the point.

As much as we’ve talked about the change ahead of us in programming and marketing, it pales next to what’s going to be happening in the sales world. When you combine concepts like buying radio spots from eBay, along with Google’s AdWords for radio, and what the PPM data is suggesting about radio being a reach medium, and you can see the beginnings of a wave of change. No wait, change that to a tsunami of change. The future of radio sales may look very little like the past of radio sales. When everyone has a .9 AQH rating, and you can buy radio from multiple sources, it’s going to take some extraordinary salespeople to learn the true meaning of “value added.”

Even though many of the people I hear from don’t think radio is going to change much, let alone radio sales, you cannot stop change. It’s neither good nor bad, it’s just there. So the question isn’t about whether their will be revolutionary changes, the question is about how we’ll handle the changes that are inevitable.

Being Competitive In The Future

"The things that got you to where you are today are not the things that will get you to the future." -- Peter Drucker

The challenges of the future, even the near future, require the ability to not be hampered by the expertise you've acquired up to now.  It's cliché, and it's even unfortunate, but the media world is changing at such a rapid rate that those who don't adapt will fail.

Take the Internet.  On the radio side almost everyone understands the growth potential of streaming radio.  The majority are streaming their terrestrial signals.  But, just as listeners in the 70's were looking for something different on FM, a much more savvy and sophisticated listener today expects something different from Internet radio.  They're wanting personalization, customizable, and interactive.  They even want their own stuff on - consumer generated content.

Where will you be, in the forefront of developing this new approach, or just streaming your terrestrial signal?