Have you heard of the term, “locavore?”
According to Dictionary.com, a locavore is “a person who makes an effort to eat food that is grown, raised, or produced locally, usually within 100 miles of home.”
There’s a growing movement in the restaurant industry for eateries that specialize in homegrown food. Why? The idea is that food that is grown from nearby is fresher, tastes better, and is healthier than the mass market stuff you typically find on supermarket shelves.
Locavores also contend that eating locally grown food supports area businesses and farmers right in their own hometowns and communities. And there are environmental assets, too, because the food isn’t shipped long distances, thus conserving fuel.
In short, there’s a basic logic to this movement because it supports the local food ecosystem.
At a recent public radio technology conference – the iMA (short for Integrated Media Association) – I spent time with hundreds of dedicated public radio broadcasters searching for answers about how the interface of old and new media can benefit their stations and their audiences.
Tim Davis and I presented an important new research study for iMA, taking a deep dive into how public media is adapting to the mobile movement. Our study included 170+ staffers from public radio and TV outlets across the U.S., assessing how they research and strategize for mobile. It was a revealing study that illustrated the opportunities and challenges presented by smartphones, tablets, and content creation on mobile platforms.
Our set-up guy was Allen Weiner (pictured), a VP from Gartner Research. Allen has rich experience in broadcasting and publishing, and even created the first daily newspaper site on the web, www.sfgate.com, which I know that many of you read.
Allen provided a look at the mobile space from a broad statistical base, but also offered insights into mobile based on his experience in digital media. One of his best pieces of advice to these public media broadcasters was to double down on becoming a “broadcast locavore.”
That amounts to a core focus on the local community, the hometown zeitgeist, and the buzz on Main Street – all things that radio can and should do better than any other medium, gadget, platform, or channel.
An ongoing theme in this blog has been an emphasis on all things local because at a time when brands (and media outlets) need to rethink their basic missions, is there anything more fundamental than radio focusing on home plate?
Radio needs to ask itself – whether it’s broadcast, social, mobile, or web – is there anything it can do better than hunker down at home? I like the play on the term by morphing it into “locaLvore” – truly focusing on the streets, businesses, schools, and institutions that make up the heart of metro areas. Becoming a broadcast “locaLvore” is logical, smart, and a wise use of resources in an era where diminishing tools is the “new normal.”
Whether you’re competing against Ryan Seacrest, Pandora, Rush Limbaugh, Spotify, Howard Stern, Fox News, or the Today Show, can any of them beat you on your own streets?
Become a broadcast “locaLvore.”
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Thank you, thank you, thanks you. So very well said. It seems like radio has chosen to compete with other media sources on their terms instead of focusing on the one opportunity local radio has that the other media cannot possibly compete with. The local street fight. The great radio wars of the past between two terrestrial stations battling it out, always ended up with who could be the most visible and integrated into listener’s lifestyles. Now when the other media is totally incapable of that kind of fight, radio has chosen to retreat and try to win at their game. The marketing advantage has always been about finding your unique niche and capitalizing on it.
The frustration for me is, my company (wait for it……yes potentially a shameless plug) provides a free in-school promotion for Top 40 stations centered around school dance events. It’s a no-brainer when it comes to reaching thousands of teens in a high energy, local, lifestyle promotion, yet it seems like programmers tend to be focused on the impact that Pandora, and Spotify are having on their audience. Pandora will not be showing up at schools…at least not yet.
Absolutely right, Ric. And local radio needs to do a reboot with its airstaff to require them to show up in schools, speak at local events, and be present in the local community. Thanks for the kind comments, and thanks for reading our blog.
Fred –
Start with the premise – 80% of a person’s income is spent within 10 minutes of where they live (stat CNBC) it gives you a new appreciation why being a “localvore” is so important and relevant to any broadcasters immediate success.
I really wish broadcasters would take to heart what Seth Godin said recently “It’s the end of mass. If you need the masses to buy you will feel pain… selling to the masses is getting harder and harder and less effective every day”.
What has happened in radio with eliminating talent (the key to giving local presence a face) is the equivalent of Nordstrom having no sales people on the floor accept a few hours in the morning and afternoon. It’s like Zappos not having anyone answering their phones. It’s like Apple shutting down the genius bar. Would these brands be the brands they are with this type of short term thinking?
Community is our greatest asset! I think our mission is to give community a voice. That’s where relevance begins and ends.
Mike Anthony
Mike, we’re tracking well, as usual. Thanks for the good points and that given that people spend close to home. No one knows that turf better than local broadcaters.
I still remember a local radio promotion that happened in my high school when I was, probably, a sophmore, about 1970. WKBW, the legendary Top-40 in Buffalo, provided an exciting program on “The Science of Sound” for a school assembly in my suburb. At the end, Jack Armstrong, the night jock at the time, came out and promised he’d dedicate the 8pm hour to requests from my school.
It made a huge impression on me, and was part of the reason I chose radio as a career. It was also terrific bang for buck on the station’s part. How have these lessons been lost?
Paul, we’ve lost sight of the value of local. Remember when each station had its own PD, promotion director, and even GM? It allowed for key managers to focus on the heart and soul of a brand. Today, cluster savings and consolidation make it more difficult for stations to pull off he kind of outreach that KB did routinely. Thanks for the memory and the observation. I often tire of nostalgia because we have to keep moving forward, but in this case, we could learn a great deal about how to do it right from some of those stations in the ’60s and ’70s.