Well, here we are at the start of a new year – football, resolutions, and new gym memberships. And our “Best of JacoBLOG” series continues with one of our best-read posts from 2013 – all about that over-hyped battle between Bubba and M.J. Both of these guys are hard-working pros who got caught up in a nasty legal battle. So maybe a radio resolution for 2014 is to do what we can to shine a positive light on the people behind the mic. Happy New Year! – FJ
If you’re a member of a minority, ethnic, or religious group, you’ll probably relate to what I’m going to talk about in this post. That’s because when bad things happen in the world, you hope that your group, your tribe, or your people aren’t somehow connected to them. You’re concerned that your “brand” will get a bad name because someone in your group has been associated with something sordid, scandalous, or embarrassing.
If you’re in broadcast radio right now, this is how you may be feeling. It used to be that when you told someone you worked in radio, they were often envious, peppering you with questions about what it’s like to be on the air (that’s the assumption, isn’t it?).
But in recent years, that’s changed. XM Radio might have gotten the ball rolling with “Beyond AM, Beyond FM, it’s XM Satellite Radio.” That may have started the comparisons when regular folks started wondering whether trusty, old “terrestrial radio” was up to the task against all this new-fangled competition.
But that’s intensified in recent years. Too often now, radio finds itself the subject of embarrassing news headlines and stories, sometimes mitigated and counter-balanced by courageous disaster coverage, but often glorified by other members of the news media, giddy about covering radio’s most embarrassing moments.
And these things are showing up in strange and often incongruous ways. While watching MSNBC’s Hardball recently on a segment about the Republican Party, Chris Matthews was chatting up journalist and political pundit Joy Reid about Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh. In the middle of a rant about how she says they both use angry people “who don’t understand ‘The New America’” to further their causes, the conversation took this weird turn:
Joy Reid: For Rush Limbaugh, it’s to get his advertisers there because terrestrial radio is dying…
CM: “Terrestrial radio?” What is terrestrial radio?
JR: It’s radio on the radio. It’s radio as opposed to satellite radio. I used to be in the radio business.
CM: Like ET – “terrestrial radio.”
Ouch. It was one of those small little digs, but corrosive nonetheless.
The same week, Tampa Bay Times columnist Eric Deggans ran a post-mortem about the Bubba/MJ (Clem/Schnitt) trial, focusing on the jury foreman, Kristy Craig, who stated that “I hated this case.” Here are a few of her choice quotes about the trial and its impact on her relationship with radio:
“I think they both need to put their big-boy pants on and find something valuable to talk about…Nobody wants to sit around and listen to two men call each other names. I work with 12-year-olds; I do that with them and try to teach them better…I love that I have some awesome CDs in my car. I am never listening to the radio again.”
So maybe you’re thinking that she’s just an N of 1, right? Just one person who was a little close to the trial. But reading and seeing continued coverage of a trial like this has to have an impact on consumers about what radio is all about, and not just in Tampa.
And to pile it on, it was announced last week that Schnitt is appealing. And that will bring even more attention to a case that may be less about two DJs fighting it out, and more about a referendum on radio. Of course, the story has taken a very weird turn with Schnitt’s lawyer’s DUI, a “lost” briefcase, a mysterious paralegal, and other oddball conspiracy theories that sound, as Tom Taylor recently pointed out, like they’ve been taken “straight out of a John Grisham legal thriller.”
Except that if you’re in radio, there’s nothing thrilling about it. I’m guessing that when the rational, sane people who work in radio and still believe strongly in its value read about this new trial, they started to quietly intone this three-word mantra: “MAKE IT STOP!”
Back to the Republicans. One of their ongoing messages in 2013 is coming from one of their own, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. He is exhorting his fellow Republicans to stop being “the stupid party,” his message to the many extremist, crazy, conspiracy theorists running around, who he says is giving the GOP a bad name. Jindal believes that perception and image are everything, and that when a Republican makes another bizarre and offensive remark, it “damaged the brand.”
You could make the case that in radio, some of these same rules of marketing and branding now apply. The media and other critics are looking for reasons to say bad things about radio. And we’re giving it to them.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at what some radio groups are doing to turn these perceptions around. And the teaser is that none of them are American radio stations or broadcast companies.
Thanks to Dave Paulus for the gentle kick in the butt for this post.
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.
- Radio + Thanksgiving = Gratitude - November 27, 2024
- Is It Quittin’ Time For SiriusXM? - November 26, 2024
- Radio, It Oughta Be A Crime - November 25, 2024
Leave a Reply