Today on #TBT, it’s trip back in time to June 2017 – just five short years ago – and a blog post that earned a strong response when it first posted. I dusted it off for today because if reminds us five years in radio are like “dog years” – a lot longer than what they seem especially the LAST five years.
The post is all about the power of brands, their power, their impact, their resilience, and their ability to outlive their owners – in this case radio companies. Many radio brands have had to survive being taken over by companies that didn’t care about their history or their preciousness.
We’ve learned some stations can persevere and work around lame owners. But we’ve also learned even the best brands can be destroyed or taken down to their knees by owners who starve them by taking away financial and human resources . Some never recover from awful stewardship, lame ownership, or simple neglect. The truly best of the best fight each day to overcome and endure.
Of course, reviving a radio brand was a lot easier when the medium was at the top of its game, when more people were listening and listening longer, and were truly fans of radio. Thanks to competitive pressures from all corners, the task of bringing a radio station back from the ashes has become more difficult.
If you’re lucky enough to work for a truly iconic radio station, take a moment to realize how fortunate you are, as well as the importance of doing everything you can to appreciate what it means to your community, fight for support from your parent company, and continue to set high standards on everything it does.
The old-timers who worked there “back in the day” may say the station sounded better in its heyday, but you need to know they truly value what the current team is contributing. Fact is, it’s a much harder task to manage and guide a great brand today than it was in 1974, 1981, or 1992.
Great radio brands still matter. In fact, you could easily make the case they are more important to the medium of radio today than they were during their halcyon days. – FJ
June 2017
When I walked into WRIF as program director well more than three decades ago, it was both an exhilarating and a terrifying experience at the same time. Having grown up in Detroit, RIFF was my favorite radio station. So having the chance to program it at the ripe old age of 30 was both a privilege and a harrowing experience.
At the time, the station was 10 years old, and was rapidly becoming something of a market institution. FM radio had become the dominant band, and in most rating books, WRIF was the perennial leader. And to amp up the pressure, I was sitting in the captain’s chair, following legendary PDs like Lee Abrams, Larry Berger, Tom Bender and others. While we didn’t think in terms of stations as brands back then, I knew very well what was at stake. WRIF was an important radio station, and I was bound and determined not to screw it up – and in fact, leave it in better shape than when I showed up to program it.
And that concept of station brands hit me the other day when I read a story in The Guardian about rock brands and rock bands. Written by Michael Hann, the premise is that in the world of rock, brands outlive bands in the minds of fans. As band members come and go – and in an increasing number of cases, dying – the institution lives on. Rock fans are less concerned about the specifics of who’s playing bass guitar or who’s on vocals. As long as the rock brand is intact, concert-goers will pay to see the newest incarnation of Journey, AC/DC, the Eagles, the Who, and many others.
In all cases, these bands have lost key members, and yet, their fandom is unmoved, continuing to shell out big bucks on concerts, merch, and of course, music.
As Hann postulates, if the music remains solid, the logo is familiar, and the connection with fans is intact, just about any rock band can endure even with different personnel. But a key point is that these legacy band/brands have also maintained a sense of community – a gathering among a tribe of people whose common thread is their love for the music.
As he concludes, “the brand is bigger than the band.”
And so, it makes you wonder if the same isn’t true in radio – especially rock radio. You look at some of the stations that have lasted for 30 years, 40 years – and more – and most have survived DJ turbulence of one kind of another. Shows and personalities have come and gone, but somehow it’s the station brand that knits it all together.
That’s been the case for WRIF. It has been blessed with spectacularly great morning shows through the years – J.J. & The Morning Crew, Drew & Mike, and now Dave & Chuck the Freak. They have little in common with each other, aside from their daypart and their great talent. And yet, they are part of the narrative of a radio station that’s been rocking the Motor City for going on a half century. The shows have all been true to the brand – and like the logos of AC/DC, the Who, and the Stones – the WRIF logo is an enduring symbol of a radio tradition in The D that has spanned generations, passed down from parents (and grandparents) to their kids. I love doing focus groups for stations like WRIF and have a thirtysomething say to me, “I’ve been listening to the station my entire life.”
And there’s a group of wildly successful rock stations that can make the same claim, even though DJs have come and gone. KISW, WMMR, KUPD, KSHE, WDVE, KSHE, and a handful of others have proved the power of their iconic local brands transcend the coming and goings of DJ transitions. That’s not to say there haven’t been tough years during their long histories. Including WRIF, these stations have had their peaks and their valleys. But their powerful brands transcend ownership changes, morning show defections, PD misfires, and other setbacks that might have deep-sixed lesser brands. In short, they’ve earned their mettle.
That’s not to say DJs, programmers, and others don’t matter in this equation. They’re the ones who built those amazing reputations and are stewards for the stations they’ve served. The power of the brand transcends and outlives us all.
Like Axl Rose replacing Brian Johnson, Vince Gill filling in for Glenn Frey, and Zak Starkey sitting behind the drum kit for Keith Moon, the talent better be there. And like a great radio station that stands for more than just a playlist and slogan, the connection with fans goes to the core of band/station success and survival.
Mick Jagger must have figured this out in the summer of ’69 when Brian Jones drowned in that swimming pool – and somehow the Stones endured…and endured…and endured.
Now whether the Allman Brothers Band can marshal on without a living Allman brother is a good question. But I wouldn’t count them out.
When the summer tours go into full force in the coming weeks, you’ll be seeing a lot of rock brands that don’t look exactly like their original lineups. And their core fans won’t care.
For radio stations – especially those legendary rock stations – that would appear to be the case, too.
It’s always about the brand.
Thanks to KSLX’s David Moore for the tip on this story.
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.
- It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - December 25, 2024
- Is Public Radio A Victim Of Its Own Org Chart – Part 2 - December 24, 2024
- In 2024, The Forecast Calls For Pain - December 23, 2024
Do you remember “Discotheque”? Do you remember “Pop”? Do you remember when they obligued us to have U2 in our iPhones without our consent?
Do you remember when U2 tried to be the band that “everyone likes”?
Remember when they lost their alternative / post-punk legend status by the late 90s when they started releasing generic radio / stadium rock pop and the band likewise started to look more vanilla rock pop and Bono really amped up the wealthy detached rock diva persona?
That’s how you kill a brand…
That U2 on iPhone thing really pissed a lot of people off. (Including me.)