For this week’s “Innovation Friday” entry, we are going meta on you as we profile a fantastic innovation that has helped one cluster of stations be more innovative. One of our goals when we initiated “Radio’s Most Innovative” was to stimulate a spirit of risk-taking, hacking, and experimentation. At Greater Media Philadelphia, they have made it official.
At a time when employees are wearing multiple hats and everyone is stretched thin just trying to get their daily work done, focusing on innovation can be challenging. Unless you have a manager like John Fullam, Greater Media’s VP/Market Manager for its Philadelphia radio stations.
Under his leadership, the cluster has been honored with a Top Workplace award in Philadelphia for the past three years which is based entirely upon employee surveys. Year in and year out, the station brands in this cluster have earned some of the best ratings and sales in the marketplace.
One reason why Greater Media Philly staffers enjoy their at-work environment is an initiative Fullam launched two years ago, focused on highlighting and driving innovation among not just programmers or brand managers, but with every employee across all departments in the building.
We asked John to share the details of his “innovation challenge” with us:
JM: Explain how the program works.
JF: Each of our four Program Directors puts together a team of 5-7 people chosen from any of our four Philadelphia stations. Each team has people with different skill sets often coming from different departments and in many cases different stations.
The teams have eight weeks to develop three big ideas. The ideas have to be totally new and somehow engage our listeners. Each team then presents to Peter Smyth, Greater Media CEO, and two other guest judges who select the team with the best innovations. The winning team flies to Boston on the company plane to have lunch with Peter.
JM: How did this idea come about?
JF: It began three years ago during an annual budget meeting. A few of our stations proposed repeating some of the same promotional ideas for the following year. Some ideas were good; a few seemed tired.
At that time, we saw and discussed a few articles on the importance of innovation – one was from the Jacobs Media daily blog. We also saw the 60 Minutes segment with Ideo’s David Kelley on how innovative companies operate. It seemed like a good time to make innovation a priority and challenge ourselves to raise our game.
JM: What were you hoping to accomplish and did it work?
JF: We were hoping to do three things. Create new and exciting ideas that would engage listeners. Incorporate the ideas with new and better ways to interact with fans through social, mobile, and digital. And find cool and relevant ways to tie our sponsors in. Our goal was to walk away with a few new ideas and we got a lot more.
JM: Do these ideas actually get implemented?
JF: Of the 20 new ideas in the past two years, the majority have been implemented across our four stations.
JM: What impact have you seen from your innovation challenge?
JF: The impact has been great – fresh ideas, higher listener engagement on new platforms, more opportunities for our sales organization and sponsors, as well as a creative process that involves many more people.
JM: What have some of the winning innovations been about?
JF: They range from some successful events to enhanced mobile capabilities for a better user experience such as a “Now Playing” feature for Twitter. Another one, which was a winner, showcases both listener and non-listener’s social media photos and videos taken at exciting events around the city in the “You Rock” section on the WMMR website.
JM: At a time where employees feel stressed, how have you managed to motivate your staffers to go for it?
JF: Radio is full of some of the most creative and passionate people you’ll find in any industry. Providing an entrepreneurial outlet for that creativity and passion not only helps employees feel more invested in the future, but can also create great opportunities to learn, grow, and make a difference.
We want our people to know they work for a company where their ideas are encouraged. Knowing that an employee in any department has the opportunity to offer ideas that can improve one of our brands or help us win is important. And our people seem to be invigorated. They enjoy letting their brains “out to play” and are an endless source of new ideas.
JM: What role do you see innovation playing in the future of radio?
JF: Radio companies that successfully build an innovative culture into their core DNA are going to thrive, not only from a product and service point of view, but with talent acquisition and retention as well. For radio, or any business that wants to grow, innovation should be a fundamental part of their strategy.
Innovation is also an attitude where you are not happy with the status quo and know you can do better. Innovation, in our case, allowed us to tap into talented people inside the organization to bring new ideas forward and solve problems.
That involvement is what keeps a high-performance organization engaged. We are thrilled Peter and Greater Media has been such huge supporters of the initiative. To have our staff discuss future innovations with our CEO has been great on many levels.
JM: What is one suggestion you have for someone with an innovative idea that isn’t sure how to get started pursuing it?
JF: Keep developing the idea and find people who can provide good input on how it can even get better. And watch the 60 Minutes piece on David Kelley. He is far smarter than me!
>CLICK HERE TO WATCH 60 MINUTES/DAVID KELLEY VIDEO<
Thank you, Fred and Jacobs Media, for sharing ideas on innovations each week.
Thanks to Mike Stern for writing this “RMI” profile.
INNOVATION QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Organizations are not designed for innovation. Quite the contrary, they are designed for ongoing operations.”
Vijay Govindarajan, The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge
More of Radio’s Most Innovative
- #TBT: Radio’s Most Innovative: Paul Lamere
- Radio's Most Innovative: GenX.fm (or "What We Did Over Memorial Day Weekend")
- Radio’s Most Innovative: Galaxy Communications’ Ed Levine
- Radio’s Most Innovative: NextRadio
- Radio’s Most Innovative: GenX.fm (or “What We Did Over Memorial Day Weekend”)
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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Love it! John Fullam is extraordinary. To stay competitive broadcasters should consider either incentivizing their PDs to innovate online and help build an online audience (with existing and new content), or hire a skunkworks team to build it’s digital audience.
The simple truth is there is a mass migration from FM to IP. FM is not dead. It is still a major force, but one that analysts forecast will diminish over time as this natural migration unfolds.
Therefore, broadcasters willing to cannibalize their audience with original IP content, in the same way Apple cannibalized iTunes MP3 sales by launching iTunes Radio, will secure their future. Those that ignore IP content innovation will fall behind.
Any broadcast company that encourages innovation and means it, is to be commended.
Appreciate the comments about John’s efforts to spur innovation from his staff. However, you envision the future of radio, a motivated, excited, and challenged workforce is a key component. Thanks, Paul.