Our posts this week about telling great stories resonated with many of you. Some mentioned Paul Harvey, while others talked about Jean Shepherd. Then I got this response from Mary Beth Garber and I thought it was too good to just go as a comment. Many of you know Mary Beth as Katz’s Executive VP for Radio Analysis. But she also served as President of the Southern California Broadcasters Association, and has held positions at ad agencies, stations, marketing departments (including for the Walt Disney Company). In today’s guest post, Mary Beth takes us back to L.A. for what else? A great story. – FJ
It is always, always about the story. If there is no story, there really is no emotional connection, no satisfied buyer. And it works for every music genre as well. For years I attended the Hollywood Bowl’s classical and light pops performances haphazardly at best. Lovely picnics, disconnected to the performances, even though I love virtually all types of music.
Then a conductor named John Mauceri arrived. He began every performance with a story about how he came up with the selections for the evening and then told the stories behind each piece before it was played. Or one about the performers. We bought season tickets and when I went to work for the classical station that owned several boxes, I got him to create a program for Sunday evenings telling the stories about the music. It was a hit. Of course.
The magic remained until the Los Angeles Philharmonic/Hollywood Bowl changed management – and you know what happens even to hits when new egos are installed at the top. Mauceri left for Milan and North Carolina. And we dropped our box at the Bowl, as did so many others.
I joined the Calabasas Orchestra Society a little after that – we were the Board behind funding and directing the orchestra, which performed four times a year for the community (using a great number of musicians who also performed for the LA Phil/Hollywood Bowl). The performances barely got 30 people to attend – all white and blue haired. I begged the conductor to do stories. He said he couldn’t do it but I could if I wanted to.
So I did – I researched each piece, each composer and did a 1 to 2 minute intro to each piece. Soon we had over 100 attendees and had to move to a different site – and many colors of hair were there. After the first time, the trumpeter of the orchestra came up to me to thank me. He said he never knew those facts about the piece (an obscure Copeland composition which had a haunting trumpet solo) and that it truly affected his performance.
The music tells a story of its own, but it resonates even more when people know the story behind the music and its performers. That is when I love radio best – when it tells the stories, about the music, the performers, entertainers, themselves and their listeners. And that, I am convinced, is when radio gets its best audience and best ratings.
I always used stories to sell radio – and was the #1 seller at every station for which I worked. I taught my sellers and now teach my students (sales course for all new AEs at Southern California stations) to tell the stories that create the connection that gets the business.
It works. The story, well told, almost always works.
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Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Excellent! And, that’s why radio needs live personality, sales folk must understand programming and stations must look at the total package to add success. There ARE many stories in the Naked City…..
…and we need to do a better job telling them. Thanks for kind words, Clark.
Tell me a story! Mary Beth Garber is right, stories are the key to music success as well, but it applies to almost every aspect of our lives. Commercials, sales pitches, getting out of a speeding ticket or impressing a romantic interest can all be more successful with a compelling story. Don Hewitt, creator of 60 Minutes, believed in story-telling too. Here’s a 60 second clip about Don: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4HQazDTPwk
I love it, Dave – direct from Hewitt: “Learn how to tell them a story and you’ll be a success.” It was the secret to the decades-long success of “60 Minutes” and to what the radio business has always been about. Thanks for the link, the comment, and for reading our blog.
Fred: what a great piece! This is what radio needs to save it from the Oblivion Express ( apologies to Brian Auger ). It needs it in the programming and above all in the commercials. Thanks for posting this. I hope every programmer and radio executive in the country is reading this. As you know it’s what we do in The Deep End. Telling stories is the oldest form of human entertainment and Mary Beth Garber is right on the money when she says it enhances the audience’s experience with the musc.
Nick, only YOU could tie it all together – the beauty of a great story and a great legendary rock reference point. Thanks so much, and I know Mary Beth will appreciate your words, too.
I am glad you chimed in, Nick.you are truly one of the great storytellers today.
From its infancy radio has always been the conduit for great stories, whether they were the comedies and dramas in the pre-television days, the images of World War II conjured up by the great newscasters, or latter-day air personalities who gave us cause to stop and think and reflect (Paul Harvey comes to mind). Casey Kasem built his AT40 franchise on the story behind the song, and his long-distance dedications drew teenagers — yes, teenagers — to their radios every Saturday. Every successful drive time program has had great story-telling behind it, and some of them still do. But in today’s cost-cutting, bean-counting drive to become a utility rather than an art form, much of today’s radio has lost the essence of what made it great. Any audio service can become a push-button jukebox, but only radio can provide the forum for great and compelling storytelling.
Reed, thanks for the great thoughts. And it makes you wonder why – at a time when the competition is becoming more abundant – radio brands would be gravitating to the apparent safety of the jukebox rather than capitalize on its storytelling DNA. Thank for framing it for us, and for reading our blog.
Late to this as usual, but I want to support what Mary Beth said about sales proposals and stories – no wonder she slammed it everywhere she went! Good sales proposals address uncovered needs – everything from big opportunities to pain avoidance. The common demonminator in proposals that sell is that they deal directly with something that really matters to the prospect/client.
And that’s where the story comes in. A proposal can be a mechanical description of all of the suggested media, or it can provide an emotional reference to the meetings that uncovered the needs and solutions. That reference can and should illustrate those needs and solutions – when that happens, the media and cost take a back seat to the problem and its remedy.
And there’s a much better chance that you make the sale.