Bill Weston, program director of legendary WMMR/Philadelphia, is a guy who truly stands at the intersection of media and technology. The MMR team has embraced the digital tools, with strong participation from the airstaff – especially morning icons, Preston & Steve – right up to Greater Media’s corner office. This morning, Bill brings home the Hurricane Sandy relief effort, and weaves it into a reminder about how radio at its best combines the power of great brands and traditional broadcasting with the new tools of today. When broadcasters eschew social media and other outlets as a “time suck” or impossible to monetize, they miss the magical benefit that true engagement offers. Thanks, Bill, for bringing it home.
This past week presented many validating stories of radio’s role in a natural disaster with life-saving information for those with lifeless modems and dark screen displays… a source of the basic comfort of the human voice and, yes, granting that Scorpions and Neil Young request.
Allow me to add another example that goes deeper – combining that power of broadcast media with social media’s reach and depth, facilitated by a trained air talent that knows how to connect with listeners, beyond the standard time, temp, and backsell.
Friday afternoon, with hundreds of thousands still without power, light or heat, still uncertain if their homes were still standing, WMMR’s 30 year vet, Pierre Robert, is on the air. He takes a call from a listener traveling down the Atlantic City Expressway who describes the wonderful sight of a dozen or so Alabama Power bucket trucks on their way to help restore power to the hardest hit coastal areas of New Jersey. The caller relayed his gratitude and respect for these workers, the distance they had traveled, and asked would Pierre please give them a proper shout-out.
Pierre airs the call and rolls right into those classic opening chords of “Sweet Home Alabama.”
Perfect.
But it gets better.
Later that day WMMR Social Media Director Francesca Tiedeken gets a Facebook message from Jamie Sandford, an Alabama Power employee, asking if we were the radio station who sent out the major props to his crew. It turns out they were listening to the station, heard the call and the song dedication, and were emotionally impacted by it. They posted their feelings on the company’s Facebook page.
Radio’s forte – the ability to bring people together – by connecting with a guy in his car, an out of state work crew, and the broadcast and social audience. They are all players in a simple, but great story.
A radio story revolving around a simple act of someone doing something nice for someone else.
Bill, we often talk about the power of radio’s “emotional triggers,” and this is a great example. I will also add that none of this happens when a station is voicetracking, does not monitor its Facebook activity, and doesn’t have personalities on the air who can pivot, adjust, and react to an obvious opportunity to do what radio does best. Only on MMR.
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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Oh so true – this story represents radio at its spontaneous emotional best. And oh so hard to do via tracking or syndication.
Could this have been replicated in small and medium markets? Radio talks the local game with great precision and is progressively moving away from it, yet its lips are still moving. Something’s gotta give, don’t you think?
I loved it, too, Bob. It is validation for live, local, and engaged. And yes, the smaller markets are challenged on so many levels, hurting radio’s ability to do what it does best. At all of the automotive conferrences I’ve atteneded in the past couple years, the car guys all speak to the power of radio’s local connection as the antitdote to Internet pure-plays, satellite radio, and other competitors. And our Techsurvey8 backs this up statistically. So why isn’t there more belief in the boardrooms and corner offices that there’s value here for Pensacola, Peoria, and Plattsburgh – and not just the big guys in Philadelphia? Thanks again.