I was pondering the Coleman Image Pyramid this week,  (Jon Coleman would be happy because I think about it a lot.)

It’s a handy way to think about what it takes to become a successful (music) radio station in our highly complex media environment.  Since its inception, Coleman has insisted the foundation of a radio station brand should be ownership of a mass appeal music genre.  This typically means mainstream formats like Adult Contemporary, Classic Rock, Hip-Hop, Country, or Top 40.  Less popular formats – think Jazz, Triple A, Classical – can differentiate stations in a crowded marketplace, but it’s usually a tough putt with these more narrow music types.

As you move up the pyramid, other attributes come into play – personality, contests and promotions, and community service among them.  So, while hosts may not be #1 in Coleman’s music hierarchy, they still rate very highly.

If I were reformatting the pyramid (and no, they haven’t asked), I’d do a bit of rejiggering and place personalities as the base.  Why?  First, while it’s usually much harder to find and coach outsized personalities, they almost always are key variables in a station’s success.

And second, they are usually unique and interesting beings, making it difficult for competitor stations to copy them.  Assuming your contracts are all buttoned up, a great personality and/or show can make significant contributions to a station brand for years, sometimes even decades.  They also tend to matter in the advertising world, featuring distinguishing assets and talent that can animate a brand and make indelible impressions in the local community.

This week, the analogy that keeps coming to mind is NFL Football.  Conveniently, Tom Brady had an off-year and then finally retired (for good?) last week.  And that provides a clear path for his unconditional replacement as league superstar, the Kansas City Chief’s Patrick Mahomes (pictured above).

This is not to take anything away from the Philadelphia Eagles and their very fine quarterback, Jalen Hurts.  In fact, the league is loaded at the moment with stellar talent at the all-important quarterback position – Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Justin Fields, Brock Purdy, and Trevor Laurence immediately come to mind.  But Mahomes is in a class by himself.

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He’s still young (27), he’s already won a Super Bowl (2019), he’s successfully repping many products in commercials, and he has a great storyline.  He is also reputed to be a great guy off the field.

Mahomes isn’t just the face of the Kansas City Chiefs; he’s arguably the most popular and perhaps most talented in the NFL.  But the true test may be anecdotal, and I believe a true phenomenon.  Mahomes is cutting through with people who aren’t football fans, but they know who he is and they like him.  I’ve chatted with a number of people since the Chiefs and Eagles clinched who will be watching the Big Game because of Mahomes – and not just the commercials or Rihanna at halftime.  They may not understand an onside kick or intentional grounding, but they know who the quarterback of the Chiefs is, and they’re rooting for him to win another ring on Sunday.

And they’ll be buying his merch, watching commercials during the game, and will otherwise be more engaged with the Super Bowl because Mahomes is the face of the franchise known as the National Football League.  Yes, Chiefs fans, he’s yours.  But he’s also ours. That’s how special he’s become to the game.

There are people like this in radio, too.  The old timers will tell you there used to be more of these franchise players across the AM and FM dials than there are today.  That’s probably true.  But today’s radio listeners don’t care.  If they’re partial to a personality or a show, it doesn’t matter that someone back in the 80’s had a bigger cume.

I’ve seen that happening with Dave & Chuck the Freak at WRIF, my alma mater in Detroit.  To their fans in the Motor City, they are a must-listen show that defines Detroit radio.  It doesn’t matter they were proceeded by greats like Dick Purtan, Drew & Mike, or even the late, great J.P.McCarthy on WJR.  Their history is being written right now today.  In 2023, radio listeners will tell you Dave & Chuck are the best show they’ve ever heard. And it is.

Fortunately for the radio business, these bigger-than-life personalities still have presence in many markets.  They are the faces of their franchises – their stations – and they’re, impossible to truly value.  But you learn – the hard way oftentimes – when you lose them.  They’re not just about ratings points.  Those are mere metrics.  They have a presence with listeners, with advertisers, with the community.  When you lose one, it hurts on so many different levels.

I worked for a market manager once who used to occasionally find himself in frustrating negotiations with talent and agents.   Those were the moments when talent’s requests (or demands) was for what he called “crazy money.”

When he got exasperated, he’d often refer to the talent in question and declare, “No one’s bigger than the radio station.”

But he was wrong.  Some shows and hosts are bigger than the brand. You cannot calculate their ROI because they are so intertwined with the station.  Besides the ratings, there are the intangibles – the things that don’t show up on the stats page or the rankers.  Great managers and tuned-in ownership have a sense for the intrinsic value of these contributions.  They matter, not just to the bottom line, but to the depth of the brand itself.

That doesn’t mean you give in during every contract cycle and just back the money truck up to their homes.  There is always room for negotiation, give and take, bargaining chips, and other variables that come into play.  Good managers know how to play this game, realizing their main mission is to find a way to retain talent and keep them happy.  Franchise players have to be treated well, they need recognition from ownership, and they need to work with coaches and staffers who appreciate who they are and what they contribute.

I was thinking about these situations last week when I wrote the post, “No One Listens To The Radio Anymore.”  Many of you read it, commented publicly and pulled me aside privately.  It goes to the essence of why fans who have exponentially more media and entertainment choices continue to listen to our personalities.

One highly respected broadcaster told me how radio’s “93% argument” misses the point.  Consumers aren’t loyal to “the radio” or even most stations.  They form attachments and bonds to our people, our hosts, our shows.  The example I talked about in the post was a young college grad who first swore she didn’t listen to the radio.  But it turned out she sure listened to Gregr, the morning guy at KNDD in Seattle.

I cannot quantify the look on her face when I told her I knew Greg and worked with The End.  All of a sudden, she wanted to talk to me to find out more about her hometown hero, “the face of the franchise.”

It makes you wonder why stations that are lucky enough to have these rare personalities and shows don’t market and promote them.  After all, when you look at the entire local cluster, chances are it’s that one station with that megawatt talent that people talk about.  Because of the talent, it’s the station they want to be associated with.  And it’s a rare station that actually has a couple of great stars – like Patrick Mahomes and say, tight end Travis Kelce.

In much the same way Apple continues to market the face of its franchise – the iPhone – on billboards, TV, social ads, and even sides of buildings, radio companies would do themselves – and their industry – a service by promoting these local personality franchises that consumers can’t hear on Spotify, SiriusXM, YouTube, or TikTok.

These greats are live, local, present, and connected in their hometown markets, day in and day out.  They provide companionship, they make people feel better when they’re down, and they keep listeners engaged with what’s going on in their cities and towns, with their sports teams and local politicians, as well as local restaurants, bars, concerts, and other cultural touchpoints.  They are not just talented personalities, they are the brand’s ambassadors.

Beyond the audience, of course, there’s the advertisers.  They have more options than ever, and far too many have bought into the “No one listens to radio” meme.  Stations that are the “Best Hits of the 80s, 90s, and Now” a dime a dozen, commodities for negotiating the lowest rate possible. There’s no compelling reason to buy them outside of cost efficiency.  By their very existence they might provide reach, but they lack the ability to provide stickiness, engagement, and brand lift.  But giving advertisers the opportunity to attach themselves to a unique morning show with a captive audience?  Well as brother Paul would say, “That’s sales gold.”

And they are the antidote and the answer to “No one listens to the radio.”  They are live, vital, and in the moment.  And they provide the “cume urgency,” the need to listen today to make sure you didn’t miss anything.  They engender loyalty and connectedness.

None of this to say the other stations in the cluster don’t matter, because they do.  But chances are, they aren’t especially promotable.  And at a time in radio when marketing dollars are precious and scarce, why wouldn’t a broadcaster put their promotional heft behind a personality or show that matters and one that’s likely to produce a return on that marketing investment?

In your market, they are tangible reasons why radio still very much matters.  And the last thing they should feel is being taken for granted.

And yet, that where the radio broadcasting industry in the U.S. is positioned in 2023.  More than eight in ten DIs, shows, and hosts feel like their contributions are often falling on deaf ears. Nearly half strongly believe their efforts are being overlooked.

There’s a lot that can and will be said about Patrick Mahomes in the coming days, months, and years.  But one of them likely won’t revolve around how Coach Andy Reid and the Chiefs’ brass take him for granted.  They know what they have, and they’ll continue to plaster that face and #15 everywhere they can.

And if the Chiefs ever end up turning their backs on their superstar, Mahomes will leave during his next open contractual window, taking his talent and charisma to a new organization that surely won’t make those same mistakes.

He will be the face of a new franchise.

Radio broadcasters can demonstrate the value of its platform by putting their prime talent front and center in the media wars.  Promoting the face of the franchise is a no-brainer.  Radio did it throughout the 80’s and 90’s – and it sure didn’t hurt the industry or its status in its local markets.

And you never know.  It could start a wave.  Station A actively promotes its superstar morning show, and Stations B and C just might feel compelled – or even pressured – to do the same.  Next thing you know, you’ve got an enthusiastic radio war in the market.

Game on.

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Fred Jacobs

President & Founder at Jacobs Media

Fred Jacobs founded Jacobs Media in 1983, and quickly became known for the creation of the Classic Rock radio format.

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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