In yesterday’s post, we grimaced at a Salary.com survey that listed “On-Air DJ” on their endangered job list. Their “take” is that the clock is ticking for terrestrial announcers, presenters, and hosts, while digital and satellite radio are blossoming. Support for this theory comes from Apple’s recent debut of Beats 1, a DJ driven “radio station” that is a throwback to the way we’ve traditionally done it in broadcast radio.
It is easy to get caught up in trying to determine how digital competitors and pure-plays are doing it. So maybe the answer is to look inward rather than playing someone else’s game. What are the characteristics of broadcast radio’s DNA and how can stations leverage those strengths?
Apple has been smart to play up the global vibe of Beats 1, helping listeners from different time zones access desired programs, features, and new music discoveries. There is something exciting about discovering a new band at the same time someone else does in Dubai or Dublin. But that can’t mask the chink in the digital armor – the lack of a hometown feel.
Because if you think about broadcast radio as “the client” in a complicated, multi-dimensional media land grab for the consumer’s time, any smart marketer would point to the local ethos as that steel sword that Sirius/XM, Spotify, Pandora, and Beats 1 cannot touch.
Ironically, a documentary produced and directed by Roger King highlighting the life and times of four influential rock radio DJs – I Am What I Play – will be premiered in the States this fall. It focuses on New York City’s Meg Griffin, Boston’s Charles Laquidara, Toronto’s David Marsden, and Seattle’s Pat O’Day. Here’s the trailer:
Email recipients can watch the I Am What I Play trailer here.
The spirit of radio is very much alive in a film that takes viewers back to a formative, embryonic period when FM radio was the startup, disrupting its AM counterparts. Some of the passion you hear from these iconic DJs in I Am What I Play are on display on Beats1. And its part of the elixir that is necessary to radio’s personality reboot.
The question is, can broadcast radio go back to its archives, re-read its history, look in the mirror, and save itself by updating and modernizing its own programming model?
While so many other media brands are evaluating the role and importance of personalities to the music presentation and curation process, shouldn’t radio lead the way?
And perhaps a place to start is at a destination where voicetracking has become the norm – nighttime radio. Sadly, many broadcasters have taken the attitude that no one listens at night, so why invest in the daypart?
Instead, the question might be posed as because few are listening, why not try something different at night? Why not? Given low PURs/PUMMs (Persons using radio/persons using measured media) and a daypart where most of radio has thrown in the towel, what could it hurt?
And let me leave you where we started – with a list. But unlike yesterday’s Salary.com rundown of jobs on the bubble, this list is about the questions that programmers and talent could be asking themselves in a renewed effort by broadcasters to rethink the value of its on-air talent because they are sure to matter even more over the next five years:
- What do your DJs stand for?
- What differentiates them from one another and the other personalities in town?
- Why do they matter to the overall listening experience?
- What do they bring to the table besides execution of a format?
- How can they enhance programming and make it sound less scheduled and automated?
- What is their local connection to their communities?
- What makes them better than an iPod or a playlist?
- How can they use their abilities to create other content (special programs/features, podcasts, videos, countdowns, etc.), and how can stations monetize it?
Beats 1 isn’t about having DJs. It’s about utilizing the skill sets of interesting, knowledgeable people to enhance the programming and the brand.
Some may say that radio has pushed the really good people out the door to other media as the Salary.com observation suggests. Somehow, I believe there is talent in many stations that simply needs to be nurtured, directed, and encouraged.
No one is denying the balancing act required to find the middle ground between PPM “best practices” and effectively competing with Spotify, Apple, Pandora, and Sirius/XM.
But it’s also time to acknowledge that radio’s original model, featuring interesting personalities, connections to local communities, and curation, has never gone out of style. It simply needs to be updated, upgraded, and executed.
Let’s do this.
Note: Thanks to Kevin Matthews whose picture appears at the top of this post.
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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Unfortunately, the cost of doing “real” radio is prohibitive in this day and age. Back in the day, radio stations were the places we went to for music discovery, community information, concert news, and mundane stuff like traffic/weather/news. Along with that, radio brought a cost effective way for advertisers to reach very specific audiences.
Jump 40 years later; Stations are no longer the best places for music discovery (unless you are looking for the top 10 list). Stations are having problems competing with streaming services, and the proliferation of apps that target both wide and narrow musical tastes.
Other than a few public radio/listener supported stations around the country, most radio stations are mere shadows of their former selves. On Air staffs have been reduced from 10-12 people for a 24/7 station, down to 3 or 4. Those announcers are probably only working 2-3 hour days since they are mainly just adding pre-recorded voice-overs to pre-selected playlists.
The magic of good radio, was and could still be the “live” aspect. Apple Music Beats One channel is a good experiment, I hope it’s successful, and look forward to 100’s of channels of live announcers.
You may be right that the ship has sailed, but there is always money for the right project, even in today’s cash-strapped radio environment. As the Washington Post’s Marc Fisher said in yesterday’s post, curation may, in fact, trump choice. There IS magic in live, passionate, hand-crafted radio, as you point out. Thanks for the comment.
“Sadly, many broadcasters have taken the attitude that no one listens at night, so why invest in the daypart?
“Instead, the question might be posed as because few are listening, why not try something different at night?”
Better question: WHY are so few listening at night? Do people not consume entertainment at night? Of course they do. Lots of it at night.
The abandonment of good programming, especially at night, might be why so few listen.
That might be the definition of a radio management 101 self-fulfilling prophesy.
Don’t believe be? OK, try this … save a fortune by blowing out your successful morning show and replace it with voice tracking.
My guess is that – at most stations – few will listen during mornings, too.
Well, duh.
Dimitri, spot on. As prophecies go, this one was especially self-fulfilling. If you deconstruct it, they won’t come.
But as you point out, this is listening real estate, and it could be cultivated yet again. Maybe people aren’t listening because there’s very little to listen to.
I’m constantly amazed that everyone accepts the truism “as the morning show goes – so goes the rest of the Radio station.” At the same time – these same voices insist that listening levels at night are so low, there’s no need to worry about content. Just play sweepers, ads and music and be done with it. I still believe the evening daypart is the setup man (or woman!) for the Morning Show – and we need alive, engaging content (whether local or syndicated) that entertains, informs – and keeps those Radios tuned to our station.
Charlie, we have a huge opportunity at night, as you point out, there’s nothing better than the “bookends” strategy. It may have been typified best by the old WNIC with Harper & Gannon in the morning and the late Alan Almond’s “Pillow Talk” at night. That evening magnet fed listeners to the morning show without fail. Thanks for taking the time.
The belief that post consolidation economics dictate the kind of cost cutting that has eliminated so much of radio’s personality and localism is apparently not supported by the facts. There are several companies doing it the “old” way (Live personalities, research, marketing, events) that are apparently putting up margins that are comparable to the real cheapskates. That’s the thing I find so perplexing. By every available measure, the consolidation formula of buy em, combine em, and run em cheap by using technology to fake as much as possible has been a complete failure. Use revenue, ratings, EBITDA stock price or all of the above and the results say try something else. Yet all that radio can produce is more of the same, despite the fact that slightly down is now the new normal.
Beats 1 won’t amount to much of anything IMO, but here’s what will. Apple understands investment and has shown some pretty good instinct for offering products that people like and pay for and Spotify/Pandora will eventually run out of pieces of their companies to sell to fund their money losing operations. This could leave broadcast radio in a match play with the biggest company in the US. And they could be the only ones offering what the pureplays do now embedded in their phones…for free, or cheap.
Its hard to understand radio’s math and even harder to understand their plans for the future. Apple’s approach to both seems easier to decode.
There’s “what works” to save money and cut costs. And then there’s “what works” that engages an audience and is effective for advertisers. Those two spheres are moving quickly. Recognizing those changes and how they impact the business goes to the heart of rethinking the platform. Thanks, Bob.
Apparently saving money and cutting costs doesn’t increase EBITDA but strips you of anything but numbers to sell, which probably is a least part of the reason spending less money also means you take in less money.
Let’s also look at this from the sales side. How do you go to an advertiser and tout a station that’s a combination of voice tracking and promos? How do you get excited about that, and how do you make an advertiser excited about that? Great personalities are the single most important tool in a salesperson’s arsenal – they generate reaction, they sell tickets, they are who the audience (and many advertisers) want to meet. Without them, we can have computers talking to computers because there’s nothing to sell but numbers
Yep – it leaves you with programmatic buying and selling of dwindling numbers and no way to solve anyone’s problem, or harness engagement in a way that sells product. No wonder down is the new normal!
I don’t agree Paul. The “single most important tool in a sales person’s arsenal” better labeled as “presentation”, is not great personalities unless he or she is the failing salesperson. An advertiser’s interest is their own business not the radio station’s. An advertiser’s benefit is the commercial message before an audience. If having the audience numbers can be attributed to popular personalities it is merely a part of the conversation.
Richard, here’s the point I was trying to make – when up against the “bright shiny objects” like Pandora, etc., it’s the personality that is a defining difference. They are the “stars” that provide credibility to live reads. They are who the audience goes to see at events. They are the one thing that separates radio from a jukebox. So if I’m selling, I want to tell stories about people, not a playlist. And the personalities are a key component in this process.
I have been working for the same station for the past 14 years and have survived being bought out twice! I can’t say the same for the rest of the air staff. I was the only one to survive the first transition back in 2003. Since that day I have been the only live local talent on the station. However, that is about to change. We have made the effort to continue to provide a local connection while also giving the audience what they want. A couple years ago I added an element to my show called the Fish Tank Catch of the Day…where I debut a new song each day of the week. This has helped us stay on the forefront of the new music scene and it fuels new music discovery for the listeners. We have embraced the digital scene and are trying to stay proactive instead of reactive. This is all being done in a community of 10k people. 5 years of strong growth under the latest owners have led to the opportunity to add to the air staff for the first time in over a decade. It can be done even in small markets. All it takes is some progressive thinking and hard work!
Great story, Matt, and very inspirational. Thanks for sharing it.
Fred, the constant dilemma money vs. art. We at ‘ABX continued to try and stay relevant, and we did alright while keeping the “suits” happy. Can’t wait to see the film. Those are 4 of the greatest.
Appreciate it, Al. Thanks for the note and for reading our blog.
The question unanswered by the industry, even as it points to Beats1 as evidence that “it’s not over!,” is why someone with the talent to be a great DJ would want to do so in 2015. Even if a talent isn’t of the mind to denigrate radio as old and stale, the industry news isn’t about hiring, it’s about cutbacks (like CBS today). Even if radio stations DID let talent be free on the air, the career path is… rocky. And, of course, talent ISN’T all that free to try new things.
And if the career doesn’t look all that safe and there are restrictions galore on what you can say and do, the idea of just doing a podcast as a creative outlet and monetizing through whatever means (ads, Patreon, merch, live events, selling blood and organs) becomes attractive.
Perry, it’s a tough putt, but there are great companies out there that are still talent-friendly. Podcasts may be a great outlet, but I think that (most) personalities who have left radio to stake out the podcast turf are having a tough time as well. All it takes it one great war story, and other broadcasters would surely follow. Without selling anyone’s organs. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
The number of positions keeps getting smaller, and so do the odds. And as I noted, you don’t do podcasts to get rich, you do them because you want that freedom and you understand you won’t be making “radio money.” But if there aren’t enough jobs out there paying “radio money,” it’s elementary.
On the other hand, there ARE people who charge into podcasting without an understanding of what the business part of it really is at the moment. I’ll be disabusing some of those notions at the Conclave on Thursday….
Kudos, Fred. Solid follow-up to yesterday’s great post. Paul is, as ever, spot-on about the significant role talent is able to play in making sales happen. Here’s the simple truth of the matter which is too often forgotten. Money is a trailing variable.
Thanks again, Dave, for your comments and observations about our posts on the changing role of the air personality. It’s an industry discussion, and yet, it is rarely a topic at conventions and conferences. We are planning on another of our personality showcases at DASH this fall. And it’s going to be a good one. Thanks, again.
Hmmm, I’m about to start interviews for a Morning Show host, and I think I’m going to ask all of these….(and to my current DJ’s)…All good questions.
Always trying to help, Bruce. 🙂 Thanks for reading our blog.
Great post, Fred.
Do you think the time will come when the owners who see radio strictly as a business will lose interest, and at least in some small way the people who put listeners first will gain more control?
Movie theatres went from multiplexes with tiny screens to larger sizes with big screens and stadium seating….and baseball stadiums went from multi-purpose facilities with artificial turf to retro parks with real grass.
I’m hoping Beats1 will inspire some copycats in terrestrial radio.
John, it’s an interesting wish. Eventually, it should become obvious that personality is, in fact, radio’s secret sauce. Let’s hope it become a trend. Thanks for commenting.
Hey Fred,
Hope this note finds you enthused and sailing on the vibes of inspiration. Positive Energy like this takes all the work out of whatever it is we do.
I started writing to myself about the state of radio and how it is misunderstood by even those who have been in the biz for a few decades. Those personal notes steamrolled into the observation I enclose below. Hope you have nothing against cutting and pasting for posting, should you decide to use the following assembled thoughts on “fixing radio.”
–0– –0– –0–
The question put to us recently (by Fred Jacobs on jacobsmediablog.com; “The Revenge Of The DJ”) is, “Can broadcast radio go back to its archives, re-read its history, look in the mirror, and save itself by updating and modernizing its own programming model?”
Let’s clarify. Who is “WE” in this inquiry? Is it the DJs or the Management having them replaced?
Regardless, the answer to that question is “there is no such thing as “a broadcast radio” to revaluate or interpret itself anymore. Only the PEOPLE inside those establishments can do those things.
There ARE multiply operated stationS, corporate owned clusters of broadcast facilities, but there is no longer the community’s very own individual radio station, the one entity that COULD look in the mirror and see something reflected back. It has been sold to the highest bidder.
In its place, Management finds an empty building filled with recording and playback equipment, which returns all questions without response. There’s no one really there, just a bunch of machines, each with an input slot marked “content.”
Now, trying to pay off that enormous price tag, the corporation which now owns the station, along with several more high cost broadcast properties in town, is strapped for dough, thus firing any paycheck cashing soul on board their sinking ship(s). That done, the “content” is no longer in house, and for remaining staff the climate is fear, which does not foster positive growth and advancement. The opportunities for making things work effectively are crushed by the clusters’ role model at the top, who usually knows nothing about the business and techniques of entertainment and certainly cannot be counted on to lift the station from it’s sinking position and set it on an upright course.
So how can something very real be saved by something unreal, a an abstract idea, an icon? It cannot, of course. An idea without a patron can do nothing, let alone go back to its archives, re-read its history, look in the mirror, and save itself by updating and modernizing its own programming, a red herring thrown in by the misguided guys at the top of the cluster.
Programming isn’t even close to the problem – or solution . The Management who eliminated Those That Understand broadcasting and entertainment and know how to make it turn a buck, missed the chance at a solution as they watched her pack her belongings into a cardboard box and head for the elevator.
Not only did they miss their chance at turning the ratings and listenership around, they created a very real, accumulating problem by cutting costs in the division of the station dedicated to its product, that which goes on the air – the money making house.
Programming is the key organ in the body of any radio station. It is the station’s heart. It is where the station ‘s identity lives. Letting on-air people go, based on money amount they earned and not their talent or contribution to the team, has, at the least, the consequences of losing any forward momentum, the continued harboring of the existing chaos and firmly keeping major obstacles in place.
That which is conceptual, cannot be saved by something that also isn’t even here. The best thing a boss in this situation CAN do is stop and accept the fact that he and his club know nothing about their number one product, the business of entertaining on radio, then realize this reality is killing their investment. With this awareness, a person determined to succeed in broadcast radio will immediately begin a recruitment search for those who do know entertainment and can share their body of knowledge with the rest of the staff.
Again, there is no such thing any more as the “broadcast radio” we once knew. “It” cannot do anything because there is no “it” there. “It” consisted of PEOPLE coordinating their best efforts to create something much bigger than the inventory of its parts, but, in a colossal management misperception, the very employees that could actually have bolstered and saved the radio station were considered a liability.
It has fallen much farther by now than those incipient days of new management.
Once upon a time, decades ago, we, the DJs, created IT; made radio stations fire out a sound that compelled listeners to remain glued to their speakers; made an art out of the many different personalities and delivery styles, formats, music flow.
All the sad stories of misguided motivation sound the same. New owners arrived, understanding and focusing solely on the bottom line, appointed and put in charge their Lords Of Minions, who agreed to loyally say yes to this impoverished plan. The new boss’ Yes Man then guided the ship along its “Bottom Line Course” and drove it straight to the bottom.
The DJs (including Programmers, Music Directors) had been systematically released, and are not inside the operation anymore, so someone else has to re-read our history.
Even more significant: A larger percentage of what made that kind of radio successful, never brought into today’s discussions, was the complete ambience within which it occurred. Those beginning days of our good ol’ audiences and new born enthusiasm have passed, and with them, many of the relatable major “secret ingredients” that made the life of the radio station seem so vibrant and personal.
Once, DJs were responding to the same environment as that of our listeners, in their language. We were accepted as part of their everyday life. It was ‘groovy.’ That context isn’t here any longer. We’ve grown, evolved, passed the last century by along with it’s “far out” characteristics. Oh no, it’s gone! What to do?
Well, assuming today’s radio stations valued listeners enough to listen to them, those with an on-air Programming sense, a dissatisfied DJ probably, would turn her attention to Now – what’s happening Here and in this Present Moment – and find words that are relevant to, and extrapolate from, the endless current associations and connections to THIS TIME we are passing through now.
Nowadays we watch as our supervisors, having handed us a pink slip, try in vain to understand and react to their audiences, and swerve around and into them. They don’t “hear” the audience, do not understand them, do not know what they want and consider them “in the way.” They’re blocking profits.
The question, “Can broadcast radio go back to its archives, re-read its history…and save itself by updating and modernizing its own programming model?” has a simple answer for both entities described as “we” here. “No.”
If the “we” in this question is DJs, we can go back to our common radio archives, examine our history and gaze into the eyes looking back from the mirror til our heart’s content, but we still cannot save a medium that is being hobbled from above our position and within our ranks.”
If the “we” in this question is management, they must consider their DJs, their content presenters, as assets. They must transform their way of seeing things into those of someone watching our back and be willing to move into a sense of support. From management, DJs simply want to be recognized for what they do, and thus considered an asset of highest rank. This means management must learn what it is DJs DO that raises the entire station, and then avidly support it.
If we are to go anywhere, we must do it all from scratch. Then, starting from an empty format, ask the right questions, fill in the blanks. Jump in with both feet and make mistakes; that’s called “learning.” And, while we have much to learn, we DJs have the background and interest to start fast and comprehend quickly, become aware of what works and what isn’t correct and gain knowledge from our actions.
Scratch Radio – that’s the station I would have my money on.
Bobby, first and foremost…thanks. The distillation of that blog post into a deep think piece about where the responsibility lays helps furthers the conversation. Your strong belief that management and ownership – the major forces in the industry, the most powerful CEOs – set the tone that allowed radio to disengage with its audience holds water. While consolidation may have allowed for financial return on investment to happen, it has triggered effects on the content and on radio brands that may, in fact, be irreversible.
DJs are more than just numbers on spreadsheets. As you point out, they are assets and they matter. Too often management began to view them as odd parts – well-paid talent that too often were about “four and out the door,” rather than the conduits to the community and the audience they are. Perhaps the breakdown occurred when the media world changed, but so few in radio got the memo and changed with it. A commitment to public service, local communities, social media acknowledgement, interface with the audience – all these things needed to be (and often still need to be) prioritized and taught.
Your thought that “DJs have the background and interest to start fast and comprehend quickly” is right some of the time. Many have been slow to accept the changes and embrace them. The big shift has been challenging for everyone in the radio, and there’s a reason why so many have dropped out. That’s disruption for you.
Thanks again for giving a shit.
While it’s easy to just write off modern radio as a wasteland of centralized voicetracking and syndication, there are some great stations doing it right today, just as in the past we had great stations who did it right and others that just kept the needles moving and the tubes warm.
I jock on the side to keep my skills fresh, and I work in a cluster that seems to get it. I’m not doing the same show I did 10 years ago, but 10 years ago my Motorola Razr was still pretty fly and I won’t trade my iPhone 6 to get it back.
To me, these are the things that matter:
1. The right people. A live jock that doesn’t engage with the audience might as well be tracked from another city. Radio has always been about making that personal 1:1 connection. It’s just that today you’re making that connection both behind a microphone and behind a smartphone keyboard. The more people you have making these connections, the more touchpoints your audience has with the station. Social media isn’t going to replace radio, but it’s a big part of how we humans communicate with each other today. Represent your brand well by engaging your audience online just as you engage with the audience on the air.
If management hires the right people, then they can trust those people to do the right thing. One of the things that I love about where I work is we get to use new tools to interact with the audience. Sometimes that means I have an unscheduled hour of music where the audience is picking the songs and your job behind the mic is to make sure the end result sounds good. Other times it means you’re actively taking requests and adding them as appropriate. They trust us to do the right thing and the air staff holds up their end of the bargain. None of this is new in radio; we’ve been taking requests for years and sometimes we’ve actually played them. It’s just now we’re using apps for that because it seems like nobody talks on their phones anymore. Pulling this off means you need the right jock behind the controls and you need a PD who knows how to both come up with the vision and put it into action. People matter.
2. Don’t fear technology or change. Your audience isn’t afraid to try new things. Try what they try; keep the stuff that works and toss the stuff that doesn’t.
My “day job” is with an audio console company. We’re still here because we fully embraced change in the 90s as digital took hold. When I first started not long after that, I remember competitors saying they’d never build a board like ours because “nobody is asking for that.” Now they do. And we’ve had to reinvent ourselves again a couple of times since I started here to stay relevant.
There are days when you’re reinventing what you do that you think that you’ll never make it, and then you finish the process and find that the pain was all worth it. The world is always changing, and therefore we all must keep changing with it.
John, as you point out, it’s a balance – marrying the fundamentals with an open mind toward technology. Not being afraid to connect the two is what well-programmed and well-branded stations are able to do. But I believe that your situation may be rarer than you think, as broadcasters often struggle with the fundamentals of why consumers are hiring them in 2015. Truly appreciate the time and the perspective.
bring Dan O’Day to DASH. Dan is the best personality coach, and he’s a great motivational speaker. Like you, like me, Dan is bullish on radio.
You are spot on! Invest in radio. It will beat the pants off the new investments. People are bored with radio. We hear, daily, from listeners who just discover us. They say “I’ve not listened to radio in xx years. It’s been boring until now.” They’re so excited by my station’s dj’s and their passion for music. I hear some great work on pop, country, etc. it’s not just public radio triple A stations like ours.
Wherever you are, you can help listeners fall in love with radio all over again! Go ahead! Break some rules. The four DJ’s in the film did. Look at what they did for us. Now, it’s our turn.
Chris, thanks for the note & the passion. Clearly, the bullish on radio part of the equation is so important. Appreciate the Dan O’Day suggestion, too.