One of my favorite movie moments occurred in the hit film, “A League of Their Own.” It was when the grizzled manager of the women’s baseball team – played brilliantly by Tom Hanks – admonishes one of the players, pulled off especially well by Madonna:
“There’s no crying in baseball.”
I was clearly trying to channel that same vibe when I wrote the headline for today’s #TBT post back in May of 2023. As I do on Thursday, I pull up an old post originally written in the same month we’re in now but a different year. Two years ago, the NBA Playoffs were in the process of working their way down to the last two teams standing. And my focus back then was Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo talking about what it feels like to be eliminated after a long and mostly successful season.
Interestingly, Giannis is still on the Bucks, but the team’s 2025 championship hopes were dashed even earlier this year.
Of course, I can’t resist a good a sports analogy, and that was the theme of this particular post when it was first published. A great deal has changed in broadcast radio competitive circles in recent years. The “digital revolution” has brought new metrics into the radio medium – page views, streams, open rates, and clicks. But in the end, it’s all about that final score, and for most people in radio, that’s still the ratings – or as we refer to it, “The Book.”
Today’s post may not help you weather your career angst or even the demons at work in your personal battles managing the highs and lows that come along with the ratings. But hopefully, it will help. – FJ
May 2023
When I think about the pressures radio’s programmers and on-air talent endure, it has always struck me as especially intense, compared to those in other fields.
For starters, the ratings are pretty much nonstop, all year round – especially in the largest markets. “You’re only as good as your last book” is one of those sad but true axioms in radio. Just when you’re about to celebrate those great ratings, you’re already several weeks into the next book. (And who knows how that one will turn out?)
Then, there’s the volatility of the ratings. In most industries, the numbers are the numbers: units sold, burgers flipped, butts in seats, votes cast – it’s all very measurable. In radio, there are also numbers, but they are estimates, plain and simple. Radio people and agencies may not take them that way, but whether measured in diaries or meters, they are not hard and fast exact indicators of how a station or air personality has performed.
In our AQ studies comprised of commercial radio air talent in the U.S., we’ve been tracking stress levels. Not surprisingly through COVID, they’re understandably high. But well before the pandemic, consolidation, and the Internet, radio programming has always been a high-pressure, take no prisoners game.
Then there’s the world of sports, where athletes are under the microscope after every game, and even worse, after every season. It’s one thing to come up short. It’s another to have to explain a loss – an errant pass, an error on a routine fly ball, or a missed layup under the bright lights of a press conference.
While I have respect for sports reporters trying to get a good quote, an interesting angle, and a compelling story, especially from athletes who often speak in clichés, there are times they ask absurd and even offensive questions.
The clip below is a case in point, but it sure is revealing. It’s a post-game interview with the great Giannis Antetokounmpo (just call him Giannis) superstar for the Milwaukee Bucks. With so many hoping for a national championship in Brew City, the favorite Bucks were upset in their first-round series to the 8-seeded Miami Heat by a 4-1 margin. It wasn’t even close. They will now be forced to watch the rest of the NBA Playoffs from their barcaloungers and man caves – just like the rest of us.
And to make matters worse for Milwaukeeans, the Bucks had the best record during the regular season. Suffice it to say, hopes were high. And when the hometown heroes came up way short, they were cruelly dashed.
And so the opening question from the media to team leader Giannis was a bit jarring:
“Do you view this season as a failure?”
His response is a whirlwind of emotions – frustration, acceptance, pragmatic, rationalization – all at the same time. And as I watched this brilliant, well-compensated superstar explain his feelings and pour his heart out at the moment of a painful loss, I couldn’t help but think of a programmer in a similar situation – trying to point out that even though his station just suffered a “bad book,” there were high points, lessons learned, and team building that took place during the past 12-week rating period.
Please take 2 minutes to watch it:
These moments may not show up in the rankers or in a reach-and-frequency run. But programmers and air talent are sensitive to those times when positives comes out of small moments and little victories. As Giannis notes, even in losing, a great organization and talented people use the experience as “steps to success.” Getting over that hump – that seemingly unbeatable team, the intense pressure of competition, overcoming bad breaks and unforeseen circumstances – can be difficult for both sports teams and radio stations.
The key quote from Giannis:
“There’s no failure in sports…there are good days and bad days.”
Does that actually fly in radio? Let’s try it on:
“There’s no failure in radio…there are good books and bad books.”
But then there’s your team. And while Giannis answered that pointed question in sweeping terms, the issue of who’s down the bench, how smart and visionary are the coaches, and does the organization have the patience and the pockets to win are the ones that need addressing. Whether you’re a program director in Des Moines or a power forward in Milwaukee, having the right people in the trenches with you is often the difference between champagne showers and “wait ’til next year.”
Your ability to take it all in stride – not get too high when you’re winning and not sink into the depths of depression and sorrow when you’re not is often the determinant of a long, successful, and reasonably happy career. As Giannis shows us in the video, he’s learned something in the past year as that same question got asked by the same reporter 12 months earlier. His ability to cope, regroup, and get back on the court has improved from 2022. As it should be.
One of radio management’s challenges – as it is in sports – is what to do with a strong performer who suddenly fails to deliver. Do you believe in him or her? Do they still have it? Do they just need more time?
I’ve heard more than a few outstanding programmers blurt out in frustration over a down book or two, “Hey, I didn’t get stupid overnight.”
No, you didn’t. But is the organization smart enough to see it?
I once had a PD tell me on the night before the big ratings book was to come out: “We did everything right this book – the music was tested, we had great marketing that everyone saw, our contest
blew out the phone lines, and we had a couple killer audience events. I can’t wait until I see the numbers.”
Big mistake. All those ducks can be aligned, but it’s still no guarantee of a basketball playoffs or a ratings success. Never look forward to the release of a book. Never ever.
That’s because, how often do these things happen?
- That “3” with no time on the clock rims in and out.
- We lost a meter in Westland.
- The puck clanks off the post and doesn’t go in the net.
- That blizzard in February throws the market’s listening patterns way off.
Way too often.
And so it goes, in radio and in sports.
The longer I do this, the more I realize that a great effort doesn’t always produce the gold. Or even a bronze. Luck and other forces are often at work.
It’s times like this, that the stains of “The Bug” by Dire Straits wafts through my mind, with these lyrics:
“Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.”
While I love Mark Knopfler’s vocals on his own song, I think I actually gravitate to the Mary-Chapin Carpenter cover.
To Giannis and the Bucks, “Better luck next season book.”
Hope you’re the windshield next year.
P.S. Best to Jim O’Brien/WCSX who knows what it’s like to be both the windshield and the bug.
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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At my alma mater, Mid-West Family,
we considered victory by our share of the local market sales, by the month and quarter. Us vs Clear Channel or vs Woodward. We want at least two-thirds. We see each other on the steeets every day, we know them, they know us. It’s up to us to whip them consistently, and in the end, to help our local businesses succeed. When we did, oh, how sweet it is! How proudly we walk down Wisconsin Avenue!