As Lori and I make the final preparations for our Morning Show Boot Camp presentation later this week at Don Anthony’s historic conference, I can’t help but think about how the role of personalities in radio has changed over the past few decades.
Our session for MSBC utilizes our ten years of Techsurveys to lay out truths based in research that can help the air personalities of today better perform and serve their audiences.
“What 347,325 People Made Perfectly Clear About Radio” focused on the importance of concepts like building a social media hierarchy, understanding the emotional underpinnings of why people listen to the radio in 2014, and the value of content sharing to growing audience cume and loyalty.
But all the research in the world cannot help direct personalities truly move audiences. That’s a process that simply isn’t quantitative.
The truth about the appeal of Howard Stern, Bob Rivers, and the late Kidd Kraddick (or his successors) cannot be found on a spreadsheet or in a pie chart. Their success lies in their innate ability to create, perform, entertain, and touch the lives of others.
Many years ago, I worked with a GM who often lamented, “Why can’t the DJs act more like business people?”
In other words, “Why can’t they be rational, logical, left-brained, and more like me?”
The reality is those are the skills and traits that make guys like Lew Dickey, Dean Goodman, and Larry Wilson successful. (Although it is interesting to note how many of radio’s CEOs nowadays were once on the air – Bob Pittman, Jarl Mohn, and Dan Mason come to mind.) For air personalities, it’s usually a whole lot different.
Case in point: A recent article in Huffington Post’s “The Third Metric” series by Carolyn Gregoire outlines the “18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently.”
And yes, they are all very right-brain activities – they are often daydreaming, they work the hours that work for them, they people watch, they lose track of time, and they are often mindful.
If these don’t sound a lot like corner office activities, it’s because they aren’t. This list is very much populated by creative pursuits, observation, and taking the time to let ideas percolate. Most CEOs don’t have the time or the bandwidth to pull that off.
But interestingly, Gregoire points out a few traits shared by creative that truly are the marks of great business leaders. And the fact is they can be shared by people in the air studio and those who are interfacing with Wall Street are notable.
These include connecting the dots and asking the big questions. While creative types are more likely to take risks and shake things up than company presidents, the ability to pull ideas together and to step back and truly take a hard look at challenging situations are practices common to great CEOs and great DJs.
A better understanding of how each player in the radio station drama best operates goes to the heart of keeping the industry vibrant and appreciating employees of different stripes and mindsets. We don’t all think, act, and operate the same.
That’s one of the key reasons successful radio stations work.
As I hang out with all these DJs, hosts, and teams this week in Chicago at MSBC26 this week, I’m going to be watching for many of these traits – and appreciating the great talent that makes radio a special business.
And wishing we had more people just like the ones that Carolyn Gregoire describes.
The radio business isn’t great because of its margins or its EBITDA.
It will sustain itself because of its unique and compelling personalities.
See you at Boot Camp.
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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“…often daydreaming, they work the hours that work for them, they people watch, they lose track of time, and they are often mindful…creative pursuits, observation, and taking the time to let ideas percolate. Most CEOs don’t have the time or the bandwidth to pull that off.”
This list looks like exactly what is missing in radio and unless the industry gets more of it at the top, it could well be relegated to second class on the connected dash in the next 5 years. Which means that radio needs CEOs who are more creative, with a different sense of time management and more, or at least different bandwidth.
One of the biggest, most important jobs of a CEO is what GHWB called “the vision thing”. They set the tone for the company and when the tone is a cut, cut, cut sine wave, there probably won’t be a lot of creativity or innovation from below.
I appreciate what CEOs bring to the table, but also the need to move the industry along. Since the days of Tom Peters and Dr. Steven Covey, the idea of vision and corporate culture have been a part of American business, and it’s never been more of a necessity for traditional media. In radio (like Hollywood), it takes a very different animal to create the type of content that is commercially viable and successful. And that’s where the DJ mindset comes into play. Thanks, Bob.