"Any good new movies opening up this weekend?"
"Have you seen that new FJ from Toyota?"
"Are you getting Microsoft’s new Vista operating system?"
"Have you tried that hot new restaurant?"
"I love that new iPhone."
"Wow – ’24’s’ added some great new characters this season."
The sands are shifting in pop culture, and of course, radio is under pressure to figure it out and respond. Cardinal Rules like "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" are becoming obsolete as the consumer continually wants to experience something new and different.
But just because we’re scanning for "what’s new" doesn’t mean we’re leaving behind the tried-and-true, but more and more, consumers expect, and respect, venerable brands that try new and different things.
A recent study sponsored by the American Marketing Association, conducted among over 100 highly placed marketers, revealed that almost two-thirds felt their brands would benefit from marketing makeovers. And in fact, over half said their brands had been revitalized in the past two years, with 8 in 10 being redone in the last five years.
Segue to radio, and many stations haven’t modernized their logos, production voices, and other familiar trappings in years. I have sat through many research studies where the first key recommendation is "stay the course" (often translated to "don’t eff it up").
Yet, in a society that thrives on change and trying new things, radio often serves up the same warmed over offerings. Among young people, the appetite for change is even greater, and yet most contemporary music stations sound remarkably similar to the way they did a decade or more ago. Randy Wagner, CMO of Orbitz, advises, "If it’s not broke, fix it anyway."
PPM will help foster a great sense of experimentation and change. Whether you fear and loathe the new ratings platform or decide to embrace it, a faster feedback loop, based on real behavior and real-time listening will stimulate broadcasters to throw more lines in the water, try new things, and experiment more.
Our business is in dire need of breaking things if we’re going to break through yet again.
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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Today’s blog ties-in with Friday’s…making each day
sound more spontaneous, distinctive and topical.
Let me resonate with your point about station voice
guys and an incredible management reluctance to change them occasionally. For years I was with Richmond’s WKLR 96.5 “The Planet”…great folks who ultimately opted to have their new PD voice-track my midday show (for budget reasons) but who awarded me generous severance. The entire time I was there, Norfolk’s classic rocker (and another client of yours) “The Fox” had a very strong, overlapping signal in Richmond. What always seemed odd to me…with probably a good 100 or so top-flight voice guys aggressively marketing their services nationally…is that both stations insisted on using Jim Cutler. It caused no small amount of listener confusion…what with both Jacobs affiliates doing the “workforce”, calling themselves “Richmond’s ONLY classic rock station” (or “Norfolk’s only”). No disrespect meant toward Cutler! He does a great job and most importantly, I suspect, his long-running status as the imaging voice for ESPN endears him to male-targeted stations hoping for a hipness dividend. But let’s face it–the guy’s voice has been SO overused for so many years by so many classic rockers…WHY feel utterly COMPELLED to stick with him? If only for the sake of, as you recommend, aural and stylistic “housecleaning” and freshening…why not give some NEW, hungry guy a turn at station imaging? I pick this one facet of the myriad examples you cite above as supporting evidence that stations are frozen with fear and just afraid to upset their apple carts. Here’s another (you know me…always getting down to the nitty-gritty specifics…sorry, but it’s liberating being honest): Most anyone you talk with privately (never articulating it publicly of course…too dangerous to their carefully-cultivated radio careers) will agree that John Boy and Billy go for entire months during which they essentially “phone in” their morning shows. PD’s and GM’s aren’t stupid…and they KNOW because they have ears what the ratio of freshly-written bits to old, recycled bits is. Elbow grease is elbow grease! The number of affiliates remains essentially stagnant for years for a REASON. Few phenomenons of that magnitude occur by chance or a lack of proper marketing. If you do a better job of maintaining daily freshness and relevance, your affiliate network will grow just by word-of-mouth. Again…I use these two extremely nice fellows just as examples to illustrate a point. I’ve met them, they’re great guys and this is nothing personal. But would you rather pre-record each Friday’s morning show to have an extra-long weekend at your beach house? Or would you rather invest that additional 20% of time and energy in a real-time Friday show? (HINT: both George Harrison and John Entwistle died on Thursday evenings…with not one word mentioned on the next days’ morning shows because JB&B had already pre-recorded those programs and literally were not on the premises). So the over-arching question…again, with no personal axe to grind, just staying philosophical: WHY are so many stations hesitant to switch to another syndicated morning show? Is it simply that another station in the market will pick them up? Is it just inertia?
Not wanting to invest in the several years worth of
time it will take for their listeners to adapt to and
emotionally bond with “Bob and Tom” or whomever?
Fred, these two very honest examples are merely ways of affirming and high-fiving your great point that
today’s radio stations mostly are coasting or at most in third gear. They remain afraid of killing their golden geese that have laid so many dozens of golden eggs over the last several “Camelot-like” decades. The ominous, looming question: what happens when those geese finally die? Will it then, with the advent of rapidly-emerging alternative entertainment options, be too late to re-invent the stations? Better to invest in some young, vigorous, future “golden geese” TODAY…THIS FISCAL YEAR !!…before stations find themselves too far behind the creativity curve.
For what my measly two cents are worth, BREAK IT and re-build it better the way Toyota did with its smallest
vehicles…resulting in a forthcoming, super affordable, gas-miserly “category killer” commuter car
that advance reports suggest will turn the industry
upside down. And this is the almighty TOYOTA acting
so hungry..NOT desperate, beleaguered FORD! Therein lies
a huge object lesson in never resting on your laurels and staying ahead of the creative/developmental curve.