Why is it that most sequels never seem to match up to their original? From Jaws 2 to Fletch Lives, it seems like that second effort almost always falls way short.
That is, until you see Lori Lewis’ next video in her “The State of Radio Series.” Lori’s little animated characters take on some important topics – station responsiveness, connectedness to listeners, and the ability to work with socially savvy audience members to help spread your great stories.
>EMAIL RECIPIENTS: CLICK HERE TO VIEW LORI LEWIS’ VIDEO<
As we plan and look forward to a new year, assessing our behavior as media outlets and our relationships with our audiences is time well spent.
And yes, The Godfather Part 2 was pretty damn good.
Have a great weekend.
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.
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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Now that’s funny and I bet that’s gotta hurt, right Clear Channel?
Actually, David, Clear Channel may have started voicetracking and with Premium Choice, they’ve elevated its performance. But you’re hard-pressed to find broadcasters who aren’t voicetracking at least sometimes. They are rare exceptions. So how can a station maintain some level of customer service and responsiveness when there’s essentially no one there? Thanks for taking the time to comment.
And we shouldn’t exclude “The Empire Strikes Back”, “The Two Towers”, and “Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets”.
In regard to music, I was surprised to learn that the follow up to an artist’s first pop hit single (which often sounded like a derivative of that original hit’s sound) frequently outsold & was more popular than the original hit.
RE: Voicetracking. I don’t find it to be inherently evil. However, it’s goal needs to be focused on making the end product as entertaining, relevant, & engaging as a live performance rather than how quickly, cheaply, & generic it can be produced. As a budget-conscious manager, I could appreciate that the company was seeking ways to reduce expenses but as a steward of the brand & content I found it short-sighted when a company paid a part-timer for 2 hours of work (at minimum wage) to create a 4 hour show. Such a policy is demeaning to the talent, disrespectful of the content/product, & discourages the strive-to-do-your-best attitude necessary to be compellingly creative.
Ahhh….other truly good sequels, Buzz. Clearly, voicetracking represents the classic battle between brand and fiscal responsbility. You make a strong point about how radio demeans its own brands by devaluing its most important product – the air sound. Thanks for contributing, Buzz.
This video speaks volumes. And the scary question, is, if the only advantage to local radio over Pandora is a voice from another city with periodic local references…how long until Pandora meets radio there with customizable local voice content to the level the listener wants? And they could set up a call center and answer the phone. What then…super premium choice? All Ryan Seacrest all the time?
Bob, thanks for that look down the road. Pandora seems committed to providing a strong listener experience, something that broadcast radio does on a very hit and miss basis. Of course, once the political ads start up on Pandora….
Thanks for commenting, Bob, and for reading our blog.
I agree with this video take on the state of radio. The big change for radio took place in 1996 with the passage of the telecommunication acts mainly title 3 which allowed for Corps. to gobble up all the independent stations. Now with all the owners ship in the hand of few the station are become more and more homogenized and stripped down for profit. The stations are no longer a tool for introducing new music or providing a public forum for the community. Mainly its profit over people in most situation with no thought of creativity or the things that made radio great in the past. I’m sure once Pandora jumps on board like Bob said in the comment above with Local content DJ etc and everyone has internet access in their cars the choice and power will return to the listener but until this happens the board of directors will keep on cashing in those big million dollar paychecks while they pick at the meat of radio like ravenous condors until the profit margin starts slipping and they have to reevaluate their business model.
Ultimately, Walt, radio is in need of introspection – an industry SWOT analysis to pinpoint its strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats in a rapidly changing media and entertianment environment. An evaluaton of the business model IS happening in radio. How it all plays out will determine radio’s relevance in coming years. Thanks for chiming in.
Fred – You need to keep Lori very happy because one day, PIXAR will be calling her!
Back to the point – the “request line”, “studio line” or whatever a station calls their phone/jock interface has fallen out of favor to such an extent that a lot of stations don’t even give those numbers out on the air anymore. Some stations have moved all of their contesting to their station’s own site or FB page, and I’ll bet a sizable portion of the cume at some stations wouldn’t know the number if the contest was to call the station and identify the number of the contest line! Maybe in a very subtle way and over a long period of time, this has had the effect of making radio seem aloof to its listeners.
Here at the Arch, PD Kevin Robinson and our morning guys Van & Rick have done a great job keeping the number out front in an informal way, cultivating a strong relationship with listeners by soliciting two way interaction where traffic reports are concerned: “…if you see an accident, let us know…”. Our audience is very conditioned to call us and loves to contribute info about accidents and tie-ups they see in a way the traffic services can’t match. And while we don’t do a lot of traffic in non-drive dayparts, they call at other times anyway because they care about the station, and the other listeners. It’s pretty cool to be involved with a staiton that can serve and get to know an audience like that.
With all the platforms available to us, the phone is still a very common conduit – and with smart and cell phones, it’s not going away. You guys are wise to maintain an efficient means of connecting via the phone. And you may end up being one of the last stations in the market to provide that human voice-to-voice contact. Entercom’s Jim Fox reminded me this week that of all the new channels of communications, he values phone contact as being most important. Thanks, Jay, as always. (And we may have to send Lori to film school!)
Kudos to Lori and Fred!
My sense is Lori’s video is spot-on and leads us to a bigger, more strategic issue. While other industries make investments to research, attract, appreciate, reward and retain heavy users radio operators too often do not.
Examples may be found in how gaming or contesting is designed. A great many radio operators continue to limit listener participation (e.g., one winner per household, per month). Radio is one of the few enterprises which asks the public to do something and when the public responds by doing exactly what we’ve ask them to do we may or may not be happy about it, may or may not show appreciation. Take the loyal station fan that always shows up at remotes. “Oh, no, here comes Dave again. He shows up at everything we do. Tell him we’ve already given away the prizes.”
Heavy users are key to the success of every venture. Can you imagine a gate agent of an airline saying “Excuse me, Mr Jacobs but haven’t you been upgraded once this month already. It’s not going to happen for you again today.” or “Pardon me, Mr Jacobs, you were on one of our flights last week. I’m sorry but you’re not welcome to fly this airline again for thirty days.” To win we need listeners to give us as many occasions and as much time per occasion as is possible. To those that may say “Your airline frequent flyer example is bogus because listeners don’t pay us like they do airlines.” Permit me to disagree. Listeners “pay” us with their attention, their loyalty. They are also in “the conversation” and able to say things about us, good or bad, without our knowledge. When listeners respond to our directions, including those they hear from our advertisers, we should show proper respect and appreciation. After all, without listeners, especially our most active, loyal and vocal partisans, we won’t realize the real potential of our business.
Dave, as always, your perspective and observations help make our blog more meaningful. “The way we’ve always done it” has simply got to be eliminated from our conversation. Engagaement has been redefined by the Internet, and specifically, social media, and you make strong points. As the world changes, radio endangers itself by hanging onto the “old school” policies of the past. Thanks for these important reminders.