Last week, Pink Floyd’s Richard Wright passed away, another of those sad but not surprising Classic Rock passings. At these moments, we make it a point to look and listen to how stations handle these big music news events.
While a few clients and other Classic Rock stations acknowledged Wright’s career (a few Floyd songs in afternoon drive), and others actually provided some content on their web sites, it was NPR – once again – that stepped up big-time to provide context, archived material, and great coverage of Wright’s life.
This is not a new theme in this space, and that’s precisely the point. To be a great Classic Rock station – and to provide that digital platform that was this year’s focus at the NAB, R&R, and Jacobs Summit conventions in Austin – we need to step up and deliver the information our fans are craving.
"The Tech Guy," Leo Laporte – who spoke at our Summit and at the NAB – described the front page of most station sites as analogous to the fences at minor league ballparks – littered with cheap-looking banner ads and other clutter that detracts from what should be the main focus of music station sites. If we’re not careful, our quest for Internet dollars will end up with radio looking a lot like how we sound – some nice content at times, but hard to find through all the commercial clutter.
In the case of Classic Rock, stations (and radio companies) should start preparing for the inevitable, just as network news departments and newspapers have done for years. There are many mega groups and artists who will no longer be with us over the next decade or so. Being prepared with great resources, discographies, sound bites, forums, and other digital tools makes so much sense.
But when a big event occurs that affects your fans – and your website is all about discount coupons, $1,000 giveaways, and Rock Girls – listeners get the message, and continue to go elsewhere to get what they need.
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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As a Classic Rock fan and someone who has developed many promotions with radio stations, I couldn’t agree more with your point, Fred, about how stations sometimes fail to handle the passing of Rock legends with sensitivity and compassion. When someone dies who we’ve followed closely, part of our history goes with them. The stations that get this have so much more credibility than those who handle these moments as mere interruptions in the midst of their hype circus. When Dan Fogelberg died last December, I received many emails about my blog homage to this talented man who died way before his time from prostate cancer. This matters to men and women in Dan’s age range who have attended his concerts and purchased his albums…and who are your fans, and who have the money to sustain your format in the future … or not.