If you’re a member of a minority, ethnic, or religious group, you’ll probably relate to what I’m going to talk about in this post. That’s because when bad things happen in the world, you hope that your group, your tribe, or your people aren’t somehow connected to them. You’re concerned that your “brand” will get a bad name because someone in your group has been associated with something sordid, scandalous, or embarrassing.
If you’re in broadcast radio right now, this is how you may be feeling. It used to be that when you told someone you worked in radio, they were often envious, peppering you with questions about what it’s like to be on the air (that’s the assumption, isn’t it?).
But in recent years, that’s changed. XM Radio might have gotten the ball rolling with “Beyond AM, Beyond FM, it’s XM Satellite Radio.” That may have started the comparisons when regular folks started wondering whether trusty, old “terrestrial radio” was up to the task against all this new-fangled competition.
But that’s intensified in recent years. Too often now, radio finds itself the subject of embarrassing news headlines and stories, sometimes mitigated and counter-balanced by courageous disaster coverage, but often glorified by other members of the news media, giddy about covering radio’s most embarrassing moments.
And these things are showing up in strange and often incongruous ways. While watching MSNBC’s Hardball recently on a segment about the Republican Party, Chris Matthews was chatting up journalist and political pundit Joy Reid about Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh. In the middle of a rant about how she says they both use angry people “who don’t understand ‘The New America’” to further their cause, the conversation took this weird turn:
Joy Reid: For Rush Limbaugh, it’s to get his advertisers there because terrestrial radio is dying…
CM: “Terrestrial radio?” What is terrestrial radio?
JR: It’s radio on the radio. It’s radio as opposed to satellite radio. I used to be in the radio business.
CM: Like ET – “terrestrial radio.”
Ouch. It was one of those small little digs, but corrosive nonetheless.
The same week, Tampa Bay Times columnist Eric Deggans ran a post-mortem about the Bubba/MJ (Clem/Schnitt) trial, focusing on the jury foreman, Kristy Craig, who stated that “I hated this case.” Here are a few of her choice quotes about the trial and its impact on her relationship with radio:
“I think they both need to put their big-boy pants on and find something valuable to talk about…Nobody wants to sit around and listen to two men call each other names. I work with 12-year-olds; I do that with them and try to teach them better…I love that I have some awesome CDs in my car. I am never listening to the radio again.”
So maybe you’re thinking that she’s just an N of 1, right? Just one person who was a little close to the trial. But reading and seeing continued coverage of a trial like this has to have an impact on consumers about what radio is all about, and not just in Tampa.
And to pile it on, it was announced last week that Schnitt is appealing. And that will bring even more attention to a case that may be less about two DJs fighting it out, and more about a referendum on radio. Of course, the story has taken a very weird turn with Schnitt’s lawyer’s DUI, a “lost” briefcase, a mysterious paralegal, and other oddball conspiracy theories that sound, as Tom Taylor recently pointed out, like they’ve been taken “straight out of a John Grisham legal thriller.”
Except that if you’re in radio, there’s nothing thrilling about it. I’m guessing that when the rational, sane people who work in radio and still believe strongly in its value read about this new trial, they started to quietly intone this three-word mantra: “MAKE IT STOP!”
Back to the Republicans. One of their ongoing messages in 2013 is coming from one of their own, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. He is exhorting his fellow Republicans to stop being “the stupid party,” his message to the many extremist, crazy, conspiracy theorists running around, who he says is giving the GOP a bad name. Jindal believes that perception and image are everything, and that when a Republican makes another bizarre and offensive remark, it “damaged the brand.”
You could make the case that in radio, some of these same rules of marketing and branding now apply. The media and other critics are looking for reasons to say bad things about radio. And we’re giving it to them.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at what some radio groups are doing to turn these perceptions around. And the teaser is that none of them are American radio stations or broadcast companies.
Thanks to Dave Paulus for the gentle kick in the butt for this post.
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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Great read Fred….well written and thank you for the many times you kicked me in the butt~! 🙂
My pleasure, Dave. It was a great article that should be an eye-opener for radio pros. Thanks again.
Terrestrial Radio will never be the same ever since Big Corporations have taken over! There is no more trying to connect to the Listener, nobody to answer Listener Phone Calls in the Studio! In other words it is no longer Local! Contests where everybody in the country is trying to win by calling some 800 Number! Decisions are being made by people that don’t even know how to “Hot A Mike” or “Hit A Post”! It is a Sad State and does not look like it is getting any better! There are Stations out there right now Voice Tracking Mid Days! And that’s Pretty Bad!! And now Cars are coming with XM built into the Sound System of Them along with Pandora! If Terrestrial Radio is going to stay relevant it needs to get back to Live and Local 24/7!!!!
Sean, there is no question that consolidation brought more efficiencies but also less interactivity. But some companies and some radio brands have maintained a close relationship with their listeners. Competitively, it is a whole new world out there, and I concur that live & local is the secret sauce for local broadcast radio. Thanks for reading our blog & taking the time to comment.
Amen, Brother! Live and local is the key! You get out what you put in. If you set the satellite dish and walk away cause you are too cheap to pay a local young talent who will work for almost nothing, then you get what you paid for. Not much. I know of 1kw am’s in small towns that are puling down over a half million a year in advertising cause that’s all they have and they make it work. But I know of large clusters who concentrate on the big fm’s and use 5 and 10kw am’s as a loss for a tax write off. You get out what you put in! If you want the listener to be there for you, and the advertisers, then be there for them. Be there to answer the phones all day long and connect with them. Be real to them and they will be real to you.
Fred, I love your well-written, well-thought-out blogs.
Having said that, perception is reality. How can anyone deny the truth?
Good radio programming is like the Hostess Twinkie: iconic, super popular, and yet because the business has squeezed itself like an orange, it can’t make any money producing the product, even less so after reducing its quality to save money.
Old-style bricks-and-mortar terrestrial radio ain’t what it used to be and the customer knows it.
Tom, NOTHING is as good as it used to be from James Bond movies to muscle cars to Makers Mark. And while broadcast radio has had to adapt to new competitors – sometimes kicking and screaming – it needs to do a better job of managing its brand perceptions. The fact that no one puts radio bumper stickers on their cars may be a sign that listeners no longer identify with their “favorite station” as they once did. And that’s a part of the story, too. Thanks for adding to the conversation as I’m always hoping for more dialogue and less of my pontificating and blathering. Much appreciated, and congrats on your digital success.
Fred, the latest Bond movie “Skyfall” was the most successful movie in the 50 year history of the franchise because it took risks, invested heavily in the product itself and not only met but exceeded the expectations of its audience. With all due respect, I’m not sure radio does that very much anymore. Also, radio could take a cue from Tom Leykis in terms of how to revolutionize its content to meet the changing needs of its fans.
Dave, nice to hear from you, You know, the “Dark Night Rises” did almost $450M – doesn’t make it a good film. But I get it – you have to respect the box office, the masses. Somehow my post (thanks to Leykis) has become more of a conversation about what radio is or isn’t rather than my original conversation about perception becoming reality. But that’s why blogging is a fun sport, and I’m glad this one has engaged so many people.
And as I stated in my reply to Tom, I am massively impressed with what he’s done – another illustration that content is indeed king. Thanks for taking the time to weigh in yourself.
AMEN to both points Tom makes.
Holland, it is undeniable that less investment in people, product, and promotion have taken their toll. But the “trial” and events like that only serve to accelerate the erosion. Thanks for the chime-in.
Slowly but surely everything is moving over to the Internet. Literally all media. More and more people are listening to online audio streams, watching YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and eschewing traditional radio and TV. We have a generation (in some cases, TWO generations) of people who grew up with the Internet, and are used to getting what they want on demand, instead of waiting around for a certain time for “big media” to deliver it via a signal.
Also, at least from my perspective, the more a company worries about their bottom line, the more creativity deteriorates. Some of the most creative programming I see nowadays is online-only, whether it be the reviewers on That Guy with the Glasses, the MST3K spinoffs “Cinematic Titanic” and “RiffTrax”, the groundbreaking success of The New Normal Network… what big media offers nowadays just can’t touch them. They can set up reality show after reality show, and in the end, it’s the same lowest-common-denominator crap they’ve been cranking out for decades, because they want to try to appeal to EVERYONE. Those days are gone.
The Internet changed everything. This is the era of the P1. New media strategy should be to cater to the P1s, who will eventually recruit others to be P1s. P2s and P3s no longer matter, because they’re watching and listening on the ‘net to the other stuff they’re already P1s of. There’s always something online that any particular person is a P1 of, and they will seek it out, watch or listen to it, and shut out all else, unless brought into something new by a P1 of *that*, whether via digital or face-to-face word of mouth.
Big media needs to realize that among the “key demographic”, there are less and less casual listeners, and eventually there will be none.
DJ Particle, you are correct about the disruptiveness of the Internet and what it’s doing to traditional media. But radio can play in this space, too. The great worldwide web redefines brand, entertainment, and how consumers inform themselves. In order to still be around when the dust clears, a lot of adjustment and adaption will have to be made.
Radio’s perception problems may be exacerbating the problem, and even speeding up the public’s view of what’s cool and what is definitely not. While there are lots of things I would love for broadcast radio to do, one of them is to understand that image matters right along with content, service, and providing an experience.
Thanks for commenting.
The main problem is that everyone wants to be interactive with their media nowadays. They want to be part of something in this Internet age. They want to feel they make a difference.
Examples:
1) With online services like Rhapsody or Last.fm, people can tell it “[this] is what I like. [This] is what I’m a P1 of. give me stuff like [this]”, and they will feed a stream of all similar music tailored for that specific listener. It basically creates sub-sub-formatted stations on the fly, and no 2 listeners are listening to the same stream. YouTube can do this for video as well if the viewer chooses.
2) The small internet ‘radio’ stations that *are* static streams still use real DJs or hosts that actually rely on the listeners, not big corps or private equity groups, for their feedback and in many cases, their advertising (for example: the ads on the current Tom Leykis show are for small businesses owned by actual listeners). The audience doesn’t just *feel* like they have input, they actually DO have input!
This is where non-Internet radio and TV are sorely lacking. With a limited spectrum available, there’s only room for the broadest of genres, exposing the average listener/viewer to crap they don’t want to hear or watch, and younger people simply don’t have time to sift through the crap to get at what they want, or feel they’re a slave to the stations with no recourse because big corps made sure that the ‘crap’ is airing. Do you honestly think non-Internet TV or radio can provide that kind of service? Ever? I don’t see how they can do it. In the end, CBS, NBC, CNN, Cumulus, ClearChannel… they will ALL be primarily Internet media services, because only the Internet has that level of flexibility.
Just my 2¢
DJ Particle, my response to Bob Bellin contains my thoughts about some of your points. There have been opportunities for broadcast radio to step it up, customize, personalize, and diversify. HD2 channels could have been that avenue but instead, most broadcasters took the safe way out, creating channels that were essentially duplicates of existing formats. However you feel about the technology (please don’t start a comment thread on HD Radio!!), this was a missed opportunity.
I still feel the local DJ concierge can make a music station – and even a daypart – very special. And innovations like Jelli and Listener Driven Radio are giving some of the controls back to consumers.
But it’s going to require innovative solutions, experimentation, and lots of localization. It’s that last point that may be the one that’s most sticky. Thanks for reading our blog and commenting.
Fred – always read your blogs, get your emails, and more often than not agree with you. I’ve often been tempted to reply to things and finally I just feel like I need to. Forgive me if this is too long.
I’ve done many jobs in radio from programing to mornings, imaging to nights, and all points between. I’ve been successful most of the time too – but the entire time I couldn’t help feeling guilty for being ‘part of the problem’ with radio. Truth is we can point lots of fingers in lots of directions – big corporations, appealing to the lowest common denominator, letting the equation read sales > content, and so on. However it goes deeper – we as an industry have lost our gut, have lost our pioneer spirt, and have swapped creating a quality aural experience for denial as our best product.
Years ago I recall getting into an argument with my GM over XM. He was all angry that I got a subscription and I certainly made it worse by asking him why the hell we’re giving away iPods which takes radio out of the equation completely. Being much younger and not knowing when to stop, I asked him if he ever stopped to think about what WE were doing wrong that people were willing to PAY for a product that was otherwise free.
We’ve never revised our playbook. We are relying on what worked 20 years ago, quite blindly. I was infatuated with XM because it was a reinvention of radio. It had soul – it was an audio experience.
The 60s on 6 was AMAZING. Stunning. Spectacular. For someone in their 20s to be able to hear something that was so close to 1960s pop radio happening NOW was the sort of quality that made XM great. Sonic Salutes? GENIUS! I could share a part of my parents youth years in my own youth.
They had a channel called On the Rocks which was campy bachelor pad music, and it was a channel that always put you in a good mood. Ethel was alt rock and it had a personality like no other station. There were obscure niche channels too – Special X which was all of that oddball but delightful audio, Cinemagic which perhaps could be classical for a new generation – and many others. There were your mainstream channels too – but no matter what channel you were on, it was an EXPERIENCE. It had it’s own distinctive SOUND.
I don’t mean to harp on the XM of days past (which was largely undone with the merger) but instead wanted to use it to make my point – listening was an experience. XM didn’t have an ego. XM didn’t have a pathetic 1,800 songs and then BRAG about it. Whatever XM did, they made it an experience, DJs or not. XM was great at branding – and they created an audio brand. Everything XM did went beyond the liners. There was excitement about XM – passion you could hear.
As an industry, radio is in denial; we put new formats on the air, or flip formats, or change this, change that – but it’s all by the same playbook. We still have time to bring people back to radio, but we need to first take a long hard look at why people want to seek alternate sources of aural entertainment. It is us, it’s not them. We need to change and we have very little time to do it before it’s too late.
This is a great piece. It’s not too long – it’s spot on because it captures how listeners (even radio professionals) can be inspired by innovation. We’ve talked about this a lot in the blog – there isn’t really a push for change, new thinking, and experimentation in a time when consumers are always on the lookout for something new. Part of the “conspiracy” may be due to consistent approaches to getting ratings, which may work in a “book,” but come up way short in the new race to entertain consumers and provide them with great experiences.
Like you, I still feel there’s gas in the tank. But the industry needs its own S.W.O.T. analysis to deal with the realities of change and disruption. There’s a “there there’ for radio but we have to want to find it and act on it.
So meanwhile, my concern with radio’s shaky perception may not have ended up being the big takeaway of the day as more people want to talk about the state of the industry rather than how the public views the brand.
No matter – the exchange is healthy – and I appreciate how many people commented today, as well as discussed these issues with industry friends, peers, and family. As always, your readership and contributions are highly valued by me. Thanks.
Fred – thanks for the reply. The responses to various other comments on this thread have been lively, that’s for sure. After reading them all, I wanted to add one more thing, and it really came up for me again today as we were looking over a study done by a consultant other than you who works with many of our markets – the study, like so much of what we do – used our existing customers. Yes, they surveyed people who are already consuming our product. That’s a problem – a huge problem.
We need to get new customers, outside of those who still consume radio. We aren’t brining any new people into our pool at all. We need to talk to everyone that doesn’t listen to radio. We need to find out about them, what they like, what they want and need, or else our tank of gas will never be refilled.
Constantly surveying and studying our own customers is not helping us. This is the same as Montgomery Ward’s or Woolworths, or [INSERT FAILED BUSINESS NAME HERE] asking their few customers what they like, what they dislike, etc. The fact is they have those customers and will likely keep them – it’s the customers who are going to Target and Walmart that they need to talk to.
*sigh*
Thanks for taking the time. I felt that the discussion here started heading down an non-productive path, so I did cut things short. To your thoughts, I am one of those researchers whose web-based surveys are – in fact – mostly conducted from core radio listeners. I wholeheartedly agree with your comments about going outside the lines to talk to everyone.
The reality for my studies – and to some degree, many stations – is one related to expense. Our Techsurveys are affordable to most radio stations. The kind of broad-based surveys you’re talking about are endeavors that should be funded on the corporate level. You are correct that too often our sample – or the focus of the questions are ask – are too insular, and therefore, don’t get at some of the big, hairy issues that are right there in front of us.
Thanks again.
I am way late to this party – I meant to comment last night – oh well. Consolidation was mentioned before, but there is an aspect of it that hasn’t been discussed.
Along with the layoffs, lack of localism that results from ubiquitous tracking and lack of money to do much of anything, there is the fact that in many cases, one or two people make virtually all of the key programming decisions for an entire company. If a local PD has some idea he or she thinks is brilliant, they make an phone appointment with a grand poohbah who will give them time for little more than an elevator pitch, then say yes or no.
This is not a prescription for innovation or creativity. Its not that the big poohbah isn’t a smart person – generally they are very smart. But so are the PDs who report to them. Some companies won’t do anything unless they roll it out across every station in the chain – so an idea that’s great for one station but not for another can’t happen.
This isn’t cost cutting, its management philosophy. In my opinion it is by and large, a bad one. Radio needs to try new things, beta test concepts and be more nimble than it ever has in the face of ever-growing media competition. The grand poohbah system blunts all of that, spawning a one size fits all monolith that steers like a boat when radio desperately needs to steer like a race car.
Bob, the party continues, if the ongoing comments are any sign. We have talked about the lack of innovation in radio in this blog a great deal over the past few years. While it’s the topic of a book by CEA’s Gary Shapiro, it is a little-heard word in radio circles.
And that’s sad. At a time when consumers are yearning for something new and different – in fact, it appears to be an insatiable desire – radio continues to serve it up the “old school” way. While this provides consistency that aids and abets the ratings, it misses the mark in “The Big War” against digital competition.
As you suggest, the corporate need to roll out a brand across many markets, taking advantage of the economy of scale of networks, dilutes the local edge that radio has enjoyed over decades.
Thanks as always for the comments and thoughts, Bob.
I’m not sure that “old school” aids and abets ratings anymore. Its hard to tell when there is virtually no test case for anything else.
Another ramification can be found on the revenue line IMO. The people who plan media budgets are not old school, they tend to be just the opposite – so radio isn’t getting the revenue bang for a rating point it once did. Media execs aren’t going to turn back and increasingly listeners won’t either. No country for old men!
The model is breaking down, and ratings no longer easily equate to revenue. Most PDs believe, however, that safety and conservatism is the way forward. Thanks for taking the time.
Fred you make the point in your most recent reply that radio PD’s are way to conservative in their programming. How do you apply that approach to a small town market of just over 100K listeners who live in the “bible belt”? It’s one thing to be your own DJ and make the show your own. But it’s another to try and move that set of ideals around the god fearing people of a small town. I don’t mind being controversial, however I also try to keep in Mind the good of the station because we are one of the few who do Radio the way it used to be. Unlike most stations who use Robo radio we keep a body in the building 24/7. I haven’t been doing this nearly as long as some of your posters above but I enjoy the opportunity and want to expand and potentially make a career out of this.
Josh and Randy, I will respond to both comments here. It is easier to connect with listeners, retailers, and the community in a small town setting. The values are more consistent and there’s less ground to cover.
Slick voicetracking from afar may sound good, but there’s no substitute for the DJ speaking at the local high school or Rotary group. Your ability to make a difference and become an important part of the community in this rapidly commoditized media world is even greater today than it was a few years ago. Serve your town well, network, hang out, and become a vital part of people’s lives.
Thanks to both of you for the thoughts and taking the time to read our blog and to comment.
Fred, I love how consultants like you and “personalities” like Tom Leykis who contributed to the anemic state that radio is now in and whine about those self inflicted wounds. If as if you helped draw up the plans of a building and built it – and now that that building is seen as old and nonfunctional with a faulty foundation – you guys blame the dump truck driver. Who cares about two jocks in a legal hissy fit? Most of America could care less. The problems with our business comes from the fact that we were lazy, late to the party and backed the wrong horses.
Radio made horrendous decisions in many areas. For example, by showing up late to new media and obsessing with 25 to 54 white men, we probably lost a generation of listeners. When a lot of radio folks sided with the conservative intelligentsia and misogynist, we alienated the many people who oppose them – Progressives, Latinos, African Americans, Women, LGBT’s, etc. Because of the years of hostility towards those groups by the radio hosts we highlighted and paid well, those groups no longer care if radio exist. We are a punch line to them now. At this moment, if various studies are to be believed, the available radio audience we need to grow are the same people Limbaugh baited and mocked for years.
But you are having a sad about some bad headlines? Really? Then again, you’re the same guy who suggested that radio stations should give up revenue by streaming online commercial free. Thank God that idea didn’t take off.
Great points, Keith.
It was my fault that broadcasting companies leveraged themselves to the hilt. It was my fault that they couldn’t afford to keep the talent who gave them the ratings and revenue that made the stations valuable in the first place. It was my fault that, because of bad financial decisions that stations had made, to hire Grade C and Grade D support staff that had chips on their shoulders. And it was my fault that stations hired support staff who consistently showed up late or who made their own decisions about what was and what was not appropriate for the air, without consulting with management first. It was my fault that sloppy, incompetent people were keeping their jobs merely because companies were afraid of being sued by incompetent minorities and others, merely because they might sue the company due to race, etc.
Ever had to work with a board operator who reminds one of Scott Shannon’s old character, Mr. Leonard? I have. “Hello, Mr. Shannon? Sorry I’m late. I have to pick up my illegitimate daughter at school today. Again!” People like that.
PS: I am not whining one bit. Now I get to come in and decide who stays and who goes. And no one I work with has a chip on their shoulders.
Tom, I like how you were just a victim of circumstance. Your brand of entertainment was so flawless that audiences couldn’t get enough. I’m glad you’re still burning up the airwaves. Oh wait, you’re not there are you?
It’s sad you blame the staff for your shortfalls with racist conjecture and fantasy. You sound like the Tea Party but with pajamas and a tin foil hat. Thanks for proving my point. I mean, you sure know how to make an argument.
Gee, I never knew that board operator guy. Maybe they couldn’t find any reason to fire him. Was he fired or at least suspended? But I do remember the story of the grossly out of shape host who missed a lot days because they claimed they were “sick”. He ended needing an insurance policy from his company to keep his job because he was just – well – not too good with hygiene. Oh wait, are you talking about jock who claimed he was sucker punched only to find out he just couldn’t defend himself in a fight he started. I’m just confused but I’m sure you can help me with that. But then again, I hear you were never really that brave to say those things to people in real life.
P.S. Where are now is proof you weren’t that much of a prize to begin with. Good luck with the podcast.
PS: An LGBT morning show. That would have made ALL the difference.
Oh, but at least LGBT shows are on the air. Hell, a whole format is. Glad to see you have respect and tolerance for our fellow human beings. And you are on where again?
Wow, look at what I missed while I was watching the most boring awards show in memory! Actually, they’re all boring, but the Oscars continue to amaze with their ability to take an exciting, vibrant industry and bring it to a halt with this program.
But onto Keith’s comments and Tom’s responses, I’m going to let you guys take it out in the street if there’s another exchange because it’s an impossible conversation. To start playing the “blame game” in radio is a fool’s sport, and an impossible argument. Depending on your POV, it is easy to blame anyone and everyone – owners, consolidation, consultants, the Internet, Tom Leykis, and the economy. But what’s the point?
I more than acknowledge that the views I express here are debatable and at times, probably wrong-headed. But they are mine, and they are offered in a spirit of trying to help, provoke, and support the radio industry in good times and bad. Sometimes I admit that I’m part of the solution, and at others, perhaps part of the problem. But that’s the nature of opinion vehicles like blogs.
Let’s not let it get personal, Keith, but if that’s the route you decide to go, I’d encourage you to start and grow your own blog. That’s the beauty of the digital arena in which we live. Everyone has an opinion, and now you can build your own forum in which to express it.
Give it a go.