WISE UP Cleveland Wheeler – RadioDailyNews It's not.. what you thought... When you first... began it. You got... what you want... Now you can hardly stand it though By now you know it's not going to stop... It's not going to stop... It's not going to stop Till you wise up.
--Aimee Mann
Will Congress re-write the 96 Telecom Act to accommodate the digging of a bigger hole for radio real estate? When will the authors of RADIO IS DEAD articles offer solutions? When will operators wise up, take the solutions offered and take a leap to revolutionize the medium in the face of extinction? Where do we come from and how do we fit in with the New World mediums?
“It’s the end of the word as we know It.. It’s the end of the world as we know it”. That is becoming the anthem of radio veterans who lived the day of broadcasting’s court and spark with true fans. And yes, contemporary music radio was practically new then but so is everything else that now surrounds our limited two-band universes.
Enter the mid fifties. TV is as new as the MP3 and Satellite Radio is to us today. The days of the live radio broadcasts of big bands and big audience breakfast shows; live radio dramas and quiz shows followed the camera and lights to the new visual medium. People are experiencing the immediacy of their pop culture and life on a global scale for the first time. They are seeing their radio shows and watching the entertainers formerly concealed between the vinyl grooves. The news is not just read. It is witnessed.
Mirrors on the ceiling Pink champagne on ice And she said We are all just prisoners here Of our own device
--Eagles
Radio took a cue from the divine timing and inspiration that came from pure and simple observation of habitual human behavior. Todd Storz’ revelation was a popular radio format could be based on the favorite familiar songs that people selected to play repetitiously on the jukebox. This event was radio’s equivalent to science’s nudge into the future with Einstein’s theory of relativity. After all, when people will voluntarily PAY for what they really want to hear, it is the gospel of all research methodology.
ALL THINGS MUST PASS
The essence of Todd Storz’ formula for music radio is still a very valid structure. Now, it is what materials we build over that structure that will determine whether we stay in the game.
It is easy to stick with what we have known and have defended so dearly with our research and our marketing money over the years. For the most part, I think everyone will agree that radio owners are not risk takers. The safer and more conventional, the better.
Prepare to break the rules and throw out this thinking. In this time, we are so safe in every phase of our lives that people are lining up to base jump the Trump. The millennium mode is survival, a state of alert, competitive adventure, Fear factor, extreme sports, independent film, world fusion, and heart-racing horsepower. It is time to show off your real stuff or get left in the piles of so much passe Flea market fertilizer like the cassettes VHS tapes, albums. All are great collectibles but no machinery for hi-tech power lifters.
When the owners and operators have gone to great lengths to justify and validate the decisions they have made are the absolute best choices, it is difficult to admit failure or, in the general state of the industry, admit “that the waters around you have grown and if you don’t start swimming you’ll sink like a stone cause the times they are a changin’”
The dust never clears. Over the past fifteen years, since dereg and the consolidation frenzy, radio’s programming mavens have chosen to ignore the future starring at them, by keeping more versions of the past living within the present. It sort of like the boat that keeps springing leaks. It never gets retrofitted. It just keeps getting plugged to make it another day. It is still a boat as long as it will float. It is this kind of stoic thinking that is projected by the NAB and the majority of U.S. transmitting barons.
EVERYTHING IS BROKEN
Broken idols, broken heads, people sleeping in broken beds. Ain't no use jiving Ain't no use joking Everything is broken.
--Dylan
The popular answer to our growing accumulation of short-term mistakes and the perpetuation of bad habits is change the format and change the name. After a few of these hole-plugged “Sinkers “they start putting the crew into the lifeboats. The air staff becomes a liability. So now they have the decaying framework all freshly plugged. They painted a new name on it and they dumped the extra weight. They believe with a good breeze, she will sail on her own. So the Rose begat Wild begat the Eagle begat the Outlaw begat the Point and so we go.
Is it a wonder listeners have no loyalty for anything commercial radio throws at them anymore? Do you blame anyone for thinking of radio as a stupid little novelty created only for the personal amusement of egocentric programmers, consultants, and disc jockeys? If you are willing to admit that you only propagate the plague and stall the inevitable to maintain employment and income without rocking the boat, then you know the truth and can choose to take the first step to preparing for what will bring radio into the future – or be part of it’s epitaph.
First, get a fix on what that is. Take a look at a 1928 wooden cabinet, tube type, AM tabletop radio. Sit the XM, the IPOD and the cell phone with a built in MP3 next to it. That was a beautiful radio in 1928. It was also state-of-the-art. It is 2005 and it is only a beautiful antique. Your reality is you are Bill Haley and the Comets on the other side of the Stargate portal.
YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT
But if you try sometime You just might find You get what you need --Stones
Conventional radio has conceded favor and territorial dominance. It will never be the technological standard. It can no longer be the sole source exposure medium for music or information. It cannot pretend to be these things. The core is much more sophisticated. They can now identify bullshit before you air it.
Don’t let terms like digital and high-def confuse you. Makes no difference if you have high definition television when the only programming available to view in such superior quality is one of six versions of Law and Order. What makes you think that quality means diddly to a listener if all they hear is the same garbage – only clearer?
When people want to hear exactly what they want, in the best quality, and want to avoid being choked on redundancy or interruption, for 15 bucks they will go to Rhapsody, internet radio, satellite or build their own musical environment through a variety of sources on an IPOD or MP3. What is left for radio to be? What respectable service can conventional radio provide? How can radio earn the respect of more than a car-commercial hawking noise box?
Naturally, it can’t all be done overnight but here are twelve simple things to consider integrating into the metamorphosis.
1. Get real. Trash hype, phony growling superficial imaging
2. Give some of your airtime to your listeners. Let them make choices about what they want to hear.
3. Don’t dictate an entire playlist to your audience. Go to the outer limits sometimes.
4. Take obvious risks. Be bold without making a statement about it.
5. Council and offer training and support to your air people.
6. Purge cliches and tired overused, mundane terms and phrases.
7. Be informed. Opinions are like bubblegum. Disperse facts
8. Take out the trash. Bits, parody songs and presidential impressions are outlived.
9. Localize. Involve yourself in your people. Not for pay. Not for sponsors. Create local stars
10. Quit buying off the audience. Radio stations sound like coupon books. Save your action for major promotions
11. Segment your programming. Develop and produce substantial special programming pointed at your target
12. Expose worthy local artists. (The American Idol factor)
THE END
And in the end, The love you take is equal to the love you make
--Beatles
Obviously, there is much more to making radio new and most importantly, making it feel that way. The one gaping omission in my “designing dozen” actions is commercials. Besides the inanity of mouthy jocks and the repetition in play lists, the number one complaint about commercial radio is too many screaming commercials.
There is no doubt about it. It’s a business and commercials are revenue. Can’t live with em and can’t live without em. It’s a given we can’t just play all the commercials between midnight and four or sell them on Ebay. Yet, besides our own paint-by-numbers programming, commercials are the number one killer of audience population.
Let’s examine the professional remedies so far. To be fair, any recognition of malignancy
And the action remove it deserves applause. We haven’t seen red lights like this since a handful of broadcasters proclaimed they would no longer subscribe to Arbitron. (I guess they were only bluffing.)
Do I believe that the Clear Channel thirty-second program is going to be effective? That is a perception that remains to be heard. Me, I do not think that a shorter number of shorter messages makes much difference. If anything, it’s the kind of stuff that feeds A.D.D. and is as irritating as mosquitoes at a cookout. Further, I cannot understand why any sponsor would want to be less of a condiment on a commercial sandwich.
LOW CARB RECIPES (Commercial And Repetitive Broadcasting)
Rather than condensed “word soup”, I would seek to modify the delivery of commercial messages on a much more exclusive basis that takes hours at a time of programming sponsorship by one or two sponsors and requires the commitment of longer term contractual agreements. I think that at least portions of the day could be offered this way as a prelude to making an eventual shift to this new delivery in some broader form. Commercial underwriting is not obtrusive and can carry a more effective impression than so many words crammed into sixty seconds with a capture rate of 30%.
Sure. This is going to require retooling and new education. For once, maybe radio ought to be able to tell media buyers and agencies how it is. Here is the chance. What’s your timber?
So much for the lament of the death of radio. I am choking on the pathetic willingness of so many to keep silent and to witness it’s demise without a fight. No less than six articles appeared last week in the radio trades eulogizing the dearly departed… None with the slightest suggestion of a cure that would have kept it alive (except for a consultant in Rhode Island selling “How To” books.)
It is time for a little less research and a little more search. Time to go back to the gut. Time to take it back to the streets. It is the only place conventional radio can claim turf and be King – or can remain in denial and loose the entire Kingdom. |