RADIO: LEARNING TO BE ITS OWN BEST PROMOTER Jeffrey Yorke – Radio and Records The trouble with radio is that it keeps finding trouble for itself. And it’s got to stop today. That was the conclusion of panelists speaking during the annual roundtable of “Talking Heads of Talk Radio,” the opening program of the 13th annual R&R Talk Radio Seminar, which began here Thursday (March 13) afternoon.
Most of the eight panelists and those in the audience shook their heads in agreement with NAB president/CEO David Rehr when he said, “We are our own worst critics,” and encouraged the industry to start promoting its plethora of qualities and stop focusing on -- almost promoting -- its few negatives. People are listening to radio; in fact, reported Rehr, radio gains more than 2 million new listeners annually, according to a new survey that will be released in April as part of the 2020 radio initiative during the NAB Show in Las Vegas (April 11-17).
CBS Radio programming chief Chris Oliviero said radio took a beating from satellite radio by allowing the satcasters to go uncorrected on a media rampage at their start, lying and bad-mouthing terrestrial radio. “They were able to smear radio and they beat the drum like a candidate, and after a while perception became reality and we let it happen," said Oliviero, who encouraged the industry “go back to being very proud of what we do. Eventually we will turn the clock back.”
His colleague at CBS News, vice president Harvey Nagler, agreed, echoing Rehr’s “we are our own worst critics” before adding, “We have a great story to tell, and we ought to tell it and stop taking pot shots at other media.”
In a lighter moment, Sound Mind’s Kraig Kitchin saluted radio videographer Art Vuolo, known throughout the nation‘s as “radio‘s best friend,” for “finding the positive in our business and championing it.” Kitchin added, “Radio suffers for not publicizing itself enough," and he applauded satellite radio for losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually and still finding enough money to fund fat and successful advertising campaigns.
ESPN’s Traug Keller said he was “disappointed with the radio leadership“ that has, in the past, failed to promote itself by expanding to new platforms and spreading radio across all new electronic devices. “There has never been a better time to be in the audio business, and there have never been more platforms to put out our product," said Keller, who added that every time ESPN uses all of the new platforms, including podcasting, to promote its products, “we find our terrestrial business grows."
An audience member warned the radio heads not to let the consolidated advertising agency business leave radio out of the buys in the future, and all agreed, particularly RAB president Jeff Haley, that radio needs to pull a seat up to the competitive table and be included. But he stressed that radio needs to be seen as a creative hot zone to make it attractive to ad buyers. He said ad buying is “not a price-driven business anymore but a best idea-driven business.“
Rehr jumped in and stressed that radio needs to recruit new people who want to create better radio advertising and promote radio.
Don’t Turn HD Into A Wasteland
Kitchin moved on to the topic of HD Radio by saying, “Turning HD Radio into a 24-hour music jukebox is the biggest disservice to HD Radio that we could do. HD Radio will be discovered person by person when it gets discovered like FM was discovered in the '70s.” He suggested giving the programming over to “the craziest person at the station“ and seeing what they can do with it.
Harpo Radio president John Gehron, sitting in the audience, also encouraged all broadcasters in the room to push manufacturers to include HD on all receivers and make them universal.
Democrats & More Regulation
Rehr told attendees that “the probability is very high that a Democrat will be elected to the White House” later this year and that “the cycle of deregulation has come to an end. We are going to see a lot more regulation.” He promised that the NAB will take the FCC to court over regulation,” particularly if there is an attempt to resurrect the so-called fairness doctrine. Democrats in the House and Senate have been bubbling up about the old regulation that was stripped away 20 years ago and have talked about reviving it.
“There is a great deal of angst over the reinstatement over the fairness doctrine,” Rehr said, “and it could affect talk radio in a big way.”
Broadcasters Needed On Localism Front
One of the next regulations to get recycled into law, worries the NAB chief, is a slew of new rules governing broadcasters on localism and their community involvement. Rehr pleaded with broadcasters to help the NAB help them by responding to the FCC’s request for comments on proposed new regulations on localism.
What should local broadcasters be doing? “Put in as much as you can on this localism report card. Document the localism record with all the good things you do every day,” Rehr said. “Re-engage with local radio management to let them know what this means to local stations and how it will affect every station if new regulations are implemented.” |