Have A Fine Broadcast Day!

First an apology for the delay since my last thoughts.  The tax man cometh.

I tell people radio is a lot like baseball.  Young people rule although young acting older pros can hang in there longer than expected.  On the other hand, good players are systematically thrown away because of age. You try to move up from the minors to the majors.  Its the minor leagues that drive the system.

Once again the RAB reports dismal billings for the Texas Rangers of media, radio.  The exception was small markets where revenue increased.  So now, everyone wants to know what’s going on in small markets.  I can remember similiar conversations in L-A in the 80s and 90s. 

My answer is the same today as it was then.  Small markets have direct client contact whether the client is represented by an agency or not.  This comes naturally because they’re in a civic club, the kids are on the same ball team or they go to church together.  They see each other in the grocery store.  Simple geography makes that less likely in larger markets.  But, that’s no excuse.

This isn’t just a sales problem.  This is radio’s problem.  This is exactly what’s wrong with the programming on most radio stations.  Its one of the reasons radio listening is down.  There’s no contact with the client, in this case, the listener. 

Radio stations are becoming commodities which decreases their value to the listener.  It’s hard for me to find out even the most basic of local content, the time of day, by listening to the radio in Dallas.  When Ron Chapman programmed KVIL it was the most local music radio station in America.  It would only work in Dallas and Dallas alone.  That’s what made it special.

We’re running franchised radio stations by default.  Radio stations all sound the same.  There’s a Mix, a Kiss, a Q or Z or whatever in every market and they all sound the same.  This was and still is my argument to those who criticized ABC for offering 24-hour music formats.  Its franchise time baby.  We’re all gonna be McDonald’s or Taco Bell and make a trillion dollars!

I believe the simple answer is not only the easiest to understand but also the most accurate.  So, stay with the McDonald’s theme.  No one turns anybody on to McDonald’s.  When friends come to L-A, you don’t rush to the nearest Mickey D’s on the Boulevard.  You’re headed to an In & Out, Fat Burger, or Tommie’s.  McDonald’s is a commodity available everywhere.  That makes it dependable, common and not special.

If you’re a baby boomer, you remember when people would sneak Coors on planes in suitcases because it was only available in 13 states.

I told a group of new media folks in 1998 that the strength for radio on the Internet was local not global.  Local will make us special and set us apart.  I still believe that. 

Unfortunately when I listen to the radio these days, I feel like local programming is taking a global approach and forgetting the hand that feeds it - the PEOPLE in its market.

The small market guys have never forgotten this because they can’t.  Someone will see them on the street and all of a sudden, they’re accountable to the community.   When was the last time you were accountable to a listener or advertiser (not agency) one-on-one?

There’s nothing like the human touch, looking in someone’s eyes or creating a very personal experience through conversation.  These are all things radio is best at but fails miserably on a daily basis to deliver.

We need to get back to basic politics.  Press the flesh.  Kiss the babies.  Be one of them.  Deliver on your promises.  That gets you re-elected and makes it easier to raise funds!

We’ve been through this before but that was before the Internet in the car, HD, Satellite, PPM, and whatever else is around the corner we don’t know about.

Like the Texas Rangers our pitching sucks.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 2:27 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.