Is radio dying? That was the Point of View in a recent Radio Ink Convergence Conference. I blogged about this a few weeks ago…

http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=141391&pt=todaysnews

Leo states that “Good Content” is what makes good radio.  It’s my opinion that good radio people, who make good radio content, can always make good “radio” entertainment.  The problem we’re having is that the industry isn’t embracing the people that are growing into it. 

There really isn’t a grapefruit league for radio anymore… unless you embrace Podcasting.  Couldn’t it easily be said that good radio people never die they just live on in podcasting and internet content delivery? 

In many aspects, I think radio died a very long time ago. Billboard, R&R, Record companies, Arbitron, radio consolidation and brain dead PD’s are to blame.

The record companies tell the charts what to push - the PD’s play what the charts and some consultant on the other side of the country tell them to and arbitron rewards them accordingly for playing along.

The radio I grew up with was compelling and kept you glued to the dial.

Don’t blame technology - blame the content.

I look at it this way:

• I have a fun job
• People seem to enjoy that I do it
• I make enough to keep us alive
• I don’t smell like coal dust when I get home
• My audience believes in my product, and show up when we go out
• You can’t buy community support like we have
• My boss loves what I do, too

Today’s Best Music 99 1/2 WLOL Minneapolis, St Paul with another hour of custom mixed music…  Now that was a great radio station and a great PD.  Gregg Swedberg had some amazing talent and content with John Hines and the crew in the morning.

Hey tight and bright baby!!! Let’s create some new content! 

Justin Kaiser
Creative Identity Group

photo credit: paper by design

EVERYBODY’S FREE (TO LEGAL I.D.)

Ladies and gentlemen of the radio industry of 2004:
SAY THE CALL LETTERS.
If I could offer you only one tip for the ratings, call letters would be it.
The use of call letters is required once an hour by the FCC, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than this morning’s R&R Hot Fax.
I will dispense this advice, now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your airshift.
Never mind.
You will not understand the power and beauty of your airshift until you no longer have one.
But trust me,
in 20 years you’ll listen to old airchecks of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how good you really sounded, and how many attractive, single women actually called you on the request line.
You are NOT the geek that you imagine.

Don’t worry about being fired.
You will.
Or worry, but know that worrying is about as effective as trying to serve a major market with a thousand-watt daytimer.
The real end of your job is apt to be something that never crossed your worried mind, like a sudden format change to Jammin’ Oldies at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Say one thing every day that scares your GM.

Prep.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s headphones.
Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Edit.

Don’t waste your time on Arbitrends.
Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind.
The book is long, and in the end,
it’s only one month.

Remember the awards you receive.
Forget the complaint calls.
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old airchecks.
Throw away your old memos.

Backtime.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what format you want to work in.
The most interesting jocks I know didn’t know at 22 what station they wanted to work for.
Some unemployed 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Drink plenty of Jolt.

Be kind to your ears, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll do mornings,
maybe you won’t.
Maybe you’ll have good ratings,
maybe you won’t.
Maybe you’ll be washed up at 40,
or maybe you’ll be at Z-100 on your 75th anniversary.
Whatever you do,
don’t congratulate yourself too much,
or berate yourself either.
Your ratings are half chance.
So are Randy Michaels’.

Enjoy your microphone.
Use it every way you can.
Don’t be afraid of it,
or what management tells you to do with it.
It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever use.

Hit the post.
Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own car.

Read the format clocks,
even if you don’t follow them.
Do NOT read Inside Radio,
it will ONLY MAKE YOU ORNERY.

Get to know Corporate.
You never know when your GM will be gone for good.
Be nice to your engineers.
They’re your best link to the transmitter, and the people most likely to be there at 3AM in the future.

Understand that radio stations come and go, but for the precious few, you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps with your contacts, because the older you get, the more you need favors from the PDs who hired you when you were young.

Do Modern Rock once,
but leave before it makes you hard.
Do A/C once,
but leave before it makes you soft.

Aircheck.

Accept certain inalienable truths:
station prices will rise,
owners will be frugal,
you AND your material will get older.
And when you do, you’ll fantasize that
station prices were reasonable,
owners were generous,
and stations respected their listeners.

Respect YOUR listeners.

Don’t expect anyone else to run the board for you.
Maybe you’ll have a hard drive,
maybe you’ll have a long record,
but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your voice,
or by the time you’re 40, you’ll sound like Moe Preskell.

Be careful which indie’s advice you buy, but be patient with the assistant who supplies it.

Advice is a form of nostalgia.
Dispensing it is like pulling a Seventies hit off the shelf, sampling it, getting Puff Daddy to produce it, and putting it back in rotation until it burns out.
This is also known as CONSULTING.

But trust me on the call letters.

The first extended radio broadcast of the human voice was transmitted through the air Christmas Eve 1906 from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Reginald Fessenden was convinced that the “wireless telegraph”, which at the time carried only the beeps of Morse code, could carry the human voice.

An account by Fessenden’s wife reports her husband’s historic transmission, as sailors on ships across the Atlantic heard for the first time what they had only dreamed about - and never thought possible.

“…a human voice coming from their instruments - someone speaking. Then a women’s voice rose in song. It was uncanny! Many of the radio operators called their officers to come and listen; soon the wireless rooms were crowded. Next someone was heard reading a poem. Then there was a violin solo; then a man made a speech.”

Fessenden himself played his violin, read from the Christmas story from the Book of Luke, and played a recording of Handel’s “Largo.”

Can you imagine?

People gathered around a radio listening intently?

Now there’s a vision of the past that must apply to the future, to the future of radio.

From our families to yours, and from all our staff, we wish you a joyous and safe Christmas.

This article was in the most recent Inside Radio sheet.  This is important reading if your station is promoting an HD component…

Here’s the way I see it.  After more than a year marketing HD radio with partnering radio stations… where are we?  Is there any consumer interest?  I think the 2 things that are crippling this is 1.  Cost to purchase the unit.  And 2.  lack of real quality/unique programming.

Until these items are fixed, there will be no demand and no product on the shelves…

Justin Kaiser
Creative Identity Group

Readers chime in. Trying to buy an HD Radio at retail has not been easy. Inside Radio reported Tuesday on our experience with a weekend shopping spree in New York, and our attempt to find and buy an HD Radio receiver.

While we love the technology and the sound quality, retailers appear to be the weak link in moving HD Radio forward with the consumer. We asked readers to let us know about their shopping experiences … and they did.

Sarasota FL: “At Sound Advice, the local high-end store, the salesman and I agreed on a model and he had it installed. Only upon tuning around after installation did we learn that this particular head unit (a sheepish Kenwood phone rep let us know) ‘was not multi-cast ready’. We could tune in HD1…but no side channels. A bust!”

Connecticut: “Went to Best Buy — Brookstone — Sharper Image — Circuit City. Zero units in stock. ‘Yeah, we get some calls for them. Hear we’re gonna stock some soon.’ That’s the response from store clerks. I see nothing on TV or in the daily newspapers (about HD). Or on billboards. No ads for HD paid for by the radio industry to create awareness or a
need for HD Radio sets. Ads saying you can have HD in your car, den, walkman, poolside, kitchen, bedroom, etc. Where’s the Industry push?”

Chicago: “I tried to buy an HD receiver for my home stereo system last weekend at Best Buy. There weren’t any HD receivers there, and the salesperson tried to sell me an XMHD receiver. I ended up explaining to him what HD was. I checked the car radio section and they had only one.”

St. Louis: “My experience was in a local Best Buy, and the clerk escorted me to the HDTV display, confidently telling me that there was no such thing as HD radio, and that it was an Interent urban legend! If our retail partners don’t see fit to properly train their sales force, perhaps we should put our efforts into encouraging online purchases. While not able to offer “instant gratification”, we can at least offer our listeners a higher expectation of dealing with competent and well-trained representatives. I bought mine online and got free shipping!”

Kansas City: “Whenever I’m passing through a Best Buy or a Circuit City, I’ll stop and check to see how much store employees know about HD. I often get blank stares. At one Circuit City, I tried listening to standard radios and reception on all of them was poor. The employee [said] they don’t get good reception in the building. Anybody tried a master antenna? How can you sell anything, much less an HD Radio, if you can’t get a good signal into your demo radios?”

There is a difference between having a strategy of grabbing a larger percentage of the current listening audience, and having a strategy of GROWING the listening audience.  Are you growing, or simply capturing/trading listeners from competitors?

Creative Identity Group knows where consumers are and how to reach them in this new communications landscape, and we want to help design radio’s next generation.

We need to look outside the radio field for possible solutions to radio’s challenges. Aren’t these somewhat non-radio problems? The problem isn’t music rotation equations or time spent listening models, or programming - the problem is - How does radio – in an ever fragmenting media environment – go about resonating with consumers and penetrating the market in such a way that again grows the listening base, rather than simply placating the core?

If you’re curious, give us a call or an e-mail.

Justin Kaiser
Creative Identity Group