Who's gonna win next week

I spoke to my friend Tom Roland yesterday for an article that is going to be in Monday's Billboard magazine.   The concept of the article is about the Duo category now that Brooks and Dunn are done.

The betting money is on Sugarland.   A good bet but I commented that they did not have a great radio year.  That is where the radio people measure success but looking at the others in the category it is no contest when it comes to liver performances and CD sales.

Too bad for a duo like Thompson Square.  I think that they had the best radio year.  An explosion onto the charts with two top ten songs and a number one with their debut.   They will gain more traction but may never have a year like the last.   They may win many awards in years to come but this was a special year for the kids.

Christmas Music

This is the most wonderful time of the year.  Unless your trying to decide what Christmas Music to play on the radio.   I have said many times that I like Christmas Music but am not a fan of music about Christmas.   This is particularly true of Country Music that is about Christmas.

Santa was an 18 Wheeler is not a Country Song. There are not many new Country Christmas songs this year.

But this year, as I have been watching AC music more I am confused about what singer are thinking.

What would Maria Meadows, who has a INCREDIBLE voice, and does does a great version of The Christmas Song, release the song the same year that Justin Bieber and Usher release the song?

Where is Maria, who deserves to be heard, going to get the play she should get this year?

The Chicken or the Egg?

Remember  that the Internet is the WORLD wide web.  Providing information about the music, information and entertainment news is not specific to your radio station.  Any of your listeners can type ANYTHING into Google or Bing and find what they are looking for without your website ever being accessed.  Listeners can go around you all day…on the web.

Our goal on the radio is to build stations that are compelling enough so that listeners do not go around you on the air.  You want to be playing the best music for your core.  Your morning show has to be the most appealing, with humor, warmth and information.

Your radio station is built around music, information, personality and promotion.  Your website needs to be built around the same things.  Those are reasons people come to radio station. Those are the elements that have built your brand.  Those are the things you are known for and what the listener expects you to be an expert in.

So why move the listener to the website if we continue to provide all of this information on the air? Because we live in a instant gratification society.  If your listener wants to know the Pirates score they have no intention of waiting for you to give them the score.  If they want to know what the weather will be like this afternoon, they have no intention to waiting around for you to tell them.  If they want to see the new Lady Gaga video they want to see it now.

Yes, they can go to ESPN.com.  They can go to weather.com and youtube.com.  If you talk about entertainment features in the morning does this entice your listeners go to TMZ.com? Interesting, isn’t it, that all of the things that you own on the air are owned by someone else on the Internet?

BUT when you tell them the story about Charlie Sheen’s rant they are yours.  If you add, “we’ve posted Charlie’s latest rant on WVAQ.com” where are they going to go?   TMZ is not in their ear that minute inviting them to their site.  BUT, if we fail to provide that information on our site, the listener will find TMZ and quite conceivably we have lost them forever for Charlie Sheen news.

Morning Shows need focus

I have been concentrating lately on morning shows and have found most wanting in the same areas.  No matter the market size.

The biggest issue has been the inability to stay focused on one topic and to present that topic in a concise yet complete manner.  It sounds to me like the topic is planned but the execution is not.  Knowing what you’re going to talk about is just half of the job.  

Larry Morrow,  a good teacher for morning shows, also points out that, “once you’ve decided on your topic you have to plan how you’re going to get into it, who is going to take the lead and how do you exit.”

I have heard our morning shows get into bits and then completely forget about the clock.   We have a few morning shows that are primarily talk where the music compliments the discussion but on many of our shows it is the other way around. 

When the morning show is music based, not all music but 8-10 songs per hour, please remind your morning shows that the listener has made the determination to listen based on the music genre and that their content is very important but not at the expense of the music.

Planning content is simple.  What is going to be on the listener’s mind throughout the day?  You should be the person that provides them that information so that they can be informed at work or with their friends and family.  Compelling and entertaining should also be concise.

Is the listener involved in the topic both thematically and on the air?   Is the team having fun? Both in the studio, on the air and with the listener?  Does the show sound spontaneous and are their production elements?  Do the hand offs sound clunky?

Are we getting the basics in 8-10 times per hour?  Is the morning show promoting forward on their show, the rest of the day and tomorrow morning?  Is the position of the station, the musical position part of the morning show too?

Just a few things to think about.

"Will work for girls."

Everyone has seen the homeless, and now rehabbed, anouncer Ted Williams on You Tube or national news shows.  His sign could say, "will cut spots for food."  

The Nashville based  record companies are going to need to begin making signs that say, "will sign a female singer for the salvation of the format."  It is getting that dire.

Each year the ACM and CMA try to award female newconmers with a trophy and recognition for being the most promising artist representing their gender. Recently the category looks more like Mother Hubbard's cupboard.

Sure we have superstars like Taylor and Carrie.  We have a budding superstar in Miranda.  We have newcomer Sunny Sweeny who has a radio hit right now.  It is great to have the beautiful Sara Evans back on the radio.  Ashton Shepherd was going to the the female savoir...maybe soon.

Fortunately on the radio side we can play oldies to balanmce things and we have "female" leads with Sugarland and occasionally Lady A.  We now have the Janedear Girls and female voices with Thompson Square and Steel Magnolias. 

There are a few girl acts that I am not mentioning here because they are not currently on the chart and that tells the entire story.

The industry needs to find new females singers and quickly.  I beleive that one of the reassons CHR is re-emerging is beacuse of the female voices on the air.  Lady Ga Ga, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Rhianna, Pink and Brittany (she's backkkkk!) are all the huge hitmakers in the format and have brought new life into those radio stations. 

Country is missing it.

Radio Ratings

Radio ratings are back in the news big time this week with the Arbitron conference taking place last week, Clear Channel re-upping with Arbitron and Nielsen's decision to get out of the radio rating business in the US.  That leaves my former employer in the lurch a little. 

I am sure that Cumulus and Arbitron will end up playing nice as they have strong partnerships in major markets like SF and Dallas. No one wants those markets to go south.

The issue at hand though is that radio ratings are difficult.   I remember sitting at the Arbitron conference a few years ago when PPM was still new and thinking, "man this is the way to do it."  After the process was explained to the conferees I thought, "who the hell would take this on?"

We also learned, after hearing from the Coleman people, that it is difficult on this side too.  Broadcasters can take nothing for granted when dealing with the habits of the listeners and the peculiarities of the rating system. The diary system is still used in most markets by most stations but we can learn from the PPM markets.

There are often just a few people being measured but there are thousands participating in the station.  Making sure that you're playing the games of the rating system while delivering an entertaining and compelling product is still job one.

We were taught that we're talking to one person at a time.   Keep that in mind while making the station as appealing to the masses as possible.  Be careful not to strip the life out of the station by being too safe for that one person that you're visualizing.  If you think about a 44 year old mother of 3 remember that she has a fun side too and don't be afraid to tap into it occasionally.   Don't treat her like the Virgin Mary.   She may just as likely be Mary Magdalene.  And that is my Christmas Ratings message to you.

Christmas Music

Get ready.   Christmas Music is coming and for Country Radio stations it is coming as a spear in the heart.  I read last week that a Country Station has flipped to All Country Christmas.   I wonder what format they will flip to in 2011?

I hate that we take it on the chin during the Christmas season but trying to play all Christmas on a Country station is not the answer.  KZLA tried it a number of years ago and found that this is not what Country Radio fans expect from their station and they know where on the dial to go and find All Christmas when the mood hits them.

The problem is amplified  because Country is such a female friendly format and so is Christmas Music.   I believe that mothers use it as a teaching tool for their children.   This is an inexpensive way to get the family in the holiday spirit and you just know that the music is going to be family friendly.  Win Win.

What a country station has to do is stay holiday friendly.  DO NOT ALLOW ANNOUNCERS TO GROUSE ON HOW MUCH THEY HATE ALL OF THE HOLIDAY HASSLE.  DO NOT ALLOW ANNOUNCERS TO TALK ABOUT GETTING SICK OF CHRISTMAS MUSIC.

The jocks have to stay positive.   They have to talk about the things that the listeners are going through.   How much fun it is to spend time with the family and wrap gifts.  How important it is to teach their kids about giving and the real meaning of Christmas.  Remember that kids believe in Santa. Do Not spoil that for the kids.

We have to partake in all of the good things that the listeners enjoy about Christmas.  Be positive about stories and charities.
 
Smile..it will be over in 6 weeks.

The Ying and the Yang

Two very different things have happened in the last 24 hours.  First, mega star Bob Pittman was named in a senior management position at Clear Channel.  This was a huge move for Clear Channel and big boost for radio.

The other, not so good thing, was a survey report that found poor passion for radio among fans. According to a study reported  in Inside Radio "Nearly four-in-ten (37%) people say if their local station went off the air tomorrow and they had to get music and news from another source they’d miss the station a lot. But the balance of respondents is a lot less passionate about their local station. And that could leave an opening for rival media."

My thought is that Clear Channel is out ahead of this report and this is one of the reasons to bring on someone like Pittman.  Not only is Pittman an unabashed fan of radio but one of the industry's cutting edge purveyors.   


Seeing the future and what radio can do with all of the assets lined up in the right direction is what has been missing on a large scale.  Only a company like Clear Channel, with more assets than any other company in the business, and someone like Pittman, who has been there and done that for NBC and MTV, can radio expect to find the leadership that we need.


I suspect that many companies will be getting ready to follow the leader and, not hire someone of Pittman's stature, institute the same kind of things that we'll be seeing from Clear Channel in the months ahead.


Hopefully we are all paying attention to a company that appears committed to building on their strong brands and developing new channels of distribution.

Changing of the Guard

Country Music is a young person's format.  I don't mean the audience.   I mean the performers.  This week in Nashville twenty somethings took over. Oh, and a 34 year old who acts like a 15 year old boy. 

Miranda Lambert, 27 the night of the event, and her 15, er 34 year old boyfriend owned the night. The format undergoes transitions quickly.   You can go back and look at the shifts and how quickly they happen.   Now the audience does not leave the old guard behind as quickly it just seems to expand.

You have Miranda, clearly the leading female singer this year and not yet a concert headliner.  You have Lady Antebellum, the group of the year for years to come (?), and only a couple of shows into their headlining tour.  And The Zac Brown Band, probably as exciting and entertaining a show in Country Music, and they are still an opening act. 

This bodes well for the future as these shows blossom and hopefully entice new fans to the format as they see the vibrancy of the format.  I suggest to country music fans, always interested in introducing their favorites to new people, make it their goal to introduce two non country fans to a country concert or CD by using these young exciting acts.

It will be easy to introduce Lady A and Taylor because of the crossover music but Zac, Miranda,  Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean and Sugarland are also sure to appeal to new fans.

Country Radio is going to have to lead the way.  Start talking about this on the air.  How the format holds such hope with young acts coming into their own.   How the young audience would be surprised to see acts their own age owning the stage.  We can make this happen.

What is making stations boring?

There are situations where programmers feel like the only way to compete, now that their stations are measured by PPM methodology  is to shut up and play the music.  That Tim McGraw and Sugarland is going to win for them.  That they can provide so little to entertain the audience that  more music is the best way to win.

Shame on those programmers.  I know that I was challenged with a morning show that was so bad playing more music was the short term answer.  The long term answer is in fixing the content on that morning show but that never happened.  Finally the management gave up on that morning show and brought in someone new.  Unfortunately they have not fixed the content issue and this show too will fail, if early returns are any indication.

The music is the most important part of a music radio station.  No debate there.  But what happens to connect with the audience has to come from the air talent.   Does the listener feel like the air talent is engaged in their music, their lives and their community?   The listener knows that Tim and Jennifer aren't part of their community.   The listener knows that Tim and Jennifer don't live their lives. 

There are dayparts where music is 99% of the station's appeal.   Middays the music should lead and the air talent should stay out of the way, simply talking about the station and immediate issues.  But too many stations have let this kind of programming seep into morning drive too and the long term consequence of that will be Pandora and Internet radio. 

In Los Angeles the top morning shows are Ryan Secrest,  Mark and Brian,  Kevin and Bean and Bill Handel. Not much music there. I am sure that there is some Spanish language station in there too that I can't understand.  These are shows that engage their audience in fun and content.

Putting in someone less talented than those shows and trying to wing it around 14 songs an hour is going to get you...nothing.  Talent wins.  Coaching wins.  Creativity wins.  Country Radio:  Don't depend on Music Row for your morning show.  You'll fail