There are enough sexy songs getting played on country radio right now to warrant a “booty call song” category in stations’ music scheduling software.
That’s because the latest burgeoning trend in country music seems to be songs with overtly sexual themes. And while country radio stations are known to quickly edit songs with potentially offensive language, such as the “ass” reference in the chorus of the Zac Brown Band’s “Toes,” the most interesting thing about this new crop of sexually-themed songs is that so many of them are becoming consensus hits, completely unencumbered by radio edits.
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Games are more fun when you keep score—and the way you’re keeping score is going to be important in 2010. RETHINKING MEASUREMENT is an important undertaking for the media industry, and there’s already plenty of shifting in progress—from PPM to Streaming Measurement.
Two of radio’s largest “metrics vendors,” Arbitron and Ando Media, have both earned headlines this year for their maneuvers in measurement. While they’ve drawn some heat from customers and buyers—and various debates rightfully continue about each of their practices—they both deserve some applause.
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The dog and I were out in the field this weekend. She's a Flat-coated Retriever, and she just lives to get out there and hunt. Not go hunting with me, mind you; no, she loves nothing better than hunting on her own. That old dog has great hunter's instincts, doing her best work off in the brambles, where she knows the hunting is best. While she loves to hunt alone, she also loves to bring back what she's caught, to show it off and get her reward. She's really good at what she does, and when it comes to hunting, I'm probably more of a distraction than an asset to her work. Kinda like a lot of sales managers I've seen lately.
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One year ago, the Pew Internet & American Life project released a study that outlined an entertainment category that has grown so large that it was approaching radio and television in terms of usage. Was it social media, that headline-generating wave of the past few years? No, it was video gaming, a category that is routinely ignored by the press but has gotten so big that the industry is now larger than Hollywood, as outlined in a recent Daily Observer column from the UK. And the gaming story crosses all boundaries—from hardware device to demographics. We are seeing nothing less than the video gaming of life, and it is an area where radio must pay attention and use to its advantage.
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If your very life depended on keeping a listener: Would you still put that on the radio that way?
Think about it. How do you keep that person glued to the radio, listening to you?
With People Meter measurement just around the corner, and the technological shift making offering many choices available, it becomes more important than ever not to lose a listener. If they're bored, you've lost the listener. So you can't be boring, not even for a minute! If we know that listeners leave when they are bored, either mentally, or tuning out physically and their attention goes elsewhere, what can you do?
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A philosopher from the turn of the twentieth century, Thomas Troward, once said, “The science of floatation was not discovered by contemplating the sinking of things.” Similarly, contemplating today’s failures will not lead to the discovery of new successful ideas and strategies. Radio 3D is about realizing a vision for our industry’s future. Every week, we will share a perspective of prosperity for radio and the people it serves. I hope you’ll walk away with a new idea or a thought about approaching your role differently. If you’re not personally pleased today with your position, I hope Radio3D will expand the possibilities of how you can bring value to the industry and find a position in our transforming business that fits your passion and unique gifts.
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Few things have gotten more press over the past twelve months than Facebook, Twitter, and all of social media. Media companies have been aggressive about staking out a position at all of these locations. This is smart because you can’t participate in social media if you’re brand isn’t willing to go out and be social. A problem I often see, however, is that while the strategy is sound and radio has the best intentions, execution leaves a lot to be desired. With social media that lack of execution generally manifests itself in a focus on the “media” and not the “social.”
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Online radio continues to grow as a viable category for audiences and advertisers alike.
As we plug along in our efforts to fully monetize this medium we need to recognize something critically important:
Online radio is not simply radio online.
In other words, we need to take advantage of the novel capabilities of the digital medium as we build our online radio strategies and not think of the medium simply as the over-the-air signal repurposed.
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Chattanooga, Tenn., is one of those markets that has, over the last 20 years, managed to have two Top 40 stations or, just as often, none. Bahakel's WDOD (96.5 The Mountain) made an unusual Triple-A to Top 40 segue when Clear Channel's WKXJ (Kiss-FM) was out of commission. The Mountain became a surprise 7-8 share player. And now WKXJ is back as 103.7 Kiss FM.
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Radio-Info debuts its New Media section with a weekly column "The Future Is Now" by Triton Digital Media's Jim Kerr. Here's his first entry, his thoughts on the new iPhone's FM chip.
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Here is a station in a major market. It features a morning show from Chicago; a drive-time show from Nashville. There are no local shows. This, in the very short term, is a compelling option for some broadcasters today. With such low overhead (i.e., no "talent.") it may even be throwing off some cash with a modest amount of local advertising.
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Nothing happens when you do nothing.
If someone has set the autopilot on your airplane this might not be the read for you.
On the other hand if you can still do a little open cockpit flying now is the time.
Radio missed a lot of opportunities to try new things, take chances and make mistakes when times were better. It was easier to recover from a stumble. Now with everyone’s laser focus on the bottom line it seems like there are no opportunities to try something new, but the opportunities are out there and it’s time to TRY SOMETHING.
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Radio-Info.com has launched new format sections - CHR, Country, and Urban - highlighting news about radio, the music industry and artists, as well as format specific articles and content. Take a look at one of the latest columns from Sean Ross in our new CHR section:
It was the ultimate programmers’ exercise – flipping back and forth between two stations to see which one had the best song at any given time. The “Punch War” was part of the excitement when a CHR battle came to town, but it languished in the early ‘00s because there were fewer CHR battles, and because of a flagging interest in the musical particulars. We all knew that programmers were supposed to stop obsessing over music when there was another sales call to ride along on.
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At the recent PRPD Conference (where I participated by webcam), one of the speakers was from INTEL. And this speaker focused on the key drivers for mobile applications in the years to come.
Based on my notes, the key elements of mobile apps are and will be these:
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Anybody remember the Bush/Clinton election?
It shouldn’t have been close. George Bush Sr. was coming off a massive victory in the Gulf War. But the economy was in recession. The Bush strategy was to ignore it – sort of pretend it didn’t exist.
But voters vote with their wallets, and Democratic strategist James Carville observed, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
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The Sept. 29 Ross On Radio issued two not-at-all-contradictory calls prompted by the Radio’s Stimulus Package session at the National Assn. of Broadcasters Radio Show.
We called on broadcasters to not only recruit younger broadcasters but to allow them to engage their peers on the radio, given radio’s increasing default to Top 40 as the one-size-fits-all format for anybody under 25.
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I stood in my apartment, and listened to silence. I wanted to scream, but I had no voice. I wanted to cry, but I had no tears. This can't be real. This couldn't happen to me. I have never even considered this. The earth had shaken underneath me, and I had no ability to cope. The bile was boiling in my throat. My hands were shaking, my heart was thundering in my chest. I could not sit down and I couldn't stand up. I could not calm down. My life had changed forever, only a couple of hours ago. I was drowning in the bloody reality of that moment. Please someone, somewhere make this not true.
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The son of Radio parents, my first NAB convention was in Chicago, sometime around 1957; I can remember holding my father's hand as we walked the halls of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, visiting hospitality suites. This proves nothing except that I sure am old! In the years that followed, I attended many more NAB conventions (following as the Big Show moved from Chicago to Las Vegas), and participated as the National Radio Broadcasters Association convention morphed into the NAB Fall Radio Show. I've attended nearly every RAB conference, beginning with those wild events at the AMFAC Hotel and Resort in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport; I'm certainly not the only one who never found the resort!
I've been a presenter at dozens of these meetings, served on their planning committees and, when I succeeded Radio Wayne Cornils as EVP/Meetings of the RAB, was actually in charge of both the RAB conference and RAB's sales and management programs that it supplies to the NAB conventions. I have great respect for those who plan and operate our industry's meetings. It is a tough job.
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So. Let’s have a little chat about voices. And, for the first time in a while I’m not referring to the ones in my head.
Now, before we get started on today’s lesson, I have to say that some of my favorite people in the world are voiceover artists. Please keep them employed. But, let’s have a heart to heart about how you are using them.
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Radio-Info.com is back with another timely publication to share with our readers – “Radio Done Right.” In it, our team of veteran radio journalists takes an in-depth look at several different aspects of our theme. Tom Taylor speaks with broadcasting group heads who share some of the things they’ve learned from the recession. Taylor also sits down with NAB National Radio Award recipient Ed Christian for a comprehensive interview.
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Honesty is the best policy. I am sure everyone has heard this statement delivered by a parent, school teacher or even a minister. It is a simplistic statement that is difficult to adhere too 100% of the time because we all have fell short by exaggerating a fact or blurring fact from fiction. The ad industry has been called out on a few occasions for not being honest, with some brands even being ordered to stop advertising a particular message. Is it possible for honesty to be the best policy in an industry that is built on convincing consumers by any means necessary? Are advertisers and their ad agencies capable of being honest in everything that they do? I know I am being naïve because the advertising industry is a microcosm of America.
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On Sept. 8, Radio-Info.com’s Sean Ross chose the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” as “The Summer Song of 2009.” By the author’s own admission, it was a summer with a lot of evenly matched contenders. “Boom Boom Pow” got the nod for dominating the charts for the first half of the summer, and as a sonic breakthrough – a different-sounding record even in a Top 40 format already dominated by jittery synth-jams.
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When I was Group Director, Integrated Marketing for Susquehanna Radio Corp., I oversaw the websites and relationship marketing for the Susquehanna radio stations for seven years. I learned quite a bit about multiplatform listener engagement strategies from the best in the business. Susquehanna was widely regarded as the leader in digital content, relationship marketing and revenue generation. In fact, we created our own radio version of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) called LRM (Listener Relationship Management). When Susquehanna departed the industry in 2006, the group’s digital revenue percentage far exceeded the 3-5% of digital revenue delivered by most radio groups today.
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Sherman Kizart, President of Kizart Media Partners and founder of the annual “Power of Urban Radio” summit, talks with Radio-Info.com’s Dana Hall about the upcoming event scheduled during the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) convention (Sept. 24 & 25) in Washington D.C. The conversation also touches on an “old” issue that had left the press headlines in recent years, but which still continues to be a burden on ethnic broadcasters: Non-Urban and Non-Hispanic Dictates within the advertising community. That issue recently reared its ugly head again, thrusting the topic back into the spotlight and informing the industry that it in fact, had not been eradicated.
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Every once in a while I write a post that's entirely too long but also too important to ignore. This is one of those once's in a while.
This morning I was listening to one of my favorite radio shows via the magic of time-shifting. I was enjoying it thoroughly.
What that show was doesn't matter, because we all have our favorite radio shows (and I really do mean all), and yours are different from mine.
What does matter, however, is whether or not such shows represent a dying breed, the last unicorn in an ever more fantastical media universe.
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