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MSNBC/Billboard Magazine Article featuring me - New bands storm modern rock radio

Acts like Jet, Three Days Grace are starting to have success

By Melinda Newman

Billboard

LOS ANGELES - Modern rock is sporting many new faces these days.

A number of breaking bands — Jet, Switchfoot, the Darkness, Three Days Grace, Lostprophets and Story of the Year — are enjoying their first lushes of success at modern rock radio.

The format’s embrace of burgeoning acts is not new, says Oedipus, program director of WBCN Boston, citing breakthroughs by such bands as Evanescence, AFI and Interpol at his station last year.

But other PDs believe this current crop is larger than normal, in part because of modern rock’s identity crisis.

“Modern rock is searching for the next fashion so we can have a renaissance of the format,” says Chris Williams, PD at WNNX (99X) Atlanta. “We need something the kids want to dress like and have represent them. We’re searching for the band that’s raising its hand.”

All six groups have registered hits on the Modern Rock chart. Three Days Grace’s “(I Hate) Everything About You” hit No. 2. Jet flew to No. 3 with “Are You Gonna Be My Girl,” and

follow-up “Cold Hard Bitch” is climbing the chart. Switchfoot reached No. 5 with “Meant to Live.”

Lostprophets’ “Last Train Home,” the Darkness’ “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” and Story of the Year’s “Until the Day I Die” are still moving upward. Lostprophets briefly appeared on the chart in 2002 when it peaked at No. 33 with “Shinobi Vs. Dragon Ninja.”

“The question is, Are modern rock stations open to these acts or just open to these songs?” radio consultant Jeff Pollack asks. “Each of them delivered a really good song, but what will their second and third songs do? Are these real acts? Only time will tell.”

The bands are also receiving airplay on MTV or MTV2. Lostprophets will be one of the featured acts on MTV’s Campus Invasion ’04 tour.

Filling the void
Following the rap/rock days of Limp Bizkit and the garage band movement of the Hives, the Vines and the Strokes — which never really took off at modern rock — the format finds itself looking for the next big thing.

“We’re stuck between cycles,” Williams says.

Bill Gamble, PD at WZZN Chicago, adds that tweaks within the format are paving the way for the new bands.

“It’s becoming harder and harder for bands like Coldplay and Metallica to exist on the same stations,” he says, “and that opens up room on both sides.”

Indeed, none of these bands falls into an easily identifiable category. Three Days Grace’s “(I Hate) Everything About You” blends Vertical Horizon’s modern pop with explosive choruses.

Melbourne, Australia-based Jet’s guitar-driven rock wears its Rolling Stones and AC/DC influences on every chord.

Switchfoot’s mellower music blends strong melodies with lyrical content about the search for meaning. Story of the Year is in the pop/punk vein of Good Charlotte. The Darkness provides over-the-top glam rock redolent of Queen, while Welsh act Lostprophets is in the style of Linkin Park.

And the bands’ reasons for making music are just as diverse.

For Jon Foreman, lead singer of San Diego-based Switchfoot, it’s about the message. “The whole record is about yearning for something more than cell phones and modern conveniences,” he says. “Making music that hits on a spiritual and emotional level was our goal, rather than just music to tap your foot to.”

Conversely, for Nic Cester of Jet, it’s all about a few chords and bringing back the days of real rock ’n’ roll. “Things are just so plastic these days,” he says. “We just wanted to remind people that it’s four guys who play their instruments and write their own songs. It’s not something packaged together by some dickhead in a suit.”

As Williams sums it up: “The only thing these bands have in common is that they are all different and that the format is diverse, which allows them to have a place at radio.”

One issue that all of the bands must work on, the experts say, is putting a face with the name since many of the acts remain relatively anonymous. But the bands say the music will always come before the image. Switchfoot felt so strongly about the issue, it refused to have its picture on the cover of its album.

Cester wants the motive to remain pure. “We’re not doing this so we can get recognized,” he says. “I think that’s part of the shame nowadays. People are into being rock stars and being famous, instead of just loving music.”

© 2005 Billboard

Original article online at MSNBC.com.

Radio...It's an inside job.

We're all agorophobes, afraid of the non-radio  world.

     It is interesting how little radio "borrows" from outside itself.  While programming 99X I was always curiously amazed how a such a large profitable medium, a large profitable company and a large profitable station refused to bring in outside experts in other fields.  Certainly we could have learned something about marketing from some of the local ad firms we worked with everyday.  As we designed billboard campaigns and television campaigns in-house, I was certain that there were competent professionals in the market that could have given us direction into better ways to communicate our message.  Technologically, Cingular, Apple, AOL, Dell, Gateway, Napster, etc... were all at our disposal to come in and discuss the reality of the next generation of technology.  Even the holy grail of marketing, Al Reis (of Reis and Trout) lives and works 30 minutes from the radio station.  I understand that the expense of these experts is considerable, but what is the larger sin, to pay someone tens of thousands to develop a campaign that succeeds in attracting an audience, or to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on campaigns that fail to move the needle?  What made the isolationism even more curious is that we have no problem hiring outside consultants to help us choose the right music to play even though this should be a programmers primary expertise, but we won't lay out the money to supplement a programmers decision making when issues of the brand message is on the line, something we are more in the dark about.  Radio needs to get ideas from new people...non-radio people and new industries...non-radio industries. 

Buzz words make my skin crawl

I read hollow quotes from programmers in trade magazines using all their favorite buzz words like, "We need to change our paradigms and do radio differently."  "Paradigm" is a great buzz word.  It is impossible not to sound like a creative maverick who is looking to the future when you use the word "paradigm".  Rarely do I see these stations doing anything the listener would perceive as new.    The truth is though that you cannot change your paradigm alone.  Outside influences have to do it for you.  You cannot voluntarily see the world from a different point of view.  Your personal point of view is the only one you have.  It can be changed, but not by waking up one morning and deciding, "today I'll see the world different."  Why?  Because our paradigm comes from a collection of memories and experiences.  Therefore, you must rely on outside influences and ideas to broaden your view of the world.  New ideas from non-radio disciplines.  Now, realistically most of us won't ever have the financial resources to hire all the outside thinkers we would like, but we can still broaden our world view by paying attention to things we normally wouldn't consider to have anything to do with radio.  What can we learn from watching a sports broadcast on television about how to keep people tuned in longer?  What did the theatre companies do to promote their newest blockbuster movie that our paradigms would never have allowed us to conceptualize?  Can we use it to learn another way to build cume?  With what world view did the makers and marketers of a new car approach their product launch?  Can we learn a new language to introduce our station to the listener that will have more meaning?  How does an insurance company speak to it's consumer when you call to renew your policy?  Can we learn from them how to train our staff to better communicate and demonstrate "customer service" to our listeners and clients?  If you watch for these clues, you will inevitably see products that resulted from a world view, a paradigm, different from your own.  A product, an idea or a joke that you think, "I couldn't have come up with that in a million years" or even "I wish I had thought of that first."  We should try to dissect these ideas and see if they have an applicable value to our radio stations.  Sometimes ideas can be directly lifted and used unchanged, other times just the kernel of an idea sparks a new way of doing things that revolutionizes some part of your radio station.  Regardless of how or if you apply the ideas you see in other industries, just by looking for them, recognizing something different, and trying to understand the purpose behind it, you will succeed in expanding you paradigm.  The outside influences will increase your base of possibilities to choose from as you examine your station.  You will understand more variations of choice than before and make designs that reflect your new diversity.  Your creativity is a pond of water (or in my case, a puddle).  It can evaporate with time unless you regularly refill it with the rains of outside inspiration.  My next career will not be Poet, but I think this crude metaphor successfully makes my point.

     I've been spending my time trying to find ideas to "borrow" from other media and industries.  I'll endeavor to share a few of those with you.  Some are small ideas that can be lifted, other are abstract ideas that will need to be wrestled with to find out how to apply the ideas successfully to radio.  Next up, I'll tackles some ideas I think are worth borrowing from the wide world of sports.

Ideas from the Wide World of Sports, Part 1

"Creativity is the art of forgetting where you stole an idea."

In the truest sense of creativity, I can't remember who to credit for that quote and I won't apologize for it.  I don't agree with those that insist that nothing is ever original anymore, but certainly the vast majority of ideas come from some outside influence.  We build our ideas out of a collection of experiences, standing on the shoulders of someone else's creativity and trying to make it better, or better suited to our situation.  Sometimes we just rip ideas off without apology.  Here are some ideas I've thought were worth borrowing from the sports arena as I've watch through 2004.  Some can be directly transposed to radio, others are meant just as a spark to start the thought process differently.

That damn AFLAC duck...and football

Every college football game he waddles across the screen and we hear that signature sound of a poor man's Daffy Duck impersonation, "AFLAC."  Well, actually the AFLAC guys just latched onto a perennial football staple, sports trivia.  Sports has the unique advantage of being stat and record driven.  Sports also has a slew of fans obsessed with those stats and records.  Music has fanatical fans too, and colorful entertaining characters to be fanatical about.  Even fluff shows like Extra and Entertainment Tonight use trivia as a retention tool.  I've heard a lot of stations feature a trivia benchmark once per day, but usually that is the extent of how this TSL tool is used.  I see a larger opportunity to use music trivia and pop culture trivia relevant to your station target as a way to build TSL.  This requires some work, however.  The questions and answers must be considered content, not just some radio exercise.  Television doesn't even use these occasions for contesting, they recognize that the information itself can be entertaining enough to hold our attention.  This requires a serious commitment to writing and producing a series of successful trivia questions.    Maybe the jocks do it live, maybe its produced with the station voice.  The questions can be asked before a stopset or before a short music sweep, with the payoff at the end of either.  Regardless, the question and potential answer must be intriguing enough for our listeners to want to hear the answer, ie...to listen longer.  ESPN's Sports Center is a master of the creative, intriguing sports trivia question.  Sometimes I catch the slides before the movies doing a good job of entertaining....sometimes they are so obvious it is insulting.

Who ever heard of OLN?

Another embarrassingly simple idea I saw was while watching the Outdoor Life Network.  I wasn't even aware that my cable provider included OLN in my expanded package until I went looking for coverage of Lance Armstrong's bid for a 5th consecutive Tour title.  They certainly did a great job of covering the Tour.  Bigger still, they built brand awareness with a new audience by acquiring the rights to an event that transcended the sport of cycling.  The simple idea that I witnessed on OLN was half hour commercial free Tour de France coverage brought to you by(insert product here).  The interesting effect the sponsored half hour commercial free coverage had on me was that it implied that there would have been stopsets otherwise and therefore I was getting a broadcast with less commercials.  I don't know what the normal OLN spot load is, but my perception was that I was getting the good end of this deal.  Almost every radio station has a significant music sweep each hour whether it is promoted or not.  The next time the GM is yelling for an extra unit or some new source of revenue, I think it might be feasible to look at sponsoring an already existing music sweep.  I would certainly prefer adding two 5 second billboards in the front and back of a 30 or 40 minute music sweep that says, "this half hour of commercial free music brought to you by Cingular Wireless" than another 60 second unit or an NTR event to clutter the airwaves.  I think the result will be a perception that the listener is getting more music and less commercials because a sponsor is paying for it.  Listeners know that radio is trying to turn a buck, let 'em hear that you are trying to turn a buck by giving them more music with less commercials and I think they'll forgive the sponsor tag attached.  Let 'em hear that you are turning a buck by making radio better for them instead of by playing endless commercials and they'll welcome a sponsor underwriting it.  The sponsored music sweep implies that you are not hearing stopsets where you would have been even if the reality is that everything stayed the same.  Sell something you're already doing, sell something that is a positive for the station brand.

Part 2, tomorrow, ideas sparked by the Olympics and the Superbowl...

Ideas from the Wide World of Sports, Part 2

"Creativity is the art of forgetting where you stole an idea."

      Prior to this summer I didn't know there was a person named Pyrros Dimas, much less that he was a 3 time Olympic Gold Medalist as a weightlifter.  I had never heard of how he competed as an ethnic minority Greek for his country of Albania until he crossed the border to become a national hero in Greece in 1992.  I was unaware of how in '92 he won Greece their first gold in weight-lifting since 1904.  I didn't know that he set the world record for the snatch and the jerk.  I learned that Pyrros won his second Gold 1996 and his third in the 2000 Summer Games.  Maybe I didn't know all of this information because Americans are notoriously snobby and don't care to learn about national treasures that don't wave red, white and blue.  Maybe it was because I've never really had occasion to follow the 82.5kg weight class in power-lifting.  Maybe it is a combination of the two, but regardless of my ignorance before the 2004 Summer Olympics I now know more about this man than I probably need to now. One of the most moving moments of the games was Pyrros competing in his final Olympics, trying for his 4th Gold, settling for Bronze and at the end of his final lift walking to the center of the mat and leaving behind his shoes as a public symbol of retirement from the sport.  Pyrros received a 5 minute ovation from the mostly Greek crowd as he stepped to the podium to accept his fourth and the last medal of his career.  Captivating, engaging and an indelible impression because NBC told me his story and thenm brought me into it's final chapter.

     For weeks I was hooked to NBC's Olympic coverage.  Not because I cared about weightlifting, kayaking, synchronized swimming, or any swimming for that matter.  The Olympics hooked me with stories and real life dramas like that of Pyrros Dimas.  The Olympics were all about telling the Athelete's story.  Stories of unparalleled excellence or perseverance though impossible odds or stories of underdogs besting established favorites.  Lance Armstrong's record breaking performance at the Tour de France is certainly remarkable because of the athletic feat accomplished, but it truly captures our imagination because of Lance's story.  An athlete cut down in his prime by cancer rebounds to achieve the unimaginable cycling feat, 5 Tour wins in a row.  Lance is a celebrity because of his athletic nability, he's a hero because of his story!

Is your station telling stories?

     How are you incorporating the priceless art of storytelling into your station?  Are the jocks telling small stories about the artists they play each day?  Obviously, jock talk time is limited, so in a larger way the role of telling stories is up to the station itself.  Can you do this when you break new artists, or when something happens to heritage acts?  Use the station voice, or the Program Director, or whoever the listeners consider your one-air "musicologist", or maybe even the artists can tell their story in their own words.  Look for stories to tell and ways to tell that are captivating and engaging.  If stories from the artist pool are limited tell the remarkable stories of your listeners.   I don't care how small your radio market might be, there are remarkable people with remarkable stories living there.  Pick the stories that help define your audience appropriately for your station.  This goes back to my idea that radio should Define the Audience and the Audience Defines You.  Pay attention the next time you watch any sporting event and count the number of times the announcers tell you a story about one of the competitors.  Find ways to tell stories and you'll make your station more compelling and memorable. 

The Superbowl isn't a game, it's a Shared Experience

      The last idea I'll lift from observing sports is the concept of Shared Experience.  Unlike the other brainstorms in this series, this one can't just be white-washed and put on the air with a radio spin.  This abstract but powerful idea explains why 35 year old soccer moms with no favorite team and who haven't watched a single football game all season will take the time one Sunday a year to watch an NFL game.  For that matter, it explains why people get excited by seeing a celebrity.  When I see a famous actor or sports star the excitement come from knowing that everyone else knows this person and will vicariously be able share my experience.  Celebrity is just that, a critical mass of people recognizing an individual.  Celebrity grows if that recognition is coupled with admiration.  If I were to spot Tom Cruise on the street it would be a big deal because everyone I know also knows Tom Cruise.  The super bowl works on a similar principal.  It has grown organically into a Shared Experience driven event.  Be it for the commercials, the celebrity laden half-time show, or the game itself...people watch the Superbowl because there is the understanding that you are sharing this experience with millions of other watchers and more importantly the people you will come into contact with tomorrow.  It would be unimaginable for many to be left out of such a group dynamic.

     How can you use the tool of Shared Experience at you station?  Shared Experience is a concept that is nice to try to get your head around when you are looking for outside influences to help reshape the way you approach marketing your station and promotional ideas.  Does a world event event transcend your station's format and warrant coverage despite it's intuitive mismatch, i.e. AC stations doing Superbowl promotions.  Sometimes the Shared Experience consideration will help you make the call.  Can you create something in your marketplace that will become a Shared Experience event for your audience?  A festival, or Local Awards recognizing your city's "Best of" that your listeners must be involved and find out who wins.  If you try to mount what you hope will become a "Shared Experience" driven event, be aware that these things need to grow organically and the momentum will build after successful repetition of your event.

Pop Quiz - How does your Radio Brand stack up?

Your Brand is not Your Logo

It's also not your slogan, or music quantifier, or the station for X and Y in the morning.  Your logo is a symbol of what your Brand represents.  When I talk about your station Brand, I'm talking about your radio station's personality, product quality, product promises(spoken and implied) that you've made to your listeners and clients (we are "family friendly" or "trend setting", etc...)  That's how you define your Brand, your logo and slogan are just handles for listeners to easily identify you.  Because of it's strength, Nike is the most consistent brand example I see used, so I won't buck the system.  The Nike brand isn't the swoosh.  That is the symbol that represents the Brand.  Nike's Brand is the "Just Do It" personality, go for it, try anything, you are more athletic than you think.  Nike's Brand is quality and performance enhancing shoes of such a high caliber that they are worn by the most famous athletes in every sport.  These are the ideals and emotions hope to convey when a consumer sees the swoosh on the rack in Sports Authority.  I'll use Audi as another example of how a logo or a slogan isn't the brand.  I used to see the 4 ring Audi slogan representing German Engineering, reliability, luxury, status, etc...  now that I own an Audi my perceptions have changed.  Each time I have to take my car in to address a recall situation or some part fails because of poor quality or craftsmanship the Audi brand diminishes in my mind.  Audi broke the promises of their brand.  The logo is still the same, the slogans haven't changed, but my perception of the brand has done a 180.  You'll often find that a failing brand corrects their past indiscretions but that their logo still conjures up images of their past Brand Experience.  These companies change their slogans and logos, not because this so that the new logo will represent the new brand ideals and promises.  Your logo is just a symbol, you slogan is just a clever way to reinforce what you think is your most important brand promise, neither are your Brand.  Radio needs to consider the strength of our Brands just as auto manufacturers, shoe companies and fast food chains must.  We have to understand the scope of perfecting our brand instead of thinking of the symbols

Is there a Litmus Test to measure the Brand strength of our stations?

I don't know that there is 100% reliable scientific measurement that will answer our Brand Strength questions, but there are tools aplenty to help us constantly think about our brand, the brand promises we've made, the qualities we represent and how our brand is perceived by our listeners and clients.  I wanted to share one I ran across on the Web at AllAboutBranding.com.  The 30 Question Brand Assessment Test.  It is a great exercise for any station, especially because it doesn't differentiate between a Car company or an Alternative Radio station.  There are some questions that really pop out for radio however.  Here are a few examples of questions that a Program Director, Brand Manager, Promotions/Marketing Director should always be considering:

1.

We actively investigate what is important to our customers, using research, face to face interviews, questionnaires, suggestion boxes, etc.?

6.

Our customers can state quite clearly and simply what is important about our brand to them, and why they think it is different?

10.

We understand in our own minds what differentiates our brand from our competitors?

30.

If our brand did not exist, the vast majority of our customers would notice our absence and really miss having us in their lives?

There isn't a single question of the 30 that doesn't apply in some profound way to radio, even questions that on the surface may appear to mismatched.  The question about having to discount prices in our to keep our customers (listeners).  Do you have to continually stunt (discount prices) to keep listeners?  If so, what are you missing from your brand formula?  The four questions cited were the most powerful brand questions for me?  Regardless of budget, do you find ways to talk to the market, and specifically your listeners about your station?  Do you know what they want?  Of that, what can you provide that is unique, valuable and defensible?  Do you and your staff know what makes your Brand unique in the market?  Can you audience tell you what is unique and do the two ideals jive?  Question 30 is a measure of brand passion.  I think this question is especially relevant for stations with direct competitors.  If you are a Hot AC station competing against a similarly formatted music station, would your audience be just as satisfied with your competitor if you vanished tomorrow or would you be irreplaceable?  Don't consider this question thinking of your station as a music jukebox that anyone can replicate, but as a complete Brand.  Are you distinct, unique, valuable and memorable enough that you would be missed?

Take the Questionnaire.  The exercise will jog the way you approach your brand.  It will help you get out of the habit of thinking you are a logo and a slogan.  Your station and brand can represent so much more to the audience.  I aspire for my radio station's to reach that status.

30 Questions to Access the Strength of your Brand.

Radio...Creating a PR Campaign for the Entire Medium

Mark Ramsey runs a company called Mercury Radio Research.  I read his blog everyday.  I find his ideas challenging, multi-dimensional, imaginative, and unique among the radio profession.  All in all, I respect the heck outta this guy.  Recently, he's been discussing the strategy radio has employed to attack our bad press and the positive momentum of rivals like XM and Sirius.  Here is the back story:

From Radio Ink:

Radio Industry To Launch Campaign To Promote Over-The-Air Radio

Over the next six weeks, radio stations from virtually all major radio groups will air a series of spots featuring superstar artists as well as new and emerging acts, explaining how it was radio—not iPods or the Internet—that gave them their first break. The tag line used in all spots, which will be aired primarily on Urban and other alternative stations, is: “Radio: You Hear It Here First.” Stations programming to listeners on other formats, including Country and News/Talk, are expected to air the campaign when customized spots are developed.

Thus far radio groups have committed $28 million air time to run the 30-second spots, featuring such artists as Nellie, Ludacris, Ashanti, Avril Lavigne, Hoobastank, and others. Up-and-coming artists include John Legend, the Ditty Bops, and the Bravery.

Where's the Magic?

There's is something missing (maybe a lot missing) from the current PR campaign.  I wrote Mark an e-mail last week and he posted it on his website.  Here's the transcript of my e-mail:

Subject: Where's the Magic,

It is the reason I went into radio and I have always felt that there was something magical, romantic and glamorous about radio. Reading your response to the RBR piece today struck a nerve. Radio was never those things to me because it was free. If we are going to mount a national campaign to make radio matter, shouldn't we try to re-spark the audience's imagination about the medium? Free doesn't accomplish that goal, nor does a few pop-stars saying "you heard it first".

Radio has a romantic history, and I feel that a successful PR campaign should tap into an emotional vein that ignites the magical feeling people had about radio for so long. When the movie Industry felt threatened by VHS they mounted an emotional marketing appeal that really emphasized the magic of movie making and the essential nature of seeing a movie on the big screen. There is nothing endearing about Avril saying you heard it here first or you heard it here free. What if Avril said, "I set out to make music because I one day I wanted to hear my music on the radio just like the artists I grew up listening to Madonna, Alanis, etc..." It better defines the medium as relevant and important and it emotionally invests Avril in radio.

The current campaign requires no real personal connection for the spokes person, so they are just hollow talking heads. I am playing the PR game in my own head to find a way to capture those original ideals and emotions I had about radio and create a meaningful campaign.

Thanks,

Chris Williams
www.chriswilliams.biz

Check out Mark's blog http://www.radiomarketingnexus.com/

Do you entertain for the sake of entertainment?

R&R recently published a piece I wrote after driving cross country and listening to radio in each city.  I didn't limit myself to one format and I made several observations that I think apply to all radio regardless of the demo they are looking to attract.  Here is the transcript of that R&R piece plus a little more detail that I was unable to include in my limited column space:

To Hear a Dog Bark Press 5

It’s a prompt heard on the KROQ info line.  The first time I heard it, I remember being caught of guard and laughing at the complete random opportunity KROQ found to entertain and appreciating KROQ going out of  their way to surprise me.  As I’ve been traveling recently and listening to radio from city to city, I found myself reminded of that prompt because it represents a forgotten opportunity to endear listeners to our stations.  The most indelible listening moments I experienced came when station's took the opportunity to entertain just for the sake of entertainment or to tell a joke just for the laugh.  If you are already writing creatively to promote your station, events or your morning show, kudos you are ahead of 90% of radio being created today!  Going above and beyond, the moments that really made me a fan occurred when a station put the listeners entertainment as priority one above another repetition of “today’s best hits and all the rock variety, blah, blah, blah”.  Because of the amazing pressure on our inventory these moments are the exception not the rule, but their power shouldn’t be underestimated.  These opportunities showcase your station’s personality and communicates that listener entertainment takes priority.  These implied messages are also absorbed quicker because the listener’s aren’t being “sold” and don’t have their advertising guard up.  Looking to create fans and station evangelists?  Plan a few brief moments of entertainment, with no other motive that to entertain.

In the 90's when Keith Eubanks was imaging 99X I frequently heard examples of a station prioritizing entertainment over selling a positioning statement or tickets to the latest NTR event.  Keith had a stable of voices and characters that he wove into serial bits, sometime interacting with the jocks and sometimes standing alone in promos that were more like SNL skits.  While driving through Vegas this month, I heard promos on Xtreme that had no ulterior motive than to make a listener laugh.  They stood out against the other stations I heard on my drive.  Will Morgan and John Frost today still produce 15-30 second drop-ins for their respective imaging services.  They are made so a local imaging director can insert them into a book promotion promo or a new music promo or as just a stand alone to get a laugh.  Too quickly we forget the latter choice because of our inventory crush and because we feel compelled to find a context to use everything.

Jocks fall prey to the same thought process.  Outside of mornings, it is rare to hear a jock use a break to just entertain or tell a story without looking for some way to awkwardly segue back to the music or relate the conversation to the next liner card.  Jocks get lost in the exercise of doing radio the same as programmers, everything is a "clever" frontsell/backsell or the "hot topic of the night, call-in" or any number of forced exercises that would require the use of more quotation marks.  When you hear Sluggo and Jed the Fish on KROQ, Halloran in San Diego, or Whip on 99X, you hear jocks with the confidence and wit to know how to entertain between the records without felling tied to the exercise.

One final, non-rock, example.  Country did the best job of entertaining just to entertain of all the formats I sampled driving from coast to coast.  Their entertainment was presented more as information or a set of values.  Just as Xtreme in Vegas would spend a 30 second promo to get a laugh, country will dedicate 30 seconds just to stoke their audiences patriotism.  A promo that doesn't try to reinforce "Texas Country" or sell tickets to the next Jamboree but just a statement "We are proud of our troops and here are a few guys in Iraq who call our town home, etc..."  It reinforces the stations personality and the personality of the listeners without trying to find a way to put it in the context of "the best country variety". 

We don't have to apologize or find a relevant reason to be funny or entertain or give information.   Let it stand alone sometimes separated from the exercise of doing radio.  Your station will have a better defined personality and listeners will thank you for giving them a break from the wall of promotion and for making the laugh.  Most importantly they will thank you for putting their entertainment first.

Watch Your Language

The following account is true and accurate.  I literally took notes so no one would be able to accuse me of making up or exaggerating my description of the following station's quarter hour...it really was this odd!

Do you measure the effectiveness of the words you use in you station imaging to reinforce your brand?

Driving through Arizona and New Mexico last month I entertained myself scanning the dial to hear the indigenous sounds of Southwest radio.  Here is the transcript of a quarter hour I was "blessed" to hear:

     (Male VO one) Get Down Funky Town kind of radio station.

     (Male VO two) Can we say that?

     (Song) Motley Crue - "If I Die Tomorrow"

     (Song) Jason Mraz - "Curb Side Song"

     (Male VO) The Most dangerous stuff we can get into...

     (Female VO) Nobody can say they didn't ask for it!

     (Song) Bowling for Soup "Almost"

     (Song) Whitney Houston "Run to You"

I'm going to stay focused on the disconnected imaging messages and not let myself become distracted by the obvious schizophrenic music choice of Motley Crue on my example pop station.  There is a very clear implied message of "danger" in the drops and promos used on this pop station.  "Can we say that?", "Don't say we didn't warn you!" give a listener the idea that they are going to hear the unexpected.  The brand message (aka personality) interpreted from the imaging alone implies a station that is cutting edge, surprising, dangerous, aggressive, shocking etc...  The brand message (aka personality) implied in the pop music selections reinforce a station focused on popularity, pop favorites, familiarity, and predictability.  These two messages paint distinctly different visions of a station's personality.  Either the imaging correctly reflects the station's personality and the music needs to change, or vice versa.

What likely happened at this station, and many other stations that I hear this imaging disconnect, was a PD or Imaging Director heard a drop or wrote a line that they thought sounded great free of station context.  It then made it on air without being subjected to the mental filter that determines if the idea successfully acts as reinforcement of the station's personality.  I hear movie drops on stations all the time that have no meaning, tell no story and do nothing to define the station, but they sounded "neat".  Consider the context of your radio station as you are writing.  What personality traits are you trying to reinforce?  Dangerous edgy rock station? Mirror that with aggressive, in your face writing, production and delivery.  Pop music contemporary station?  Mirror that image with larger than life, pop culture referenced, imaging.  Both are over-simplified examples, but they attempt to show the mindset that should be applied to filtering through any imaging message.  Measure the language you use to promote your station and events and make sure that it fits the desired image and personality of your ideal station.   With such a crush on our inventory and such short opportunities to brand our stations before we get back to music we can't afford to waste words.

Be sure that you are efficient with your imaging and that every sweeper and drop helps accomplish the goal of clearly defining your station's personality.

Every element of a radio station should serve to reinforce the station's ideal personality (aka The Brand).  Music, imaging, website, events, appearance on the streets and the DJs.  If each is properly aligned they with restate and amplify each other.   

Print worthy again...

On the heels of last week's R&R article I was offered the opportunity to share my programming perspectives regarding the Alternative format in the weekly Sands Report.  When role call includes Jon Coleman, Steve Masters and Lee Abrams buzz words and catch phrases don't cut it.  Here was my contribution to the discussion:

Q: As you know, Alternative radio has lost WHFS and WPLY in the last few weeks.  I'm writing about the formats "resurrection" and it's renaissance! (yep, the power of positive thinking!)  To that end, can you give me ONE tip that you feel would help revive terrestrial alternative radio?  Is there anything they can do to improve, in your mind?  If so, what?

Me:  Become cultish again!!!
I'm talking about our station's personality around the records.  We each have our own unique circumstances and marketplace opportunities that require us to cater our musical approach individually.  But outside of music, in the moments that define our station's psychographic target, we need to get back our alternative sense of humor!  While to a GM it may be frightening to suggest our role as a cult brand vs. targeting the mainstream, I submit the following examples to show the amazing profitability of investing in cult brands:

    "Napoleon Dynamite" - This little cult film was made for only $400,000 and has grossed of 45 million at the Box Office to date, DVD sales will more than double this figure.

    "Family Guy" - The Fox animated comedy was too "inside" and didn't reach a mass appeal audience so Fox cancelled the show.  2 years later the Family Guy Volume One DVD is released and quickly rose to 4th all time on the TV shows on DVD sales list (Behind Simpson's 1&2 and the first season of Sopranos).  An amazing example of what word of mouth did for a show with only a cult following. Fox quickly renewed the series for 35 more episodes and a full-length movie is slated for release this summer.

Our station's should reinvest in making the alternative fans laugh...yes even at the expense of some folks who "don't get it".  Be bold, dangerous, surprising, but most of all funny!  Lets entertain the alternative culture, those people who see the world a little left of center, folks with an odd sense of humor, the fashionably avant guarde and early tech adopters.  If we win the loyalty of this audience and their endorsement to friends and neighbors our stations will have the same word of mouth success that Napoleon Dynamite, Family Guy, and countless other cult brands have enjoyed.  Focus narrow on the alternative culture and the voyeuristic mainstream will follow.

Check out the entire piece to read thoughts from other leading minds in the format.

Marketing is not Advertising

First entry in a series about building a better station brand

When talking about a marketing strategy for your radio station, the most common assumption is that we are creating an advertising campaign, billboards, tv, etc... While advertising may be the end result of, and be improved by a concise marketing plan, the two words are not synonymous.

To create a complete marketing strategy, we have to get the brand right internally before we take it external. What role does your station play in the market? What needs do your listeners (or potential listeners) have? What do you provide that makes your station a better choice than any other? I hope you've heard and considered all these questions before. But did your answer steer you beyond a music library and a slogan that defined your music library?

Building a music library is one of the easier propositions for a radio station. Decide who you want to attract, men or women, young or old, rock or pop or country partisans, etc... The "art" of the music slogan has become a comical chase of the en vogue descriptive phrase. 'Soft' gives way to 'Lite', 'Alternative' gives way to "Modern Rock' then to 'New Rock', 'variety moves aside for 'Mix' until 'Variety' is it again....

Do listeners care?

Obviously, we have to tell listeners what type of music we play right? If other products marketed themselves like radio we would be forever watching commercials for Nike "athletic shoes", VW "we make cars that drive" and Lays "potato chips in a bag". What do these brands know that radio has yet to discover? Does a literal music slogan add any value to your brand? I submit that it labels such an obvious part of your brand that it, at best, goes unnoticed and at worst is condescending.

Nike - "Just Do It" - Nike doesn't make athletic shoes, they make shoes for people who ARE athletic. More importantly, Nike makes shoes for people who want to seem athletic.
VW - "Drivers Wanted" Who doesn't make a safe car, with good gas mileage that can reach 100,000
miles? VW's campaign says our customers cars don't just get them from A to B. For VW
drivers, the cars is a fashion extension of themselves and the driving experience is
something to enjoy in luxury.
Lays - "Betcha can't eat just one" - There is no need to say we make potato chips in the slogan, but
Lays instead speaks to a brand quality, "We make potato chips that taste good".

Radio has to aspire for something more than just our traditional sloganeering. In order to be more important to our listeners than a jukebox, we need to start defining ourselves as more than just a collection of songs. In order to connect with an audience better than anyone else on the dial, we have to invest our energies in more than fighting over words than mean nothing to our listeners.

Part two: Aspirational Marketing.