Radio revenue has been in a recession for the past five years. The economic challenges of the past 12 months only prove that Albert Einstein was correct when he said “You can’t solve today’s problems at the same level of thinking that created them.” This recession has created a seismic shift if the traditional retail landscape that has been the traditional revenue base for Radio. That revenue source for Radio is gone. Like the local factory that is closing and shipping the jobs overseas, that traditional retail revenue base has been changed forever and much of that revenue is never coming back.
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Instead of sitting around the local coffee house wishing and hoping someone should open up the old factory and give everyone their jobs back, tomorrow’s Radio leaders are retooling, retraining and reinventing themselves for the challenges that lay ahead.
Radio is still the most robust advertising medium on the planet. Nine out of ten people listen to Radio every week. The average person listens to the Radio for nearly three hours a day. “Tech Savvy Teens” listen longer than the average person. Radio listeners feel as if Radio advertisers are trying to reach out to them on a personal level. Ninety two percent of the listeners stay tuned in when the commercials come on. For a majority of Americans, Radio is their first media contact of the day when their clock Radio comes on.
Thank goodness, there is nothing wrong with our medium. It would be really bad if we were all working at the buggy whip factory. We are fortunate to be in the Radio business and it’s time we start feeling good about that again.
What have I learned in the past 12 months?
Be the first in your market or in your company to make the difficult economic decisions necessary for survival. Putting these tough decisions off won’t make them go away, the inevitable pain only compounds. Take the medicine now. There are many marketing benefits to being first, chief among them, you’ll be way past that problem and on down the road when your competition finally gets around to making the very same decision and you’ll be well on your way with the competitive advantage of being first. The sooner you make the tough decisions, the sooner you can get on with your new reality.
Recognize that Radio gets seven percent of the Advertising dollar because we only train our sellers up to a professional selling level that deserves seven percent of the advertising dollar. When we train our sales people up to a new more professional level that deserves 25% then we’ll start getting 25% of the advertising dollar.
Stop complaining about voice tracking. There was plenty of bad “live and local” Radio before this technological tool came along. Voice tracking isn’t the cause of bad local radio any more than the mechanic’s tools in his shop caused your car to break down. Boring “that was and this is” announcing sounds bad whether it’s live or it is voice tracked. It’s all about what comes out of the speakers. Start using voice tracking to improve the quality of our product because it’s an economic reality and the sooner you use it to produce a better product, the better off you and your listeners will be.
Get over it. Everything is voice tracked today. When you see “filmed before a live audience” on your favorite TV show, it was filmed so that it could be edited before presented to an audience. Telephone contests have been voice tracked for years to make them sound exciting. Admit it, good announcers encourage bashful callers to sound more excited about winning on the second try so why not use that same technology to come up with something better than “that was and this is.”
Finally, polish up your leadership skills. Radio needs leaders, not managers. We can hire people to manage stuff. We need leaders who can help our people get over these obstacles and be enthusiastic about this wonderful medium we love.
This is an exciting time for our business. When times are good, there is a certain structure that is imposed upon us all that limits our growth. Those who are in charge don’t want anyone upsetting the apple cart because, in their minds, everything is just fine as it is. But during times of change, it’s possible to leapfrog ahead and move upward because that structure is gone. Those people, who are willing to get out there today, will be the industry leaders tomorrow.
Just imagine if you were suddenly called to Heaven’s Gate and St. Peter was staffing Heaven’s Radio station. What would your resume say? Would it show that you were working diligently right up to the end to improve our industry or would it show you standing around the water cooler participating in the latest station pity party?
Talk to you soon.
