It's Different This Time...

There’s no question that Country Radio has a vested interest in the health of the Country Music Industry. When that industry is healthy and creating, producing and marketing exceptional music, Country Radio wins, too.

Lately however, the health of the Country Music Industry has come into question. The transition from albums to digital downloads of singles is creating cutbacks in staff and artist rosters leading many to wonder just how healthy our partners are.

Add to that the financial predicament of most Country Radio Stations, who have cut-back staff, personalities and almost all music and perceptual research, and one would be led to believe there's a storm brewing.

Looking at the Nielsen Soundscan Country Top 75 this past week is particularly revealing. Those Country projects that are getting Pop airplay are obviously out-selling everything else. Taylor Swift’s Fearless, Carrie Underwood’s Play On, Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now and Lady A’s debut album accounted for close to 90% of the total Top 10 Country album sales last week.

We’ve seen the lifespan of these albums extended dramatically, too. With nearly 200-weeks in release, Taylor Swift’s debut album is still moving over 20,000 units per week. Lady A’s debut album took a sharp upturn in sales as their single, Need You Now moved into prime rotations at pop radio.

We’re told this is a “fairly normal” occurrence in Country music. We’ve had pop crossover projects for half-a-century now. They point to Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Anne Murray, Ronnie Milsap, Glenn Campbell, Kenny Rogers and even Johnny Cash as prime examples. Some of their songs—certainly not all of them, moved to the larger mass-appeal audiences and made Music Row a pile of money.

So what’s different this time? Several things.

1. The music has been modified for other radio formats. This is something that would have been considered artistically dishonest just a decade ago. Today, it’s simply the way to get into the mainstream.
2. Labels are actively pursuing younger artists who create more music that can reach out beyond the confines of “Country”.
3. Country Radio now actively seeks out a demographic that is not historically prone to even liking Country Music.

Ray Price has always been a country artist. But when Bill Drake began playing For the Good Times on KHJ/Los Angeles, not one note was changed. That larger pop audience embraced the music for what it was exactly as it was. What’s equally interesting is that Ray Price never attempted to create pop record and never had another one.

Even the young country artists of the past didn’t aim to reach other girls their age. Tanya Tucker’s music was embraced by adults because it was great country music—not because she was a teenager. Same for Brenda Lee and, in more recent times, LeAnn Rimes. To my knowledge, none of these teenaged artists music was ever created for teenagers.

And Country Radio’s Programmers, under intense pressure to reach the younger demographics the major advertisers want, welcomes music that’s intended to reach beyond the core country audience. Country Radio’s CHR-type presentation, with younger, CHR-experienced jocks and CHR-type imaging is setting the stage of a virtual take-over of youth-oriented artists and music.
There are those who say that Country Radio must “change with the times” or the older audience will die out and there’ll be no more country music. It could also be pointed out that this warning has been around since the 1950’s when artists like Elvis were invited to play the Grand Ole Opry. But Country Music and Country Radio survived and prospered anyway.

Most parents of teenaged girls say that their kids don’t listen to or seek out a Country Radio Station in order to hear their favorite Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Hannah Montana songs. So, if Country Radio is expecting these youth-driven artists’ music to drive the younger demos to them, their efforts may well be in vain.

No matter how you slice it, teenaged girls are buying records from artists whose Label homes are on Music Row in Nashville. But is this music bringing youth to Country Radio? Perhaps we should find out…and soon!

Garth Brooks will proudly tell you that his music was never actively promoted to non-Country Radio. His position is that "we created so much noise and excitement, they HAD to come to us. We didn't have to go to them."

See? It is different this time.

Filling In The Blanks…

A PD’s Guide To Creative Voice Tracking

Boiled down to its simplest terms, Voice Tracking is “Filling in the Blanks”. The music is scheduled, edited and set in stone. The imaging is done, scheduled and set in stone. The commercial breaks are scheduled and ready for the merge. Here are some actionable items to consider in making voice tracks one of the most-effective elements on the station.

• Rule #1 - The Jock must take control of his/her show. On most stations, it sounds like the jock is just along for the ride, just like the listener.
  Your jocks are your market’s Tastemakers. “I heard (insert jock’s name) play the new song from George Strait yesterday.” So, why fight it? Take a tip from hip-hop: their dj’s, in the creation of their “mix-tapes”, are the tastemakers of their genre.
  Many programmers are so focused on their station’s brand that they forget that, for most of Country Radio’s P1’s, it’s personal. Coach your jocks to take ownership of their shows and the music they play. Use the word “I” instead of “We”.
  Be local…REALLY local. Coach your jocks to insert one of the 3-L’s (local names, local places, local events) into every break. Nothing generic, please! Not city names, but locations, place names. Help them find ways to insert local celebrities, community leaders and businesses into their bits.
  Slow Down! The most-common give-away that a station is voice-tracked is that the jock appears to be in a hurry. Consider requiring your jocks to put an allotted time into each show. And don’t allow them to track more than one show at a time.
  Sound LIVE! Here’s a thought: if you’re going to voice track, do it from your main studio instead from a production room. If you can’t do that, select one production studio for voice-tracking and try to create the look and feel of an on-air studio. So much of what we sound like is colored by our environment.
  
  Rule #2 – Make the show the priority
  At the legendary KOL/Seattle, there was a sign on the main studio door that read: The Most Important Thing Happening in the Station Right Now Is Happening in This Room
  For many PD’s and APD/MD’s, being overwhelmed is a part of the Job Description. The show somehow gets pushed down to the lowest priority—and it sounds like it on your air.
  Have Your Jocks Do Their Shows first…before their day has pushed them into a near-panic state. Try prepping over that first cup of coffee, then into the studio for a great show with no distractions, no holdover emotions from meetings, phone calls and other interactions of the day.
  Make It The “Fun” Part Of The Day! Being on the air should be the most-enjoyable part of working in Radio. Nothing any of us does dictates the success of the station more than our time with our listeners. Make it fun! Make it carefree!
  
  Rule #3: It Ain’t Final Till It’s On-The-Air!
  In the recording studios in Nashville, there was a saying, “It Ain’t Final Till It’s On Vinyl”, meaning that the song could (and should) be modified and improved upon until the master is pressed to vinyl and it’s in the store. Same for voice tracks.
  Any track can and should be updated in the light of current information. Yes, you may have to re-merge a few times, but making sure your station always sounds “live” and “today” should take the highest priority. For example
  Changes in weather – even if the difference is between “warm” and “hot”.
  Emergencies – major traffic incidents – severe weather conditions –power outages
  Special events happening in the community
  If, for example, some local event is receiving abnormal television coverage, the station should respond—with something! Perhaps playing a special song or at the very least, some involvement by the air personality. Continuing to play music and ignore what’s happening is a sure sign the station in is voice-tracking.
  
  Rule #4: Don’t Hesitate To Go Live!
  When severe weather strikes the area, things get jammed up quickly. Travelers need information – make sure they get it, even if it’s late night or overnights. The service will be noticed! Better yet, pre-sell it to one of your station’s valued clients. Have commercial copy ready to go and be ready with on-call personalities…just in case. Being able to react to special circumstances is what has made radio the choice of local and traveling listeners.
  
  With a little creative thought and a great deal of flexibility, your voice-tracked station doesn’t have to sound like somebody is just “filling in the blanks”.
  
  

Being Broke Is A Temporary Situation...What Will You Do With Just 10%

I was recently introduced to the name Mike Todd. A quote attributed to him really got my juices flowing: "I've never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is only a temporary situation".

Mike Todd invented the film process we call 70mm. He did it in 1951 and in 1952, developed Cinerama. It was 65mm of picture with 5mm of sound, including effects and music. It gave the Silver Screen an advantage it needed over small-screen Black & White (Monaural) television.

In 1957, Mike Todd became the third husband of the most glamorous actress of her time, Elizabeth Taylor. Interesting lifetime.

Now, what does this have to do with Radio?

The hard-nosed reality is that many stations now have only morning shows (usually the PD) followed by a cacophony of “bumping songs” between jingles, imagers and commercials the rest of the day. Yes, Radio is apparently “broke”—in many ways, including financially. But it isn’t “Poor”. It has the creativity and energy of its remaining people.

The one thing we cannot afford to do is nothing.

When your radio station is predictable 90% of the time, you’ve set the stage for Predictable Unpredictability. What you do with that 10% that is not routine makes all the difference. Therein lies the opportunity.

If you think of your station’s normal format as your Reality Base, then even the most overworked PD’s—even those programming two or more stations—can create than little something that makes the station(s) very special. The “mundane” and the “routine”
become perfect opportunities for “predictable unpredictability”.

It is our Reality Base for injecting something into the mix that is so outrageous it gets attention and begs the listener to wonder “what next”? That “what next” attitude creates Time-Spent-
Listening and THAT creates Average Quarter Hour Audience or, in the PPM markets, “Listener Engagement”.

It’s the RULES that make the EXCEPTIONS possible.

Opportunities for “breaking the rules” are everywhere: perhaps that billboard on the main thoroughfare is something that could become a conversation piece. Sell it to a client—the billboard and your station talking about it. Make it outrageous! Make it fun! Create Street Talk!

How about a local happening or event? Or a local celebrity? Put ‘em together with a client or two and let ‘er rip!

Dare I suggest something as wacky as what Dick Orkin created at Chicago’s WCFL in 1966? Whenever The Adventures Of Chickenman came on the radio, Chicago literally stopped
to get the latest scoop on The Wonderful Weekend Warrior Who Combats Crime And/Or Evil. Click here to learn more.

Factor in Twitter, Facebook and other Social Networking sites and you have yet another shot at the outrageous.

Whatever you choose to do, Do Something!

Radio may be broke, but it’ll never be poor—as long as we hire and allow creative people the privilege of Free Thought…at least for 10% of the time.

And in the words of Mike Todd, being “broke is only a temporary situation.”

Spots Before Our Ears?

Well, we’ve finally done it, haven’t we? Everybody is now convinced that Radio Commercials are bad. Even the RAB, who just last week decided that no commercial created and submitted this year by a Radio Station was good enough to receive a Radio Mercury Award.

Nobody seems to like Radio Commercials any more.

And why should they? For decades, Radio Stations have been touting “Fewer Commercials” and “Commercial Free Hours”. We heap the commercials into a pile of lasting up to 8-minutes bookended with a (highly produced) station promo at the beginning and some sort of (highly produced) imager or jingle at the end.

Commercials are bad. Twice an hour, we say, “Listener—you are dismissed for the next 5-minutes or so, but make sure you come back when we start playing the music again!”

Radio’s financial problems do not stem from its air personalities and program directors. But THEY are the ones who have been blamed for radio’s troubles and are being laid-off in record numbers.

Fewer personalities—more commercials. You’re kidding me, right?

I recall a conversation I had with a National Sales Manager in the 1980’s at a (not-Country) Denver radio station. She was concerned because all her national reps wanted “value added” schedules. Her concern was well-founded. The big-ticket national advertisers—as early as the 1980’s—didn’t think Radio was a very good vehicle for their commercials, but saw great value in Radio’s Promotional Power.

They’d buy the spots, but only with a promotion attached--or value-added.

And the commercials! These big national advertisers were simply using the audio from their television commercials! She knew these television-on-radio spots wouldn’t work, and so did her clients. But they didn’t care. It was the promotion they wanted from radio, so they just filled our air with garbage.

And we let them!

Now, half-way through 2009, we’ve “discovered” that our listeners and our clients now agree with us: Commercials are bad.

“Selling Radio is such a dog-eat-dog business…no wonder they call them spots!”

Our beloved medium is coming up on being a century old and still, the currency of modern radio continues to be the 30-second spot.

We all accept this.

Problem is: our clients now reject it. In fact, some of our largest national advertisers have been rejecting it for going on 3-decades! And yet, we keep pushing spots.

I listened to a demo of the original KHJ/Los Angeles yesterday on ReelRadio.com. You should do that, too. L.A. Radio at the time was slow, tired and old-sounding. Too much talk—too many commercials. And so, Bill Drake instituted a format that not only put music and personality on the front burner, but the commercials, too.

In fact, the policy was a listener is “never more that 70-seconds from music”. That included commercials, news and talk—even in morning drive! Listening to those 60-second LIVE reads for Thrifty Drug and Discount Stores and right back into music made me think of “product placement”.

Product placement. Naming Rights. Endorsements. These are the things that get advertisers the results they now demand. It will cost much more than a 30-second spot, but it could be the key to getting consumers—and clients—back to an understanding that Radio Sells!

This should become Radio's Currency.

Somebody is going to try this. It’s just a matter of time. Who will it be? I don’t know, but I do know this: the person who perfects it will be spending a great deal of the rest of his life hitting golf balls.

Any takers?

The Downfall of the Brand

We've now lived long enough to see General Motors go bankrupt. So, how important is that event to most Americans? Since the “brands” are GM’s products it’s Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and GMC Trucks that will take the hit.


I got to thinking of the Merle Haggard line, “When a Ford and a Chevy would still last 10-years…like they should.” Then I realized: I’ve never heard a song about a Toyota or a BMW.

The Beach Boys: She’s real fine, my “Beemer” or “Fun, Fun, Fun, till her Daddy takes the Lexus Away” or “Hey little Hyundai, Don’cha know you’re gonna shut ‘em down”


Jan & Dean: “I was cruisin’ in my “Toyota” late one night when a “Mini Cooper” came up on the right” or “Little Nissan, you’re really lookin’ fine”
(See REAL lyrics at bottom of this page, if you don’t remember the songs.)


You get the picture. When GM began buying up car companies, it bought everything: manufacturing processes, inventories, Intellectual Property and most important, those brand names. How cool! To amass most of America’s favorite car brands under one roof.



Almost immediately, GM began looking for economies of scale. The found they could save millions by consolidating manufacturing and design functions. Then, they began “vertical integration”—that is, buying up companies and using them exclusively to produce the frames, bodies, steering columns, air conditioners, engines, transmissions and just about everything else.

Before too many years, GM was producing “name-plates”--almost identical car models with different brand “name-plates” on them. It all worked for many years because of American’s loyalty to their favorite brands.

This isn’t exactly a scientific survey, but everybody I’ve asked has said they’re rather have a Chevy or a Pontiac or Buick, but they own Toyotas, Nissans, BMW’s and Lexus’ because “they’re better cars”.

That all-important brand name has failed. Most people still love the idea of being surrounded by American Steel, but now it’s Japanese, German, Korean and Chinese steel wrapped around them during their commutes.

What does that possibly have to do with Radio? Well, compare GM to Clear Channel, Cumulus, CBS Radio, Regent and all the others. What have they done?

They bought brand-name radio stations. They bought companies that allowed vertical integration of programming and services, even music scheduling software and automation systems. Before long, one station sounded pretty much like the others.

Here’s the point: GM abandoned “content” and focused entirely on branding. We’re seeing this at Corporate Radio Groups, too. Content has been sacrificed—jocks replaced by out-of-market voice-tracks, syndicated shows or just an image voice. Corporate Radio Groups have abandoned “content” and focused entirely on “branding”.

And today, GM is bankrupt.

Here’s the big difference: there aren’t foreign manufactures competing with U.S. Radio Stations for their audiences they way they are for GM’s customers. But that’s changing, too. Internet Radio, mp3 players, cell phone apps and music downloads create competition for cume. MySpace, Facebook and Twitter create competition for Time-Spent-Listening.

GM’s bankruptcy is something Radio should be watching very closely. GM’s time is probably up. Radio still has a ticking clock.

What will we do with the time we have remaining?

Beach Boys: “She’s real fine, my 409” (409cc Chevy Corvette engine); “Fun, Fun, Fun till her Daddy took the T-Bird (Ford) away”; “Hey Little Cobra (Shelby, then Ford Mustang), don’ cha know you’re gonna shut ‘em down”



Jan & Dean: “I was cruisin’ in my Sting Ray (Chevy Corvette) late one night, when an XKE (okay, that’s Jaguar—but the Corvette won) came up on the right; “Little GTO (Pontiac), you’re really lookin’ fine.”

NUMB3RS

Every day, we’re bombarded with NUMB3RS. And every day, someone in the trade press tries to make “sense” of the NUMB3RS—depending upon what point is being made in the article or blog. But, what can WE take away from all this?

We can control the NUMB3RS about as much as we can control a pair of dice. Sure, there are formulas and theories on how many times per thousand throws 7 or 11 or “boxcars” or “snake eyes” will come up, but that's gambling and is that what we should be doing with our Radio stations?

For decades, Program Directors have been telling their jocks to “sound great every break and the numbers will take care of themselves”. Usually, they did. Jocks who made every break count seldom feared the next Arbitron book.

Ah, but that was a time when every muscle in the building was flexed in order to make that one station the dominant station in the market.

Then along came another kind of NUMB3RS: economies of scale. These original NUMB3RS had it that a company could operate two stations for the price of one-and-a-half. So, with 2-AM’s and 2-FM’s, 1-company could operate 4- stations for the price of 3.

At the time, that seemed like a license to print money by increasing your billing 200% for 75% the cost...laughable in the economies of scale utilized today’s world of broadcasting.

Now, these economies of scale aren’t limited to terrestrial radio. Sirius and XM are working on those economies of scale right now--and not doing so well, it seems, if you consider that 1.7-million subscribers dropped the newly combined service in the first 3-months of this year.

CBS Interactive Music was formed last month to try their economies of scale by combining everything under their control into one gigantic ad buy in the never-ending attempt to monetize Internet Radio.

How about MySpace, Facebook and Twitter...still looking for their first penny of profit. (And Radio talks about them incessantly!)

Seems there's no end to NUMB3RS: Clear Channel Radio has introduced a new kind of NUMB3R and this one is, to me, just a bit on the scary scary side: Metrics.

As I understand it, it's some sort of secret formula devised by the Harvard School of Business to determine the relative value of every staff member. And since it’s a “secret formula”, how does one go about “influencing” that very personal number?

You can be fired if the metrics aren’t on your side-- thousands already have.

Seems like a good time for a little reality check, don’t you think? We’ve known for decades that a morning show, in any given market, takes about 2-years to develop. We also know--again through decades of ratings and many types of research—that a morning show’s ability to deliver the highest ratings and the greatest revenues are directly proportional to the amount of time the show has been in the market. How's that for a metric you can hang your hat on?

But what are NUMB3RS really? They are people...or at least, they’re supposed to represent people...or at least their combined attitudes, thoughts and opinions. The imaginary listener is becoming more depersonalized with every new set of NUMB3RS we get and is now so homogenized as to be practically irrelevant.

The very notion that an effective, long-running morning show can be replaced with anybody--and with no loss of ratings or revenue is, if history is any indication, pure lunacy.

The notion that any long-running personality in any daypart can be replaced with a strange, detached voice--without some sort of audience fall-out--is dangerous at best. Combine the two, and Premium Choice could be a prescription for disaster on an industry-wide scale.

When a single company as big as Clear Channel Radio has been allowed to become begins setting industry standards--whether or not by intention, the rest of us must take notice.
And so, for the moment, the metrics have the floor and, for better or worse, the “largest radio group ever conceived by mankind” is committed to it.


Someone once told me the difference between being “involved” and being “committed” is pretty much like a breakfast of ham and eggs: The chicken was “involved”...the pig was "committed”. So, to the “pigs” who plunder great radio for the sake of NUMB3RS: May the Metrics Be With You.

New Country: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

My College Professor, Dr Paull Shinn (now a Washington State Legislator), taught me more about East Asian History than I ever thought I’d ever want to know—and I had just returned from a year in combat in Vietnam! When I asked him how he stirred up such an interest from me, he quoted Victor Hugo:

“Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come”.

Sunday night’s 44th Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards might have been one of those moments—an entertainment idea whose time has come.

We all watched as the Stars of Country Music, who normally dominate these awards, sat politely and watched the Youth of Country Music literally take over.

For the first time in memory, an artist who has never had a hit song won the Top New Female Vocalist Award. Now, that’s a departure from the norm!

Here’s another anomaly: Brad Paisley and Trace Adkins were the only “Hat Acts” to win…well, if you don’t include that strange hat Sugarland’s Kristian Bush was wearing. The rest of the “hat acts”—George Strait, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Kix Brooks, Eddie Montgomery, and Kenny Chesney occupied their front-section seats all night long.

Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts are the longest-running acts to receive ACM Awards this year. That, too, is a major sea-change.

There are dozens more examples to make the point, but there’s one thing for sure: the idea of New Country was exhibited in force in every way imaginable—from the over-the-top production to the winners, the audience surrounding the performance stages and even the performers, who included Hannah Montana.

The Award of the Artist of the Decade to George Strait will be in a separate show taped the day after (4/6) and set for a May 27th slot on CBS-TV. Is this being done to separate Country music's history from its present, or is it truly a special honor to George? That’s something further to ponder.

Word leaked out of the closed rehearsals that Tim McGraw walked out of the rehearsal and refused to do the show. His wife, Faith Hill, apparently departed Las Vegas with him prior to showtime. Such a move has been career-enders for artists in the past. Will it end Tim (and Faith's) careers?

The overriding question of any great idea is this: will the audience “get it”? Will they find it compelling? Will it be a sea-change, or will it be a one-night-stand?

If the time has come for the “idea” of New Country, then the Academy of Country Music, dick clark productions and CBS-TV bet the farm on it Sunday night in Las Vegas.

Will Radio do the same?