The Difference Between Higher Or Lower Ratings And Revenue

Is your station providing radio that’s compelling enough to attract and hold your listeners? Ultimately, to answer this question, you must first answer the following two questions:

A) Are all programming elements working together for a consistent audience?

B) Are all program elements as powerful as possible at all times for that audience?

The difference between higher or lower ratings and revenue is found in your answers to these questions. Next step: Audit your programming to find your answers.

5 Questions For Morning Shows

Morning show consultant Steve Reynolds recommends five questions that morning shows should always ask:

1. Are we talking about what people are talking about right now?
2. Is this original and new for P1s? Did they hear this yesterday?
3. Does this evoke some emotion for the audience? Is it something they care about?
4. Will it make people turn us on for fear of missing something?
5. Does it fit? Does it make sense for this show to be doing this at this time?

Thanks for asking Steve!

10 Guidelines For Effective Brainstorming

Creativity can be taught, nurtured, and enhanced. It does not belong solely to the artist among us, and certainly not genetically limited to the gifted. –Randah Taher

How many brainstorming sessions have you participated in that you can consider effective?

Project developer and consultant Randah Taher spotlights 10 guidelines to help you conduct your next brainstorming meeting and make it a successful one. They are:

1. Come prepared. And invite others to do so too.
2. Invite others to the party.
3. Think and re-think the real issue.
4. Record as you go.
5. Defer judgment.
6. Become a generator machine.
7. Force large quotas.
8. Elaborate and improve.
9. Enhance visuals.
10. Threaten yourself.

Find more at Contagious Creativity.

Make Your Station A Killer Brand

What's the difference between a ho-hum product that hurts your bottom line and a Killer Brand that compels people to choose it and use it? In Killer Brands, marketing guru Frank Lane reveals his recognized three-step method to unlocking the marketplace and creating brands that annihilate the competition. Here are his secrets viewed through the lens of radio:

• FOCUS: find the one singular, differentiating, and powerfully compelling quality that will make your Killer (Radio) Brand known—not because of what it says it does, but because it does what it says
• ALIGNMENT: connect everything that you do in perfect harmony to deliver that focus consistently time after time, making sure that nothing you do inadvertently detracts from that (listener) expectation
• LINKAGE: make your Killer (Radio) Brand synonymous with the product ( pop, rock, hip hop or r&b music/lifestyle) in the marketplace, so the consumer (listeners) thinks of only your brand when the need arises

By following these three tenets of branding - and applying them to your station's branding, content, and marketing - you're guaranteed to kill the competition and create a dynamic, thriving radio brand with higher ratings and revenue.

A Publicist’s Rules for Life (and for PR)

PR Guru Peter Shankman offers his rules for life and PR:

1. Your goal is to make other people happy (the reporter, for instance). Do this, and you, the boss, and the client will be happy by default.
   
2. We have a finite number of seconds on this earth. Don’t waste them. Get to the point, be direct, and get your information out there. Don’t waste time.
   
3. Don’t be traditional. If you have something to say, find an interesting way to say it. If you can’t, it’s probably not worth saying in the first place.
   
4. Don’t bore people. Boring turns people against you. Nothing makes someone put a block on your email quicker than being boring and repetitive.
   
5. Have fun, and help someone out when you can. Karma is strong, especially in PR, an industry where you have nothing until a reporter, editor, or producer gives you something.

Peter’s rules could easily serve as guidelines for any station or morning show that wants to stand out from the competition.

Remember, Arbitron tends to reward those stations and personalities who are different with higher ratings.

Follow these rules. Be different - never boring -and watch the difference in your ratings.

For more from Peter, visit the Geek Factory website here.

Perspectives On The Return Of WCBS-FM

The New York Daily News’ David Hinckley offers his perspective on the return of WCBS-FM. Read the full article here.

After a two-year hiatus and losing millions of dollars in revenue, CBS Radio President Dan Mason is making the right move in NYC with the return of WCBS-FM.

No matter your format preference, WCBS-FM is a case study for a station launch/relaunch.

The former Oldies station now positioned as “New York’s Greatest Hits” is packaged with fresh imaging and an updated, well-researched playlist that includes 80s music along with its 60s and 70s classic hits.

And the wcbsfm.com website allows the station’s former and new fans to listen live and experience video highlighting the station’s historic return.

For more perspectives:

Sean Ross, VP of Programming and Music, shares his “first listen” insights here.

Media Arts and Sciences’ Dave Martin shares his thoughts here.

The Fuzzy Tail

David Armano’s The Fuzzy Tail is a play on Chris Anderson's Long Tail—but that's where the similarities end. Being "fuzzy" means unlearning the way we've always done things and moving away from rigidity toward adaptability.

After viewing the above presentation, I could only think: Is radio too rigid?

Have we in radio adapted quickly enough to the evolving and ever-changing media consumption habits of the consumer? In many ways, we have. In other ways, we’ve failed. And those failures arise only because we often forget what business we are actually in. Radio is not about transmitters and satellites. It’s not about just about clock design and management or internet strategies alone. Radio is greater than the sum or its parts: RADIO is all about RELATIONSHIPS! It’s about the EXPERIENCE we provide listeners and the ENVIRONMENT we create for advertisers to share their brand messages with consumers.

Just as motivational speakers encourage “life design,” for content creators (radio programmers and marketers), it’s all about designing interactions + experiences that connect your radio brand to the audience and the audience to each other.

Advocate for the audience and never forget that whether content is delivered via internet, Wi-Fi, satellite or terrestrial, radio is all about relationships. Compelling content creates memorable moments that allow us to CONNECT with the audience on a deeper, more meaningful level! And with each interaction or experience, the relationship grows – and so will your ratings and revenue.

Management And Leadership Defined

In his book “Leading Change,” Professor John Kotter defines management and leadership as follows:

"Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving."

"Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles."

So, what are you – a manager or a leader?