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CES2011: What It Means To Radio

H

Holland Cooke

Hello from Las Vegas and the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, where an estimated 140,000 of us are perusing some 20,000 new products in an Exhibit Hall the size of 35 football fields.

Lots of SMART people here speaking, and thinking-aloud in conference sessions.

What-it-all-means-to-radio?

In-a-nutshell:

1. We're late. Almost always, when someone in radio says "it's the future," what-they're-talking-about is already "the now."

2. But not too late. Of all legacy media, NO -- repeat, NO -- other medium buddies-up-better with Internet-delivered content better than radio. We can drive traffic to the new platform better than print, TV, anything else.

3. People want what-they-want anywhere/anytime. "Stuff" needs to be available on multiple platforms. Thus the ongoing spate of heritage AMs adding FM simulcasts. And stations putting audio content on phones. And iTunes. Etc., etc., etc.

4. The car as radio's last bastion? Toast. Wait'll you see what's in the dashboard of 2012 Fords. And watch other automakers scramble to catch-up.

5. "Music radio" is becoming an oxymoron. Non-music content has a MUCH brighter future as AM/FM programming.

More at http://getonthenet.com/CES2011.html, and in the next issue of Talkers.

Bottom line: If all you're doing is sending-audio-to-rusty-towers-in-pastures you're in media's Jurassic Park.

YOU choose: Threat? Or MEGA-opportunity.

HC
www.HollandCooke.com
 
But Holland, what about all the experts who know radio inside and out because they've been in the business since the early 1970's? Could their collective "conventional wisdom" be suddenly turned wrong?
 
I had a wake-up call this week. I have never, never, never been involved in home movies and the more recent video cameras. But a few months ago I decided that I would learn how to extract video from the various camera formats and edit the product for use as movies, DVD and YouTube or whatever.

This week in a forum came the plaintive cry of a friend who is even less up to speed than I am in this area. He had a video from a Droid phone and could not figure out how to get it to work on a DVD. So I tromped in where angels fear to tread. Here is what blew my mind:

When I went mining the Internet with Google, for every response I got back that might help me understand how to take video OUT of a Droid and how to then skin it and consume it, I got 999 responses from people asking how and others telling how.... to push your favorite movie INTO a Droid phone.

Who are all these people who have the time to acquire a movie and then "render" it to fit into their Droid. And then they have the time and enthusiasm to WATCH the flaming movie. Or maybe they are just wanting to impress their friends with the scalps they have collected on their phone... whether they ever take the time to watch them.

So if I am responsible for a radio station today.... I have to wonder: are there any groupies out there as excited about carrying my radio station around with them they way they are carrying around movies in their phone? And what am I going to offer them to come be part of MY TRIBE?
 
So what's the new-age "bumpersticker?"

Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
So if I am responsible for a radio station today.... I have to wonder: are there any groupies out there as excited about carrying my radio station around with them they way they are carrying around movies in their phone? And what am I going to offer them to come be part of MY TRIBE?
Click to expand...

EXACTLY!

Talk_Dude said:
But Holland, what about all the experts who know radio inside and out because they've been in the business since the early 1970's? Could their collective "conventional wisdom" be suddenly turned wrong?
Click to expand...

Not been to the mall lately, eh?
Next time, stop into The Apple Store...if you can squeeze-in there.

Back in those 1970s, people were SO-bonded-to their radio station that they'd compete for T-shirts with the station's logo...or stick call letters on the bumper of their cars.

How can radio re-kindle THAT?
 
Re: So what's the new-age "bumpersticker?"

Holland Cooke said:
Talk_Dude said:
But Holland, what about all the experts who know radio inside and out because they've been in the business since the early 1970's? Could their collective "conventional wisdom" be suddenly turned wrong?
Click to expand...

Not been to the mall lately, eh?
Next time, stop into The Apple Store...if you can squeeze-in there.

Back in those 1970s, people were SO-bonded-to their radio station that they'd compete for T-shirts with the station's logo...or stick call letters on the bumper of their cars.

How can radio re-kindle THAT?
Click to expand...

You re-kindle it with better jingles!

And, for what it's worth, shopping malls are in the same shape as AM Radio.
 
Talk_Dude said:
But Holland, what about all the experts who know radio inside and out because they've been in the business since the early 1970's? Could their collective "conventional wisdom" be suddenly turned wrong?
Click to expand...

That's the problem. They are so much "in the business" that they don't know it's not the early 1970s.

Their collective "conventional wisdom" is not suddenly wrong. It's been wrong for a long time. It's taken a while for anybody connected with radio to start notice. Some still haven't noticed or are in complete denial.
 
Holland says talk programming is the future of AM and FM radio.

Not if it's just a matter of switching what's on a lot of AM talkers now to FM.

More and more it becomes apparent that the conservative syndicated talkers appeal mostly to 55+ y.o. white males. By moving to FM you get ... what ... a few more white males from 35-54?

Why more stations aren't doing what New Jersey 101.5 does is beyond me.

WTOP in DC is doing well with all news on FM because it's an incredibly well run station in a market that craves news.

Sports talk can get younger male demos on FM if it's the right sports market with enough local content.

Talk on FM is by no means a slam dunk.
 
radiophiler said:
Holland says talk programming is the future of AM and FM radio.

Not if it's just a matter of switching what's on a lot of AM talkers now to FM.

More and more it becomes apparent that the conservative syndicated talkers appeal mostly to 55+ y.o. white males. By moving to FM you get ... what ... a few more white males from 35-54?

Why more stations aren't doing what New Jersey 101.5 does is beyond me.

WTOP in DC is doing well with all news on FM because it's an incredibly well run station in a market that craves news.

Sports talk can get younger male demos on FM if it's the right sports market with enough local content.

Talk on FM is by no means a slam dunk.
Click to expand...
Nothing is a slam dunk and radio managements have reached the point where all they will consider are slam dunks - in particular CHEAP slam dunks. If not cheap slam dunk is available, they do more of the same old, same old while blaming everyone and everything else for what doesn't work.
Insanity: n. Repeating the same action while expecting a different outcome.
Click to expand...
Nobody has done anything new and different since NJ101.5 20 years ago. It's worked well but the rest of the industry doesn't think it's cheap enough nor a slam dunk. Rush wasn't a slam dunk at first either but at least he was cheaper than the 500 or so local shows he replaced. Now NJ 101.5 has started to slide, in large part because they want cheap slam dunks, too.
 
"Holland says talk programming is the future of AM and FM radio."

As I wrote above: Usually, when someone in radio says "it's the future" what-they're-talking-about is already "the now."

radiophiler said:
Not if it's just a matter of switching what's on a lot of AM talkers now to FM.
Click to expand...

Tell that to WSB/Atlanta, or WBAP/Dallas, or WGY/Albany.

radiophiler said:
WTOP in DC is doing well with all news on FM because it's an incredibly well run station in a market that craves news.
Click to expand...

When I managed that station in the 80s, it was a stand-alone @ 1500AM.
We would've KILLED to get into diary-rich Fairfax County VA after dark.


radiophiler said:
Why more stations aren't doing what New Jersey 101.5 does is beyond me.
Click to expand...

What we're doing there SHOULD be a success template elsewhere.
But music-on-FM remains a comfort zone to many owners.

Meanwhile, back at CES: http://getonthenet.com/CES2011.html
 
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