Gems from George Johns

[Call Me Sherlock]

Noted consultant and program director, George Johns (the mastermind behind KVIL when it owned the Dallas market) blogs occasionally at www.georgejohns.com. I thought you might enjoy a few gems from his latest posting:

"Radio of the future is going to be local radio of the past. Not only will radio have to talk about the local community to get some decent ratings but it will also need to send some of its listeners occasionally to a clients place of business if it ever hopes to have any decent revenue. _This is going to be real tough for a background type radio station to accomplish".

"If you have never sold a spot before or ever tried to figure out how to get someone to listen to the radio and you run a radio station, a group, or a broadcasting company you might want consider just getting out of the way before you embarrass yourself. What's that you say ... It's already too late"!

"The great thing about America is we can just laugh out loud at all these corporate fools who run radio today without fear of imprisonment or execution. Boy I hope that's still true"!

 

[SirRoxalot]

OK, this is where "TheBigA" jumps in here to tell us that George Johns is old, out of date, and doesn't "get" modern listeners, doesn't understand sales, and is a hopeless relic of the past.

 

[Call Me Sherlock]

Rox, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. As a matter of fact, when I made the post - I figured that we might hear from the aptly named "BIG A".

 

[The Voice of Reason]

The only salvation, that I can see, for radio is what Mr. Johns wrote.

Unfortunately there will be some individuals who will claim that turning the clock back is a waste of time.

What is a waste of time is listening to what passes for radio today. What I mean is the same few hundred tunes mixed in with a block of commercials that seems to last forever.

Sadly the radio most of us grew up with won't come back because it would take money to pay for good talent. And good talent is either being fired enmasse to save stations money; or these individuals have left the business to find gainful employment else where.

Be honest now. Would you recommend radio has a career to some college student, or person who desires to get into the business?

 

[Bob1370]

Larry, thanks for sharing this. George Johns makes tremendous sense.

Clearly the current antiseptic corporate approach to programming isn't working creatively or financially.

So we have to change paradigms, do something that ISN'T being done but might have promise for growth. In this case, it's live, local, personality driven programming which offers entertainment and a real service element. It's the value-added approach that gives people something they like and value, which they can't get from an iPod.

In short, sure, it's back to the future, it's what we were doing (quite successfully) and winning friends for our stations with 30 years ago, but while it might be 1979 radio theory and practice in some ways, it's also radio's best competitive chance today. Some concepts are timeless.

 

[cee]

What is a waste of time is listening to what passes for radio today. What I mean is the same few hundred tunes mixed in with a block of commercials that seems to last forever.

Amen. While not a big fan of WXXI, I must admit the programming on WXXI-run WRUR is about the only kind of music programming I can handle nowadays. And their NPR programming is always welcome in my car radio.