How Radio Can Get Its Groove Back

[waky79]

GM, Charlie Rowe was one of the major factors that made WJAD such a creative station. Coming from a personality driven on-air background he knew talent when he heard it. Skip Eliot was one of those talents. When he hired Skip he hired a program director that surrounded himself with the best creative talent he could find for the money and that would be willing to live in the small town Bainbridge. Skip would set some simple guidelines for us to follow and then let us do what we do best.
Be creative!
I can remember doing a series of bits for him called ‘Mayberry Vice’ with and Andy and Barney as Crockett and Tubbs. The listeners loved it!

There is no secret in making a station successful but, as we have all learned it has to start
in the hallways. You get a staff of fun and creative people that get along together and you get a great sounding and fun radio station. It’s all chemistry. Charlie and Skip are outstanding chemists. I only worked there for a year before moving on to mornings in Texas… ( Ex-wife was a big mall shopper and wanted more choices then just a K-mart and a Piggly-Wiggly) but, I learned a lot from those two guys and use what I have learned from them everyday. Thanks Charlie and Skip!

 

[rcombs]

Skip Elliot was the man. I only worked with him for a short time in Bainbridge, but if he would have been able to stay, I would probably still be on the air instead of engineering. He would always take time to do a quick critique of my overnight show right before he started his morning show, and he knew how to critique you without berating you. I spent many morning dubbing in his bits and doing voice work for him. It was great to be able to hear his voice again while listening to an FSU game last year. He still has the pipes.

 

[JohnAllan]

Hey, I worked with Skip at Cool 103.7 back in the day. Skip was VERY talented, and a great boss! He left there and went to Lexington, KY. Anybody heard from him since then? I was just wondering what ever happened to Skip....

Now, as for how Radio can get its grove back, 1) Personality 2) Local interest 3) Community involvement. I don't think this formula has changed over the years. I've worked for several successful stations, and they all used this three point formula.

 

[waky79]

I talked to him about 6 months ago. He is doing Middays and production for LM Communications
96.9 Kiss FM. He is doing well and still having fun in radio!

 

[oidarman]

The problem is not radio, the target changed. The evolution of available sources of music (which is, and always has been, radio's mainstay) weakend the importance of radio. This particularly affected radio's appeal to the young, technology hungry, segment of the population. Opening up the FM band to allow for more stations only offered more choices in an already exisiting aging entertainment delivery system. The Telecommunications Act paved the way for consolidation. Consolidation begat operating economies. It all started when Wall Street discovered that radio stations were keeping more cents out of every revenue dollar. Key word in the previous sentence is WERE.

 

[JohnAllan]

The problem is not radio, the target changed. The evolution of available sources of music (which is, and always has been, radio's mainstay) weakend the importance of radio. This particularly affected radio's appeal to the young, technology hungry, segment of the population. Opening up the FM band to allow for more stations only offered more choices in an already exisiting aging entertainment delivery system. The Telecommunications Act paved the way for consolidation. Consolidation begat operating economies. It all started when Wall Street discovered that radio stations were keeping more cents out of every revenue dollar. Key word in the previous sentence is WERE.

This is why my top three things are 1) Personality 2) Local Interest 3) Community Involvement. Music is no longer the focus of radio. People will listen if you sprinkle good music in with the three things that make radio work. I did this with an AM station I programmed, and took it from worst to first in 1 month! And yes, we played music on AM, the greatest of sins! Ofcourse, it suprised management when we beat their FM. People didn't listen because we had the best sounding signal. They listened because we played music they didn't get from other sources. We broke new artists (most of whom stopped by and played live on air when they came through), we got involved in local events, we had FUN on air! I had one of the artists that used to call me every Friday and talk about the weather in Nashville (or about the weather from where ever he was on tour)! He did this because of a bit I did with him when he stopped by for an interview. He said he had always wanted to be a DJ. So I handed him the weather and said go for it! On the days that he couldn't get his call in, listeners would call and check on him! Listeners would show up at the station when the artists were there for interviews. All of the artists were surprised by this. We never told anyone to show up, they just did. Many listeners would call me to talk about the music. They would tell me about bands they had heard. I discovered MANY local artists that were fantastic. And we were at every show.

The best compliment I got on the station: "I stumbled across your station two weeks ago while scanning the AM dial. I haven't quit listening since! I have never heard anything like this!" This was accomplished by NOT burning out the audiance! Hots rotated every 4 1/2 hours. Which meant that no jock was playing a song twice during thier show. They didn't get burned out, and the listener stayed for longer periods. New songs rotated every 6 1/2 hours. Recurrents rotated every two days. The "classics" were rotated about once a week. Mix in some great jocks, and this works EVERY TIME IT IS TRIED!!

In short, radio still works. You've just got to give people a reason to listen.

 

[SAVRADIOFAN]

Radio must go back to sole "OWNERSHIP"!

When it went large scale: Cumulus, CC, Radio-One, CBS, Infinity etc...
Then came these BRILLAINT ideas:

"Lets Shock the listener"

"Can we syndicate it"?

" Great Idea! Lets sell it"

"Whats the bottomline?"

"A client wants to know if we can (you fill in)"

"Do we sell TIME BUYS!?!?!?!"

Radio can get its groove back when it is nor longer a corporate mans' game, the race to earn more and spend less!

 

[knozall]

Never Happen

 

[cannonballhouse]

First, the "good ole days" were NOT as golden as some might think. There were so many fly by night mom and pop outfits that you had to be careful whom you worked for. I can remember at one place we always had to "wait" to cash our checks because the money "wasn't there yet." I recall a few GM's who should not have been allowed control of a "walkie-talkie," let alone a radio station. And, yes I remember many incidents of mangament behavior with female staff that would scream legit lawsuit today.

That said, radio can STILL be big by giving listeners things they cannot get through satellite or ipods. The key is embracing and finding the local niches in your market and superserving them. Plus, you HAVE to be able to SELL it. That does not mean because YOU love John Coltrane's wierdest cuts and 4 of your drinking buddies love it, that you should invent a format around that. It DOES mean, that you find a way to reflect the tastes of YOUR unique market.

A station that is done well that screams "this is (your town here) at every opportunity that is viable should ALWAYS beat a generic voicetracked "Music that makes you feel good for your workday" type of station. If it doesn't, you might be doing it wrong.