Prophets of Radio...Let's Hear It!

[Nelz]

Gloom and doom...that's all we're hearing right now because of all the severe economic developments/tragedies that have crippled almost every industry including radio. I, too, have been kicked around a fair amount in the business for a few years now. And no, I will not comment on what has happened to my brothers and sisters within our organization. But let me say this...I believe there is a new beginning, a new horizon for the radio industry...a bright shiny one for those who are patient enough for the new paradigm to develop. I wanted to start a thread that would allow everyone to predict the future of a once dominant, thriving industry. So please contribute. This isn't a debate, so please don't disrespect contributers to the thread. Prophets of Radio...Let's Hear It!

My thoughts...in a nutshell:

This business, as it always has been, is technology driven. I predict that the commercial radio business will totally transform into an XM/Sirius way of delivering its product, totally. Every vehicle, every home, every phone will have the ability to pull in a radio satellite signal. It will be the norm, much like cable, satellite TV, and cellular technology. I believe the overhead of radio stations will diminish because of this technology. And yes, people will pay to have this technology to receive local stations. The need for excessive electrical power and bulky antiquated technology will be no more. With lower overhead, I would like to think that owners would once again see the value of having live bodies on the air and running a station.

A major change is coming, and I think this is the way, the truth, and the life of the new radio paradigm.

 

[MassMusicMan]

In 2008, people don't typically pay for entertainment. Facebook? Free. Google? Free. MySpace? Free. People would never pay a dime to use any of those mediums that have been around for only a few years, what chance does existing terrestrial radio have of getting people to pony up the dough all of a sudden?

We live in the advertising age. Radio will be fine as long as it's interesting. That's really all there is to it. I said it in the Cumulus/Bangor thread, and I'll say it again: Everybody should have a talk show. Maybe not exclusively, maybe you still play 7-8 records an hour, but "10 in a row" is no longer a selling point. Radio is not necessary for presenting music anymore. This would weed out the unqualified broadcasters very quickly.

Maybe the best broadcaster isn't the night guy in a tiny market who does phone bits. Maybe the best broadcaster is a renowned best-selling author or community leader who's never thought of doing radio, but would give it a try for the right price, and could be the next Garrison Keillor.

The world is full of interesting people...and many of them would make for a great radio show. Remember, the most friendly, affable, well-known morning man in Burlington for the last 15 years is a basketball coach. The foremost female in Burlington radio is a single mom who was discovered in a grocery store.

I mentioned social networking websites above. I'm a Facebook addict. I check it several times a day for "status updates." I hear phone calls on Triple X from people who want to banter with the jocks about work and relationships and getting drunk and getting laid. Make that a talk show, not a 20-second bit over a song intro.

I remember the old 92.1 Kiss FM doing a promo years ago in which they invited a "Drama Queen" into the studio to gossip about her life. In a Burlington-size market, if the popular 16-year old chick was on the radio for an hour talking about all of her friends, that would be appointment listening. Hell, if the 35-year old PTA mom did the same thing, every other hen in town would listen too!

To paraphrase James Carville: "It's the people, stupid." Not sure why there aren't that many left.

 

[grover]

NELZ
RADIO is DEAD!!
I've done it for 39 Years
You can Stick a FORK in it!!
I'm Thank-Full
Voice over work has kept me alive so far!
When Radio Does Throw you away
and it happens to all of Us!!
MOVE ON!
Find Something Else
ITS OVER!!!
Joe Mc Millan
WHDH
WNSX
WROR
OLDIES 103
WVBF
KABL/San Francisco
WJBQ
WGAN...PORTLAND MAINE
STILL the Voice of KISS 94.5 BANGOR

 

[merrymary]

I believe, after 35 years in this business, that local radio will always be in demand as long as it is kept local. We have to give the local listener an emotional reason to come back each and every day. VT does not do that. VT is boring. They call it "canned" for a reason. I prefer fresh. Yes, VT may save money and personnel at this very moment, but it is ultimately chasing listeners away from their radios and giving them a reason to go somewhere else. Somewhere live. Somewhere interesting.

I agree ten in a row is a waste. Buy an IPOD. What you cannot get on an IPOD is that mental connection that local radio provides. Whether it's hearing that the kids downtown egged a dozen cars or there's a major accident on I-91 or that Clark's Department Store is having a pre-winter sale with 50% off today, local radio serves a purpose. Listeners are getting a product that no one else is selling.

We may have to resort to "this song is going out to Jenny from Jim. Jim says he was a big jerk. He's wicked sorry, Jenny" or "Kathy Brown is turning 14 today" or "if you lost a black poodle near Maple Street, we know where it is", but so what? If it's serving a community purpose and making money at the same time, then maybe that's where we should head; back in time. How many times have you used the phrase "what comes-round, goes-round"? For radio in 2008, the past is the future.

 

[Ray D. Oh]

Will, I happen to agree with alot of what you say. I'm old enough to remember when big top 40 jocks back in the day and the phone lines that provided on-air content were the kings of the show and the music was just a part of it and not the featured act. In fact we would often hate to hear a song start cause we wanted to hear some more of that outlandishness on the air! You've got some great ideas and radio will slowly lean in that direction. I think satellite will always be there but only for the upper-income demo and not the masses. If terrestrial radio gives them something compelling to listen to....they will come. And Joe, your bitterness is spewing out all over the page and it's not very attractive. Many people have stayed in radio and even with one station for many years. I have read your posts over the years and you always seemed to be "looking for your next better gig". Sometimes a poor workman blames his tools. If you hate radio so much then why bother to stay connected with it or even post on this board? Sorry folks and I apologize for my comments...just sick of a medium that has treated me well constantly getting kicked around.

 

[jparsons]

Radio broadcasters have to stop thinking in terms of transmitters and antennas. They are content providers, and need to utilize every possible way to get that content to the most people. I can listen to podcasts, thousands of songs, Pandora, and thousands of other streaming radio stations for free on my iPhone. That's the future. Radio needs to get on portable devices now. The technology to do it is there, and cheap compared to running a transmitter.

Radio also needs to realize that music is not the future. Personality and localism is. What incentive do I have to listen to music on terrestrial or satellite radio when I can put everything I want to listen to on a portable device that is also my phone, PDA, email and text client, web browser, and camera? Oh, and I can also dock it in my car and listen to it through my car speakers? Cutting cost by laying off talent is putting nails in your coffin. Instead hire premium talent that has personality giving listeners something they can only get from you.

Broadcasters need to realize there is a market for time shifted listening as well. Most people have a DVR to watch television when they want to. Got a killer morning show? Don't just put up a funny clip, or good interview on your website to download. Post the entire show as a podcast every day. Cut out the music and commercials and make it available as a download to sync to a portable device or use a flash player so people can listen on your website while ads rotate on the screen. Insert 10 second billboards throughout the podcast for more revenue.

Invest in a $150 Flip cam and easily post video to You Tube and embed it on your station website. Video backstage at a concert, behind the scenes looks at the station, out on the street talking to people about the election. Give people a reason to go to your website and see ads.

Make sure you station is into social networking. Create Mypsace and Facebook pages, post to Twitter, You Tube, and reach people outside of the range of your transmitter and maybe make them regular listeners/viewers/visitors. Every set of ears and eyes helps.

Radio isn't dead. It will be though if it doesn't adapt. All it takes is changing the way we think about radio, and educating advertisers of radio's future. We did it when television came along, and will again.

 

[louiemanno]

This is an excellent question you have posed … and I agree that technology does to a great extent drive the industry. But the technological knife cuts both ways. It’s a good tool and good tools when in the hands of skilled artisans have the potential to produce sublime work. But the same good tools could be used to bludgeon and hack. After deregulation PC based automation allowed the acquisitive big box broadcasters to buy up the independent radio stations… drive up the demand… and the price of those properties. Once you pay an unrealistically high price for a radio station the only way to run it at a profit is to gut the staff and automate, rebroadcast, and go satellite.

If radio is sensing doom and feeling irrelevant it’s because the broadcasting industry has been operating within a shortsighted business model. This is the manifestation of the need of large companies to cost effectively replicate production of a product throughout the depth and breadth of their massive far-flung empires. It’s understandable, corporations after all have to answer to their stock holders.

As we all know good local radio can be done on a small budget… with smoke and mirrors. But you need the right smoke and the right mirrors. The miscalculation that the Clear Channel’s of the world made was that they never took the time to recognize the nuance of each market that they operated clusters in. Their “anywhere USA” sound didn’t work everywhere.

But that was then and this is now… The inevitable has occurred… the big box broadcasters have caved in under the weight of their massive unwieldy structure and now smaller, scrappier, craftier regional companies are back in control. Meanwhile there has never a time in history when there were more gizmos and entertainment platforms clamoring for the attention of listeners and advertisers.

How do radio groups make their properties relevant to the community again?

 Take Stock… Radio needs to take a hard look at it’s self and ask themselves how the can matter to the listeners again. Just asking the question and having management that lives in the region would go a long way toward reclaiming relevance.

 Jump on the digital bandwagon… Newspapers survived radio by becoming broadcasters. Broadcasters would do well to survive cyberspace by being local content providers in cyber space. Local Broadcasters need to create content rich environments that are the perfect Internet counterpart to their radio station.

 Do local news again!

 Nurture and promote local talent. If you are going to make 8 dollar an hour announcers the public face of a multimillion dollar radio station… You are going to get the kind of results you are paying for… limited.

 UTUBE it… Consider some innovative excuses to present relevant user created content on your air and on your Website. The public has the tools and the ability to creatively chronicle life in their hometown. For example send them to the movies or a concert to do “A Real Person Review”. Or invite them to cover a press conference and ask the Governor some real people questions.

There’s more I can suggest but I have already taken up too much of your time.

A real threat to radio is broadband everywhere. That’s what the old analogue TV spectrum is going to be used for. GM is already installing Internet radio is new cars; And of course iPods and iPhones are inevitably going to have Internet radio applications. If people are going to be carrying a device that gets everything …We need to be on that device and worthy of finding.

In my area VOX, The Point and Hall are still relevant and are poised to stay healthy in these changing times.

Sorry about the diatribe but I left my brevity at work yesterday.

On the front line in the fight for relevance,

Louie Manno

 

[grover]

I wish the Radio biz and all of you All the Best!
Hey, I can't predict the Future
Maybe things will Improve
Time will tell

 

[MassMusicMan]

Jesus, Joe, your posts look like Burma-Shave signs. Lay off the enter key, will ya?

 

[ray ting]

jparsons, Louie, and others have offered some very on-target comments. But let me turn jparsons comments upside down, for the sake of this discussion. (And I think he'd agree with me, mostly.)

J is absolutely correct in saying that Radio must think of itself as content providers first and foremost. But there's a brick wall there: In the world of the Internet, ANYONE can be a content provider. Having an FCC license gives you no advantage in the world of the Internet, when all is said and done.

So while I am 100% in accord with J's assertions, I think that terrestrial radio folk also need to turn things around and ask themselves how that FCC license can be used from here on out. There are an average of 7 radios in each household.

That's more than PC's or satellite radios or....

 

[louiemanno]

I think that terrestrial radio folk also need to turn things around and ask themselves how that FCC license can be used from here on out.

The guy who worked on the first Ford assembly line had to ride a horse to work… This aging technology should be used to drive listeners to the new environment.

Louie

 

[Chuckigo]

I think that terrestrial radio folk also need to turn things around and ask themselves how that FCC license can be used from here on out.

The guy who worked on the first Ford assembly line had to ride a horse to work… This aging technology should be used to drive listeners to the new environment.

Louie

Louie (jeff, RayTing - dude, come out of the closet and quit hiding behind fake names) -
et al...

i don't have to drive anyone to the new environment. people who own iPhones and iPods and wi-fi connected computers that fit in their sunglasses all listen to free terrestial radio. if that's not true, then how do we account for all of the comings and goings and postings about, um, terrestrial radio on this particular forum?

in today's reality - i think i mentioned that is free - terrestrial is still a prime subscriber to the KISS principal - Keep It Simple, Stupid.

#1 question on the phone lines lately (the off-air ones): how come i can still hear my radio if you're in HD without needing a gizmo/converter/thingy?

i love radio. always have, always will. and with the right LOCAL people workin' it, it will be the one thing that people can depend on - especially in the coming months. for everyone (or anyone) who is left in radio - stand by to stand by. i don't care how many psa's are the air. in February, the Neilsen ratings will look like someone halved the population with a chainsaw. what's that got to do with radio people? the people who can no longer get tv reception will call YOU because they can still hear YOU. get it? simple is not a bad thing. technology is a wonderful thing - for those who understand it.

and for folks like our buddy at Channel 6 - not everyone understands "it" (the new technology). flash, java and whatever else you want to throw out there. for everyone who logs onto your website, there are just as many 40 (FORTY!) year old people who have no desire for a computer nor do they know how to use it. thankfully, they can still set a clock radio and wake up in time for work. i only know this as you could have knocked me over with a feather when this past weekend i spoke with no fewer than 10 (TEN!) people out of 20 who know how to use a computer but just can not be bothered to have one in their house. every single one of these people have kids in school here in Maine - and a lot of them in South Portland. that was extremely eyeopening to me.

know your product. and for God's sake - know your audience. what we think we know today...? we ain't got a clue. Thank God for that.

and Vote on Tuesday, you knuckleheads. *or Not Later Than Tuesday*

good thing i voted on Friday. McCain was pretty g.d. funny on Saturday Night Live. "Sad Grandpa" had me rofl. not quite pmp. but rofl and pretty damn close to lmao. definitely lol.
it's time for me to go to b.e.d.

and for my old buddy JOE MCMILLAN... don't give up, okay? just stop letting your temper get the better of you. i will give you the benefit of the doubt over walking away from that nightmare in Alabama.

and for Biff Barfington: give Joe a frickin' job, willya? just don't schedule "Hey Jude"

 

[jparsons]

(jeff, RayTing - dude, come out of the closet and quit hiding behind fake names)

Nothing too fake about jparsons, and I've "outed" myself here before. But let the record show I'm Jeff Parsons of WJBQ.

Like you said Chuck, know your audience! My audience does use computers, and iPods, and smart phones. They discover new music on Myspace and would quicker text you than call you. The reality is as time goes on less and less will be inclined to listen to terrestrial radio when there are other ways to get their content. The tech savvy that post here are listening because they're radio geeks. The 27 year old woman who is an SEO for a web development company doesn't even know this board exists and probably listens to Pandora at work. For our sake, I hope she listens to a local station streaming on the web.

I'm not saying shut the transmitters down and use other delivery methods. I'm saying use ALL delivery methods available to you, and get interactive with your listeners in ways you can't with a transmitter, through social networking, etc.

As for the February Neilsens, I would be surprised to see that many people all of a sudden disappear. The FCC and local TV have done well to get the word out, and don't most people get their television through cable or satellite these days? WPME and WPXT already shut their analog signal off. Has anyone really noticed? (Don't say no one noticed them anyway. Gossip Girl, Supernatural, and Smallville do well.)

 

[nhradiochild]

I have a vision.

I have no idea how good it is, but I bet there's someone out there who could make it economically feasible. Bring back radio theater. Now, I know it sounds outdated, but that's simply because of the name. There are no boundaries that are preset for this idea. Prairie Home Companion does a pretty darn good job of it, but it's geared for the folks that like "down home country listening". Plus it's live, and I'm not proposing that.

What could be done, is if you don't hire decent fiction writers, which would likely be the case, start asking various producers of comic books if you can broadcast their works. Some of the indies might even let you do it for free. Further, you don't have to take the comic book verbatim, merely use it as a basis for your own creative skills and alter it, much like Hollywood does with books.

Now, here's the trick. Integrate it with music that supports the storyline. You could "box" it (for a cheaper version), but I expect a pre-produced product. And you can still make the characters drop in localized mentions of the goings on around the area, part of your creative writing. Further, by using music, you don't really need a whole lot of story content, just teasers that lend itself to the music. And if it's too much for a 24-hour station, run a jukebox at night, or use VT for a creative "single-character" show.

If the idea really takes off, software folks can and probably will adapt their software so you can drop in voice content in the middle of songs and such if the script calls for it, so that the computer could actually do the legwork of the show, but still employ a garden variety of announcers to act it out and perhaps write the scripts. Hell, it might even lend for more interesting ads, having characters do the talking. And there can't be anything wrong with that. Plus, integrated into the show, you wouldn't have to stop the flow of things for the commercial break.

This would mean the end of the singular air-personality show, and foster a team effort for the entire day's programming.

However, this is just a thought that I'm sure would need extensive research before being signed onto.

 

[Nelz]

What a great discussion! Of course I'm the only one right thus far (just kiddin'), but what a great way to look forward instead of the dismal present.

Allow me to add this to my first posting: I still believe people will buy radio satellite service--at least initially. Competition will soon make basic service of the medium free. It'll be the bells & whistles that you'll pay to have, e.g. news/sports/wx reports.

I also believe that the FCC will revisit the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

On a side vision, I forsee a totally cashless society, free basic cellphone service (again, pay for bells & whistles), and the total demise of the fossil fuel engine.

By the way, if Joe thinks that radio as we know it is dead forever then that's his vision. I respect that.

 

[za-rex]

Everytime I read this NNE board it's like a conversation between Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates about radio. No offense but whenever I come up north I hear 3-4 tracked breaks an hour and when jocks are live it's "33 minutes past the hour of 1 o'clock now". Is this all wishful thinking or can you point out where anything compelling is going on up there? Seriously, I'll admit I rarely catch morning shows when I travel up north but do any of you really see things improving in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont when they're going downhill in bigger markets?

 

[louiemanno]

Jeez – I thought it was “context appropriate” to wax philosophical on an Internet bulletin board. And I thought that wishful thinking was an appropriate coping strategy. I’m sorry we offended you by our cockeyed optimism. I guess I just have to go back to being plain old cockeyed.

Louie Manno

 

[dunebugg66]

Sirus XM stock is 33 cents a share this morning (at the opening bell). For those who think radio's dead...here's your chance. Invest and possibly make hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even the poor radio jock could afford that.

I've been watching the stock fall week after week - even before the so called financial crisis. (thanks to us in the media who've helped freak people out.)

Is radio dead? Na. Does it need a kick in the butt? Sure. It could be much worse, however; you could be talking about newspapers! BLEAGH! (now that's a medium in the dumps.)

 

[Chuckigo]

(jeff, RayTing - dude, come out of the closet and quit hiding behind fake names)

jeff -the "fake name" was meant for RayTing. great screen name. not u, sir! we can agree to disagree on the technological issues, i hope.

at SoPortland High School yesterday, there was a meeting of "invited parents" and the visiting accreditation board. as an invited parent, i listened intently as several responded to the inquiry of the board as to the availability of computers in school by way of classroom or computer lab, that in response to the statements that they did not have pc's (or macs) in the home.

the use of iPhones comes with a heavier price than most families (mine included) can afford right now - and that trend is not going to change soon unless the economy rebounds. now, yes there are a large number of young adults (i have a 25 year old in my house) who have the disposable income to make an iPhone worth the while. and the availability of stations who stream through the AOL platform is quite impressive. our corporate vp demonstrated his iPhone on his last visit while we listened to 1010 WINS.

(Sidebar: how does the battery on those things hold up when utilizing the additional features such as websurfing and listening to radio? i know a cellphone will last a few days when used as a phone, but the minute you start using one of the onboard features like games and such, that shelf-life drops to a matter of hours)


i enjoy listening to the Q (yes, i Q in my car! ... kcbq, san diego, circa 1975) as it's free, local and staffed by really nice people. granted, you have Rob, but it's sweet of you guys to keep him off St.John Street. ;-) (duckin'&grinnin')

 

[True Grit]

I'm not as optimistic as many on this thread; could be my cynical nature but I think that even if some of the scenarios put forth here come true, things will get worse. A LOT worse. My 2 cents.