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What Austin means to Providence: NAB Radio Show

H

Holland Cooke

Good morning from Texas.

If you squint, it's Providence-with-a-different-accent.
Austin is a state capital city; and, like ours, its downtown is a handsome renaissance-in-progress.
The Capitol building looks like ours-with-a-tan (VERY similar design in what-looks-like brownstone).

Austin matches-up as a radio market, Providence-Warwick-Pawtucket (12+ metro pop 1,376,500) being Arbitron #39, vs. #42 Austin @ 1,309,500.

'Haven't heard local radio here, other than the inevitable Smooth Jazz station the driver ALWAYS plays in the airport Super Shuttle.
'Was here 10 years ago to do a monitor project for KLBJ, then still owned by the-late-great then-ex-First Lady, now owned by Emmis.

Does-anybody-know anybody-from-Providence radio who's attending the show here?
Convention notes to follow.

Meantime, welcome to the Fall book, which begins tomorrow.

HC
www.HollandCooke.com
 
Isn't Geoff Charles part of one of the panels? I saw it on the site but forgot the actual details.
 
There-but-for-the-grace-of-God...

Here's some sobering travelogue.
The NAB Radio Show is sharing the handsome, sprawling Austin Convention Center with Hurricane Ike evacuees.
Lots of 'em.
The process here is very-well organized; and these poor folks seem pretty darn patient, considering their circumstances.
 
Plain talk...about Talk Radio...and more...

I'm not exaggerating by using the word "riveting" to describe this morning's session with Talkers magazine publisher Michael Harrison.
And I acknowledge what Talkers readers know: I cover conventions for Michael's magazine.
So I won't ask you to take my word for this.
Soon, video of the entire session will be posted at www.Podjockey.com

Here's the flavor of what you'll see-and-hear there, Michael's comments in a lively, well-attended session:

“The future of terrestrial radio in the short term is Talk. Those who know that now will be better-off than those who resist that inevitability. Music radio is in terminal trouble. This is going to happen gradually. The music formats that’ll be the slowest to bite the dust are the formats that appeal to older listeners. The music stations that hang on the longest will be the stations with a lot of talk between the music.”

This sure wasn't all he had to say; and he got REAL specific as the conversation unfolded.
Remember the phrase "Media Station."
You'll be hearing it a lot.
And "I will tell you this..."
(Just kidding.)

But seriously: If you're in broadcasting today, you'll be working "a Media Station" tomorrow...or you'll be doing other work.
You WILL find Michael's presentation useful.

But, because there's been lots of discussion on the Providence board about the inevitability Talk-on-FM generally, and WSNE specifically, I picked Michael's quote above from a couple pages of scribbled notes I'll soon decipher. More to come.

Good evening from Austin, where, at dusk, something very strange, and very cool, happens.
As you enter downtown, you cross the river over a certain bridge that locals call "the bat bridge."
By day, they sleep, hanging upside-down, underneath the bridge.
At dusk, TENS-OF-THOUSANDS of bats awake and fly-out-from-under the bridge...in artful formation.
SOUNDS scary...but it's not. It's oddly beautiful.
I can't name the species, but it's said to be the largest colony of such-and-such a species.
Apparently, they eat mosquitos, an important link in the food chain.
Locals speak PROUDLY of the bats, like they're neighbors here.

HC
www.HollandCooke.com
 
Thanks for the interesting update..curious if any brokers and sellers are having any luck this week trying do deals..God knows there are several properties in New England that could be on the block...
 
NOT a happy bunch...

Speaker of Truth said:
Thanks for the interesting update..curious if any brokers and sellers are having any luck this week trying do deals...
Click to expand...

THAT'S the-elephant-in-the-room here.

“We’re looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, and hoping it’s not the proverbial train coming at us.”
Garret Komjathy, GE Commercial Finance, in a gloomy “Broadcast Financing 2008: Opportunities and Challenges” NAB Radio Show session

Otherwise, I and others I'm speaking with here surmise that the mood isn't AS-gloomy as last year's Radio Show in Charlotte.
Last year, attendees seemed past denial, but dazed-and-confused.
This year, there's clearer consensus and resolve about what-radio-has-to-do...primarily embrace/migrate-to the Internet.
The shared vexation seems to be "lack of elves."
Post-consolidation staff cuts have been brutal, and there are likely more coming, especially from big companies with small stock prices.
So now everybody "gets" that we need to get-serious-about solid on-air content, and original online content.
But WHO-the-heck will DO this stuff?
Staffs are so thin now that it's all most stations can do to avoid dead air.
Creative approach: for-credit college intern programs.
COLLEGE KIDS "get" The Net...and, once upon a time, were radio's farm team.

More to come...

HC
www.HollandCooke.com

PS: I write this sitting-in-the-back-of-the-room in the session "Repositioning Radio: Changing Perceptions."
Greater Media VP/Corporate Communications just drew applause when she said:
“Who cares what the bloggers think? Let’s just continue to move forward and blaze trails.”
 
Re: Plain talk...about Talk Radio...and more...

Holland Cooke said:
Here's the flavor of what you'll see-and-hear there, Michael's comments in a lively, well-attended session:

“The future of terrestrial radio in the short term is Talk. Those who know that now will be better-off than those who resist that inevitability. Music radio is in terminal trouble. This is going to happen gradually. The music formats that’ll be the slowest to bite the dust are the formats that appeal to older listeners. The music stations that hang on the longest will be the stations with a lot of talk between the music.”
Click to expand...

Well said. I couldn't agree more.
 
Re: NOT a happy bunch...

Holland Cooke said:
PS: I write this sitting-in-the-back-of-the-room in the session "Repositioning Radio: Changing Perceptions."
Greater Media VP/Corporate Communications just drew applause when she said:
“Who cares what the bloggers think? Let’s just continue to move forward and blaze trails.”
Click to expand...

What he really meant to say was, "I hate Jerry DelColliano and John Gorman despite their accurate analysis about this business. Despite the mounting evidence that radio is in decline, I will continue to bury my head in the sand and yell 'LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!'"
 
RE "What he really meant to say was..."

OOPS.

MY bad.
Typo.

It was actually a she.
MEANT to ID Greater Media's VP/Corporate Communications as Heidi Raphael (http://greatermedia.com/executive_team/index.html).
I was typing too fast, as my laptop battery was about to crump.

DON'T misconstrue her comments...because...this...happens to be...a blog.

Radio NEEDS to get-on-the-good-foot...pronto dente. Radio owners and managers -- people with, as Sarah Palin put it, "responsibilities" -- need to press-on, notwithstanding anonymous online snipes.

This particular speaker's comments crystallize a very constructive consensus here in Austin: radio business-as-usual isn't a business any more, which is what Jerry and others have been saying.

And, if you're a regular lurker here on radio-info.com, you've observed that most-of-what-people-here-crab-about is radio business-as-usual.

It's in EVERYBODY'S interest to fix it, ASAP.
 
Radio thinks they're fixing things by establishing websites but the truth is most of them suck or do nothing but provide same old-same old content you can get anywhere. As far as music formats that will be the slowest to bite the dust appealing to older listeners I'd liken music radio to your fat old wife. There comes a point where you lose interest in her but she's the only one who cares about you. Nobody wants to program to older listeners but they're the only ones you have a hope of connecting with.

Why is radio the only branch of media that is in denial? Lousy movies may open fairly well then die a quick death when word spreads by the second week. Poor TV shows, even those sandwiched in between two hits ones, eventually get cancelled. Radio stations know that, for now anyway, people don't demand a hell of a lot from them so they make minimum effort and companies push the cluster as a whole so even the black sheep stations play some small part in the cluster's success.
 
I meant to say the radio audience that still pays attention like listeners used to is like your fat old wife: the only one who still cares about you but the last one in the world you pay attention to. So for now the problem is radio is going after an audience that doesn't care about the medium even when it's done well. As audiences shrink stations will still crow about a larger share of a shrinking audience and the end result will be that radio will finally be considered just a bad buy for potential sponsors period. I also find it interesting that stations that boast about doing well seem to be able to do it only by operating with a bare bones staff. That isn't what I call doing well.
 
RE "Why is radio the only branch of media that is in denial?"

za-rex said:
Radio thinks they're fixing things by establishing websites but the truth is most of them suck or do nothing but provide same old-same old content you can get anywhere.
Click to expand...

THAT'S the issue!

As for "denial?"
Admittedly this is my surmise, reading the crowd here this year, and last year at a glum convention in Charlotte.
And people-who-attend-the-convention are probably atypical of broadcasters-in-general, arguably more-diligent.
That said, I think "denial" was two years ago.
Last year? "Dazed-and-confused." "NOW what?"

This year?
There's a clearer shared sense of what-radio-needs-to-do.
HOW-to-do-it is the dilemma.
Translation: WHO will do it, with staffs so thin.

I do think that many-who-are-NOT-here might-still-BE "in denial."
Mathematically, that's most-of-the-people-in-radio, with convention crowds now so much smaller than 80s shows drew.
I'm not saying that travel budget = diligence.
But companies that sit-out the industry dialogue won't benefit from it.

Just listen. Pick a market.
You're still hearing "LOG-ON TO OUR WEB SITE."
And when you get there, it's a brochure about the station.
Headline news: "LOG-ON" = early '80s Compuserve.
Many users have an always-on cable or DSL connection. They're never "logged-off."

Just listen. Pick a market.
Music radio imaging is done by a-baritone-who-pronounces-the-call-letters-like-he's-telling-the-dog-to-sit.
"NON-STOP MUSIC."
(Which describes iPod, not an FM that's about to play 6 schlocky spots in-a-row when The Music Marathon ends).

Just listen. Pick a market.
Talk radio is the "Republicans good, Democrats bad" show; and arcane, excruciating blah blah blah about local/state government process.
All offered by hosts-from-somewhere-else, or local hosts who seem to think the call letters are "I," "I," "I," "ME," "ME," "ME."

Meanwhile, in diary markets, ratings are still a memory test.
No denying that.

Today, the Radio Show ends. As we leave the handsome Austin Convention Center, to do-what-we-will with what-was-said-here, hundreds of Hurricane Ike evacuees remain.

HC
www.HollandCooke.com
 
Re: RE "Why is radio the only branch of media that is in denial?"

Holland Cooke said:
Today, the Radio Show ends. As we leave the handsome Austin Convention Center, to do-what-we-will with what-was-said-here, hundreds of Hurricane Ike evacuees remain.
Click to expand...

Did the evacuees thank David Rehr for all the things that radio did to help save the day? :)

I agree that most stations underutilize their website. In the future, the website will be the portal to the radio station (or the brand that once was the radio station). It's not about towers and transmitters anymore. I think radio is starting to understand that, but not quickly enough. The website needs to be one stop shopping for a social network with a common theme that brings all listeners together, unique podcasts of content not available on the air, personality blogs, merchandising and other exclusive materials. If you just use the website to stream your terrestrial signal and present uninformative jock bios, you fail. New media budgets need to be risen from 2% to ten times that if these stations want to be around in the future. I hope that point was brought up this week in Austin.
 
"evacuees thank David Rehr for things that radio did to help save the day?"

FUNNY line by station owner Russ Withers, moderating yesterday's interview with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin:
"The 13 or 14 thousand people who stayed in Galveston were XM or Sirius subscribers, and didn't get the word."

jeffryan said:
I agree that most stations underutilize their website. In the future, the website will be the portal to the radio station (or the brand that once was the radio station). It's not about towers and transmitters anymore. I think radio is starting to understand that, but not quickly enough.
Click to expand...

AMEN!
 
Other than contests you can enter only via a radio station website and idle curiosity about what a jock looks like there's little reason to dilly dally on a radio station website. You promote the site on the air but when people get there it's all music and artist info with national news and human interest stories. And please don't get me started on the youtube videos with jocks which are vanity pieces more than anything else and pretty embarrassing. Stations around here are following the dots in terms of what they're supposed to be doing when it comes to the internet but most are providing next to nothing online. I'm not saying I'm an expert either but you know what I think a big part of the problem is? Today's PDs. They're not really qualified to do much more than hiring, firing, and the music and of course dealing with the corporate BS. Maybe you can say they don't have time to really do their jobs in a creative sense but I wonder if some of them even could put their thinking caps on and produce an on air and online product that's creative if they were given the chance. Corporate radio has resulted in the wrong people getting into programming for the wrong reasons: because they fit the mold the corporations want.
 
Re: "evacuees thank David Rehr for things that radio did to help save the day?"

Holland Cooke said:
FUNNY line by station owner Russ Withers, moderating yesterday's interview with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin:
"The 13 or 14 thousand people who stayed in Galveston were XM or Sirius subscribers, and didn't get the word."
Click to expand...

Funny, but sad. Radio continues to misidentify the enemy as evidenced by that quote.
 
Good info, thanks Holland. Did you happen to catch John Gorman's "translation" of David "Fumbles" Rehr's speech? Great stuff!
 
Having-been-there, I heard it differently.

jeffryan said:
Good info, thanks Holland. Did you happen to catch John Gorman's "translation" of David "Fumbles" Rehr's speech? Great stuff!
Click to expand...

Rehr, like his RAB counterpart Jeff Haley:
a.) is next-gen-from his predecessor; and
b.) not-from-radio, in both cases a plus.

Rehr, a Ph.D, used to lobby The Hill for the beer industry, which he quips is "the only industry MORE-regulated."

He hit-the-ground-running two years ago, and BREATHES FIRE when he confronts the looming spectre of music performance fees which WOULD put-the-final-nail-in music radio's coffin. And he has (his words) dynamited the tracks of that particular legislative process.

I'm not REAL keen on the retro "Radio Heard Here" logo, but the video and other campaign material we saw in Austin, which you can see-and-hear at www.nab.org, is impressive fundamental stuff.
 
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