Radio must adapt. That means more than figuring out how cheaply you can keep a cluster on the air. It’s time for radio to take some concrete, bold steps and as President; I’d implement a ten point plan.

1. Eliminate Sales Non-Competes - The best sellers are attracted to potential for income growth, advancement and the chance to rise to the top, while Radio sales has devolved into a career with little opportunity for any of that. Why would a talented, ambitious, aggressive sales professional seek a career where they make less money each year and can’t get another job?
   
   Non Competes have lowered the overall skill level of most radio station sales departments, leaving them no way to upgrade. Some of radio’s revenue slide can be attributed to them and I’d tear ‘em all up on my first day as President of radio.
   
   
2. Develop a real-world, projections based plan for the inevitable migration of audience to the Internet - Technology has allowed people to enjoy an unprecedented number of music formats and personalized music channels – and siphoning TSL from terrestrial radio in the process. Attempts to stop this train have and will fail, so it makes more sense to ride it.
   
   If radio applies that programming skill to the new world of personalization and narrowcasting on the Internet, taking ownership of the space, it can thrive. The Internet also provides sales targeting options that terrestrial radio doesn’t, which can offer real value and accountability to advertisers and revenue to radio. This plan will need to include negotiating a reasonable performance royalty rate for the internet with the music industry.
   
   
3. Limit Voice tracking to 25% of total including small markets –Radio is losing some of its musical appeal to other media but is NOT losing talent appeal to them. Most of radio’s most popular and profitable talent started in small markets or at night. Voice tracking has eliminated most of the small market/night time positions, so where will the next generation of talent be developed? Voice-tracking discipline could help save one of radio’s key competitive advantages. As President of radio, I’d limit it to 25% of the broadcast day in all markets.
   
   
4. Enact a Budget Freeze - not on increases but on cuts. As Radio’s President, I’d make current expense levels the floor. Radio’s been chopping muscle, not fat for a long time and it’s time to stop the bleeding.
   
   
5. Re-examine radio’s marketing commitment – How can radio credibly ask its advertisers to invest in marketing when we don’t do it ourselves? I’d test all of radio’s former marketing staples (TV Ads, music testing, local production, etc.)., in beta markets, then analyze the financial impact of each. Some, maybe even all of these probably bring a return on investment. As President of Radio, I’d find out and re-implement the ones that do.
   
   
6. Drop HD radio - HD radio is one of the most embarrassing initiatives in radio’s history. There is no way that HD radio can possibly attract enough listeners to impact radio’s financials. The ads are driving away listeners (a unit is a unit) and the complete failure of this project is making radio appear ineffective as an advertising vehicle. It’s fourth and 96 for HD radio…I would call for the punting unit.
   
   
7. Evolve station websites into networking communities - Most station websites are nothing more than simple station brochures with pictures of old remotes. Websites must be improved - incorporating social networking and its corresponding features (original content, blogs, podcasts, rss feeds), and include more opportunities for listeners, talent and artists to communicate. The result? More traffic and revenue. I’d apply industry-wide website standards with implementation time frames.
   
   
8. Stop doing Wall Street conference calls – “The Street” isn’t buying anything radio is saying anyway…just look to the stock prices of most radio groups for proof. Wall Street won’t react positively unless and until they believe that radio is a growth medium. Quarterly talk of cost cutting to keep pace with top line degradation is underscoring how out of touch most radio decision makers are with radio analyst expectations. When there’s a solid growth plan for radio with projections based on realistic initiatives/assumptions it will make sense to revisit analyst calls.
   
   
9. Drop Current PR Initiative - Radio isn’t suffering from a PR problem, its suffering from an audience erosion/changing ad environment/personalized media choices/runaway technological advances problem…and an industry-wide state of denial that doesn’t begin to address any of it. CEO happy-talk and silly promo campaigns won’t get any kid to listen to the radio instead of playing a Wii game, or convince an ad agency to add radio when their client insists on greater accountability than it offers.
   
   
10. Accept that it will get worse before it gets better – Radio is brimming with assets that with time, money and patience could provide increased value for its audience and clients - and profits for its stakeholders. The 20th century was a great time for radio – it embraced cutting edge marketing techniques and thrived. The 21st century offers new opportunities that can get the radio business growing again. As its new President, I’d cement Radio’s future by committing to them with a realistic time frame and the patience to ensure their implementation.
    
    
11. I’d try to put the fun back in radio. I guess that’s an 11 point plan, not 10!

Bob Bellin

President of Radio?  Let’s go. Five simple points:

Wake Up Call:

Silence.  That is how my first day as President will begin. I will begin my Presidency with a 24 hour rolling blackout of radio stations across the United States. Radio loves a stunt and there is none bigger than this. For 24 hours, millions of Americans will be left with no music in the gym, no talk in their offices and no traffic report on the way home. We need a deafening wake up call that the only the silence of our transmitters can deliver. Distance makes the heart grow fonder and a day without radio would not only generate tremendous publicity for the industry, but give listeners and clients a reminder of just how omnipresent radio is in their lives and business strategies.

Distribution:

Next, the industry will put a full court press on the manufacturers of potential distribution sources for our product (content). It’s time for the new frontier of radio to shift away from HD and towards cell phones. As proven by the blackout, radio is the source of entertainment in the lives of millions of Americans. Why is it that the latest news from the New York Times can be pulled up on a Blackberry and NFL scores are just a button away on cell phones, yet radio disappears from people’s lives as soon as they turn their car off or leave their office? It couldn’t have been more evident to me than this past weekend, moving my son into his dorm at the University of North Carolina. Between all the mini-fridges, microwaves and Ramen noodles being carried up stairs, one item was noticeably absent: radios. No stereos, no portable radios, no clock radios. But you can bet every student moving into a dorm this fall has a cell phone and is well versed in using it. The future of distribution doesn’t lie in sedentary devices, it lies in mobile, on-the-go devices.

Content Initiative:

Throw what you know about music and talk content out the window, it is time to think outside “the box” that has been ruling radio content for years. Fast forward a few years. A sports station under my presidency will provide content about local sporting heroes. Radio stations will have exclusive “rights holder” deals with local high schools and music festivals. Who needs the high profile sports that are available in so many other mediums. In an era when the “middle man” is a despised villain who only raises costs, it seems silly that radio stations continue to bow down to record companies when artists have shown a willingness to deal with individual entities. Its time for radio stations to be cutting deals with bands for exclusive content and rights to their music. Imagine – your radio station OWNING the rights to the music it plays/distributes. Wal-Mart has beaten their competitors by making exclusive deals with record companies and its time that radio follows in their footsteps to provide something to listeners they can’t get anywhere else.

Don’t Give It Away:

It is crucial that once unique content is developed radio retains the rights to that content. Why would a listener choose to listen to a NFL game on a local radio station when he has at least three other mediums to listen to an audio version of the game: satellite radio, the internet, and this Fall, the games' audio - and video - arrives on your Sprint cell phone. Radio is still the most powerful and important audio medium in the country and its content must be made exclusive.

Exclusive Content = $

It’s the same concept taught in high school classrooms throughout the country: supply and demand. The principles of supply and demand hold true when radio develops and holds the right to exclusive content. When content can’t be obtained elsewhere, radio becomes a more value medium to listeners and advertisers alike Along with the exclusive content, radio will need to develop an new accountability system for our clients.

The future of radio is great. While other news and entertainment mediums have struggled to find their footing in the new millennium, radio has the tools and unique place in the American psyche to take advantage of a transforming American culture and global economy. A premium must be placed on developing ways to get radio content into as many hands as possible and making that content unique to radio. To avoid slipping into the darkness that has befallen other mediums of communications, radio must head away from a “We’ve always done it this way” mentality to the light of a “Let’s revolutionize the industry” mentality.

Brian Maloneyr / General Manager
McClatchey Broadcasting
WRBZ/WDNC
Raleigh-Durham, NC

The key to radio is developing personalities that people trust on their radios. Every community has their "radio star.” However, who’s next? It’s an answer in Buffalo (and I’m sure everywhere else) that I worry about every day. We have a talented staff but not necessarily a break-out guy waiting in the wings or being trained. I am also happy that we still have interns who want to get into radio. But... the number of interested and qualified people are diminishing every semester.

There are many reasons why this might be. However, I have a solution. It’s time for radio to give back to their communities and establish the next radio stars... on-line.

Radio can take the resources we have and show students how to be unique... how to get their voices heard and do it all from their school without FCC interference nor the cost of maintaining a transmitter.  The connection that can be made between the professionals of today and tomorrow will catapult radio to the forefront once again. As a sports programmer, I have ideas also for live programming, but it has to start easy and cheap.

It is a simple idea (maybe too simplistic).  However, signing up a computer partner (Apple, Dell, etc.) to host the programs on-site seems like an easy win-win for radio/corporate cultures and the students will flock to design their own radio stations.

Andy Roth
Program Director
WGR – Sports Radio 550
(716) 843-0207

“I am running for President Of Radio to lead this industry in a new direction... Instead of being distracted from the most pressing threats that we face, I want to overcome them. Instead of pushing the entire burden of stagnant music and tired talk on to nervous program directors and general managers, I want to use all elements of creative power to keep us unsafe, yet prosperous, and assuredly free. Instead of alienating ourselves from our listeners, I want radio to be – once again – relevant, and to lead...

All the signals are pointing the same direction. And if you elect me as President Of Radio, I will use the signals, and wattage, and antennas, and frequencies to put together a cabinet that if filled with talented open minds which have a desire to empower imagination, in them and their audience, and capture what once was and can still be. We have the airspace, let’s not focus on protecting it, let’s fill it with life.

The King has been and always will be content. I pledge to engulf myself with The King, twist it around here and there - dive in deeper than most are comfortable – and be a part of the re-creation that will touch America...and if we do what we are capable of, the world.

Music is never going away. Storytelling is never going away. But how will it be delivered in the future? If “people pay a premium for a story, every time,” [Seth Godin, Marketing Guru] than WE, my friends, have a job to do; connect with an audience that is searching every minute.

It is much easier to continue programming that is lame, drained of enthusiasm while barely making budgets, than it is to create, produce, sell, and distribute a quality entertainment. If you believe in radio the way I do, you too believe this is still possible.

This must be the moment when we answer the call, or it’s history for this original medium. For at least eight years, we have paid the price for feigning programming that blathers without engaging; that divides us from other media – and from the world – instead of calling us to a common purpose. We must forge a new strategy to face down the truest threat that we face: complacency. You cannot afford four more books of a languid approach that is out of balance and out of step with these times where people want to be more involved than ever.

In closing I recall the immortal words of P.O.D. and Timbuk 3, “I Feel So Alive!!! The Futures So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.”

I’m Frank Jenks, and this message has been approved my me.”

Frank Jenks
Listen In...
interviewer/podcaster/host
www.listenin.org

I would make sure my 'cabinet members' are qualified to be in a leadership position and have the skills needed to deal with various personalities in radio. Just because they are qualified for the job based on experience doesn't mean they are qualified to lead.

Radio can be taught but leadership cannot. Any leader can take a sales force and motivate them properly just as any leader can effectively mold a programming staff. 

Accountability is a must.  Leaders who hold people accountable not because they are mean, but to find where the system fails so they can make a correction will always be a benefit.  By contrast, a manager, qualified for a job based on experience may have the know-how, but often times lack the leadership ability to take hold and just go.  In this instance staffs are generally left to their own accord. Without the needed guidance from a leader, things can easily and quickly get out of control with no chance of later reigning in various outliers.

That's my take on the whole thing.

Jeff McElfresh
Promotions
High Desert Broadcasting

Hello,

First off I would clean house. I would take all the people who are dragging radio down with their fake, overly slick radio with no opinions and throw them out.

Radio needs to be relevant again and the best way to do this is to make it sexy again. There was a time when radio was what everyone wanted to do, and we got the best and brightest. Right now I feel that is not where we are at. I feel like many people who would have been killer on radio are running blogs. dio and remind them/us that media is about the audience and they need to stay relevant. "Be caller ten" isn't going to cut it anymore. Playing just the right music isn't going to cut it anymore. Getting local and important issues will cut it. We are competing against iPods, cds, tapes, the internet, TV, movies, newspapers and email.

It is not that the audience can't get the information anymore. It is now how we have a take on it and how it can effect the person. Before we crack the mic every day we must remember -what can radio do for our audience. Be relevant and make radio work!

Adam Lundquist
92.9 KJEE radio
Santa Barbara, Ca

I wasn't going to submit to be the next "President of Radio" until last week's revelation that the Obama campaign had pulled online advertising from radio station websites because of questionable content (mostly half-naked ladies).

The Obama campaign's unilateral action indicted the industry as a whole and was my tipping point for entering this campaign. Our industry needs change and we need it today.

We can't wait for the economy to recover. Our way of doing business as the "radio industry" has ended. The economy will recover, however our industry probably won't.

Our industry won't recover unless we take immediate, corrective action.

Within my first 100 days after being elected "President of Radio," I will convene a cabinet of key strategic internal and external change agents. As POR (think POTUS), it is my job to steer the industry through times of challenge and times of prosperity.

During this time of challenge, I will need to be surrounded with forward thinkers and action-takers that are not afraid of change. These thinkers need to be ready to challenge the "veterans" who run the industry. At the same time, these thinkers need to respect the wisdom of those in the business for 40+ years. These men will serve as a great counsel to us.

Some of these change agent positions include:

Secretary of Industry Relations – this position will need to evaluate how we as an industry interact with one another. The RAB will also fall under this person's department and it will be up to the Secretary to reform, disintegrate, or maintain the RAB.

Secretary of Advertiser Relations – this position will work with our administration to interact with Madison Avenue and Main Street on advertising solutions that embrace the power of radio and its audiences to grow business and market share. Do we make it easy to work with us? How could it be easier? Are we writing effective copy? From questions big to small, our industry needs to leader to tell our story advertisers and make sure that radio brands stay at the top of the media mix.

Secretary of Technology – this position will work with Silicon Valley to make sure the AM/FM dial remains integral as the technology with which people communicate and how media is delivered evolves every day.

Secretary of Brand Development – this position will serve as a branding king or queen and an ambassador to the industry to integrate the brand of the radio station across all mediums – on-air, internet, mobile, on-site, and more.

Secretary of History – In order to change our future, we need to embrace and understand our past. We'll bring into being the official radio historian position who will remind us of the great brands of the past like MUSICRADIO WLS, KFMB in San Diego, and more. We can learn many lessons from the past. We just need to make sure they're being taught.

There will be other positions to be added as we determine the needs of these change agents.

After establishing a strong cabinet, as POR, we'll need to take actions.

Most of the actions have nothing to do with Wall Street buzzwords. Most of the actions have to do with solid leadership and strategic plans by internal industry change agents and external influencers.

Our first action is to learn the lessons of the railroad business. If the railroads realized they were in the transportation business, we'd be flying Burlington Northern Airlines. As an industry, we need to realize we're in the media and communications business. We're not in the radio business. We need to build strong brands that cross from transmitter to the third screen. We need these brands to compete in a world where unique, unduplicated content is king. Once we decide we're selling a brand and not a medium, we'll win.

Our second step is to add something dangerous and "can't miss" to our on-air and online presentations. Anybody can play the top 300 songs in rotation. Not anybody can create a compelling weekend or weeklong program surrounding the music. We won't win by simply playing songs people like. Consumers can get that on an iPod or any other service. Only radio can put entertainment around the music and make it dangerous enough that listeners won't want to miss it. This is the same for talk-based formats.

Our third step is to develop a deep bench of talent on all levels.

We need to develop and coach salespeople that are brand ambassadors and not just dealmakers. We need to coach them for 2-3 years, not just for a six month guarantee. They need to understand that selling is a process and about presentations. The churn-and-burn of account managers hurts the industry more than it helps.

It's the same on the talent end. Develop talent to surround the music with entertaining content. Use famous Houston DJ Paul Berlin's model: "Be informative, Be Entertaining, or Be Quiet." This starts with coaching and patience.

Step 4 is to exploit the technology today. Our websites need to be less about the radio station and more about what people expect from a local media website. Use all the tools available to us: video, audio (duh!), pictures, text, and more. We'll need to hire people to develop the content; however our future depends on it as we compete with everything from MP-3 players to blogs to twitter and more. And, we need to stop relying on "half-naked ladies" to provide pageviews. Let's find real, valuable reasons for consumers to exploit our brands online, everyday.

Change is the big buzzword of our political campaigns today. Change is also something needed in our industry today. We can make that change as a group or stand on the sidelines like travel agents did in the late 90s as their industry was left irrelevant by a force majeure.

Mike Paterson
Internet Sales Manager
Cox Atlanta

I’m assuming the President of Radio has dictatorial powers.

I’ll make this plain and simple and endeavor to avoid flowery language.

The following new “laws” will be put into effect immediately.

New Law #1

There must be a live person operating any radio station twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. At least two minutes of every hour must be live and locally generated content. No employee may operate more than one radio station at a time.

This eliminates the tragic and altogether stupid practice of allowing computers to operate our radio stations. It also allows us to once again have a “farm system” for new air talent. If a syndicated show or a voice-tracked air talent is a better programming choice, so be it. You still have to have a live person in the studio to insert at least two minutes of local content.

New Law #2

No air talent may be on the air more than five days per week and no radio employee may work more than forty hours per week. The five-day per week rule does not apply to remotes, live appearances, and special events. The forty-hour per week rule applies across the board.

This prevents the abuse of personnel that is rampant throughout the industry, especially in small markets.

New Law #3

No radio employee may work be forced to work more than one job. If a radio employee agrees to work more than one job they must be paid the full salaries for all positions.

The quality of life for radio employees and the quality of our on air product has been destroyed because too many people have to work two, three, or four jobs for only one salary. This is the most ridiculous and most destructive aspect of modern radio.

New Law #3a

Clusters must maintain at least one full time production/imaging employee for every two radio stations in each market.

New Law #3b

Clusters must maintain at least one full time website/IT/emerging technology employee for every two radio stations in each market.

New Law #3c

Clusters must maintain at least one full time promotions employee for every two radio stations in each market.

New Law #3d

Clusters must maintain at least one full time engineering employee for every two radio stations in each market.

New Law #4

All ratings are banned forever.

This will force radios stations to focus on quality product as opposed to “chasing recall.” It will also force radio stations to relentlessly market and promote themselves. In addition, radio will have to recruit and retain high quality salespeople who build relationships with clients and actually serve as a marketing consultant for those clients.

New Law #5

All radio stations must pay three percent of their annual gross profit to a consortium whose sole purpose is to make sure radio tuners/streaming access are included in everything from cell phones to Ipods to computers to Playstations. This consortium will also be tasked in discovering and developing new ways to deliver our product to more listeners.

Elect me President of Radio and this is what I will do or at least try to do before owners and stockholders have me assassinated.

Jay Nunley
Program Director
WKLC
Charleston/Huntington/Ashland

So everyone’s told you how bad things are. Let me tell you how good things could be.

Here’s the 100-day plan:

• All live human beings on the air, all the time. To make sure you don’t cheat, personalities – note, I said “personalities,” not “jocks,” “announcers” or “talent” – will be required to talk with each other on-air during the transition from one show – note, I said “show,” not “shift” – into the next. Not only are we our audience’s friends, we’re also each other’s (that’s true, right?). Somewhere along the way, interminable stopsets replaced friendly back-and-forth between shows. Seems like an easy choice between those two, at least for me.
• When personalities leave your station, you won’t sweep it under the rug. When a friend moves or a co-worker takes another job – or gets his/her job taken away – he/she get to say goodbye and everyone else gets to talk about it. I’ve heard it’s a nice thing to do.
• “Liner cards” will be replaced by “subtle reminders.” I don’t mind you telling me about my chance to win Mary J.’s Yukon or Chubby Checker’s Studebaker, just make it interesting when you do.
• Personalities won’t just talk more, they’ll SAY more. I would prefer if you tell me how much you DON’T like a song to saying nothing at all. The only way to compete with 3,000 jockless (or may as well be jockless – and I can use that word here because there’s no personality) music services is to talk every chance you get. YOU are as much the sound of your station as Jesse or Leona or, well, Chubby – more than any of them, really.
• Jingles won’t be discriminated against. The jingle is your friend. Get some that really stand out, that make a statement about your station. If jingles don’t make sense for your format, flip to one where they do. Seriously, just do anything to make recorded IDs and promos send the message that us radio guys are 5,000 times more creative than you computer geeks.
• Once an hour, maybe twice, you can play whatever song you want. I said so. Others have stated the importance of the element of surprise. What better way to keep that alive, to keep listeners enthralled, but to play what they don’t expect once in awhile? Which segues nicely into…
• Stations will play as many songs as your listeners have on their iPods. You know you want to. In fact, these days you have to. Leading to…
• Top 40 will no longer be Top 40 but rather Top 400. That’s iTunes’ top 100 + Big Champagne’s top 100 + what’s on your listeners’ iPods + whose myspace and Facebook sites they’re going to + what’s testing + what you’re liking. Plus what other 16,000 ways your listeners are getting their new music. And that leads us to…
• Stations will have a weekly show spotlighting only new music.  And by “new” we don’t mean “out a year already but we haven’t played it yet, so it’s new to us.”
• All commercial breaks will be one minute long. That’s right. One spot, then get your butt back to playing music. And make sure everyone knows this so they don’t switch on you. “In ONE MINUTE…the new Christina Aguilera.” You tell me that, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll even buy a bed from Sleepy’s, never mind listen to the spot. Bringing us to…
• All shows, hours of shows and features of shows will be “sponsored,” thereby making the above possible.
• Weather will be made more interesting. Don’t just say it’s gonna rain, produce a parody of “Umbrella.” Etc. And then to…
• If you can’t make the music better, make it funnier. Parodies of songs shouldn’t be just a sometime, or just a morning, thing. Make listeners expect spoofs all day, every day. Remember, if you produce it, you own it.
• Stations will only give away things listeners can’t buy, or wouldn’t think of buying, for themselves.  Take a tip from early MTV. Give away a house, a party, a year of free living, the overnight job. Or better yet, something neither they nor I have thought of. Moving to…
• Listeners must talk about at least one thing you do every day. And I don’t mean just on the morning show. “I can’t believe Kristy Lee played Myron Floren after Jay-Z.” Or “I can’t believe K109 is giving away the overnight job.”
• Stations will give away the overnight job. Everyone wants to be on the radio. No one likes voicetracking. You do the math.
• Musicologists and other experts will be hired to do what they do best.  Because when you do, they won’t keep calling and emailing you to tell you what you’re doing wrong. Plus, they’ll give you special weekend shows beyond your wildest dreams. Branding you can depend on.
• One of you guys will ask my help in making the above happen.  Because let’s face it, being President of Radio doesn’t pay a heck of a lot. That song should be called “Hail to the Cheap.”

Now, let’s get to work. Ladies and gentlemen, the beat goes on.

Rich Appel
Editor, Hz So Good -
Radio’s Fairweather Friend