First off let me applaud you for opening up this opportunity to anyone in the industry, and not regulating it strictly to management.  I did not grow up wanting to be a "personality," but I knew I always enjoyed making others around me laugh, and feel some sort of emotion. Here are some thoughts I strongly believe in after "trial and error on my own," along with working for different managerial mindsets, along with reading, and asking countless questions.

1. Let's evoke EMOTION back into our audience. I realize industry leaders have already used terms such as "creating compelling content, be relevant." All these aspects are a part of bringing EMOTION back into our audience, and our stage.  The issue is that most are "talking" opposed to "actually doing."  We must spend more time in the brainstorming process, along with training our generation in really bringing back the energy and excitement that local radio once inspired and did.  If you ask most people what the "DJ talked about," they usually respond:  "I do not like talk, or I don't remember."  This is mainly because over the course of years we have conditioned them to think of us as "a medium that is just there."  Now, with the next generation of technology we must really bring back these cliché words like "relevance," "entertaining," and "compelling content," and REALLY do it and execute so we begin to take steps forward in winning back our audience.  Not everyone can be compelling right? Here's a thought... on to #2.

2. Brainstorming Sessions - I suggest managers, promotion directors, programming, imaging/production, and regular people in the demo who are available.  I remember some of the best ideas I'd come up with were when I was just sitting around with my former PD (Jeff Wyatt-HOT 995) talking about ideas in regards to an angle for on-air.  Take it a step further, the entire staff would sit around and throw ideas onto a chalkboard, whether it be a station promotion or an idea for the AM show. Condition your brain to be a better entertainer and think creatively. This is no different than an athletic swimmer training for competition. The more you practice, the better you become.

3. Environment - Why does everything, or most everything, have to stay off-air? Anything that's relatable needs to be ON-AIR.  Formatics and rules. Who made these up anyhow? A listener does not know what that is.  Like a syringe, we need to inject FUN, and EXCITEMENT back onto our airwaves. This is all a part of building our audio environment, and creating an incredible one for the ones we serve.

4. Video - We have the ability to reach not only our audience but potentially THOUSANDS more online thru this medium. In my first 100 days I would require a video per week to be produced relevant to our audience. It could be anything. A spoof of those "MATCH.COM" ads on MySpace with the girl looking at the screen. You know what I'm talking about. We have made a strong effort in this arena but there is room for growth, and I recommend more video focusing on the purely funny and entertaining.  It doesn't need to be strictly artists interviews, and in-studio segments. Create something our listeners can feel a part of opposed to something they are just watching.

5. Imaging/Commercials - Incorporate our listeners into our everyday elements.  Why not? No one is impressed by the "big voice guy" and "big swoosh" imaging pieces except people that are in radio.  These days I'm not sure if that's impressive anymore, LOL. Why not something relevant in our imaging while it rolls over an intro, for example?  We have the ability to create here.  In my first 100 days I would clean up any ego driven pieces that do not serve our audience and just take up a lot of time.  Relevant messages, entertaining imaging, and entertaining spots that make sense and talk to you as opposed to a salesman selling you.  Besides commercials, obviously sales are being driven online, sponsorships thru audio, video, etc.  But overall, if the product is lacking then we will not have the ability to create more sales. Whether it be a spot buy or NTR effort. We must be more humanistic, and REAL, in this effort in creating spots, imaging elements, everything.  A spot must not be a spot because this is the reason why our demo has been trained to tune out.  NOT exciting. It must be an experience.

In my first 100 days I would ask all of us in every department to asses what we are doing, what we have done, and how have you moved forward with the ever changing conditions of our industry in order to capture our audience?  After, they answer, this is when we "Brainstorm With Each Other" in order to take the next step forward to creating an entity that people are drawn too on from an emotional standpoint opposed to being just a "Radio Station."  I'll save those steps for my next 100 days : )

Julian Nieh
WBBM-FM B96 Chicago
Evening Personality
www.julianontheradio.com
myspace.com/julianontheradio

I believe the radio business needs an injection of heart and soul. Sound simple and sophomoric? Perhaps it does. But, what got us all into this business in the first place? Was it HD technology? Was it to learn how we could ramp up and monetize our new websites and initiate ways to maximize revenue across all our platforms over all regions? I doubt it. We got into this business – I believe most of us did – because radio was happening, it was cool. Radio was fun and exciting, sometimes crazy, sometimes serious and it was a great way to make a living. It was also an intimate and sometimes even magical medium… “Wow, man… did you hear that?!” Radio was cool alright, no doubt. Radio’s ability to create that theatre of the mind thing could inspire one’s imagination to go anywhere, take you to dreamland. Radio had heart… it had soul. That said, I ask you: How cool or imaginative or soulful is radio perceived to be today?

The answer to that – in my mind - is the foundation upon which I would base my first 100 days in office if I were the President of Radio.

1. Radio – its content - has lost its relevance in many ways. It’s somewhat lost in the fog of all the other media and entertainment choices we now have. What I would do is work to instill a spirit of being fearless in the current programming environment. Not to say we should totally eliminate format integrity and go free-form, all shock or anything like that. But, what we DO need is some of the true essence of what made radio great: Imagination, one-on-one intimacy between hosts and listeners, passion for a willingness to be fearlessly creative and RELEVANCE. Do we now RELATE to our audience with what we believe THEY want to hear or are we just entertaining ourselves? Trust me, it’s become mostly the latter.

2. In sales I believe we have lost our relevance - to an extent - as well. We’ve been driven to hit budgets no matter what, and that can take the human element out of the client-station relationship. I get that we’ll not likely change the fundamentals of buying at the national/large agency level but what we CAN do is put a greater emphasis on the VALUE of radio as a value-based medium as opposed to a value-added medium at the market level. I would encourage a more personal sales environment with one last – critical - addition: write copy and produce ads that do not sound like all the other ads with one cliché after another. How many more times can we air commercials like… “Back-to-school time is right around the corner and for all your back-to-school needs, shop at Joe’s Pencil Palace, your back-to-school headquarters for over 35 years with everything on sale now for every student”… (I think you get the idea). Are we kidding? Does anyone really think anyone actually HEARS that kind of crap anymore? We are not being REAL. We’ve become irresponsible. No wonder revenue’s down.

I believe that as an industry we’re losing our ability to be CONSISTENTLY unique and relevant to our listeners. We do the same old, tired out cliché-driven things again and again… and again. Who wants that? Buzzwords like “compelling content,” “localization” and “relevance” mean nothing unless people are willing to really – I mean really – make an effort to DELIVER those things consistently. We must make changes in the day-to-day approach to radio in each community we serve. They’re not all the same. We can’t treat them as though they are. MySpace, Facebook, those avenues of media are RELEVANT to demos who want to communicate and share with their peers. How can we achieve similar radio-based processes of sharing like-minded thoughts? What other things could we – should we - explore that might be relevant to listeners?

A natural disaster is a way for radio to be relevant to a community – for sure. News/Talk stations, other formats too, become the voice of hope and reason when tragedy rages. The heartfelt human connection is made, the soul of radio lives. But what about the day-to-day when there IS no crisis? What are we doing right now that’s so great? Are we attracting new listeners, giving them a reason to drop by? What about appealing to younger demos? What are we doing to engage or embrace them, to turn them on? What about connecting INTIMATELY and sharing and exchanging with our listeners and perhaps even giving THEM a voice?

As President of Radio I’d make my first 100 days an effort to implore us all to assess everything we do, asking:  "why do we do what we do and how might we do it differently?” I’d urge us to strive to echo our communities and truly relate to our listeners in ways relevant to them each and every hour, each and every day. I’d ask too, that we loosen up, step back and challenge ourselves to re-ignite and re-inspire imagination, creativity and that we try to have a little more fun along the way as well. I’d ask that we take off the tight shoes, leave the tie at home and put a little HEART and SOUL back into what we do.

Terry C. Tario - VP/Market Manager
GapWest Broadcasting
Idaho Falls & Pocatello

I cannot recall when a radio panel or speaker was invited unless they were “radio friendly.” (Which may also be read as “people who say what radio execs want to hear.”)

Your offering gives an opportunity to those who have a broader experience with radio and new media to voice an opinion, even if that opinion may counter claims made by radio leadership.

In response to your words “why not YOU for that 10th slot,” I nominate myself. Here’s why.

Having taken my first software course in 1968, then spending 28 years in radio, my perspective has been that radio needs to adopt to new media and not force new media to adopt to radio.

I've voiced these concerns continuously at AudioGraphics.com since 1997.

Beside writing, producing, or acting as talent in over 10,000 broadcast commercials, my radio background includes helping David Sapertstein establish Metro Networks in the 1980s and being part of the management team that created this nation’s 4th sports talk station – WKNR, Cleveland.

I’ve since moved on to new media; specializing in analytics and metrics, online ad buying, and trying to nudge radio off its broadcast mindset because the audience is looking for content presented in a different way today.

Radio sees itself as being pounded by undeserving hammers, and continues to apply a “promotion” approach in nearly every communication with its audience.

This is an overshadowing sign that the industry still doesn’t understand how a person relates to their online environment, and why youth continue to move away from traditional broadcasts.

Most important – and what nobody seems to be talking about – is the new demands placed on radio by media buyers who are knowledgeable in advertising metrics and analytics. This group is growing.

More needs to be said on “the future of selling response.” By allowing me that 10th slot on your panel at Summit 13, this concept could finally be driven home.

Respectfully,

Ken Dardis
SVP Marketing
Spacial Audio Solutions, LLC.
http://www.spacialaudio.com/?page=company 

My name is Dustin Carlson. I currently work for KXTE in Las Vegas as Imaging Director. I’ve been studying and dreaming about radio since I was about 10. I recently passed my 10 year mark in the industry. I’m a child of the digital age. I missed most of the consolidation but have experienced the consequences. I’ve heard many stories about how radio “used to be.”  So when I see headline after headline about how radio is in trouble, my mind goes crazy trying to figure out why. What’s changed (besides new media competition)?

One of the biggest problems is that we’re not having fun anymore, so we’re not passionate. We love what we do, we love the medium and we stick with it in hopes that one day it will get better, but it's killing us.

Here are a few of my ideas on how we can begin to resurrect the magic of radio:

Build a creative atmosphere

I watched a documentary about Google once. Every radio executive should see the same documentary and take what I took from it. I saw a comfortable, relaxed and happy place with low stress. This creates a creative atmosphere. Not brown walls, cubicles and suits. The halls (of music formatted stations) should be a party vibe. There should be laughing, joking and goofing-off all the time. This has a positive influence on every aspect of the on-air product. The fun we should be having would come across in every live break and piece of production on the station.

Divest smaller markets

What’s good in New York is terrible for Boise. The companies are too big. The smaller markets get strangled and can’t compete effectively with the smaller groups who actually spend money in the smaller markets. Often wages are un-livable and duties are defeating. This kills every essence of what a radio station should be.

Invest in Talent

Kill “Voice-Tracking.”  Just because we can doesn’t mean it’s the right answer. It’s hard to find good new talent when the small markets are being tracked by big market talent. This may make for a bigger sound in that small market, but at the end of the day the small market is more community focused and prefers a “less-polished sound.”

Pay your full-time talent a respectable wage. If your midday jock is always stressed out about paying their bills, they’re not having fun. There’s no reason for slave-labor when a station is billing millions every year.

Production Department

Commercials produced by radio stations have become a joke. Radio station production departments should be re-organized and operated like a production house. This should be a creative team that helps the sales department confidently deliver (proper) value to their clients.

Imaging should be separate from commercial production. Combining these positions prevents the talent from creative focus. You need different tools and mindset to give imaging the spice it needs. The focus of imaging should change from “needing the best imaging kit” to promoting and teasing the station while maintaining the flow. Imaging has become too flashy and this dilutes the message. People only really care about the music. Imaging should be informative (the glue), not the entertainment.

Production Studio Equipment

In the digital age, price counts. If you equip your production studio with the “Hyundai” of digital workstations (Adobe Audition and Echo-Mia sound card), you’ll get exactly what you pay for. Nobody understands this but audio geeks, and there aren’t many audio geeks working in radio production departments anymore.

The same goes for microphones and digital effects. Voice-over artists don’t use a $500 Electro-Voice mic, and computer-based plug-ins never compare to an Eventide effects processor.

No reputable production house would be caught dead using anything less than a Pro-Tools HD system (which starts around $10,000 for a base system with no goodies). This plays a major role in the contrast between agency-produced spots and station-produced spots.  With HD broadcasting, all the “digital noise” laced throughout production coming from cheap digital workstations gets amplified through the on-air processing, making imaging and commercials sound even worse. It takes quality digital equipment to get a clean sound that jumps out of the speakers.

If we want to be perceived as professionals we need professional equipment, not the “Fisher-Price” toys found in most of today’s production studios. We don’t need a “Ferrari,” but a “Cadillac” would help produce results that impress clients.

 

We no longer have the tools or the people to “wow” our audience. We have just enough to get by. We need to realize that every market/station is different and will have a different formula for success. Our managers need to spend less time filing reports and filling out paper work and more time managing.

I understand the vision behind the “digital development departments” and the “format labs” but when the budget needs to be cut and we’re loosing talent and support staff to support levels of bureaucracy that end up doing nothing but slowing us down, I have to wonder if we have our priorities straight. Radio used to have the ideas of thousands of independent companies. Now we have 2-5 companies pumping out the ideas of a small group of people, and thousands of mindless drones doing what they're told. We should reverse this trend and return power to the local markets.

I love radio. I love my station and the company I work for. I want to find solutions to our problems and all my experience tells me we need a fundamental change in the way we operate to make this happen. We should be careful to not lose sight of what radio is and invest in creativity, not re-inventing the wheel.

Thanks for listening,

Dustin Carlson
Imaging Director/On-Air
KXTE - Las Vegas

President of Radio, huh? That won't take 500+ words to define, but I'll do my best to embellish my thoughts. It really comes down to some basics… the reasons we all listened to radio from the beginning. It's as simple as "Oh, Wow"!!!! When I first was transfixed by the medium of Radio, it was because I couldn't wait for the next "Oh, Wow" moment. Because of all the pasteurization and homogenizing of Radio over the last couple of decades, we haven't cultivated much talent nor have we spawned any individuals with foresight and imagination and, worst of all, no good ears out there.

I would start by incorporating all of the good things we have learned over the last 40 years instead of relying on the "new and improved" concepts that take hold about every quarter. With the advent of satellite and choices, even digital Radio has an uphill battle so it is a time for "change." As I firmly believe not only radio, but most entertainment follows the political trends…the ebb and flow…cyclical… whatever you want to call it, "these times are a changing."

Whether it is streaming, digital radio expansion, sales and promotions, the bottom line is you have to provide a product worth buying. Radio, for the most part, lost that "Oh, Wow" feeling, except for a few isolated gems that have dwarfed all others.

I lost a programming job that Fred Jacobs helped me get because I couldn't follow the rules set forth by a business man.  I wanted to put my stamp on it to bring back creativity, theatre of the mind and to entertain within a structure, but with an effort towards re-capturing the "Oh, Wow" factor. What I ended up being was a babysitter and a facilitator, which didn't bode well. By the way, that was over 20 years ago and I haven't lost the passion since.

That is the problem with most radio stations these days. They have the same old short lists, the same old tired bored air personalities (nothing to get excited about) and total absence of the "OH, WOW” moment. There is too much reliance on promotional giveaways.

WCSX Detroit does a good job, up to a point, of incorporating all elements regarding the factor. Dovetail all of your resources…become a team... reintroduce your air staff to your sales staff… use everyone's input…hold democratic “everyone's in” staff meetings… go out into public and shake hands and kiss babies… get MORE involved with local and national charities… listener advisory panels comprised of the disenfranchised, not P1s.

The bottom line… I always listened to Radio for the music; the biggest complaint I still get from almost everyone is "it's boring." With iPods, satellite, and the web they don't need us.  Bring ‘em back with music programming… intelligent music programming! Easier said than done, but possible with a little effort. I don't see any effort in that part of the radio business these days.

Todd A. Fowler
Airstaff
97.1 The Point - Las Vegas

My name is dj King Tech from the world famous Wake Up Show ( the longest running hip hop show in commercial radio history ). I was there in the beginning of major radio changes, especially dealing with the urban audience who eventually grew to accept the word "hip hop" as their music and way of life. In the late 80s a new innovative program director named Keith Naftly (kmel s.f.) decided to give two guys named Sway and King Tech a chance at their own show (The Wake Up Show). The main reason: we were so passionate about the music and culture of hip hop. As hip hop grew, so did we as djs / human beings...

We were there during the Oakland fires and also the aftermath of the LA riots. There were times on our show where Bloods and Crips were in the same room. There was no gun fire, nobody killed anyone, and quite honestly we didn't even know they were gang members or ex-felons or whatever. The point I'm trying to make is that it was all for the love of music - the real music! Not what the indies told us to play, not what the promotion staff at the labels was saying was "Hot," no bullshit money making or money taking took place. We loved our jobs and it showed with the community and the people who listened.

Then as the veteran djs started getting fired for music differences or budget cuts, they were quickly replaced with new djs or station staff that understood the new game plan and would not rebel, ask for a raise or ---mannnnn--- even raise their hands to voice their opinions. It was more like "just put me on the air sir, 2 dollars an hour, no problem." But 2 dollars an hour doesn't keep the lights on! As a result, the new dj's and station staff started looking to do things on the side to make money. Turning a blind eye to this was or is as dangerous as getting lions for your zoo and saying we don't have enough food for guys, but hey, at night we will keep the gates open, do what you gotta do! Unfortunately, I've seen all this first hand. So next time someone asks you or a crowd of radio djs or programmers who is killing radio, let's all raise our hands, then put them down and then,,,,,,,,,,, just take 30 seconds with your eyes closed and remember what we felt like the first time we heard Earth Wind and Fire / Tupac / Mary J Blige / Biggie / Al Green / Marvin Gay / Public Enemy / ACDC / LL Cool J / Stevie Wonder or even Nirvana or whatever you felt like the day you said, "I NEED TO BE ANYWHERE NEAR THIS MUSIC!" I LOVE THIS MUSIC, I LIVE FOR THIS MUSIC!!!

Then someone told you it's called the music "Business" my friend. We gotta make money, money, money... The passion and love for the music slowly started to leave and the thoughts of "hey where is my cut" entered our minds!

The listeners knew something was going on but couldn't quite put their fingers on it. But hey, what could they do? Nothing at first, they are just sitting in traffic 7 am or 7 pm or at work listening to the same songs being looped daily except when there were freedom fighters around (the mix show deee jaays). Nope - we killed their freedom too. "So, if you're not caring about me," said the listener, "I'm not caring about you." Hello options = the internet , XM and Sirius, and the ever so famous neighborhood djs mix tape who normally had their ear way closer to the streets than anyone else.

Now it's 2008 and we gotta win their hearts and trust back. Not an easy task since satellite radio has started to improve year to year, the Internet is more powerful and getting faster, man there is even better music sometimes on my dish / direct tv, iTunes etc...

I think I've gone over my limit here -- so I'm going to give you a few suggestions

1. Make sure you have veteran djs along with new school djs ( finding the best in your area may be with dj contests, hey that's how I ended up in radio). The djs are the soul of the station to me.

2. Make sure your community/listeners believe you and your air personality... jokes and games are o.k. but doesn't sink deep in the long run. It needs to be a little like Edutainment = entertainment and education mixed with 100% great music --- now the percentage used here depends on the m.d or p.d. or the various djs and their knowledge of the local community/city/clubs/schools etc... For example if an important figure has been killed, or there was a huge fire in your community, you can't crack the same jokes as usual...

3. Make sure everyone from the On Air staff to the guy working in the mailroom has genuine love for the music, the community and the station

4. Dont let the label always dictate the single. We made a killing years ago picking our own singles off the albums that fit our market. It's not hard to do, and make the station sound unique and different than the competitors.

5. Open the front doors to the artists in your area. Many times they feel like the station is like a fort and impossible to reach. These guys are your possible future stars. For an artist, to hear their song on the radio still feels like a dream. They will become your biggest supporters, telling everyone in their school to the Internet to listen for their song. I am not talking about every artist, but the guys who seem to have their stuff together and are making good music.

Anyways, I can keep going and going. I am not trying to sound negative at all here, just expressing how I see things and what we can do to possibly make it better. I hope these suggestions reach you and the right people. I've always loved radio, thats why I am still a part of it. Appreciate your time.

dj king Tech
experience in radio-- (WakeUpShow)
1990 to 1994 - kmel in san francisco
1994 to 2000 - kkbt in los angeles
2003 to present kpwr in los angeles

check out www.wakeupshow.com

Our judgment day has come in radio. Soon, we’ll no longer be relevant in most of our listener’s lives. For the ones who still hold us in high regard, and revere us--we thank them for their continued patronage to us. But alarmingly --we are becoming completely irrelevant to a future generation of users because we fail to grasp a single concept:

We are too stuck on ourselves to give our listeners exactly what they want, when they want it.

In what other media, do you have to wait until the media deems it necessary, to receive the content you desire? In television, you can TiVo what you like and enjoy it when you want. When it comes to magazines, almost all provide online versions of their printed format at no cost. The same applies to newspapers. The internet provides complete control over content and choice. Yet, radio is the last medium where our consumers are at the mercy of having to wait to hear their content of choice.

It’s time to destroy the ideal that Marconi built, and start fresh. What comes through the transmitter and over the speakers will soon need to become ‘second fiddle’ to what radio stations provide. Our entire platform should move to the internet and mobile devices, and be able to provide our users with their own ability to control how our brands sound.

Instead of talking ‘to the masses’ through a microphone, we should be focusing immediately on how we can start talking to individuals one by one, and addressing their needs and pairing them with advertisers and services that are able to match their desire for control and variety. In a sense---we must ‘hyper market’ ourselves and our clients to meet their individual goals.

For too long, old white men who cannot tell the difference between social media and jpeg’s, and wav files have controlled our fates. They routinely focus on pacing for the next quarter, as opposed to where they should be looking: pacing for the next quarter century. Why is no one buying an HD radio? Because nobody bothers to invest in creating content that will drive demand for the hardware. Would every home have a PC or Apple computer if it weren’t for the software? Would you watch TV if there were only three channels, and they were not any good? Doubtful. (or at least I hope you won’t)

If radio plans to survive this impending doom, a complete overhaul of what we do must be laid out and achieved within the next five to seven years. While we’ll continue to provide a terrestrial signal that anyone can access with a radio, what our business must become is a marketplace and full service provider of content, entertainment, and information. And it’s not just the ‘suits’ that are responsible.

We have raised a generation of talent who now approach their second or third decade in this business who cannot be television stars. They cannot multi-task or grasp the reality that we are more than what comes through the speakers. Each and every programming person who receives a full time salary with benefits must be able to shoot video, create appealing graphic design, write basic computer codes and layouts for their own web pages, deliver immediate and professional breaking news stories, use mobile devices for immediate feedback and strategy, and most of all—still carry an ability to perform at an optimum level. It wouldn’t hurt if most of them would lose a few pounds and dress appropriately.

As for the administration and revenue portion of our business: we must utilize and invest ourselves into also understanding how to deliver results for our clients through digital media. This includes smart concepts with our station websites, producing basic television commercials in house to provide a visual medium for them, and to force our clients to abide by the same rule that we will now follow: it’s not about you…it’s about your customer.

Our users must be able to go to our radio station websites will full access to our playlists, and other formatic playlists as well. There, they can create their own content, just like they do on their iPod. We must begin to employ strongly skilled computer programmers who can make this content available, and integrate our personalities, local market information, station imaging, promotional concepts, and advertising into this mix. It’s still a free product for the listener. We just have to get smarter about how we deliver our platform and how we can capitalize on it financially.

Marconi did us well for the last 100 years with his stolen invention. But it’s time is drawing to a close. We have the technology to advance who we are and what we do to a new platform that will ensure our next 100 years.

As The President of Radio, I would propose and implement the following agenda during my first 100 days:

1. Create educational facilities that teach professionals how to embolden all aspects of our business. Including sales, web, mobile, HD radio, engineering, and talent.

2. Invest mightily in creating exciting and original HD Radio content in every market that creates the buzz to drive hardware sales. I would also implore automakers to ensure that every vehicle rolls off the line with our hardware integrated in those vehicles.

3. Destroy all existing radio websites, and re-launch them with social networking sites complete with access to all available content that the station provides with mandates to provide that ‘local’ flavor that our users crave and make it available to mobile devices.

4. Create a mandate that radio stations become full service content and entertainment providers, regardless of formats and deliver them immediately to every mobile device that chooses to utilize our brand.

It is the most daunting and difficult task we have ever faced in our medium. If you doubt this doomsday scenario, give yourself a reality check: line up 100 people ages 18-34 and ask them, “When was the last time they went to the store to buy a radio?”

Then go back to the top of this essay, and read it again.

Jay Deacon
Digital Media Coordinator
Citadel, Grand Rapids, MI
APD/Afternoons -WKLQ FM

Success is long-term and increased profitability...

Community respect from both listeners & clients... And a happy & growing staff. It is a staff that is adaptable, enthusiastic, confident, creative & innovative... A staff that is looking for opportunities, rather than just problems. A staff that is looking toward the future!

Everything done must be from a “listener-oriented” marketing standpoint... Perception is reality. How do listeners, and potential listeners, in the stations’ target audiences perceive the stations? How do the stations want the listeners to perceive the stations? What do the stations do so that the listeners perceive them that way in the future?

GET THE LISTENERS & THE CLIENTS WILL FOLLOW!!!

This builds responsiveness instead of passivity... This put intrusiveness to work... This builds client results... This builds profitability and opportunity.

How to do this?

• Targeted formats that fill a certain niche in the marketplace.

• Knowledgeable, localized personality announcers, who make listeners “feel the fun” they have in their job… Not just announcers who talk.

• Appropriate timely contests, giveaways and promotions that build responsiveness.

• Proper, pertinent local news coverage, not just long or repeated newscasts.

• Community involvement & betterment projects, sometimes done at no-charge by the stations & the team.

• Excellent, locally written, and enthusiastically produced commercials!

• Excellent internal staff to cheerfully handle visitors and phone calls.

• Professional office staff to control bookkeeping, logs, billing and affidavits etc.

• “LIVE” Broadcasts in many different locations for all kinds of events.

• A professional, properly trained sales staff whose first goal is to develop three things:

1. Empathy

2. Expertise

3. Problem-solving skills.

Service oriented is the key!

• Management that is willing to adapt for the future! Management which is calm, confident and level-headed. Management who is willing to get down in the trenches and get totally involved with ALL aspects of the radio stations, yet understanding the tremendous importance of delegation… Of giving the staff the freedom to do their jobs within guidelines while having fun and growing! Management that is willing to share future success with the staff… In financial terms and in new opportunities!

• Management that demands three things:

1. Staff input on all major decisions

2. Staff loyalty: to each other & the vision

3. Staff who decide to get on the team and be a key part of the future or are willing to remove themselves from the team and get on with their life!

Ron Revere
Market Manager
Red Rock Radio
WLMX-FM / WXCE-AM / WCMP-FM / WXCX-FM / WCMP-AM