NAB Austin - Radio Industry in Recovery
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Here's an observation about radio that I couldn't have made a few weeks ago, but it makes perfect sense now that I know the symptoms.
The radio industry has had a heart attack. It's moving at the lethargic speed of recovery, and whether it fully recovers depends on the adjustments made to its lifestyle.
I believe in metaphors; they demonstrate complex issues in terms that are more easily relatable. The heart attack comparison to radio only came to me after I crumbled under the pain of heart disease on August 27. Surgey and a slow recovery have forced me to reassess my life in a way that is close to the reassessment radio must make - if it wants to move forward and continue with a quality of life that hovers above comatose.
After my eight-day hospital stay, the doctors gave me a thumbs up to attend The NAB Radio Show, provided I use common sense and pace myself. For me, this combination of The NAB Radio Show and R&R Convention 08 was sure to be a memorable event with more internet-related sessions and a much closer focus on selling new media than any previous radio industry-sponsored conference.
The get-together in Austin would, more than any event, tell how serious radio is about making lifestyle changes; or if it was just one more get-together under the veiled premise of another catchy slogan, like the February 2008 Atlanta show's "Bold Signals - On Air, Online, On Site."
Post-show assessment indicates there is hope. But only if the touted adjustments to current practices within radio are followed, and if the prescription for cure - which seemed to flow from every hallway in Austin - is taken seriously.
This radio industry heart attack is as severe as any that has taken out many, much younger persons and industries. Radio cannot afford to dismiss the symptoms of ailment anymore than I, in my ignorant way, denied the symptoms in months leading up to my H.A.
As with any recovery from an illness as debilitating as what radio and I have undergone, movement is slow. What is involved can be complicated. Radio is in a more unfortunate situation by having to move through three stages of recovery; it needs to understand what new media brings to the radio table, it must adjust programming for today's consumer needs, and it has to deliver to advertisers and agencies something that's far different from past requirements.
To discuss the hurdles radio faces in one sitting is much more than I care to accomplish, or you care to digest. Each of three major points will be covered, here at Audio Graphics, as we move through these last days of September.
Let's start the focus of this discussion with a simple observation. David Rehr had my full support when taking the reins of NAB; likewise with Jeff Haley as he stepped into the President & CEO position at RAB. Unfortunately, I have found both to be disappointments in multiple ways. These two industry leaders are guilty of filling the air with what politicians have become so good at doing - placing blame on everyone but themselves. This is best illustrated by reading David Rehr's remarks at The NAB Radio Show in Austin last week.
Here's a little test. Go to the Radio Advertising Bureau's "RAB News Release" page. Read through the 18 entries for 2008 to see if there is anything there that is designed to push radio into the digital future, besides one mention about a radio group being first to earn "Digital Marketing Consultant Accreditation" (April 2008) and that John Potter has been named VP, Interactive Development (April 2008). RAB may be a sales-oriented radio industry organization, but if it doesn't help develop something to sell, then its moves are worthless. (Side note: We'd be farther ahead if other RAB leaders shared John Potter's passion for bringing radio into the future without the rhetoric.)
Today there is really only one topic to address, and it has to do with the radio industry leaders' tendency to ignore opposing views. I cannot think of anything more damaging than to "ignore" people who have opposing views. True leaders are known for listening.
Had radio industry leaders listened (and we're going back to the days when Gary Fries would put out his quarterly "feel good" messages as the radio ship began to sink), the industry would have had more knowledge about the upcoming change in consumer media consumption. Those 235 million weekly listeners that David Rehr spoke so highly of in this year's State of the Industry speech exclude a vast majority of those under 24, as well as a high number of those in the 24-34 age group.
You may also say that over the past decade those 235 million weekly listeners to radio are:
- Showing a TSL drop from 21:30 to 19:00
- Representing a 10.2% reduction in AQH
- Showing a dip of 14.1% in AQH Rating
- Indicating that 2.13% more persons are moving around the dial through Cume Persons
- Even with this increase in Cume, it shows a 2.41 decrease in Cume Rating for radio
While there's no firm way to demonstrate this next point, I think a quick look at US Census Bureau figures will show you why a 3 million year-to-year gain in radio listenership (which sprang from Mr. Rehr's lips with the sound of pride) can be attributed more to population growth than an audience flocking to radio.
Let's be clear about this one major observation: Only the uninformed have ever said that radio is dead. What has been said by those in the know is that radio has a severe case of shedding respect through the production of inferior programming and commercials. These are symptoms of consolidation's attempts to increase profits through attrition of itself into a heart attack. What's happened to radio is similar to the closing of an artery and blood flow to the brain, where oxygen helps us think and stay active. In radio it was a cutoff of money to operate effectively.
The radio industry suffered this heart attack a few years ago. Only now there appears to be this awakening that something is terribly wrong, and that the industry must make changes in its lifestyle if it want's to be part of the living that youth share today.
As radio begins to feel the pain through its heart and out its extremities (called markets of a different size), it must accept that the days of pre-consolidation are gone. What happened over the past few years doesn't matter, and radio must do all it can to improve the quality of its body. (The analogy here is its programming and content served up as advertising.)
You can't relate to the feeling of a heart attack until it stops your world cold. Radio needn't ignore that it has had, and continues to go through, a period where this heart attack metaphor is apropos.
Radio executives need to listen to those persons whom radio industry leaders are now calling "purveyors of negativity." Radio must make the changes that these persons have been recommending for over a decade.
If industry leaders need help in this area, I can only offer this tiny bit of wisdom: Don't ignore advice. For years, doctors (as did my family) told me I was on the wrong path to a healthy life, and I ignored them. They questioned my wisdom, which is exactly what nearly everyone talking negatively about radio industry leaders has been doing since 1996 - questioning their wisdom and trying to point to the cause of radio's ills.
To ignore someone because he or she has a different opinion shows ignorance. One thing I'm sure of is that all radio industry leaders are smart, so it doesn't make sense that they refuse to acknowledge suggestions given to them. Their failing has been to focus on the wrong issues these past few years; i.e.: cutting newsrooms, talent, production staffers, and in focusing on HD Radio. Much can be corrected by a reassessement of what we call our radio industry's lifestyle.
Here's the good news, you can survive a heart attack and live a much better life for many years after. You just need to open your mind to listening and change.
Publisher's Note: Today I'll admit to being wrong. When David Rehr took command of NAB, it appeared to be a move that would shake the radio world. What follows are words I wrote on September 29, 2006, after Mr. Rehr's comments at that year's NAB Radio Show.
As for David Rehr's presentation; viewing it brought to mind the opening scene of "Gladiator," that movie starring Russell Crowe. It images two warring factions facing off - with one leader embodying self-confidence, charisma, determination, and tactical knowledge. The battle's outcome is predicted.
David Rehr has all of the above, combined with a clear understanding of execution and the implications of using new media.
Radio has not launched into a war of survival, but of relevancy. To win, Mr. Rehr shows he's prepared to use organization in a way that was lost to previous NAB administrators. He will redirect many weapons that were placed aside for too many years; among them are communications, focus, purpose, and goals.
...
If Mr. Rehr could start a new folder that concentrates on radio content, give the industry two years and with his leadership it will be back on top.
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From: Maynard M.
What heart attack? Those of us who understand that radio is not meant to compete as a music medium are doing better than ever!
Local, Local, Local...that's the message and it has served us well for 25 years here at KLQP-FM. We make money with a stand-alone 25KW FM station in a county of 8,000 (about 30,000 in the listening area).
I'd love to take a metro station and run it the way we run this one...people would love it. It would be like WCCO AM used to be!! It would make radio 'relevant' once again. |
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