NAB’s Phone-y FM Chip Diversion

Before this piece is over I will try to offer you some rational and strategic conclusions about the current National Association of Broadcasters plan to needlessly expose radio stations to $1 billion in added music royalties annually to settle with the RIAA.

I’m going to name names.

Delve into possible motivations for you to consider and then offer a prognosis for what is likely to happen.

First, an update.

Any legislative action on this issue is dead while Congress returns home to campaign for reelection.

What’s ironic is that what the radio industry is likely to observe after election day is a Congress more sympathetic to the interests of the radio industry. Of course you know that, right now, Congress is about split evenly between defending the interests of local radio and standing up for the music industry.

Here’s what is likely to unfold:

You see NAB CEO Gordon Smith stand up before the NAB Radio Show and champion FM chips for all cell phones. Now that’s a popular issue with radio execs. FM chips are already in many cell phones and would have to be unlocked.

But the Consumer Electronics Association is bandying around a new study that shows “most” consumers surveyed are not interested in having FM tuners in phones and 80% do not support a government mandate to force manufacturers to put these chips into mobile devices.

I’d say the CEA got their money’s worth out of their own study. However, I’d prefer to use mine.

Look around.

See which young (or increasingly older) mobile device user is craving an FM chip in their mobile phone. Where some carriers offer it, it is not making a big splash. Where Apple features it on the Nano – the earth has not moved.

Can it hurt radio to have an FM chip on mobile devices?

Probably not.

Will it make even a small difference in radio listening?

Not likely – for all the reasons we discuss in this space not the least of which consumers use their phones differently than a Walkman and have different attention spans than portable radio carriers of the past.

And I’m not even mentioning the tremendous tide of repeater radio, syndicated and voiced tracked non-local programming. I guess I just did.

But the NAB under one of the most dangerous CEOs it has ever had – former Senator Gordon Smith – has retreated from his public insistence that radio had better make a deal with the record industry before the evil CRB gets involved.

That went over like a lead balloon with radio people – the vast majority of whom are against the extra royalty tax even if they can’t find one leader with the balls to stand up for them and lead the fight.

The NAB knows this.

Sly Smith is going to deliver a favor to his old buddy, Senator Orrin Hatch, because in my opinion Smith has more loyalty to Hatch than he has to a radio industry he hardly knows and certainly doesn’t understand.

Sly Smith is an able opponent.

That in and of itself says a lot. Your NAB CEO is radio’s opponent.

What’s up with that?

Thus, the talk you are hearing and reading about to divert attention away from this unpopular maneuver to settle with the music industry on radio’s dime by waving the FM digital chip flag.

Radio broadcasters are desperate for help to get into new media. They erroneously think streaming music on a cell phone is the way. The NAB is fueling that desperation. This guy Smith is good – at politics.

Gordon Smith is playing the FM chip card to divert attention to what he and the NAB are really going to do.

Here are my predictions – and they are in print and available until the end of time over the Internet. I’ll stand up. Hold me accountable. So let’s see if I am reading the politics and strategy right.

1. The FM chip issue will get nowhere in spite of the rah-rah talk by Smith and the NAB at their convention.

2. The move will be on to make a deal even as Congress leans more in the direction of radio’s interests after the November election.

3. No radio leader will step up to rally the industry’s interests – they are all weak. Advantage: Interloper Smith.

4. The NAB will cloak a vote on this issue with their executive board as being democratic by asking their "duly" elected representatives to poll their constituents. The NAB will never allow a direct vote by all radio owners using a third party accounting firm (NAB represents only 50% of America's radio stations) because the issue of more royalty taxes will overwhelmingly lose with radio people.

5. Cumulus, Clear Channel, Citadel and the other not too helpful owners will suck it up and support their man Smith. These highly leveraged companies can simply throw it on top of the other expenses that they routinely take on such as Farid Suleman’s new digs in a high-end Miami office building – even as he is squeezing the last penny out of employees and firing talented people.

6. The NAB will purport that the people’s will shall be done and that the radio industry wants to make peace with the record labels and then you can start looking to pay your share of the $1 billion. Did I say $1 billion? Read on.

7. $1 billion will go up to $2 billion and beyond once the cat is out of the bag. Bank on it.

The NAB has turned on its own before – successfully.

At the last minute, they helped attach a provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which was aimed primarily to regulate the phone business. That add-on that even very aware radio people didn't see coming was the legislation to make radio consolidation happen. You see where that got us.

So, I call out the NAB for being the Benedict Arnold's that they are even if they like to hold warm and fuzzy radio conventions and rally the troops around patriotism, motherhood and FM chips in phones.

And I say this sadly but with all due respect – I really do – the radio industry has only itself to blame for allowing the NAB to hijack their future (again) without even a whimper of opposition from any radio executive resembling a leader.

Shameful.

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The Next Generation of Listeners

I recently heard former Governor Howard Dean analyze the present political atmosphere as the establishment’s last stand.

Politics is politics and I’m going to try to put that aside in looking at something he went on to say that rings true if applied to the media business.

Dean, a Democrat and former presidential candidate, was criticizing his arch rivals the Republicans and the Tea Party movement. Again, not looking to get involved in all that for this purpose, he went on to say that the next generation would reject any attempts to restrict gay rights or attempts to impede immigration.

These are certainly two super charged issues and Dean’s comments reminded me of working with college students at USC.

We often look at the world through our own eyes and experiences. Radio people think there will always be 24/7 radio and record labels apparently think they can get the same high profits for selling music that they once earned for selling vinyl or CDs.

The generation that is now coming of age – Generation Y – is reshaping everything. It is strong in numbers at about 70 million and the last Gen Y’er has already been born but hasn’t made it to college yet.

If you’re looking for a political fight, you’re not going to get it here. My mother, a Democratic ward worker in her day, always reminded us that you’re not likely to talk anyone out of their political beliefs.

But there are some things worth considering about the next generation as it pertains to media.

1. They, indeed, have more open attitudes about immigration because they have likely embraced immigrants who are their friends in person and on Facebook. As a professor I can tell you that college students care very little about racial divides that talk radio obsesses over. They see the world in one color of humanity – a characteristic of which we parents should be very proud.

2. Sexual preferences are personal decisions that are openly supported in large part by this generation. Of course, there are exceptions. There is more lesbianism on campuses, more gay relationships. Gen Y is just fine with this. Listen to their music which is the soundtrack of their lives and “I Kissed a Girl” is more than a song, it is a marker of change.

3. Number one and two above means that the kind of issues – political and societal – that are the fuel of talk radio stations will never compel the next generation to become a listener. Howard Stern, radio's famous shock jock, means nothing to Gen Y. If they want shock, they’ll kiss a girl or dress like Lady Gaga or be Rihanna. This is fundamental to content providers who want to find the next way to engage an audience. Politics, intolerance that surrounds the immigration issue and restricting sexual behavioral choices will likely not fly with them.

4. The listener of the future is also very civic-minded. I have said this many times and yet media executives make short shrift of it. The next generation cares what their stars, singers and friends are willing to do to help the environment, lend a hand to others and build a better sense of community. Look no further than Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who gave $100 million in Facebook stock to the troubled Newark, NJ public school system after getting to know charismatic Mayor Cory Booker. As The New York Times put it, Zuckerberg has “no particular connection to Newark … But in July he and Mr. Booker met at a conference and began a continuing conversation about the mayor's plans for the city, according to people familiar with their relationship." The Harvard dropout did have a particular interest in civic issues.

The point being that understanding our own business is not going to be as critical in the emerging digital media world as being an expert at understanding the changing consumer.

To do so would mean adapting to their interests which are polar opposite from older talk radio listeners.

Extend this further and any station playing music is competing (poorly) with an iPod unless it provides live and local people that can relate to Gen Y the way baby boomers and their parents were able to relate to radio, TV and journalism people.

Steve Jobs – who took one college semester before dropping out – is the gold standard as far as I am concerned for understanding the next generation. He’s a complex man and no personal role model other than to see how he has built at least three businesses (including Apple twice) by having a better understanding of the youth market than any one else.

Jobs may have this ability in his DNA.

I am suggesting that the rest of us can acquire it by more keenly observing this revolutionary new market than only channeling the views and policies that worked before 2000.

Success in the growing mobile Internet is directly proportional to how willing we are to see it through the eyes of a young generation that has singlehandedly redefined much of society through social media and the Internet.

Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill is famous for saying “all politics is local”.

To adapt that memorable phrase to a media industry on the verge of monumental change, “all media is live and local” and must reflect the social, political and civic differences of the next 70 million listeners and viewers now coming of age.

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The New Listener’s Hierarchy of Needs

In psychology there is a theory called Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Abraham Maslow’s 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation identified self-actualization, esteem, love and belonging, safety needs, physiological needs.

As today’s consumer morphs and technology spurs alterations in their behavior, it has occurred to me that the media needs of humans has not only changed but their needs and priorities are changing – important for content creators and marketers who want to follow them to the digital Promised Land.

It’s fair to say in the past -- say 1960’s and 1970’s – a consumer's media need primarily included radio and television. To have a radio to be connected to their rock and roll music and news and information. And then a TV to enjoy arts and entertainment as it developed in color.

Even in the 1960’s reading a newspaper was optional compared to, say, the 1940’s when consumers bought newspapers on the street corner to read “Extra” editions to learn about the latest war news. It’s debatable whether radio or TV would be first on the 1960/1970 hierarchy of needs list but suffice it to say they were interchangeable.

I thought you’d enjoy my view of today’s consumer’s hierarchy of needs in light of the digital revolution, new media, the Internet, filesharing, social networking and the like. Keep in mind I am observing the next generation because at 70 million strong and coming of age this is a bellwether group.

So here are Del Colliano’s Hierarchy of Media Needs as of this moment:

1. Text Messaging

Take away any other device, any other connection to today’s world of communication and a Gen Y’er could probably survive. Take away their cell or smartphone with its ability to text message and you have created tremendous anxiety.

Interestingly, text messaging is not content creation such as radio formats or that magazine articles offer – it’s a way to stay connected. Moreover, I believe texting is a replacement for telephone conversations in this generation. Parents of Gen Y’ers please observe, wouldn't your children rather text you then call?

The voice call is a goner. Skype with video is a keeper. FaceTime, the new Apple iPhone feature makes mere voice calls seem like communicating by antiquated telegraph.

The customary mobile carrier texting charge of $20 is assumed and accepted by everyone even if their parents are paying the cell phone bill. In other words, without the ability to text, today’s consumer is anxious and disconnected from their peer groups. Mobile carriers fell into this one because they provide nothing but connectivity and the next generation does the rest.

Still, text messaging is your silent competitor.

2. Facebook

One could argue that Facebook trumps text messaging and I would be up for that debate, but to live without Facebook in the world today is like living on a desert island all alone. Facebook is simple and because everyone is on it, it provides a means for communication that is extraordinary.

Facebook is texting institutionalized.

Facebook also allows for the self-absorption that permeates our society today and in fact promotes it.

Example: by counting and displaying how many friends one has. In reality, I have only had a handful of best friends in my real life but lots of acquaintances in my virtual world. Yet by counting and displaying the number, it redefines what "friend" really means.

Also, sharing pictures is simply the modern way of showing someone else a picture album or making them sit through a slide show – a digital improvement to say the least.

Facebook defines Gen Y and even though its founders have opened it up to everyone on the planet (over 65’s are the biggest group of new Facebook accounts currently), Facebook is the pivotal communications point.

By the way, when you look at the percentage of membership to Facebook compared to say MySpace or others, number two is a very distant number two.

Social networking will define Gen Y – not the technology that enabled it.

3. Filesharing

Record labels don’t have to be ashamed that they had their ears pinned back by an entire generation that broke into the record store and stole their music.

Filesharing has helped quench Gen Y’s thirst for music discovery that was not being fed by music radio stations. You’ll remember short playlists have been a staple of radio program directors to get ratings. When you sell out the listener for the audience research company’s methodology to win ratings, you wind up with unhappy listeners.

Don’t look now but the radio industry is doing it again – pandering to People Meter drive-by ratings knowing full well that listeners can find plenty of music on their own online and at the iTunes store.

4. The iPod

Before Apple invented the iPod, portable MP3s were not a threat to the record industry or radio. Apple made them cool, portable and intuitive. Apple's iTunes store was where music lovers could buy legal music for a reasonable price – 99 cents. Now, iPods are loaded with all kinds of music from differing destinations.

They are a portable jukebox or to the next generation what a Walkman might have been to the rest of us. The big difference is an iPod user is in control of the playlist -- when the music plays, if it plays and for how long it plays.

And no commercials.

5. The Laptop and Internet

The base station for all the above needs reside on laptops and connectivity to the Internet. From there, websites will go mobile on iPads and other portable devices. The iPhone and android clones have become enablers of the needs described herein. Without a computer and the Internet, arguably the rest of today’s needs for Gen Y could not have developed.

Before we end, look at what did not make the new consumers Hierarchy of Needs list.

Radio – it hurts, but only in RADAR studies can you find tons of radio listeners. In the real world, they are casual listeners at best just as station owners have in fact become casual programmers cutting live and local programming for financial savings.

CDs/vinyl – the record or CD is dead. Music is alive. The labels don’t seem to know the difference. The need is not for CDs. It is for music discovery.

Print – No way. Gen Y and many of the rest of us have become as disinterested in print publications in direct proportion to how interested publishers are in cutting expenses and firing reporters.

Someday soon you may see iPads on the Hierarchy of Media Needs. It is the killer app. Wait until you see how many iPads Apple sells at holiday time and next year (Full disclosure: I am an Apple shareholder). Still, iPads are on everyone’s holiday gift list.

In the end, let’s not make this the last time we actually think about today’s consumer’s hierarchy of needs because understanding it allows our creativity to be inspired and energized to meet them.

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Radio’s Believe It Or Not

I love Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

You do, too, from what you tell me because I have adapted the Ripley format to the sideshow currently going on in the business you and I love so much – radio.

On the real Ripley website you can find video of a couple being married by a robot.

A three year old Chinese girl who drinks liquor and smokes after surviving a car accident and a coma.

And a violinist who actually plays the instrument during brain surgery.

But I’ve got all that beat this time with what radio consolidators are up to – real life stories that are hard to believe but true.

In other words, Radio’s Believe It or Not.

• A Station That Requires Recycling Trash Over Programming

It’s not just the three big “C” consolidators who have lost their way, take Millennium Radio, please.

They apparently have serious issues with recyclables going into the wrong cans at their Jersey shore offices. It resulted in the VP of Engineering sending a stern email to the staff recently attaching a Monmouth County (NJ) Planning Board brochure about recycling detailing the rules of dumping trash.

Then the employees who just launched an AM oldies station and had a lot of format-related problems suddenly got a homework assignment:

“All Shore employees will be getting a “project” in their mail boxes, this project IS REQUIRED and will have to be turned in at a REQUIRED meeting next week (time and day TBD)."

As a horrified insider told us, the remote voice tracking is not working and instead of trying to work on doing better shows or fixing the rush job of segue tones, management mandated a recycling project instead.

By the way, the voice tracking is saving a $10 an hour live, local jock for Millennium.

Maybe it’s time for management to be recycled?

Just sayin'.

• Voiced-tracked Hurricane Warnings From Past Storms

Believe it or not, that is what American-owned Inter-Island Communications “Hott 107.5” in Bermuda (That’s right, two “T”s in HOTT) apparently did. This tip came from the Bermuda Weather Service where recent hurricane Igor brushed the island and had residents on edge.

But all of a sudden the weather service started getting calls from panicked Bermudians about “another” hurricane coming “this weekend” even though the nearest tropical storm was 1,900 miles away and not of immediate concern.

As it turns out, “Hott 107.5” the top rated station in Bermuda was replaying old weather forecasts. In a nation so sensitive to hurricanes, the most popular station on the island apparently let their local listeners down so they could save money and run an automated feature.

I don’t know about you but if owners are so hell bent to do voice tracking (which will eventually kill them off anyway), they can find a way to be responsible for what goes on their air so as not to panic the public.

• HD Programming That Is Off the Air for Weeks At a Time

One of my “repeater reporters” fighting for truth, justice and exposing the sham of consolidation, took a ride within 100 miles of Springfield, MA – in all directions to check out HD radio.

This radio pro held nothing back after buying five HD radios:

“Reception sucked. Programming sucked. I don't know where two of them are. I don't care. I also spent more than a year visiting retailers every month to see what the reaction is. It isn't. I've stopped that since retailers have stopped carrying all but aftermarket stuff for the car. Even those have dwindled and will continue as carmakers integrate everything into a main control center.

“By far the best one is the Sony Tuner. The HD sucks like all of them but the analog is the best I've ever seen. Even as good as the Sony is, technically, it gets used for a few minutes every few months. There's nothing to listen to.

“Did I mention the stations don't care, either? The Clear Channel stations here often have digital down for days, even weeks, at a time”.

The shame of it all is that in spite of questionable technology, HD radio failed because the final system came to market too late and then radio operators showed potential HD listeners what they thought of them by ignoring HD programming.

• Lew Dickey Thanks the Wrong Programming Team

Nobody ever called Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey stupid – maybe dark and uncaring, but stooped? Not Lew.

He sees other major groups dropping formats left and right to switch to tight playlist hit radio formats that the People Meter just eats up. These stations get played in public and PPM wearers pick up encoded signals whether they are listening or not.

So Dickey gets the improved ratings for KCHZ, Kansas City that he was looking for and the first thing he does is issue his team this congratulatory memo:

“Congrats to Jan (Jeffries) and our talented team in KC led by Maurice Devoe on winning this important Top-40 battle in KC through product innovation. Innovation in all aspects of our business is core to our culture of continuous improvement and the only way we will build a sustainable competitive advantage. Our “I” concept is just another example of Cumulus innovation driving success”.

Innovation?

Dickey didn’t get that one past his employees who snagged Uncle Lew on this disingenuous memo.

Turns out Dickey needed to credit CBS for discovering the high cume/high rotation/PPM hit radio format.

They were the innovators – not Cumulus.

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What Radio Should Be Doing on the iPad

Okay, we’ve talked about the future of the iPad for years now. That’s right, I told you, my readers, it was on the way over a year before it was introduced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Now on to what radio, the record business, publishing and TV should be strategizing.

First, this quote from The Economist that I think sets the stage:

“THE advertisement for Newsday’s iPad application starts blithely enough. A man in a shirt and tie sits in the kitchen, reading the New York newspaper on his tablet computer. He turns the device on its side and watches the live feed from a traffic camera. Then a fly lands on the table. The man quickly raises the iPad and smashes it down, shattering the glass. The ad implies that the iPad is superior to old-fashioned print in all sorts of ways, just not every way. It is a joke—but also a good summary of how newspaper and magazine outfits have come to feel about Apple’s product in the eight months since it was unveiled”.

It hasn’t even been a year since Apple’s iPad has been in the hands of consumers with so many options and already the iPad promises to be the content delivery system of the future with all its advantages and a few disadvantages. Some analysts estimate that over 20 million iPads will be sold in 2011 alone.

You’ll see the expected ego fight between media titans and Steve Jobs. I’m betting Jobs will out maneuver them. He just knows what works with this new generation -- not that his ego is any smaller.

Sports Illustrated got in early with impressive graphics.

You’ve all heard the story of Wired selling 24,000 paid apps at $5 a piece the first time it tried paid subscriptions.

But as The Economist points out, Time is starting to hold back content from its free website. This is the sign of a confused plan going forward.

HBO is going to try “TV Anywhere”. Their own Hulu. It won't work.

Nor will individual sites by TV networks or content producers who want to control the delivery system. It would be as if a TV network could have previously aired content only over its own televisions. Without diversity from -- yes, competition -- that model would never have worked.

Rupert Murdoch wants pay walls up even on local newspapers that aren’t very compelling, addictive and unique. He's laying an egg with that one.

Don’t even go where The New York Times is going in January – a metering system that will punish readers of The Times who read a lot and let the casual reader see a handful of stories for free each day.

All these ideas are worth trying, even though in my opinion, few of them are going to work.

At least there is the recognition that the iPad has already been adopted by consumers as their TV, radio, newspaper and movie screen. Perhaps you saw this coming if you were the parent of a college age student who started watching “TV” on their laptops a few years earlier. Now with the iPad, those laptop TVs just got smaller and even more portable.

Needless to say other consumer electronics companies are rushing to get into the space Apple will occupy as chief transmitter of content to cool devices. And no doubt clueless media executives like NBC Universal’s Jeff Zucker are going to continue to insist that 99 cents for a TV show is too little.

In fact, consumers think it is too much.

What a disconnect.

Sadly, the radio industry is trying to play catch up with old fashioned websites and doesn’t understand that radio will have to reinvent itself as audio, video and text rolled up into an iPad. That terrestrial radio is still a viable business for now if it is live and local but it will not be the same business on a portable consumer electronic device like an iPad.

So, with that in mind, a few observations about what radio, the music industry, television and publishing can do to optimize their inevitable iPad presence sooner rather than later:

1. Don’t duplicate -- innovate.

That is, restricting traditional media’s efforts as brand extension to an iPad will fail. I’ll say it again. Trying to cram TV onto an iPad just to deliver it to millions of mobile devices will not maximize the audience or profit potential.

New content will need to be developed for iPad delivery. However, media outlets with solid brands can use their expertise in creating new and separate content in these brand areas for iPad delivery.

2. Think of the iPad as a mini-website and you’re done.

I’m afraid that’s what media executives think. The iPad is its own experience not a small website. In fact, while you can view your favorite websites on iPads, it is the handheld experience that begs for innovation.

Sports Illustrated is on the right track. Look to the major pro sports to figure this out first. I’m betting they will get it right as well.

3. Everything starts with social networking.

The thing that scares me the most about media executives (besides their affinity to imitating Gordon Gekko) is that they are missing step one – start by building a social network.

I take this advice seriously. My new paid subscription website which will debut in about two weeks or less is built for the members and their interests first. The topics, the presentation, the two-way communication – it all matters as much if not more than the stories I write.

For media execs, take heart that social networking is the revolution that matters most and in 20 years when historians look back, they will not recognize the advent of the Internet alone or even the mobile Internet. It will be social networking that will be looked at as the digital revolution.

In present terms, to those who can differentiate between the Internet, websites, filesharing, streaming and the other distractions that confuse sound strategic thinking, will go the victories.

The iPad is a cool portable device but its real purpose is social networking enabler.

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After FM, Where Does Radio Go?

You’ve no doubt been reading about the rush that has been going on of late as owners are porting their AM radio stations over to FM.

Bonneville was one of the early pioneers of moving AM brands to FM because, frankly, listeners have migrated over to FM. In fact, they migrated a long time ago.

It is remarkable but one thing has not changed – listeners will listen to AM radio if they want to hear what the station is broadcasting. These available AM listeners do tend to be older and the move to FM makes sense if a brand is worth protecting.

Stop right there.

Fast forward another five or ten years and ask yourself where will great FM radio brands be connecting with audiences then – online, on cell phones, iPads or still on the FM band?

While moving valuable listening brands from AM to FM appears to be a no-brainer, one has to wonder why it took 20 years for this migration.

There are several interesting points:

1. A great brand is a great brand and while an FM signal doesn’t guarantee an audience without excellent programming, being on FM is not enough without an excellent brand (not repeater radio, heavily voiced tracked stations without community presences and live and local operations).

2. I believe even young listeners would have found the AM band if they had a reason. It was the radio industry in its infinite wisdom that assumed that FM would be for music because it is in stereo and AM would be for news/talk because it is mono. Actually, that assumption helped start the migration decades ago when young listeners actually knew what an AM station was. Ask a college kid now and you might find that you are horrified with their response. Did it have to be this way?

3. A solid FM brand does not need to be streaming on the Internet. Period. The very successful WBEB-FM, Philadelphia owner Jerry Lee stopped streaming because it was a poor return on investment (i.e., royalties). And, he was only picking up a very small amount of listening to add to his number one ratings. Over a year since Lee pulled the plug and WBEB is still number one in the Philly PPM. No stream.

4. Study a guy like Lee and I do because he was my first employer in radio. Lee in essence has become a mega millionaire many times over with essentially one radio station – 101.1 – not even a great signal. In fact, a lousy one. Lee flirted with owning WFIL-AM after its heyday and then dumped it. He returned to one FM station – over-the-air – and a license to print money even today. Even in a recession. Even while everyone scrambles around to dabble in new media. How could that be? Blaise Howard and a series of great GMs didn’t hurt. PDs like Chris Conley and Chuck Knight. Bill Moyes as a researcher spending a lot of his time successfully fending off competitors like Greater Media most recently.

I know what you’re thinking.

Jerry (me), make up your mind. Should radio be in new media or remain a pure over-the-air venture?

My mind is made up.

Radio should offer the best product and service to its listeners. Owners should invest in research – they don’t. In marketing – very little. In advertising/promotion – are you kidding, who wants to spend that kind of money. That’s how Lee has done it for decades, still does it and no one has figured it out.

Very few want to pay attention to him.

Lee, now in his seventies, is a man of many interests but he never sold out to the consolidators even when they could have made him richer. He has a passion for the process of being number one. I’ve known him a long time and I can’t say he has ever lost his interest in radio.

One station – that outperforms others by far.

So, what it tells me is that if you want to observe Lee, you can learn a lot. And you’ll also find your answer about radio’s role in the mobile media world.

Shall we?

• Terrestrial radio should by and large be live and local. You have to spend money to make money. Must do research. Must advertise. Test music, etc. The goal is to build a strong brand and defend it.

• It does not follow that streaming is the future because as Lee well knows (because he is a shrewd dude), consumers don’t listen to computers or for that matter cell phones and even iPods the way they listen to radio. In other words, a radio format doesn’t work on a telephone. Even an iPod is not a Walkman. It is an on-demand jukebox that consumers use to jump around from song to song even before it ends. Cell phones are not radios and no one can make them become one. A car radio isn't even a car radio anymore, it is an "entertainment center" that shares its time with drivers who are texting.

• The mobile Internet requires new content delivered in shorter segments that put the user in control of their on-demand entertainment. Radio is used to a hot clock and 24/7 broadcasting. The mobile Internet is waiting for the next Bill Drake to draw a mobile hot clock on a napkin at the new age equivalent to Martonis that will consist of short elements of content – video, audio, text with social networking.

Therefore, a great terrestrial radio brand works only on terrestrial radio.

And mobile Internet content – even inspired by a terrestrial brand – will only work if it is separate and apart from radio formatics that embrace short attention spans, on-the-go living and connectivity.

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Consumers Now Spend 50% of Their Day With Media

In the 1950’s and 1960’s radio and television broadcasters and publishers could never imagine a public whose appetite for what they do would be so great that it consumed half of their waking hours.

Today we have evidence that the Internet, cell phones, Apple and social networking have created addicts out of people of all ages.

In fact, all of this growth in media consumption has happened within the last two years and far exceeds media demand for three decades prior.

There are hard cold facts to back it up.

A new Ipsos OTX study of 7,000 online consumers spanning a wide age range of between 13 and 74 confirms that among those surveyed people are now spending half of all their waking hours with media and have increased their media consumption by a whopping hour a day over the past two years.

To put that in perspective, they spend more time consuming media than working or sleeping.

What’s more, eliminate the 74 year olds from the study and focus on the younger demographics and the media consumption number would likely be over 50%.

I want to take a look at the ramifications for content providers, but first let’s just put the facts in perspective:

• 24% of those 7,000 surveyed own a web-enabled smartphone as cellphone ownership declines from 81% to 65% since last year. Obviously, you see why I have proclaimed this decade the decade of the mobile Internet. Consumers always show us the way if we will but observe their habits.

• TV, an industry that I warned is next to feel radio’s generational growing pains, is in big trouble. As of this writing, about 33% of primetime TV viewership takes place online. What’s worse is the TV industry thinks selling short ads is the answer and fails to understand what would make a more profitable subscription model work. Watching TV is now influenced by TiVo and DVRs as well as online video – an increase of 49% over last year.

• Social networking sites – the kind you and I have discussed here in this space every week – are driving the consumer appetite for all kinds of media. Traditional media execs have a hard time swallowing the concept that Facebook visits, game playing and even texting are their competitors.

One more thing.

This survey was conducted only a couple weeks into the start of the iPad era. One could probably assume that the iPad sales that ensued and the addiction that usually results will help create a nation of media zombies who are always connected and rarely engaged in what I call the analog world. This has serious sociological repercussions most of which Steve Jobs and media executives could care less about.

Light-emitting devices such as computer screens, cell phones and iPads disrupt sleep patterns which eventually lead to a decrease in melatonin that promotes healthful sleep and produces Serotonin that affects our moods. Antidepressants are often used to increase Serotonin in depressed individuals. How will such rabid media use affect society? I’m interested in this and if you are we’ll revisit the topic another time.

Back to the 50’s and 60’s.

Imagine if a radio program director back then could find a way to hook their listeners up to a transistor radio and have them communicate back and forth, never turn it off and have a direct channel into their psyche.

That’s what we have today.

We thought that Clear Channel was the ultimate neurotransmitter and that network television was the medium civilization could not live without.

But not so anymore.

Our lives may have been changed more by Apple than any politician, mentor, teacher, role model or scientific advance because Apple makes the devices we crave and feeds the need for content through its iTunes store. Other electronics firms and cell carriers then follow and the trend proliferates.

So let me lay it all out for media companies and future media entrepreneurs in content and music:

1. The new gold standard is 30 minutes -- if that. You’ll have to make your content ready to be interrupted or it will be discarded by a distracted consumer.

2. Someday soon, all content will be offered up in modules – short models (read number 1 above). Consumers will have to choose whether they want to hear a personality’s bits divided into options and then decide which ones to hear on-demand. It’s now about the sum of the parts – not the whole.

3. Commercials as we know them are dead. So are print and Internet ads, but don’t tell Google – a traditional media company if there was ever one disguised in new age concepts. Social networking will track down consumers so you had best work on that concept rather than broadcasting messages consumers will increasingly ignore. Pandora can reach you in Dover, Delaware on your mobile device.

4. Everything you do will have to contain video, audio and text.

We are moving to a world where there will be no more television, radio or publishing as we have known it.

The rules are changing.

The question is -- do you want to stay ahead of these rapid consumer changes or try to grow the status quo and put major media businesses in peril by the time next year's statistics will become more compelling?

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The Future of Rock and Roll

Great, great piece in The Sunday New York Times Magazine a few weeks back by Rob Walker writing in the “Consumed” column where he asked the question, “Can the value of music reside in a lamp (or stickers or a sculpture)?"

Walker’s piece to me begs the question should artists get rich by selling stuff just because music sells stuff?

The author asserts that the future of rock and roll is merch.

If he is correct, the record labels are in big trouble because as Pogo says, “I have seen the enemy and it is us”.

The labels are adequate at best with merch and arguably leaving a lot of money on the table because they don't understand the new consumer and their devices.

Walker makes his case by pointing out:

“The Ramones sold more T-shirts than albums (and you can buy a T-shirt that says so). And box sets for superfans have become increasingly elaborate and pricey artlike objects. But merchandise is gaining momentum, and it’s not hard to imagine a time when a fan buys a sculpture, home décor item or other tangible good and gets the music as a kind of free soundtrack accompaniment”.

That according to the vice president of Sub Pop Records, the value of shirts, caps, key chains and other items may be worth more than the recorded songs themselves.

Nine Inch Nails is a group that is king of the expensive boxed sets, rap artists are coming out with clothing lines as quickly as they can, and Walker reveals that Stones Throw Records actually sells an espresso blend in the image of rapper Madlib.

There is jewelry (DJ Irie) and sex toys (Rammstein, the German metal band).

Don’t forget magnets, buttons, stickers and remember that Lady Gaga is skilled in all areas from singing, performing and product placement.

So Rob Walker concludes:

“In other words, the aura of music has been imbued in objects (and services, cruise lines, life insurance, etc.) for years. Artists know as well as anybody that music sells stuff, so why shouldn’t they sell the stuff too?”

If the future of rock and roll is merchandise, then only a handful of artists get rich and the rest struggle or continue to starve.

But then again, that’s how it has always been in popular music – the few get the maximum reward for their talents and the rest get teased to continue seeking their dream.

If we continue to judge music by platinum “records” that do not even exist in reality and by a few cash-savvy entrepreneurs, then the music industry is indeed doomed.

I see it another way.

The value of music to the consumer is about the cost of one single text message.

I can prove it with a little help from the labels. Price all your music at 5 cents and consumers will have no downside to paying for almost everything they sample. You'll get rich on volume if you could get over the 5 cent part.

There would be no downside.

No reason for piracy to exist although peer filesharing would and must continue because free tasting is as old as marketing itself – a good thing.

The dream of many rock and roll artists that is in reality achieved by only a few is exactly what is wrong with the music industry and has been for decades (unless of course, you’re one of the few who makes it big).

In the age of the Internet, mobile access, filesharing – and even in the absence of affordable 5 cent tunes – everyone again has a chance to be judged on his, her or their talent.

If Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel for merchandise opportunities or on the needle in a haystack hope that he would get wealthy beyond his dreams, then civilization would not have enjoyed his work of beauty for all the many decades it has survived.

So, don’t look to how to continue the paradigm of the music – that you wish to make it big in order to make your music.

Indeed, it’s the other way around – and the digital world we live in is finally going to help correct the inequity.

Yes, a few artists will always find a way to merchandise themselves into riches, but now the playing field is level and everyone has access to the music loving consumer.

The labels no longer dictate who gets that chance.

Radio does influence which three new artists get their chance to get airplay every week when a new playlist is drawn up. But radio is less critical than ever to popular music. Certainly not what it was just ten years ago before the digital revolution.

iPod-toting consumers are in the process of taking back popular music and to look to the old model of fat cats making artists wealthy beyond their dreams is as old as the notion that young people wait for Tuesday to hear those three new songs a hit radio station adds to their playlists.

To paraphrase the Danny and the Juniors song of the 1950’s – Rock and roll is here to stay, it will never die. It was meant to be that way – though we now know why.

The artists.

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Cumulus Sues Ex-GM for $1 Million

Here’s an inside story you won’t find in the happy talk press.

The Dickey family is channeling its mean genes in what appears to me to be a retaliatory strike against a manager who had the audacity to – well, quit and get a better job with Cox.

Kristin Okesson left the Dickey Dynasty as manager of the Danbury, CT and Westchester, NY clusters. Let’s do what they do before you see the next episode of an HBO original series – recap.

Previously on Entourage (Lew, John, Gary Pizzati) …

The Dickeys took Okesson to U.S. District Court in Bridgeport and in a court opinion handed down on April 22 of this year, the judge interpreted the employment contract at issue largely in Okesson’s favor. She wasn’t ordered to stay away from previous Cumulus customers in Danbury.

The judge did prohibit Okesson from helping a fellow employee to spring from his imprisonment and was told not to solicit Cumulus employees directly. She also had to return some items in dispute that were alleged to be confidential.

And that was it.

Until now.

Cumulus has alleged that Okesson has done Cumulus dirt to the tune of $1 million large even after henchman Gary Pizzati testified twice under oath that he could not identify any damages that resulted from Kristin Okesson’s departure.

Now Mr. Mean Genes himself is asking the judge for a pre-judgment attachment on her home for $1 million to cover the possibility – as remote as it seems – on the odd chance that Cumulus prevails in court.

As if that were not enough, Cumulus wants to seize Okesson’s bank accounts – that’s right, checking and savings even though that action could create a financial nightmare for Okesson, her husband and children.

So, on October 19 and 21st the matter will be before Her Honor Judge Holly Fitzsimmons in Bridgeport who will take testimony and then subsequently render a judgment. Certainly Okesson is sweating it out – and considering that Cumulus has not been able to identify any damage due to her departure on the record, their legal action appears to be retaliatory.

Wait until you hear what pissed them off.

You don’t leave the Dickey boys.

And boys they are apparently because Okesson has filed a gender discrimination suit against the boys club. More on that later.

Pizzati, who has apparently rethought his sworn testimony, is now also alleging that 13 Cumulus customers are spending less money with them directly due to Okesson’s departure. Apparently it’s now scorched earth because Pizzati actually fingered the 13 advertisers.

And many of them are not happy.

Okesson has about six affidavits saying the reason these advertisers are not spending with Cumulus now is because of the economy. Several more affidavits are in the mail and other Cumulus advertisers have reportedly agreed that it’s the economy, stupid. Counsel for Okesson doesn’t rule out that all 13 may actually repudiate the Cumulus accusation that Okesson is in fact a one-person recession.

Pizzati implicated the Cumulus advertisers even though he admitted on the record that he never asked a single one of them about the situation. In other words, it appears Pizzati just made it up.

Even the currently employed Cumulus sales manager in Danbury in his sworn deposition reportedly said the losses were due to the economy in essence not backing up his boss.

Pizzati claims an over $800,000 loss of business in Danbury and Westchester, the markets Okesson managed, between July of 2009 and March 2010 directly attributable to Okesson.

Then he wants $140,000 more for the 13 lucky advertisers who he says pulled back their spending because the Cumulus general manager left.

Oh, and $100,000 plus in legal fees.

Boy, those Dickeys sure get mad when a female employee leaves them before they can fire her.

As mentioned, Okesson filed her gender discrimination suit with the EEOC against none other than Gary Pizzati. Okesson is asking the EEOC for permission to sue privately for discrimination.

Okesson is alleging retaliation for filing the EEOC claim midsummer which is allegedly why Cumulus came back with the $1 million lien and strategy to freeze her bank accounts.

Let’s make sense of all this (if possible):

1. To me it is mean to act in what I think is a punitive way against an outstanding GM who was quickly hired by Cox – another thing that I think sticks in Lew Dickey’s craw.

2. It sends a lousy message to Cumulus employees many of whom don’t like working for Dickey and who want to leave as soon as they can find another job.

3. Naming advertisers – especially without consulting them – in Cumulus litigation is a breach of ethics in my opinion. The advertisers are being used as pawns to build the Cumulus case. I can tell you if Cumulus competed with me in a market I managed, I’d tell all their advertisers to be careful when you do business with them. You could wind up as an accessory to a court case as an unexpected consequence of paying them for advertising. This is just bad sales strategy in any economy.

4. The real story is the discrimination suit against Pizzati that Cumulus obviously does not want to see proceed. It could launch a lot of similar discrimination suits (and I predicted that Cumulus would spend the next few years in court on employment matters) that could be costly and embarrassing.

What has happened to the radio industry?

Why are some big CEOs behaving badly?

However as bad as this is, I can end on a happy note – and a very encouraging one.

Okesson who left Cumulus now works for Cox, a recognized excellent employer with a good record of employee relations.

Cox could have stood back and let their valued new hire dangle in the wind on her own as she spent all her money to fight what could turn out to be frivolous lawsuits.

Instead, Cox is picking up Okesson’s entire legal bill – all of it.

There are still great operators left in radio and when they put their money where their mouth is, it gives all of us great hope.

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Bill Evans - A Forgotten Man?

Bill Evans a forgotten man? Seems like an absurd thought – but with the arrival of the 30th anniversary of Evans’ death on September 15th, I definitely got the feeling that his one-time huge profile as one of the most influential, important, and admired, pianists in jazz had taken a serious tumble. Yes there were jazz blogs which mentioned him and marked the anniversary, but they were in general blogs that have a stylistic leaning towards the music of the 50s and earlier, rather than blogs that deal with contemporary jazz and its doings. It was a combination of reading these blogs, noting the absence of mentions of Evans in others, and watching some Youtube clips of Evans that gave me this feeling that as far as the contemporary jazz world is concerned his star has fallen considerably in recent years.

But a forgotten man? This post is more me thinking aloud rather than me coming to any definite conclusion.

There was a time when Evans was ubiquitous, where he was mentioned in any serious discussion of jazz piano, when everyone could list their favourite Evans albums (which in those days were NOT just ‘Everybody Digs Bill Evans’ and the trio recordings with LaFaro and Motian). And of course up to 1980 he was touring and recording, so I knew many people, even in Ireland, who had seen him play. I just missed that particular boat myself, he died just as I started to get around, get out of Dublin and go to NY and London to see international artists who, at that time, never appeared in Ireland. So at that time his reputation and influence were enormous – it was very much accepted as a sine qua non that he would be always mentioned in the pantheon of jazz piano Gods alongside such deities as Art Tatum, Bud Powell etc.

But now? I don’t think that if you asked contemporary pianists about Evans that they would downplay his importance in the jazz piano lineage, but you rarely hear them volunteer Evans when asked about their influences. Of course as time passes all young musicians listen to different stuff than their elders did, and that’s how it should be. But it’s not uncommon to hear contemporary pianists cite Monk, and Bud Powell, (both of whom would have been mentioned in the same breath as Evans in the roll call of great pianists by an earlier generation), as influences. And it’s not uncommon to hear people such as Andrew Hill, or even Herbie Nichols and Jaki Byard being mentioned as being important figures for several well known contemporary pianists. But it’s been a long time since I heard a young cutting edge pianist make any reference to Bill Evans. Even Mehldau got quite miffed about his trio constantly being compared to Evans’ in the early days (rightly so – it was just lazy journalism to conflate the two bands) and went out of his way to deny the influence.


Shortly after Evans died a tribute recording was released which featured many great pianists then active on the jazz scene – some older, some younger, some not so well known, some legendary. The line-up included Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Teddy Wilson, George Shearing, John Lewis, Dave Mckenna, Denny Zeitlin, Jimmy Rowles, Richie Beirach, JoAnne Brackeen and Andy LaVerne. Quite an impressive tally of great pianists, and all lining up to praise Evans and play pieces by him or associated with him. I wonder if you did the same thing today – i.e put together an ‘Evans recording’ featuring the current crop of well known contemporary American pianists – Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Ethan Iverson, Craig Taborn etc. - what the result would be? I think the musical results could be intriguing, but I wonder how many pianists, (outside of pianists who deliberately position themselves within earlier styles of playing), would have any interest in recording Evans material these days? In these days where the music of others is deconstructed or ‘re-imagined’ or whatever the current phrase might be, by young musicians, how in sympathy would they feel in working with pieces like ‘Turn Out the Stars’ or ‘Very Early’? That harmonic world of constantly moving chords seems very far away from a lot of current pianistic concerns. Not that I’m bemoaning that – it’s just an observation.

An aside – for me the greatest Evans ‘tribute’ album was made by Paul Motian with Frisell and Lovano and Marc Johnson without a piano in sight. Frisell is just scary on this recording, the way he can distil the harmonic complexity of Evans music into a two-note guitar chord is an object lesson in accompaniment and ingenuity. John McLaughlin also made an often very beautiful Evans recording using five guitars!





In Europe there is a stream of contemporary pianism that is more clearly linked, in evolutionary terms, to Evans – for example the Scandinavian tradition espoused by the descendants of Bobo Stenson, Lars Jansson etc. and the Italian piano tradition of such great players as Enrico Pieranunzi and Stefano Bollani. But the European pianists who are influenced by Evans seem to favour the more ‘classical’ elements in his playing – the rich voicings, the impressionistic melodicism – and ignore the hard-swinging Evans. While the American pianists who these days do speak about Evans tend to focus on the swinging aspects of his playing and not be too interested in the pianistic impressionism. Of course these are generalisations, but I do detect a trend in the contemporary response on both sides of the Atlantic to Evans’ legacy.

As for me, I kind of go in and out of an Evans thing. I have a huge collection of his recordings – most on LP – and mostly collected in the early 80s when it was a given around these parts that Evans was a God and that it behoved any serious student of the music to have everything he recorded. And in collecting all these recordings I got to hear much great music that I think a lot of present-day musicians maybe don’t know since, these days, there seems to be a lot of focus on the earlier part of Evans career, and the later trios (post LaFaro/Motian, pre Johnson/Labarbera) seem to be unfashionable now.

But actually I particularly like the trio that was together the longest – the one with Eddie Gomez and Marty Morell. This trio is often accused of going through the motions, and much comment is made on their proclivity to rush. But I really like this band – I think the very underrated Morell really brought a kind of muscularity to the trio that was missing in some of the earlier versions. And yes they do rush, but it can be very exciting, and besides, other famous groups rushed – Tony and Ron with Miles for example – and never got the same opprobrium heaped on them for doing so. And Gomez, particularly in the earlier recordings by this trio, was just savage! Check out his solo on this version of ‘Emily’ - his motivic development stuff is amazing - and also check out how hard swinging this trio could be, even on a ‘sensitive’ jazz waltz like this one. (I love the setting for this clip, and the others in the series – a house in Helsinki, with the stark Scandinavian landscape outside and the clean lines of the house furnishings creating a contrasting backdrop to the rather florid music)



When I hear something like this I can easily get back into an Evans kick, because these days I can also easily go for long periods without listening to him, and sometimes I wonder how the slightly ‘rootie-tootie’ swing 8th notes of the later Evans still manages to swing, because it shouldn’t! And the over-amplified bass of the later trios bothers me, and how many times can you hear the same arrangement of ‘Autumn Leaves’ anyway?


But then something will spark me to listen again to Evans and it becomes evident again what an incredible amount of great music he was responsible for both under his own name and as a sideman – George Russell’s ‘Jazz Workshop’, ‘Blues and the Abstract Truth’, ‘Kind of Blue’, ‘Montreux’ with Gomez and Jack DeJohnette’, the first great trio with LaFaro and Motian, the intros to Nardis on the last trio’s live recordings, the poignancy of ‘We Will Meet Again’, etc. etc. He really was one of the greatest jazz musicians of his era, a huge influence on pianists whether directly or through pianists such as Herbie Hancock (the only major post-Evans pianist to openly acknowledge the influence) or Jarrett, and a true giant of the music. I think it’s a shame the 30th anniversary of his death wasn’t highlighted in a way a bit more in keeping with Evans’ stature, but I also think it’s interesting that it wasn’t – it says something about how Evans is now viewed in contemporary jazz – I’m just not sure what that something is! If there are any working jazz pianists under the age of 40 reading this I’d be interested to hear what your take on Evans is, and whether he had any influence on you as a pianist and/or improviser.

And to finish this rather rambling post – here’s the Evans/Gomez/Morell trio again burning their way through ‘Gloria’s Step’ from 1971. God bless Youtube.................

4 Bold Media Predictions

By Jerry Del Colliano

Predictions are just teasing unless they turn out to come true.

The Clear Channel demise – predicted.

Consolidation destroying radio – predicted (during their glory days yet).

The rise of digital media and a new generation – yes, that’s one of the reasons you read me.

So, I’ve got four new ones that I’d like you to tuck away in the back of your mind. You may agree or disagree or be startled, but you’ll see why they will have such a great impact on the music and broadcasting industries.

1. ABC Television will be sold

News chief David Westin resigned recently. Some say he was tired of firing people. Others say he is leaving because new owners are coming.

I say, that, too!

Here’s some inside info:

Westin is suspected of leaking the news of his departure to The Washington Post. Then ABC rushes out the PR that says Westin was expected to leave all along. My sources say b.s. to that.

No replacement is waiting – unusual if ABC knew in advance. Westin is staying on to the end of the year, that long goodbye not necessary if ABC knew of Westin’s plans in advance. Disney owns ABC and doesn’t customarily handle things like this.

Disney is cutting the life out of ABC News. Huge newsroom reductions, searching for ways to make news gathering cheaper through cutbacks or alliances with others. ABC News is – to put it frankly – decimated. Bureaus here and abroad – none. No investigative of documentary units – too costly, not necessary in their view.

As an industry insider poignantly put it like this:

“Reality is that Disney has decided to invest in the Marvel comics characters instead of news. At least they skipped the part about anointing Spiderman as World News Tonight anchor.”

Who would want to be president of ABC News now as they are depleting their assets?

Prediction: ABC Television Network gets sold. Disney’s chief shareholder is Steve Jobs.

2. The New York Times will stop printing

Okay, I’m cheating.

Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. told a London audience last week that "We will stop printing the New York Times sometime in the future, date TBD." He was answering someone else’s prediction that the Times will go out of business by 2015.

When The Times publisher comes right out with it, why contradict him?

In fact I believe Sulzberger will be wishing he wasn’t printing the New York Times before then. It’s expensive. Costly unions. Gathering news isn’t cheap.

The best reason is that fewer people read newspapers every day.

I picked mine up off the front step at 2pm yesterday – having read it all before I went to bed the previous night. (Why am I still getting it? There’s a good question. I don't have a dog).

The Times will introduce a pay model next year that will fail – metering readers use of content and charging for it when they read too much. To put that another way, making your greatest fans pay the most.

Prediction: The New York Times will stop printing and I’ll raise you – they will stop metering readers. This critical misread could cost them the franchise.

3. Advertisers will spend more in new media than traditional when the recession ends.

Is that going to surprise radio, television and print. Traditional media is expecting a big gain when the economy comes back.

Let’s go to the tape – even in this prolonged recession, digital media spending has increased.

Last week Pepsi announced its experimental online campaign that replaced Super Bowl sponsorships last January is back. The Pepsi Fresh Project was considered a social media experiment. Local community causes went to Pepsi online to seek money for their projects and the public voted who should get it.

Pepsi announced it will expand the project to Europe, Latin America and Asia as well as continue in the U.S. and Canada.

What recession?

Media buyers will weep when they see that Pepsi will spend $1.3 million a month for this year’s Refresh project. They have the money to also buy Super Bowl spots but this money is being taken away from traditional media nonetheless.

Pepsi certainly isn’t alone in beefing up its new and social media budgets even in advance of an economic recovery.

Prediction: Traditional media will languish until and unless they get back in the idea business instead of selling spots.

4. Twitter will replace radio and TV for Breaking News

During the Discovery Channel hostage situation, Twitter broke the story beating all traditional news platforms. Social media is a way to get the word out fast.

When USC has a campus emergency, students and faculty receive instant text message updates. Since everyone has a cell phone, there is no need to hope that radio or television will spread the word.

During the San Bruno fires in San Francisco last week, news stations like KGO and KCBS rose to the occasion – after all, free media such as radio can be very beneficial in public emergencies. But all stations should have been responding to this local community disaster.

Here’s what a radio insider from San Francisco wrote:

“I have been part of stations who fielded calls, gave information, suspended music and aired callers and got in our Vans and went to where we could help.

“What I heard, in summation, the 2 top news stations (KGO, KCBS) did a great job even with a smaller staff than they used to have.

“All the FM stations ran tracking as usual or if they had someone live they broke in with ‘Call the Red Cross to help donate money or blood and get the info from our website now here's Rihanna’.

“I'm frustrated because I know what it could be and should be. There was more on Facebook last night. That has become the new "Town Hall" (CNN does a great job of using FB and connecting it with their site. We need to be all over that kind of outlet).

“Think of when there is an earthquake, where is the first place people used to go? radio ;I felt a rumble’, ‘I felt a roll’ now we are on Facebook in 2 seconds. BUT people still want to hear a human voice. If we link those things people will feel intimately connected”.

Prediction: A human voice can be on mobile Internet devices and that’s the new breaking news.

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Hits Without Radio and Radio Without Hits

By Jerry Del Colliano

In the past week, there have been two examples of what happens when an artist decides to market without radio airplay while another tries to get airplay she believes she deserves based on Billboard progress.

Both are fascinating and revealing and I thought you would enjoy hearing about them.

The Bed Intruder Song.

The story of a crime that happened in "singer" Antoine Dodson’s family.

Dodson did an interview with a Huntsville, AL TV station after an intruder broke into his family’s house and attempted to rape his sister.

The video interview became popular because of Dodson’s dramatic delivery style in which he talked to the audience as well as the person who attempted the rape. Dodson used colorful language and raised the ire of TV viewers who complained to the station. The station defended Dodson and said that censoring him would be worse than his graphic style.

The video went viral in the form of the Bed Intruder Song some have called the one awesome use of Auto-Tune ever. Auto-Tune is software that can make speech sound like singing. The Gregory Brothers turned an angry rant into a pop song that has sold about 100,000 copies on iTunes and is 94 with a bullet on Billboard for the week of September 18.

The YouTube video has been seen over 20 million times before some genius took it off -- I am scratching my head here.


All of this with little to no radio airplay. The subject matter is a deterrent to over-the-air radio but still – this is an example of a song taking off without a record label, promotion teams and radio station airplay. It’s all viral.

Then, there’s the dilemma of singer Arika Kane.

Her fans are really mad that she can’t get any airplay on Sirius XM Heart & Soul channel for “Here With Me”. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of artists having a public spat with satellite radio over airplay let alone caring.

Kane’s fan club has a page all set aside to petition Sirius XM for their decision. The reason the fan page alleges Sirius XM “banned” the song was – well, you read it:

“Specifically, BJ Stone of "Heart and Soul" has confirmed his personal decision not to play Arika Kane’s records. According to the program director, the reason for the ban against Arika Kane’s record is because he believes that a White artist should not be singing an urban song”.

Sounds a bit sketchy.

Nonetheless what kind of media world are we living in when fans organize to get airplay on satellite radio and unlikely hitmakers like the Gregory Brothers don’t need a record label or radio to promote their record.

It’s the new world of radio and the labels.

In the previous iteration, the labels discovered the stars, oversaw the recording of their material, promoted it to radio and radio played the hell out of it -- for free.

In the new world, the labels can’t afford to take chances signing future music stars so they divert their attention toward suing customers, intimidating college universities and trying to get a new royalty tax imposed on radio.

That is – the labels have taken their eye off the ball.

And radio is failing to respond to the major generational change that indicates that young people crave music discovery as opposed to very short listed hit music stations. They can’t see why an iPod is more attractive to a Gen Y’er than a radio station that plays the same things over and over again every hour and a half.

It’s always worked before.

You may be surprised to know that program directors will go to their graves insisting that the repetition they got away with for decades still works in an age when young people carry their own music collection in their pockets.

This should be a wake-up call for everyone.

Listeners are now disc jockeys and they don’t need radio’s People Meter. They have their own. It's called an iPod.

The long held belief that repetition of a handful of songs will please this growing on-demand audience no longer applies. Yes, repetition of music certainly has its place, but radio must wake up and understand that they are not the only source of new music as they were before the digital age.

Meaning?

They can’t add two or three songs and play the hell out of the rest of them when their audiences have other places to go to seek new music, fresh artists and learn about their favorites.

That used to be the role of radio. We keep talking about the day the music died, but the music hasn’t died. It just keeps getting repeated.

What died is the personalities that live local radio stations offered with music loving djs who gave people of all ages a reason to listen to radio.

The difference between hit radio stations and your iPod is that your iPod has the music you like. You can play it over and over again or not.

Today I have offered you more evidence that digital age consumers are going on without radio and the music industry.

It doesn’t have to be that way. But it will be until some people wake up.

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Howard Stern, Digital Media Pioneer

Adam Carolla may be able to attract 400,000 podcast downloads and not make money, but Howard Stern can.

Sirius Satellite Radio listeners who have to lumber through the negotiating period running up to every Stern contract expiration are used to the game.

Talk that Stern will not be back.

That he’ll return to terrestrial radio (not likely).

Just do three days a week at Sirius for the same money and on and on.

Howard Stern is one figure who could make it in digital app-dom if he wanted to do it.

But stop!

I have not lost my mind. I’m betting he will be back with Sirius and a deal will be cut and all will be fine. However…

What makes Howard Stern an ideal candidate to marshal his audience and direct them to the digital space is his ability to create unique, compelling and addictive programming unlike other talkers of his ilk.

Stern is too smart to do a radio show online. At least I hope he is.

Stern understands that the best way for him to make the switch is to offer his bits in separate units that can be accessed as needed or wanted on mobile devices. He was born to be on iPads and there will be over 20 million more of them sold by the end of 2011.

Wise enough to smell money from event marketing, merchandising and other non-traditional ways.

Don’t rule out subscriptions. As you know I’m betting that pay is an alternative to free going forward for compelling content. Stern could get paid subscribers for a reasonable rate. If the NFL can get over $400 for its online football package – and it does – Stern can get a dollar or two a month from his loyal fans.

Self-promotion? Who is better?

If he thought he was free to speak and act on Sirius, imagine what the Internet would mean? There could be archives where his entire career of bits can be broken down into segments that can be accessed on-demand.

What’s more, Stern is likely to be the beneficiary of viral marketing. That is, how easy would it be for a happy Stern fan to give a seven-day trial to a friend (over 21) and get them hooked?

Stern may come away with a way to do his Sirius show for a while longer, but he would be wise to get the rights to what he does, chop his past programs up and then do separate material made for mobile listening for his paid subscribers.

Do the math, 400,000 listeners times $1 a month is $400,000. Or almost $5 million from that alone for a year not counting events, merch and so on. But I think he could get more than $1 a month. He could also do commercials, but I am not a big believer in radio commercials as a revenue tool for the digital world.

Howard Stern would also have to make everything he does from now on a video podcast – let the consumer choose whether to listen or watch.

And heavily employ social networking in everything he does and I'm not just talking about Twitter and Facebook.

I can see Stern on an iPad live once a day taking messages and texts from fans in real time and collecting valuable contact information. Then making the content available always and forever to paid subscribers.

This concept will work for anyone.

Just find your market and decide whether you will do free or paid.

If the content is unique, compelling and addictive, then you can consider charging a price that the market can bear.

Digital content delivered as a list of choices not a “show” can work for small audiences or large ones. Coin collectors could appreciate an expert on that topic with all the elements we’ve just described as available to Howard Stern.

Music is problematic until royalty issues can be revisited – that may be a long time. Imagine what you can deliver to people anxious for music discovery. In fact, the labels could be in that business. But they don't have a clue about the digital future. They just keep replacing execs who are just as out of touch as the ones exiting.

Howard Stern is big enough, bad enough and smart enough to pioneer one more thing before he hangs up his headset – paid on-demand digital marketing done right for his legion of fans to support.

This is the new broadcasting that will partner with terrestrial radio. Smart media execs will pursue it.

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iPods, iPads, Kindle and Radio

When was the last time you bought a radio that wasn’t attached to a car?

Have you ever purchased an HD radio anywhere – not as part of an auto entertainment center that came with your car?

Ever buy an iPod Nano for the FM Tuner?

Own a Kindle and an iPad? I just bought a Kindle because it causes less eye strain when reading at day’s end. That’s two new readers. No new radios.

The other day, one of my readers wrote that his 60-plus year old father has become an avid fan of Pandora. When Pandora founder Tim Westergren talked to one of my USC classes a few short years ago, he surprised a lot of students with the number of older people who loved Pandora.

Things are changing rapidly while the radio and music business remain the same.

Radio fights for more FM chips in mobile devices. Yet few people of any age buy an iPod Nano or other available mobile device to listen to FM radio.

And do you know anyone under 35 who listens to AM radio anywhere at anytime? I’m sure you’ve noticed the rush by some radio operators to get their excellent AM programming on the FM band which means they are now only 15 years behind the consumer.

Maybe you saw the figure recently that indicated Apple will sell an additional 21 million iPads in 2011 – that’s in addition to the many million they have sold since the early part of this year.

What it all means is that radio runs the risk of being excellent on devices that consumers do not buy. And that the radio executive assumption that simply making a new age device a radio is dead wrong.

Station owners can play the People Meter game and shut their remaining jocks up. They can put a watered down morning show on-the-air and try to believe that their listening went up because the format was better. In fact, the listening went up because of the drive-by nature the PPM carriers picking up encoded signals.

My radio buddies who have settled in the Phoenix area dined at the beautiful and sumptuous hamburger joint Zinburger at the Biltmore Fashion Square last week. Lunch started at 12 noon and the last of us left around 4 pm – our usual short radio lunch.

Believe me, we observed that the strange music that was playing over the restaurant’s speakers would have been credited to us for four and a half straight hours had we been wearing a People Meter and had it been a radio station playing encoded music.

We weren’t and it wasn’t.

But how scary – and common – is radio listening picked up by technology that is misleading at best and unusable as sales information at worst.

Some thoughts:

1. I don’t know about you but I’m moving Inside Music Media to an iPad optimized format within weeks because I want to have my work available where 21 million more people will hang out by the end of next year. Radio should do the same. Hell, everyone in the media business should be looking to embrace the iPad.

2. Even though some of radio’s big groups are cranking out pretty unremarkable repeater radio these days to save money, virtually every market still has some real good live and local radio stations left – especially in medium to small sized cities. If cheap broadcasters continue to lag behind on listeners preferences for entertainment and information, they will soon be broadcasting to themselves.

3. It does not follow, in my view, that even if radio stations get their formats streaming on mobile phones, iPods and 21 million new iPads that consumers will use their favorite devices like a radio. That may make sense to us – after all, we love this business and love format radio. But consumers do not see radio where radio sees iPod.

4. Shorter attention spans must absolutely be factored in to what radio stations must consider if they want to follow consumers to their favorite devices. That is, it is fast becoming impossible for young consumers to spend the time to listen to even Pandora, their favorite personalized radio, uninterrupted and for long periods of time. And when Apple allows multi-tasking on their iPod and iPad devices, watch and see how few people have radio playing in the background.

The answer is get into the mobile content business.

Don’t shut down your radio stations especially if they have a brand, some personalities, local involvement and/or a significant following.

In fact, radio is doing the absolute worst thing it could do to listeners who still listen to a radio for radio – they are putting out a pretty bland product.

Additionally, assuming that any listener has to listen to the radio to hear music is living in 1984.

Now music is available everywhere – on all devices.

News, information and live personalities are not.

Ah – you’ve caught me!

You think I am saying play local radio on a stream that can be picked up on mobile devices.

Not quite.

Here’s the secret to the future: make programs full of personality, locality and reality separate and apart from your terrestrial radio stream.

Ignore this advice and don’t be surprised to find nobody is home to listen when your talent, programming and local brand is being aired.

On the other hand, follow the listeners who are left to their devices and you will be launching the Digital Age of Broadcasting.

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