Lately, it seems like all of us in traditional media have an increasing sense of treading water, as if we're drowning, fighting, coming up for a quick gasp of air only to sink below the surface again.Like all traditional media, radio has been looking for a savior for a long time now. Lately, some of us optimistically think the savior has arrived. We're all excited about IPhone's FM radio app, and HD radio, and every other technological breakthrough that seems to benefit radio. But as thrilling as it is to have some breakthroughs that will help this wonderful old medium be able to move into the brave, new world from a technological point of view, left alone they're going to do as much for FM radio as the Motorola Stereo System did for the AM dial. Nothing!
We can make FM radio available on every new media platform the world has to offer and it won't matter. We can increase the audio quality immeasurably and, in the process, launch tens of thousands of new side stations, and no one will care. The history of the world is littered with great technological breakthroughs, truly brilliant discoveries, that never amounted to anything. Why? No one cared. Why didn't they? Why should they?
We've homogenized, researched, boiled down, tightened up and focused radio to the point that it's totally, completely, boring. All over the country, all over the dial, we've become the new Muzak. Boring! A souless, devoid of attitude or personality music delivery service, offering the best testing titles in mind-numbing rotation, delivering the hits and little else.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all for science and research in radio. Heaven help us if we think self-indulgent jocks trying to turn the listener on to their personal music taste is the answer. That's an approach I'd like my competitors to adopt. But the great radio stations, the stations we remember and look up to, were all about the listener, and they were relevant. They were compelling. They had an attitude and personality of their own. Great radio stations are brands.
Brands! One of the most misused, most misunderstood terms in marketing today. Your logo isn't your brand. Your station name isn't your brand. What your logo and your station name mean to your listeners is your brand. And if all it means is a music format, they can program circles around you (to their taste) with an IPod every day of the week. You lose! We all lose!
The great radio stations (of yesteryear and of today) all stand for something. And they stand against something. Always! No exceptions! They know what "cool" is to their listener and they deliver. And they know what makes their listener roll his or her eyes, and they don't do that! Ever! They're advocates for the listener. They're interesting, unique and fun, never boring. They're not self-indulgent, they're not long-winded, they're not unfocused - those things are never part of the recipe for success. But they're not so buttoned down as to be predictable and boring.
It's going to take innovative, compelling content to make radio vibrant. Which, coincidentally, is what makes a website, a magazine, a smartphone, and even your best friends, vibrant! No formula. No easy answers. No file emailed from corporate. It's going to take an ear to the street, a team that thinks on it's feet, and a real commitment to creating engaging radio for the listener, first and foremost. What works for me isn't going to work for you, and vice-versa.
We've got more competition than ever before, and most of it is more interactive and responsive to the listener we're pursuing than we've been inclined to be. Anything a person can spent their time with, including reading this blog, is a competitor to radio. And you think some technological breakthrough is going to let you clear this hurdle? Please!
Hey, we've got some great strengths. We're still free. We're as portable as the air. We have the potential to be incredibly local, incredibly focused on one lifestyle or another, and incredibly quick to react. There's no better medium during times of extreme weather or other emergency situations. And unlike the new media, everyone knows about us. Which is good and bad, considering how far from compelling most radio stations have become. We have a real image problem, and the truth is, we deserve it.
So, what do we do to fix it. Want to sit around and wait for the new technologies to save us? HD Radio is pointless to an audience that doesn't own HD receivers. Why are they going to rush out to buy them? So they can hear our modern-day muzak in pristine digital quality, along with three other boring, poorly thought-out versions. (Ooh, we'll do a Deep Cuts station...because not hearing "Ozone Baby" from Led Zeppelin's "Coda" has been the problem all along). And the IPhone App? I've got a smartphone packed with apps that I ignore all the time, so what's going to make me use this one?
We've got to get back to the lost art of making good radio. And that doesn't mean revisiting the "formulas" of the great radio stations of the past, because there never was a formula, and each scenario is different. You've got to get to the streets and figure out your listener's lifestyle and attitudes. You've got to do more than make a palatable station for them. You've got to give them the station they can really sink their teeth into, a station they can get excited about. You've got to give them a brand. A real, strong, vibrant brand! It's not easy. But it beats drowning!
