What to do?

Is it worth a radio station betting the future on 75 million remaining baby boomers or do you just discard them for younger demos?

Do you get younger and blow off the things boomers loved about radio?  (This may be a moot point because most of the large consolidators and their smaller followers have already cutback on these things).

That hasn’t worked out so well.

That’s radio’s dilemma and a solution is now becoming evident.

There is a way to engage younger audiences – Millennials who number 95 million and also serve older audiences who have been the staple of radio.

Ironically radio’s big mistake is to program to baby boomers at the expense of Millennials.

When creating content in the digital age, it is always preferable to create content for the change makers who are in fact the younger Millennials.

I’ve isolated 7 specific strategies that can easily be implemented by any radio station, any format in any market and I’m going to get into this at my Philly conference this Wednesday.

The problem well-meaning radio stations have been having with maintaining their money demos and acquiring new listeners is that they are afraid to alienate older listeners.

As you will see these concepts – the ones Millennials value most – will never alienate baby boomers although oddly enough some of the things baby boomers still want from radio will drive Millennials away.

One of the seven requirements to meet the needs of the next generation is to be authentic.  Almost nothing about a radio station is authentic.  It’s full of hype, commercials, promos, and noise.

That can be fixed.

The other 6 things that younger demos now require are just as important and we’ll go through them one by one.  This is so vital that I use all 6 in the work that I do.

This is going to be a fruitful dialog because without spending a single dime, smart radio stations can fine tune their strategy for not only satisfying their loyal core older listeners but for the first time have a chance to win the hearts of younger ones.

Here are the other 7 critical issues at Wednesday’s meeting:

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time shift radio.  Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

A day of information and inspiration where we work together.  I’m putting more time aside this year for questions.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  Call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie. 

I am heading back to Philadelphia this weekend to present my fifth annual Media Solutions Conference next week on Wednesday March 26^th.

You’ve been reading the special content in this space about the 7 critical issues we will cover together. 

And if you’re worried about whether you will be able to hear it all, not to worry.  There is one main presentation – not separate sessions.  You get 100% of what you paid for.

You just have to be there as we cover the issues that are most important for the rest of the year to radio and digital entrepreneurs.

• How much digital and how much radio – where to spend your time and money as advertisers reshuffle their priorities.
• Learn More FM Philadelphia owner Jerry Lee’s system for helping advertisers make more effective commercials which is how his station grows revenue exponentially every year.  (And an optional offer to have More FM test your first 10 commercials should you want to adopt this program for your stations until you get comfortable with it).
• The one thing that will improve ad results by 30% -- and this tip is proven and free to those working with us next week.  Jerry Lee will be there to explain and field questions.
• We’re going to take the four biggest listener complaints about radio – the ones getting in the way of growing radio audiences among younger demos – and we’re going to respond and fix them.  I’ve got some plans to get the conversation started.  We’ll brainstorm together. 
• How to guarantee a plus 4% increase in revenue or higher for 2014 by getting into a new kind of short form video.  I’m prepared to play the best short form videos for you, explain how they work, show how the cost is minimal and the payoff great.  But you’ll need the right topics.  Let’s get to that, too.  One digital entrepreneur you will see earns $3 million a year from her free videos and does no commercials, product placement, banner ads or subscription charges.  So how does she make millions of dollars, her secret will be revealed for you to use.  Another is a teenager who earns the type of income a radio station would love to earn by not thinking like a radio station.
• What to do next about social media now that Facebook, Twitter and even other newer networks have an earlier expiration date than we thought. You’ll learn how to use Facebook and Twitter as tools in an entirely new way and pave the way for something even bigger that you can control and monetize.
• This meeting may change the course of your business because you will come away with 6 specific things young audiences insist upon or they’re not going to even listen.  These 6 things have changed my media business in ways I could never have imagined.  I will share these observations from my work as a USC Professor focusing on generational media.
• A strategy for time shifting radio.  The digital systems in cars are allowing drivers to record 25 minutes of radio, but voice tracking isn’t going to be one of the things they record for later playback.  The plan you will learn is so compelling that you will avoid the mistakes of time shifted radio.  Time shifting is here thanks to Netflix and DVRs.  It’s no longer an option to only broadcast 24/7.  And repurposing on-air material will not get you to where you need to go.  This will.
• What to do with baby boomers.  There are 75 million still kicking.  Focus on them or bail out and just go for Millennials.  The answer is complicated and so far no radio station is getting it right thus jeopardizing their ability to grow either audience.  What you’re going to learn on this topic will help you rethink and retool for radio in the complicated age of baby boomers and Millennials.

Jerry Lee is giving away the secret to growing radio revenue without necessarily adding more clients. 

Sean Hannity will join us in person not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

It will be my pleasure to meet you in person in Philly March 26^th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  Call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie. 

More FM owner Jerry Lee is making an infrequent public appearance at my Philly conference next week.

Lee will speak about the elaborate testing system his number one billing Philadelphia station uses to make advertisers’ commercials more effective thus getting them to buy bigger schedules at higher prices.

Using this system More FM exceeds revenue totals every year regardless of the economy, digital competitors or a lack of political spending.

Every year!

With 2014 off to a very slow start and financial analysts forecasting another flat year for radio, there is nothing more important than getting more revenue from the same number of advertisers.

Jerry Lee will tell the group:

• Proven methods of writing more engaging commercials.
• One tip that will improve all commercials you do by 30% backed up by proven research.
• What TV can get away with but what is instantly detected by listeners in radio commercials.  How to become aware of this self-defeating negative and fix it.
• Plus, this special optional offer limited only to those attending this Philly conference:  If you want to test the effectiveness of your use of the ‘Buddy System’ approach in critiquing each other’s commercials, Jerry Lee and More FM^TM present the following offer:  More FM will test 10 commercials for any station.  There is a very minimal service fee for this test and special low rates for testing additional spots as I am sure you are going to want to do.  We’re talking peanuts here to cover his costs.  But what’s great is if you buy into the concept and wish you could do it, your wish has come true.

Now you can get a leg up on competitors who will not be able to take advantage of this special offer.

Lee realizes that when radio starts delivering better results for advertisers, radio becomes a growth business again.

That’s the answer radio seems to be missing, but you won’t.

We’re pleased to help you get started helping advertisers do something proven to get better results so you can be the beneficiary when you total your revenue at the end of this difficult year ahead.

Also at this one-day conference:

1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Sean Hannity will join us in person not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

It will be my pleasure to meet you in person in Philly March 26^th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  Call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie. 

Not a moment too soon as spot radio is softening while demand for digital is strengthening.

Advertisers want more than digital add-ons to radio.

They want bold projects separate and apart from radio but they want you to bring these new initiatives to them because they know you are in the content business.

And they trust you to make them look good.

My position is that as long as radio keeps trying to stream its radio stations or sell banner ads on websites that can’t seem to get any traction, the real money is not going to roll in.

There are some credible options you will want to know about:

• Short-form video that can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars within the last 9 months of this year.  Even more if you build on it.  But do you know the sweet spot for length?  It’s super important.  Go over this number of minutes and you’re dead.  Do you know the topics that will best ignite a storm of advertiser support?  We’re going to brainstorm on these topics when we meet face-to-face in Philly next week.
• Social media strategies that double or triple your content effectiveness.  Facebook is declining and has been replaced by an alternative you will want to get to know.  Twitter is just fluttering – there are better alternatives.  Don’t throw these old tools out but don’t count on them.  Just use them differently.  Start thinking about starting your own social network.  I did.  I’ll share what I know.
• Change the way you pitch advertisers and their agencies on digital content.  Radio sells digital like radio.  That’s not optimal.  I’m going to show you how to sell digital like there is no tomorrow.  And there is one mistake that almost every radio station is making when they sell digital that you want to stop making a.s.a.p.
• See videos of how entrepreneurs are making the kind of money that would put a radio station well into the black by the end of December.
• A 37-year old who grosses $3 million in a way no radio station has ever done.  I’m all ears.  You may want to be as well.
• You’ll want the income this teenager makes through product placement alone.  See how she figured it out.

And if you’re worried about expenses, how about if I said great digital costs next to nothing.

I’m going to show you how to do it on an iPhone and you’re not going to know the difference.

An iPhone!

Here are the 7 other critical areas radio broadcasters and digital entrepreneurs will focus on in Philly next week:

1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He will provide an action list.

Sean Hannity will join us in person not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

It will be my pleasure to meet you in person in Philly March 26^th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  Call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie. 

Radio was flat for 2013 and there have been all kinds of explanations – no political advertising compared to the previous year, popularity of digital competitors and Pandora is taking sizeable amounts of revenue away from radio.

Again, 2014 will be flat or down according to forecasts from financial experts and the first quarter is starting out awful. 

When Clear Channel’s biggest moneymaking cluster, Los Angeles, is off a minimum of 10% for the first quarter, which ends in a few weeks, you know we all have trouble.

Meanwhile, digital is supposed to be the future, but for radio, according to Borrell Research, the average station does $166,000 in digital a year and they get to decide what is called digital.

And that’s an average.  Some are much less and even doubling it does not guarantee position revenue growth for 2014.

But there are positive ways to guarantee a positive finish up as much as 4% in radio revenue.

• Exceed revenue totals for last year by holding on to the same number of advertisers you had but increasing their effectiveness by 30% so they will spend more and pay more.  At my coming Philly meeting, More FM owner Jerry Lee will tell you straight out the one thing you can do today that will increase your best advertisers effectiveness by 30%.  Proven.  And it costs nothing – just a shrewd strategic move you will want to know and understand.  It’s an open forum, you can ask him directly.
• Tuck in some added dollars by stealing it from TV advertising.  Learn how to pitch doubling TV sales results for less than the cost of TV through a more effective radio approach.  Here’s how to make TV advertisers really believe you.
• Then, add a new digital revenue stream with guaranteed big income.  This would be video.  I will show some short-form video examples that are bringing in $3 million a year in revenue.  Just following this footprint and having a modest success nets an additional income stream toward your plus 4% finish for 2014.
• Video may seem like kid stuff but let’s go to school on these “kids”.  Let me show you a teenager who makes the kind of money that could put you into positive revenue for the year by giving away short-form videos.  Here’s how she makes her money.  You can do this, no problem.

If you’re in the mood to finish 2014 strong, these and other strategies we will cover in Philly will get you there.

Plus, these topics that will make you a better local broadcaster:

1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He will provide an action list.

Sean Hannity will join us in person not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26^th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  Call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie. 

Amazingly, Gordon Borrell, the excellent researcher that radio industry people quote to prop up declining revenue in a digital world has advice radio refuses to take.

Gordon shared it with me and I want to share it with you:

“I continue to believe that most local media companies – newspapers and radio specifically – have lost their way.  They fail to champion their core product, getting lost in this “digital first” mentality.  Digital is competitive to what they do, in many ways.   They SHOULD pursue digital initiatives in two ways:  1) to enhance and support the core product (not supplant it), and 2) to create an entirely new business, much the way radio owners seized the competitive opportunity of TV in the 1950s, but with entirely separate ventures.    No. 2 is optional, by the way.  You won’t die if you don’t create entirely separate digital ventures.  But your company won’t grow anymore, either.”

Wow!

This is the opposite of what radio stations do.

They put the most cost effective product on the air and then stream it without making money or picking up even 5% more listeners from that stream.

In essence, radio does not enhance its core product.

And we are certainly not creating an entire new business, which is why the witching hour has come upon us.

The 2013 figures are in and after years of barely showing growth as an industry, radio is officially flat. 

No growth.

That’s why this is very important and why it is one of the issues we are going to talk about face-to-face two Wednesdays from now at my Philly meeting.

• Streaming and hitchhiking on Facebook and Twitter is not a business growth plan.  There is something better and it is very, very affordable.
• Eliminate the digital stream of your radio station.  More FM Philadelphia, the market’s perennial number one billing station doesn’t do an online stream.  Founder and owner Jerry Lee will sit with us and explain why and what might be some better options.
• Rethink your station’s website.  They lose money.  Certainly don’t make money.  And after 15 years of trying, it’s time to declare victory and move on to what has greater potential.  I’ll show you some powerful alternatives.
• Never allow a radio rep to sell digital.  Never.  You won’t listen but you’re likely to get snookered by advertisers if your spot seller also offers digital.  And if you’re using digital to effectively lower your spot rate to be more competitive like CBS and other big companies, there is no solution that will fix that.  Just stop it.  You’re hurting yourself.
• Short form video – the likes of which I will bet you have never done – is the fastest path to a strong second revenue stream.  I will play some impressive short videos that make money.  Why didn’t we think of these?  From now on, we will.

This is one of the 7 critical issues that are on the agenda for our March 26^th “Cheesesteak Conference” in Philly. 

Here are the others:

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time shift radio.  Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

Here’s how the agenda for our day together looks:

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

8:00 am         Registration/Breakfast

9:00 am         Disrupt & Reinvent Radio

10:15 am       Break

10:30 am       Attracting Millennials

11:45 am       Lunch

1:00 pm         Jerry Lee on More Effective Commercials, Streaming, Branding

1:45 pm         Break

2:00 pm         Digital, Video & Time Shifting Radio

2:45 pm         Break

3:00 pm         Social Media

4:00 pm         Conference Concludes

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He’s even bringing valuable handouts that only you will receive. 

Sean Hannity will join us in person not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26^th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Less than 2 weeks until Philly!

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  The Rittenhouse is holding some rooms at $249 for conference attendees.  To reserve one, call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie. 

Maybe you laugh when the radio industry takes off after Pandora but Pandora is really not their biggest problem.

Millennial listeners as old as 30 years and younger – many already in the money demo radio craves – have three big problems with music radio.

And all three can be fixed.

So if you’re open to focusing on problems under our control that we can fix, here they are:

SAME OLD MUSIC OVER AND OVER AGAIN

• We know that to get ratings, the biggest hits need to be rotated frequently.  But young listeners are used to the music discovery that the Internet and streaming music services bring.
• How to add 2/3 more new music to each hour without losing audience.  In fact, you are likely to gain listeners if you methodically follow this approach we will discuss face to face in Philly in less than 2 weeks.
• Why no one under 30 listens to any song all the way through in this digital age and yet music radio is based on the assumption that if we can play the right songs, they will stay tuned in.  One critical adjustment wins the day.
• Two ways to disrupt the stranglehold streaming music services have over young music lovers looking for music discovery.  One is holistic for the entire broadcast day and the other is experimental with less risk to your present format.  We’ll lay them out.

TOO MANY LOUSY COMMERCIALS

• They hate those 18 unit spot sets no matter how much they might be tempted to listen more to your station. 
• How to fix the long commercial breaks they hate by reconfiguring the way you present commercials.  How to try this experiment out of prime time until you see that it works.
• The one type of commercial my USC college students said they “loved” and would actually listen to.  Add one or two of these to the beginning of a stop set and start to address the problem.
• Making commercials that work better for advertisers.
• One thing you can do that will increase the effectiveness of your commercials for your best advertisers.  More FM owner Jerry Lee will be there in person to tell you what it is.  It’s simple and costs nothing.  30% more effectiveness gets bigger ad spends.

OUTDATED MORNING SHOWS

• Younger demos can’t relate to what passes for a local radio morning show, but they love personalities – the same ones stations are firing or watering down.
• The elements of radio morning shows that most go and what should replace them.
• Why the elements of morning shows that used to be a must for radio are now passé.  How to come up with morning show content that digital devices cannot compete with.

This is one of the 7 critical issues facing radio stations and digital entrepreneurs.

Here’s the content:

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time shift radio.  Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

Here’s the agenda:

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

8:00 am         Registration/Breakfast

9:00 am         Disrupt & Reinvent Radio

10:15 am       Break

10:30 am       Attracting Millennials

11:45 am       Lunch

1:00 pm         Jerry Lee on More Effective Commercials, Streaming, Branding

1:45 pm         Break

2:00 pm         Digital, Video & Time Shifting Radio

2:45 pm         Break

3:00 pm         Social Media

4:00 pm         Conference Concludes

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He’s even bringing valuable handouts that only you will receive. 

Sean Hannity will join us live not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26^th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Less than 2 weeks until Philly!

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  The Rittenhouse is holding some rooms at $249 for conference attendees.  To reserve one, call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie. 

Q:  How are you going to get everything in in just one day?

A:   I talk fast.  Seriously, most media conferences do not suffer from too much information.  Usually, it’s not enough.  That won’t be our problem.

Q:  How is this day different from any other?

A:   We cover 7 critical issues that are facing radio people and digital entrepreneurs.  The topics are listed below.  No lectures.  No PowerPoint.  And I give all attendees access to a digital copy of my Lesson Plan, which includes additional resources in case you want to drill down in a particular area.

Q:  Are Bob Pittman and Lew Dickey speaking?

A:  Yes, but not here.  This conference is for locally focused broadcasters who are interested in operating radio not selling, merging or playing monopoly.  On second thought, maybe I should get John Hogan to speak about how he got Clear Channel to pay him $25,000 a month to move to New York.  Nah.

Q:  Is there a dress code?

A:  Hey, this is Philly.  Maybe a Flyers jersey would be appropriate.  No, just be comfortable.  No Rangers or Penguins jerseys allowed or you’ll be asked to pay double!  And if Tincy Crouse wears that Predators sweatshirt like she did last year, she has to agree to help get Nashville to trade Shea Weber to the Flyers.  All kidding aside -- let me wear the suit.  You relax and have fun.

Q:  You mention brainstorming, how do you do it?

A:  Let me give you an example.  I am going to share a list of complaints listeners have with radio.  I will offer some disruptive solutions that they will like and you will be encouraged to join in to the extent that you’d like to.  Keep in mind that I was a professor of music industry at USC.  Nothing shocks me.  The teacher and the taught together do the teaching.  So when we rebuild the morning radio show (as we are going to do), I’m going to share the fact that listeners don’t want or need traffic and transit on the 2’s.  They have it all in their hand.  It’s called an iPhone or Galaxy.  So we’ll invent a new feature that young listeners will actually listen to that will replace traffic and transit.  You can even sell it.  For a premium!  We’ve got a big list of listener complaints and we’ll dive into the biggest issues as part of our brainstorming session to address them.

Q:  Will this conference be available on video or by streaming?

A:  No.  I record the event every year but don’t sell it because some day I would like to do a JD School, but this is a collaborative event not a video event so attendance is mandatory to get the most out of it.

Q:  What part will your guest professors play?

A:  Jerry Lee, owner of More FM in Philly will sit with us and talk about why his station doesn’t stream, why he changed its name at the station’s peak of popularity and how More FM outbills everyone in the market with one station by getting better results for his advertisers.  Jerry Lee’s action program for you will be included in the digital “Lesson Plan” you’ll be getting.  When everyone delivers better results for advertisers, radio triumphs together.

Q:  What is Sean Hannity going to speak about?

A:  Sean will be coming down from New York to be with us in person.  He’s doing some very cool things to attract younger listeners to an unusually old talk radio format.  He’s got the youngest audience of any major talk show.  I want to get to what he’s doing.  Sean will share and be part of the discussion on attracting Millennials.

Q:  And Michael Harrison?

A:  Heck, Michael is the face of the radio industry in the business and consumer media because he is a futurist.  Michael and I will trip out into the future of radio and digital content. 

Q:  Will there be time for questions?

A:   Expanded from last year.  Fire away.

Q:  Talk about the digital and video topics you think are in radio’s future.

A:   I’ll be playing some short videos that we will then discuss.  A preview:  a 37- year old women who does empowerment issues for women makes $3 million a year on a 5-minute free video without selling one commercial or banner ad.  How is it possible to do a free video and make $3 million a year?  I’m dying to show this to you and tell you how see does it.  But I also have some ideas for music stations.  The video of an 18-year old girl who is getting rich with short videos for teens.  I’ll play it.  She makes her money through product placement.  I’ll even give you the videos after the conference.  I’m so excited I want to start right now.

Q:  Who is providing the cheesesteaks?

A:  Ha!  We are.  Along with a huge buffet breakfast, build your own cheesesteaks for lunch, enjoy raviolis or have both and soft pretzels, freshly baked cookies and caffeine to keep you awake if I should ever bore you.  And if you are vegan or have dietary restrictions just tell the server and we will accommodate you. 

Q:  Any good radio groups attending?

A:  You’re kidding me, right?  That’s all we have.  Good radio groups and independent stations.  They are investing in their future.  This is a great group of people with whom to brainstorm.

Q:  Can I stay on-site at the meeting hotel?

A:  Yes.  The Rittenhouse is one of the top hotels in Philadelphia and you can get a room for the special rate of $249 per night as a conference registrant.  You’ll love the Rittenhouse and the nearby neighborhood.

Q:  How far is the meeting from the airport?

A:  30 minutes of less.  Amtrak’s 30^th Street Station is a five-minute cab drive away. You won’t even need to consult traffic and transit on the twos to make it on time.

Q:  When does the conference start?

A:  8 am for registration and buffet breakfast.  Lunch is at noon.  The event ends at 4pm.

Q:  What if I want to bring more people.

A:  There are group rates.  Contact me here. 

Q:  What are you going to do with my money?

A:  Pay the hotel and give the rest to my wife.  I’m not crazy.

Q:  What is the agenda?

A:  Plan accordingly.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

8:00 am         Registration/Breakfast

9:00 am         Disrupt & Reinvent Radio

10:15 am       Break

10:30 am       Attracting Millennials

11:45 am       Lunch

1:00 pm         Jerry Lee on More Effective Commercials, Streaming, Branding

1:45 pm         Break

2:00 pm         Digital, Video & Time Shifting Radio

2:45 pm         Break

3:00 pm         Social Media

4:00 pm         Conference Concludes

Q:  What are the 7 critical issues that this event is all about?

A:  Here is how we will spent our time together:

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time shift radio.  Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

Q:  How do I register?

A:  Use the links below.  And thank you!

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  The Rittenhouse is holding some rooms at $249 for conference attendees.  To reserve one, call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie.

COMMERCIALS

The way they sound.

The sheer endless nature of stopsets.

No matter how great the rest of a station’s programming may be, most stations are running 16 units or more per hour usually in two breaks.

They are unlistenable.

Audiences have complained about commercials for a long time but in a world where listeners can skip commercials everywhere else, radio is looking for real trouble by running endless stopsets.

CBS loads clusters with garbage.  Cumulus and Clear Channel throw anything in of any length that they can sell or giveaway to make the listening experience that much worse.

Miller Kaplan Arase has done far more damage to an already bad situation than even PPM could do, as owners want to drive the revenue numbers up at the expense of what is even possible to sit through.

The good news is that there are new ways to approach the need to run lots of inventory without driving listeners crazy.  And it’s why I have put this topic on the agenda for my Philly meeting two weeks from today.

It’s a phased plan.  You can even test it until you’re comfortable.  We’ll discuss face-to-face.

REPETITIVE MUSIC

An old complaint made worse by the fact that listeners now have many devices to turn to besides radio.

A music radio station operates under the assumption that if they can get a listener to like a song, the listener will stay tuned in for all of it.

There is new evidence that this is no longer possible and changes would be prudent for stations looking to keep audiences engaged.

There is a way to capture more TSL with music radio listeners by doing something very disruptive – but you’re going to like it and you can experiment in off-hours until you feel really confident.

To do nothing will bring more of the same declining time spent listening to radio.

OUTDATED MORNING SHOW

Radio stations are essentially doing the same morning show that they have done for 40 years or more.  Not one major new element has been innovated and many of the tried and true morning show features that we as an industry love are no longer working.

We’re going to brainstorm together about new features to add to morning shows that are unique, compelling and even more importantly, addicting.  Take them home and try them.  Better yet, try them and sell them.

CONTESTS AND PROMOTIONS

They think most radio contests are stupid and the prizes are laughable yet in an era where gaming is so popular, radio has an opportunity lead the way with contests and promotions so strong that even young listeners will feel compelled to stay glued to the radio.

This would be just talk if we didn’t have a great promotion that should be done in every market.  If you like it, reserve it for yours.

The one thing today’s listeners expect from a radio contest – even more important than the size of the prize.

HYPE

Even if a station does everything else right, hype and self-promotion will backfire.  That wasn’t always the case.  Radio excelled at self-promotion in earlier decades but now there is something more desirable that listeners crave in the digital age.

It is authenticity.

But being authentic is tougher than it sounds especially to transform an entire radio station.

And there are 6 other things that Millennial listeners want from radio in addition to authenticity.  Let’s go through them one at a time.

The good news is that radio operators who care about local audiences can do something to change audience perceptions.

You just have to know what works and what doesn’t.

What to say and what not to.

What to do that excites.

What to rethink.

Here are the other issues at the March 26^th meeting:

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time shift radio.   Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

A day of information and inspiration where we work together.  I’m putting more time aside this year for questions.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Down to 2 weeks until conference day.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  The Rittenhouse is holding some rooms at $249 for conference attendees.  To reserve one, call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie. 

It’s an experiment in Boston and you can see what the largest monopoly in cable is up to.

Comcast knows that cable television is a thing of the past.

No self-respecting young person would add an extra monthly expense for something they don’t want.

What they want is content on-demand.

The shorter the better.

With the ability to binge on it all at once or as much as they can when they want.

And they don’t want commercials.

If you’re thinking, who the hell are these people telling us what to do, well – they’ve been doing it.

Millennials have brought more change to almost every part of society not the least of which is the media business.

Let me put it like this.

If a big bad cable company like Comcast knows that it has to be in another business besides the 24-hour real time broadcasting of programming, then what is radio’s excuse?

There are ways to time shift radio but first stations have to take the litmus test to see if the content is worth making available for on-demand consumption.

At my Philly conference in two weeks we are going to delve into how radio stations can avoid being left behind by rethinking time shifted content.

I’m going to ask this question:  “What station content is worth a listener time shifting it for on-demand consumption?”

Yet there is no reason why radio cannot offer this option to listeners and without adapting, radio stations run the risk of being the only media operation left that requires audiences to listen to them on the station’s schedule and not theirs.

There are 7 critical issues that will be the focus of our time together:

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time shift radio.  Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

A day of information and inspiration where we work together.  I’m putting more time aside this year for questions.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Down to 2 weeks until the conference.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  The Rittenhouse is holding some rooms at $249 for conference attendees.  To reserve one, call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie. 

There are 75 million baby boomers who grew up on radio and make up the core audience for the medium.

But there are 95 million Millennials – some as old as 30 and already in the money demo making this audience critical to radio’s future.

Baby boomers can’t imagine life without radio even as they age out of the money-demo.

And Millennials can’t imagine living with radio.  It’s their smartphones and digital devices that they are addicted to.

The youngest baby boomer turned 50 this year.

And Gen X was a comparatively smaller generation with 45 million adults.  Remember, they didn’t have smartphones and iPods but they had MTV and coined the phrase “radio sucks”.

Tough choices.

If radio pursues baby boomers and older Gen Xers, their life span for audiences is short and the future is difficult at best.

If they opt to go after a Millennials generation that can live without radio, it isn’t easy as it sounds.  Millennials want things from radio that the industry largely doesn’t recognize.

But there are hopeful signs of answers that I have discovered in my work as a USC professor focusing on generational media and recent sociological findings.

By focusing on what Millennials want, baby boomers can also become reinvigorated.

In other words, innovate and reinvent radio for Millennials because they are early adopters and if you do the right things, baby boomers will follow.

If you’re having trouble with this concept, think only of Steve Jobs and Apple.

Everything he invented was aimed at the very young next generation.

But then the older market – the later adopters – followed, which is why you see Apple stores loaded with kids and adults both buying products.  And why you see 70 year olds whipping through their iPad screens.

I’m going to reveal 7 of the most important things to win the hearts of Millennials and all seven will also appeal to baby boomers.

It is possible to innovate on the young end and win the older end as well.

It is not possible to double down on the things that baby boomers liked about radio because their lives have also changed from their early radio days.

Now, baby boomers also binge watch on Netflix as Millennials do.

They, too, have shorter attention spans as witnessed by how many of them own DVRs that skip commercials and give them content on-demand.  But popular thought is that only Millennials have A.D.D. and short attention spans.

What we’re learning is it is no longer safe or accretive to embrace the status quo, and to just put younger voices on the air is not an answer.

So, learn the 7 things that Millennials must have to become an avid radio listener and benefit from the response of baby boomers to those things. 

We’ll discuss.

Here are the other critical issues on the agenda in Philly:

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time shift radio.   Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

A day of information and inspiration where we work together.  I’m putting more time aside this year for questions.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Down to 2½ weeks until conference day.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  The Rittenhouse is holding some rooms at $249 for conference attendees only.  Call 800-635-1042 and ask for Alyson Lurie. 

Let’s just get to what younger demo audiences don’t like about radio so we can do something to fix it:

TOO MANY COMMERCIALS

1. How to deal with stop sets that are too long, invite tune out and cause growing resentment in returning to the station as long as running stops sets 8 or 9 minutes long twice an hour continues.
2. Two steps that can begin to reverse this negative within months without upsetting business.
3. If you absolutely refuse to directly address the biggest objection audiences have about radio, at least curate the stop steps.  We’re going to get into this technique at my Philly Conference in two weeks.

NOT ENOUGH MUSIC DISCOVERY

1. The more passionate the music audience, the more they demand music discovery.  But stations know if they repeat the same 30 songs (or less), their PPM ratings will go higher so they are reluctant to add additional new and less popular songs.  Now there is a solution that everyone will love.  How to do both.
2. A way to have two-thirds of your music be new and one-third reliable hit songs without losing audience.  In fact, you will gain listeners.  I’m going to share a safe way to test this and see for yourself before committing the entire station to it.
3. Radio is based on the assumption that if a listener likes a song, they’ve got that listener until the song ends.  No longer true.  New evidence that the basis for this assumption is wrong.  What to do.

MORNING SHOWS THAT SUCK

1. The one thing under 30’s would turn to a radio for is a local personality morning show that they like – the same kind that radio groups are watering down or replacing with syndication.  First order of business:  know what kind of personality they crave.
2. You need traffic and transit.  They don’t need it or want it even though you make money from airing these reports.  They think morning traffic is uncool because they can get it on their iPhones and Galaxies.  At my Philly event we will brainstorm together for a replacement to traffic and transit reports.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to go home and do it, but you’ll want to when you see that you can also get a premium for something more desirable.
3. Weather is still a “must have” element for mornings, right?  No, the rules have changed.

STUPID CONTESTS AND PROMOTIONS

1. No radio station offers anything that today’s listeners really want to win.  Small stuff is not worth it.  But there is one thing.
2. A new age contest that will absolutely keep anyone under 50 listening to a radio station the way listeners used to listen for “Cash Call”.  It has been done successfully.  Picked up 700,000 cume in just three months.  You want to be the first in your market to do it because the second in loses.  You’re going to want to at least know what this contest is in case you have to defend against it.
3. The one thing today’s listeners expect from a radio contest – even more important than the size of the prize.

TOO MUCH HYPE

1. If a radio station is anything, it’s a hype machine.  A throwback to the 50’s and 60’s.  But new audiences hate hype.  The more we say it’s the greatest, the more we tell audiences it is not believable.  The new rules on talking on-air to listeners in the digital age.
2. Cool is not being hot.  Cool is never saying the word Facebook on the air.  There is a better word you should use. 
3. How to replace on-air radio attitude with something younger demos love – authenticity. 

The good news is that radio operators who care about local audiences can do something to change audience perceptions.

You just have to know what works and what doesn’t.

What to say and what not to.

What to do that excites.

What to rethink.

Here are the other issues at the March 26^th meeting:

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time shift radio.   Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

A day of information and inspiration where we work together.  I’m putting more time aside this year for questions.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Down to 2½ weeks until conference day.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to check on room availability for our event. 

What to do?

Is it worth a radio station betting the future on 75 million remaining baby boomers or do you just discard them for younger demos.

Do you get younger and blow off the things boomers loved about radio.  (This may be a moot point because most of the large consolidators and their smaller followers have already cutback on these things).

That hasn’t worked out so well.

That’s radio’s dilemma and a solution is now becoming evident.

There is a way to engage younger audiences – Millennials who number 95 million and also serve older audiences who have been the staple of radio.

Ironically radio’s big mistake is to program to baby boomers at the expense of Millennials.

When creating content in the digital age, it is always preferable to create content for the change makers who are in fact the younger Millennials.

I’ve isolated 7 specific strategies that can easily be implemented by any radio station, any format in any market and I’m going to get into this at my Philly conference three weeks from now.

The problem well-meaning radio stations have been having with maintaining their money demos and acquiring new listeners is that they are afraid to alienate older listeners.

As you will see these concepts – the ones Millennials value most – will never alienate baby boomers although oddly enough some of the things baby boomers still want from radio will drive Millennials away.

One of the seven requirements to meet the needs of the next generation is to be authentic.  Almost nothing about a radio station is authentic.  It’s full of hype, commercials, promos, and noise.

That can be fixed.

The other 6 things that younger demos now require are just as important and we’ll go through them one by one.  This is so vital that I use all 6 in the work that I do.

This is going to be a fruitful dialog because without spending a single dime, smart radio stations can fine tune their strategy for not only satisfying their loyal core older listeners but for the first time have a chance to win the hearts of younger ones.

Here are the other 7 critical issues at the March 26^th meeting:

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time-shift radio.   Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time-shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time-shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

A day of information and inspiration where we work together.  I’m putting more time aside this year for questions.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to check on room availability for our event. 

95 million Millennials want music discovery.

Radio wants the ratings they get from PPM when they play the same songs over and over in high rotation.

Millennials leave for streaming services and turn to other devices to satisfy their appetite for music discovery.

And radio winds up unnecessarily losing audience with a damned if they do and damned if they don’t strategy.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

In my generational media work I have discovered a way to give the next generation the music discovery they consider mandatory while not losing radio ratings to unfamiliar or unpopular music.

No one is doing what I am proposing.

And the reason is because radio would have to disrupt what it does on the air in a way even more radical than when Top 40 came on the scene to redefine radio at the start of the television generation.

Yet stations can do the same thing today.

Redefine what a music station is.

For example:

• How to safely add two-thirds more music discovery to a winning hit mix. That’s not a misprint – it’s two-thirds music discover to one-third repetitive hits.
• And without losing PPM ratings – in fact, probably gaining share.
• How far should a radio station go in selecting the songs for music discovery.
• And most importantly!  How to fit it all in each format hour. 

That’s what I am going to show you at my upcoming Philly meeting.

This is important enough to add to the agenda because streaming music services are taking their toll on radio audiences and in the case of Pandora, local ad dollars as well.

Best yet, Pandora cannot do what this plan does for radio.

We stop imitating them.

They can’t imitate this.

Certainly if any station doesn’t have the resolve to do it, I understand.  You have to be in the mindset to disrupt what has worked so well but isn’t working now.

And they most certainly don’t want a competitor to beat them to it because first in wins.

This is one of the important topics that makes a trip to Philly worthwhile for all the details, strategies and your questions.

Here’s the rest of the agenda:

8 am               Registration/Complimentary breakfast
9 am              Disrupt & Reinvent Radio
10:30 am       Break
10:45 am        Attracting Money Demos

12 Noon         Complimentary lunch

1 pm               Conference Conversation with More FM, Philly owner Jerry Lee
2 pm               Break
2:15 pm          Digital, Video & Time Shifting
3 pm               Social Media

Guests include Sean Hannity in person to discuss ways to adapt to younger money demos (he’s got the youngest audience of major talk show hosts).  And Michael Harrison, the industry’s go to expert on the future of radio will sit with me and target what is next for radio.

This is the year of the local radio group that will eat consolidated radio alive while they are obsessed and distracted by refinancing all the debt they ran up.

For everyone else, it comes down to this …

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time shift radio.   Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

A day of information and inspiration where we work together.  I’m putting more time aside this year for questions.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to check on room availability for our event. 

The radio industry has been hanging on to the hope that it will still dominate the digital entertainment center of the future in cars.

It was always a stretch.

The old radio has just a finite number of radio stations available on it with a finite number of satellite radio stations if the owner wanted the extra expense.

That’s why we proudly said for decades that “an automobile is a radio with four wheels”.

I’ve been consistently saying the digital dashboard is a mirage.

At best, you get one of ten pre-sets.

Then it’s everybody for themselves.

Today Apple dealt the ultimate blow to radio’s hopes.

They announced CarPlay.

CarPlay is an iPhone-to-car integration system that seamlessly syncs with your car to allow phone calls, dictate text messages and emails and plays music while driving.

Siri controls the app and other third party apps including iHeartRadio and Spotify. Siri will have her own button on the steering wheel of cars from Mercedes and Ferrari to GM, Ford, Toyota and others.

Pandora has its own built-in option to the digital dashboard.

If you study the habits of Millennials as old as 30 and Plurals, the teenaged next generation, you already know that the smartphone is all they need to live, communicate and enjoy.

A radio is no longer necessary.

You can’t go to a hockey game without a smartphone or to dinner or to bed and it makes sense that Apple has figured out that its products are all anyone needs to go for a ride in their cars.

One thing is certain.

Get Plan B ready because Plan A is changing.

I want to get to this at my Philly Conference in a few weeks.

Just how should a radio station deal with losing its number one source of listening.

Streaming is not the right answer.

Consumers prove over and over again that they don’t have the interest or attention span to use a smartphone as a radio.  They don’t even use the Internet as a radio except in perhaps 3% of all office radio listening.

Plan B is a two-pronged approach to radio and digital.

Disrupt the way we do radio on our own – right now before someone else does it.

Then start a separate revenue stream from digital projects that will be worthwhile.

If the average station is doing $166,000 in digital billing according to Borrell research, that’s not a business.  It’s a pain in the neck.

We’re going to put this all together with digital, video and time shifting at my March 26^th conference.

Here’s the initial agenda:

8 am               Registration/Complimentary breakfast
9 am              Disrupt & Reinvent Radio
10:30 am       Break
10:45 am        Attracting Money Demos

12 Noon         Complimentary lunch

1 pm               Conference Conversation with More FM, Philly owner Jerry Lee
2 pm               Break
2:15 pm          Digital, Video & Time Shifting
3 pm               Social Media

Guests include Sean Hannity in person to discuss ways to adapt to younger money demos (he’s got the youngest audience of major talk show hosts).  And Michael Harrison, the industry’s go to expert on the future of radio will sit with me and target what is next for radio.

This is the year of the local radio group that will eat consolidated radio alive while they are obsessed and distracted by refinancing all the debt they ran up.

For everyone else, it comes down to this …

1. Disrupting what consolidators have turned our radio industry into.  We can’t do this by just changing formats.  It’s going to take a nuclear option and I’ve got one for you that is so big it will push your consolidated competitors back with no option to compete with you.
2. Master digital.  Digital isn’t a product.  It’s a technology.  Every radio broadcaster needs to start a second stream of revenue separate and apart from radio.  Let’s create some content.  There are some dazzling possibilities out there.  I will share.
3. Create your own social media.  If you tie yourself to Facebook, Twitter or even the current rage, Instagram, you’re going down with them.  There’s a better way.  Make your own social network and drive it with content and revenue possibilities.  It’s being done under the radar by some smart people right now.
4. Reinvent radio.  Stop thinking of it as hourly hot clocks and redesign it to be compelling to the very audience we can’t seem to attract – 95 million Millennials.  They dislike radio but they like some things we’re not currently doing.  Interested in providing this content for younger money demos?  It takes an open mind and some creativity.
5. Video. Video. Video.  We’re wasting valuable time.  You must be in this business but it is not what you think it is.  Let me show you real success stories including one entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year by doing a free 5-minute weekly video.  No commercials, banner ads, product placement or subscription fees.  I’m going to play it, talk about it and answer your questions.  This is ingenious.
6. The key to attracting Millennials.  There is basically nothing radio has to offer right now that Millennials can’t get somewhere else.  The secret to attracting Millennials is to build your station for them.  I know, that sounds awful, but Steve Jobs didn’t design Apple products for later adopters.  He mastered the early adopters by finding out the “radical” things they couldn’t resist.  We can do this and here’s the plan.
7. Time shift radio.  Look, if you get nothing else out of this learning session you must become skilled at time shifting content.  Binge watching is the rage.  Broadcasting is out.  It doesn’t mean the end if we know how to time shift our content.  I’ll tell you everything I know about this.

A day of information and inspiration where we work together.  I’m putting more time aside this year for questions.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to check on room availability for our event. 

50% of all radio commercials don’t pay for themselves when advertisers buy spots on your station.

You can add 30% more effectiveness by doing one thing that is almost never done and yet research confirms this strategy’s effectiveness.

And another 20% can be added in the way you deal with price.

Warning:  low rates are as bad as high rates.

If you’re open to changing the way you deal with the pricing of your station’s commercials, you actually add value.

In a world where broadcast groups now have to back out political advertising from their previous year’s comparables in order to at least look like they are not missing their budgets by too much, there has to be a better way.

That’s why I have asked More FM, Philadelphia owner Jerry Lee to address these issues at my March Philly meeting.  He owns the perennial top billing radio station in the market and has for years.

If the time is right for you to look for a new and effective way to add advertising revenue, you will value what Lee is going to share in a rare public appearance.

A game plan for making radio advertising so much more effective that your most important advertisers will divert budgets from television and digital to spend more with you.

This is happening right now at More FM but it doesn’t occur when it’s radio sales as usual.

You’ll leave with action steps that Jerry Lee is preparing for conference attendees to deliver better results and gain a larger chunk of the budget for radio. 

The honest truth is that there are just not enough new radio accounts available to make up for what is getting lost to digital. 

As you will learn, increasing the buy from a group of solid advertisers can more than make up for the ad revenue you may be losing.

Here’s a sampling of the 7 critical areas that matter most to broadcasters and digital entrepreneurs in the year ahead that will also be covered:

1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He’s even bringing valuable handouts that only you will receive. 

Sean Hannity will join us live not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26^th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to see if they have any rooms left in the special rate block.

Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included.  Starting time: 8am.  Ends 4pm.