Often radio stations make things harder than they are when it comes to attracting Millennials.

For decades radio’s focus was that large population of Baby Boomers (aging but still 70 million strong). The last Baby Boomer turned 50 in 2014 so the generation is fast edging out of the money demo.

And then there is radio’s uncomfortable relationship with 45 million Gen Xers – after all, this is the generation that coined the phrase “Radio Sucks”. And radio’s answer was “Jack – We Play What We Want”.

Oh no!

So now, with 95 million Millennials coming of age and many now as old as 33 and in the money demo, smart strategic thinking suggests doing all we can to avoid mistakes that turn off the essential next wave of radio potential radio listeners.

Don’t believe that these young people will only pay attention to their phones.

But first we have to start paying attention to them.

Millennial Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make:

1. To change the way you do commercials.  My research at the University of Southern California shows that Millennials love live-read commercials. But there are some caveats that are easy enough to abide by.  This provides some hope that the things that pay our bills and promote our stations can be delivered in ways that will prompt them to listen.
2. But the message must be quick and to the point. Millennials, like every other generation, have shorter attention spans every year. The 10 second spot that would work best is a good audio “tweet”.
3. Watch how you talk to Millennials. They feel radio djs talk down to them at worst and at best sound like phonies -- not real people. There are 7 things that should be used as standards for changing the way radio talks to younger listeners. And by the way, this doesn’t mean you have to hire only Millennials on the air.  They sure listened to that old Baby Boomer Steve Jobs who would have turned 60 today when he talked to them about Apple’s new products and they thought he was cool.
4. Take Millennial bingeing seriously.  No, it’s not just for Netflix and HuluPlus. Millennials want to be the “program director” so with a little imagination, let’s talk about how to provide them with binge-worthy content from their local radio provider. “The History of Rock and Roll” – 48 hour rockumentary would be a good place to start the brainstorming about creating bingeing content.
5. Kill the 8-minute stop set before it kills you .   Seriously, you can have the best radio station in the world and too many commercials will do you in. But there are ways to schedule spots better. Look with more skepticism at the common PPM wisdom of creating wastelands of commercials to win certain quarter hours and take a leap of faith – they want better commercials and more interruptions not fewer (more interruptions soothes their A.D.D.).
6. Avoid using social media to promote on-air.  No one who uses social media believes you anyway. If you have just a little bit of courage, try social media this way — sell nothing, promote nothing, illuminate, entertain and put your name on it.
7. Ditch voice tracking and syndication.  You love it, audiences ignore you. What a deal? A lousy deal. Voice tracking is for lazy people. As a major market program director I could have gotten people to pay me to take on-air jobs. Well, you know what I mean. You don’t have to go broke hiring live jocks. More interruptions by a live dj who doesn’t sound like a moron wins the day.
8. Repeat after me: I will never run a sweeper again.  Again, lazy radio’s way to avoid having to entertain an audience.  It’s something Marc Chase would do at iHeart stations but sweepers are really passé. Millennials told me that when iHeart switched to urban hip-hop to go after Emmis’ Power 106, the sweeper they used “we’ve got the power” backfired. Get it.  92.3 has the “Power” – how not cool is that? Let’s talk about a replacement for sweepers that you and the audience will much prefer.
9. And eliminate everything that ends in “est” – like “greatest” and “best”. No longer credible. There are a whole lot of better replacement words that are more authentic.
10. Play games  --  hey, this is the gaming generation — what a bad time to stop on-air contesting. But be warned — throwback radio contests won’t work today. The best way to come up with these new Millennial friendly contests is to bring a bunch of Millennials in to create them. Let’s practice what to say and what kind of prizes to award. Think: a job, a college loan payment.
11. Don’t brand or promote, make personalities your “brand” .   Lew Dickey loves branding, not Millennials. Nash, Icon, even all-news or talk, greatest hits, you name it means nothing to today’s audience. You’re going to get mad at me now — personalities are everything on radio. I know they cost money and owners can’t wait to get rid of them but that’s what young listeners want. In fact, it’s the only thing many of them want from radio. They can get more music variety just about anywhere in their digital universe. Want to know what it takes to find a hot Millennial radio personality — radio still hasn’t figured it out. But we now have some clues.
12. Two things radio listeners still can’t resist: service and humility.  Let’s be 100 here – most stations fail to deliver either.

You’ve got me going now.

Want more ideas like these?

Invest one day at the 2015 Media Solutions Conference March 18^th in Philadelphia (sorry, it won’t be available by stream, video or audio). Only in-person.

Current tuition, program info here.

The curriculum:

• Attracting 2 Million To Your Website the WTOP Way
• Commercials – Another Way
• How Much Radio, How Much Digital
• Listen Longer Strategies
• Eliminating 2015’s 3 Biggest Listener Objections
• Effective Ways To Compete With On-Demand Content
• What Millennials Want From Radio
• Selling Against Competitors Who Drop Rates
• Start Your Own Short-Form Video Business
• Beyond Clicks – Listener Engagement
• Telling Stories – the New Spoken Word Radio
• Why You Should Pass On Podcasting
• 8 Millennial Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make
• Tons of Questions (Q & A)

Reserve a seat.

Inquire about group discounts here.

That’s 2 million a month – not a year! (January).

Hubbard’s dominant all-news WTOP, Washington isn’t just number one in the radio market.

It’s a whopping number one online.

And that’s saying a lot for most radio stations where usually online efforts are an insignificant add-on to audience and means near nothing in additional revenue.

That’s why I have invited Laurie Cantillo, the person responsible as program director of WTOP and WTOP.com to tell my upcoming Philly media seminar how they do it.

I’m going to interview Laurie – and you can help in one of those two-way learning sessions our conference is known for.

Let’s do this thing together and drill down to what you really want to know.

2 million online viewers a month.

That’s more than the total population of Indianapolis.

And if you’re serving page views, how does 31.8 million for the same 30 days sound to you?

This is the kind of thing that can make a real difference to your station’s online efforts – direct help from the leader in the game.

WTOP does so many things differently that you can see why they leave most other radio stations behind.

As you’ll learn, part of their audience also listens to the on-air product.

But another part, just consumes WTOP online.

Together they monetize it.

WTOP has a large screen in the newsroom for all to see to display metrics in real time.

Theirs is no add-on.

Want ideas like these?

Invest one day at the 2015 Media Solutions Conference in Philadelphia walking distance from Amtrak’s 30^th Street Station and 20 minutes from the airport.

Here is the full curriculum in color, with helpful links and info.

Here is how to reserve a seat.

Want group discounts, talk to Jerry here.

For hotel info or other questions, ask Cheryl here.

Radio’s little known secret is that time spent listening to radio (TSL) has been declining steadily and without interruption since Arbitron (now Nielsen) first started keeping figures in the early 90’s.

I think you’ll agree every trick in the book has been tried without success – at least according to the metrics.

The danger is that we start blaming digital for something that started over two decades ago before digital arrived.

I don’t believe – and maybe you agree – that time spent listening to radio has to continue to decline.

But what to do?

1. Put elements into your format that force money demo listeners to stay tuned. Old radio contests won’t do it. Try this: offer to pay someone’s college loan (or a significant portion of it) and see how long a Millennial will stay addicted to your analog radio station.  I’ve got more of these ideas.
2. Cash is good, but Millennials can always hit up dad and mom for cash – not as easy for Baby Boomers to do when radio dangled cash in front of them. Ironically, cash is not the lure it once was – assuming stations want to spend any money at all on promotions – which they should.
3. Invent contests. This is the gaming generation, but most radio people do not have the DNA to brainstorm these contests. I’d like to show you how I did brainstorming with Millennials at USC for radio and record clients that paid them for their help.
4. Music discovery – the one thing music stations will not do because they think it means not playing the hits – is catnip to young audiences. Start playing mashups of new songs – not the entire song – because no one under 30 listens to a song all the way through. Don’t take it from me. Ask them.
5. Dismantle long music sweeps – you like them, young audiences just keep tuning them out (see #4 above).
6. Use more live-read commercials and make them authentic meaning not full of hype. My research shows Millennials actually like live-read commercials done in this fashion and it’s another way to keep tune-ins longer.
7. Rotate commercial stop sets. You can count on losing audience every time you run long stop sets which sound even longer because the spots are so short – and so many. Run them in different places every hour and spit in the face of traditional PPM wisdom that, after all, isn’t helping stations increase their TSL.  This approach will.

Want more ideas like these?

Invest one day at the 2015 Media Solutions Conference in Philadelphia.

The curriculum:

• Commercials – Another Way
• How Much Radio, How Much Digital
• Listen Longer Strategies
• Eliminating 2015’s 3 Biggest Listener Objections
• Ways To Compete With On-Demand Content
• What Millennials Want From Radio
• Selling Against Competitors Who Drop Rates
• Start Your Own Short-Form Video Business
• Beyond Clicks – Listener Engagement
• Telling Stories – the New Spoken Word Radio
• Why You Should Pass On Podcasting
• 8 Millennial Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make
• Tons of Questions (Q & A)

Here is the full curriculum in color, with helpful links and info.

Here is how to reserve a seat.

Want group discounts, talk to Jerry here.

For hotel info or other questions, ask Cheryl here.

Radio broadcasters are used to building content in a hot clock – an hour of programming with certain elements built into it.

But in the digital age, an hour is a long time.

And some of those elements – music, traffic, comedy, news, contests, commercials, don’t seem to fit in.

Anyone who owns a DVR knows that we ALL want what we want when we want it today – not just 95 million Millennials who seem to be resisting radio’s best efforts so far.

To make matters worse, we as an industry aren’t exactly doing the best radio we’ve ever done and any honest person would know that.

It’s about cutting expenses and standardizing programming today.

Getting out of big personality contracts and piping in a cheaper solution from out of market.

Who even mentions audience? It’s “best practices” or “right-sizing”. No wonder we’re losing our edge.

We want to sell commercials for whatever we can get and dump them into two long unlistenable stop sets an hour.

The big boys are dropping their rates pressuring the price of everyone’s inventory downward.

Listeners don’t want any part of it.

To show you how dumb advertisers have become, they should want no part of it.

And the big groups are rolling out programmatic buying, a digital industry idea, where buyers bid on ad prices. Programmatic buying was supposed to be used for selling remnant space now radio groups want it to save sales commissions.

On-air, we do weather.

But listeners have iPhones or Androids – they’ve got that at their fingertips.

Ditto for traffic and transit and news in the unlikely case that we do that anymore.

Today’s audiences already know the news because they’d be waiting to no avail for radio to tell them.

But listeners want music discovery and they have the digital tools to get it on-demand.

Spotify, Pandora, YouTube and other streaming services have answered the audiences desire for music discovery and they get it their way not the limited, repetitious approach that radio still adheres to.

Name something radio has innovated in the last 20 years?

New technology will soon let drivers record up to 30 minutes of programming from their radios.

So one of the things I will challenge those attending my March Philly conference is tell me what you offer that a listener would value enough and play back on-demand for even 30 minutes?

What is it – what’s the most compelling thing you have to offer in light of all this competition?

Not to worry.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

I’m going to share lots of ideas you’re going to like and hopefully we will get out ahead of perhaps the biggest story of our age – the compelling popularity of on-demand content.

Even real time broadcasting will have to adapt to on-demand.

The groups and independent stations doing great local content and starting a separate digital revenue stream are already in.

I’ve got the content divided into 7 key things we need to be working on:

1. Specific ways to compete with on-demand content as a 24-hour a day broadcaster.
2. Methods to master digital as a second, separate stream of revenue alongside broadcasting. Things like replacing your website with something better that will attract followers and actually make money. Eliminating podcasts for a product --- I know, I know – all of a sudden podcasting is in but it doesn’t make money and there is something better worth your time and effort.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent of Facebook, Twitter or the next alternative about to descend on the scene. 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 into the hands of a competitor, for sure.
5. What you need to know about starting your own short-form video business – one that will be unlike anything else you’ve ever seen and that is likely to more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year. I’ll have video examples and reveal 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. I shared it with a recent custom workshop I did for Disney and even the Millennials present took copious notes. Seven things the next generation of listeners must have.  But to know just that would be only half the story. How to implement these things in your format, content, persona and marketing is what we’ll spend time on, too.
7. Smart strategies for selling against competitors who continue to cut their rates and drive down the marketplace.

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

Join the radio executives who have already reserved their seats for this event, which is one month from today.

Independent broadcasters and digital entrepreneurs are invited to the 6^th annual Media Solutions Seminar at the Hub Conference Center March 18^th in Philadelphia, walking distance from Amtrak’s 30^th Street Station and 20 minutes from Philadelphia International Airport.

Buffet breakfast, lunch and all breaks prepared by James Beard award-winning chef Jean-Marie Lacroix, former executive chef at The Four Seasons included.

Register Now

Contact Jerry about the conference and group rates here.

The “big boys” are sure making a mess of the radio industry.

But for everyone else, there is this stronger approach.

People ask me all the time, what would you do if you ran a radio group in the digital age:

• Do the best on-air radio possible at the best price point.
• Start a separate stream of revenue derived from the hottest thing in media – short form video.

The way I like to address our problems is to know without a doubt what the largest available audience wants.

When I was first appointed as a University of Southern California Professor ten years ago, I started studying the importance of generational media. That is, what each individual audience segment wanted from media and music in the digital age.

As it stands now, look at the numbers …

• There are 95 million Millennials some as old as 33 years and firmly in the money demo radio needs. The radio industry has been late to the game on understanding what it takes to woo Millennials. In fact, radio lost this generation to the Internet, smartphones and social media.
• There are about 45 million Gen Xers, a bridge generation and the smallest of all. Yet this group – the original Asteroids and Beavis & Butthead generation coined the term “radio sucks”. What to do about them?
• And the second largest generation ever born (Millennials are the largest), Baby Boomers still have 75 million survivors in their later years. But that is deceiving because 15 million of this number represent immigrants who have moved to America and thus present another interesting problem for media companies.
• And, the generation now being born – Plurals – is likely to consist of almost half of them from mixed race parents (thus the term “Plurals”). Which way are they leaning? What are their special needs. Some are already as old as 15 and yet most radio people know nothing about Plurals.

Bob Pittman doesn’t have to care.

He’s set for life no matter what happens to his job.

Nor does Lew Dickey need to worry.

Yet these two companies and a number of others who imitate them have blighted the radio industry and make it tough for stations that really care and want to survive not just kick the can down the road.

Is that you, by chance?

What we do once a year is reset and refresh our focus because no matter how pure your intentions are, there is nothing worse than doing radio well that doesn’t need to be done at all.

This is a teaching seminar.

We’re going to address the generations, the opportunities, challenges, things to avoid and provide guidance of where to focus your money and time.

Among the things we will do in Philly, is propose some meaningful solutions for Radio’s 12 Biggest Problems”:

1. Too Many Commercials
2. What To Do with 70 Million Baby Boomers
3. Music Radio TSL Losses
4. Eliminating the 3 Biggest Listener Objections To Radio
5. Music That Is Too Repetitive
6. How To Get Listeners To Listen Longer
7. Selling Against Competitors Who Cut Their Rates
8. Surprising Listener “Turn-Ons” & “Turn-Offs”
9. How To Attract Millennials To Radio
10. What To Do About the Digital Dashboard
11. The Decline of News & Talk
12. The Demise of AM Radio

And these Digital Media Solutions:

1. Storytelling Instead of Podcasting
2. Start a Short-Form Video Revenue Stream
3. What’s in the Social Media Pipeline After Facebook and Twitter
4. Create Bingeing Audio Opportunities
5. Replace the Money-Losing Station Websites with this Digital Opportunity

Independent broadcasters and digital entrepreneurs are invited to the 6^th annual Media Solutions Seminar at the Hub Conference Center March 18^th in Philadelphia, walking distance from Amtrak’s 30^th Street Station and 20 minutes from Philadelphia International Airport.

Buffet breakfast, lunch and all breaks prepared by James Beard award-winning chef Jean-Marie Lacroix, former executive chef at The Four Seasons included.

Register Now

Contact Jerry about the conference and group rates here.

Jerry Lee doesn’t do any streaming of his number one music station MoreFM in Philadelphia.

And yet his More FM is the market’s revenue leader.

Apparently Lee is not leaving any money on the table by shutting off the streaming to concentrate on better radio.

And he spends tons of money in research and helping on-air advertisers.

The question is how much digital does radio need to do today to keep revenue figures up?

And what digital projects are a waste of money and which one is the best place to concentrate your efforts.

Digital is being used by the majority of stations as a way of discounting their on-air rates and that doesn’t sound like smart business!

Some of the best operators – the smaller, independent groups – have reimagined their stations for the digital age. Some even threw out the old rules and disrupted their radio stations.

We need to study stations that grow audience and increase revenue – many do, but not enough. And these owners have a different mindset.

No station brings in significant digital revenue, which begs the question why are we continuing to do the same old things that don’t work?

Stronger digital means developing a separate stream of revenue from digital projects that can pay off not an extension of what is on the air.

Like short-form video.

Not cameras aimed at morning show personalities.

Not air talent forced to make content the way they do at Townsquare.

A separate digital track that compliments and never hurts what’s on the air.

Imagine the revenue that can be derived from stronger stations that throw out the old rules and attract new audiences and strong digital profits from the number one thing money demos crave – short-form video.

I can hardly wait to share this new intelligence with you.

My March 18^th Philly conference is focusing on 7 critical things that will help make you a better broadcaster and an innovative, shrewd digital entrepreneur.

1. Specific ways to balance the need for numerous commercials with good principles of radio programming and to disrupt the way we do radio before our digital competitors do it.
2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.       Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts and make money with storytelling 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 a few.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your station’s own social media network independent of Facebook, Twitter and the next flash in the pan. 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 for the digital age one coordinate at a 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 have 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 you video examples and reveal winning game plans. And it can all be recorded economically and professionally on an iPhone 6!
6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media: the critical Millennial checklist. The latest updated research about what the next generation must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age. This is what I use as my business bible and after all, I started a subscription pay site that nobody said would work on the Internet.  Thousands of subscribers later, I can thank following this all-important Millennial checklist. 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 and breed loyalty.
7. The best ways to deal with short-attention spans – so short, that most music listeners under the age of 35 now do not listen all the way through any song. Since music radio formats are based on the assumption that if they play the right songs, audiences will listen – this changes everything. Advances in the way we present music. Desired ways to introduce more music discovery.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person for the 6^th year in a row.

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 18^th just one month from now.

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

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

For nearby hotel information or questions, contact Cheryl @ cldel@earthlink.net or call (480) 998-9898.

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

NBC’s embattled News President Deborah Turness acted swiftly only days after she appointed an internal committee to investigate Brian William’s lying.

Williams is suspended for six months without pay – that’s half of his $10 million annual pay.

Lester Holt fills in.

Not Matt Lauer.

Not Savannah Guthrie or any other NBC News “star”.

At this point, NBC did the right thing. If the evening news ratings sag, they have to suck it up. No matter, it looks like Brian Williams will return a humbled man.

In America, we have at least two views.

That everyone deserves a second chance.

And, once you lie, your credibility will always be in doubt.

It’s a sad sequence of events for the likable and capable Williams but he brought it on himself as we all do when we let our egos transcend our responsibility.

Almost like magic, over at Comedy Central, Jon Stewart revealed he is “retiring” after 20 years doing a show in which, ironically, he is more trustworthy than the real newsman, Williams.

Jon Stewart on NBC Nightly News would be a bold stroke for Turness if she is in the mood for disruption. Stewart has said that when he was approached as a possible replacement for David Gregory on Meet The Press, he wouldn’t want a job where they hired him for doing something other than what brought his success.

So within days – the comedian is more honest than the serious newsman and those of us in the media business need to get a grip.

Television is so over.

Network ratings are declining, demographics are getting older. TV has been disrupted by the likes of Netflix and friends for an on-demand generation.

Radio has the same problem.

In an industry where iHeart thinks it is important to get into Power 106’s billing just to hurt them, we fail to understand what it is going to take to move forward.

All together now – young audiences crave one thing above everything else in their lives and they expect this from their media.

Authenticity.

And radio right now is about as fake as it gets – as irrelevant as it has ever been as carpetbaggers suck the last breath out of local personalities and community-oriented radio stations.

Change before you have to change.

There could be an entire seminar on this winning approach.

How local is local enough?

How to do great radio in the reality of today’s declining revenues.

What surprising things can be cut and what cannot because obviously most stations are getting this one wrong.

How do you compete in markets where money losing large competitors are driving down ad rates? You may be doing a lot of things right, but debt-ridden consolidators are increasingly dumbing down the medium.

Some of the best operators – the smaller, independent groups – have reimagined their stations for the digital age. Some even threw out the old rules and disrupted their radio stations. We need to study stations that grow audience and increase revenue – many do, but not enough. And these owners have a different mindset.

No station brings in significant digital revenue, which begs the question why are we continuing to do the same old things that don’t work?

Stronger digital means developing a separate stream of revenue from digital projects that can pay off not an extension of what is on the air.

Like short-form video.

Not cameras aimed at morning show personalities.

Not air talent forced to make content the way they do at Townsquare.

A separate digital track that compliments and never hurts what’s on the air.

Imagine the revenue that can be derived from stronger stations that throw out the old rules and attract new audiences and strong digital profits from the number one thing money demos crave – short-form video.

I can hardly wait to share this new intelligence with you.

My March 18^th Philly conference is focusing on 7 critical things that will help make you a better broadcaster and an innovative, shrewd digital entrepreneur.

1. Specific ways to balance the need for numerous commercials with good principles of radio programming and to disrupt the way we do radio before our digital competitors do it.
2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.       Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts and make money with storytelling 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 a few.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your station’s own social media network independent of Facebook, Twitter and the next flash in the pan. 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 for the digital age one coordinate at a 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 have 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 you video examples and reveal winning game plans. And it can all be recorded economically and professionally on an iPhone 6!
6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media: the critical Millennial checklist. The latest updated research about what the next generation must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age. This is what I use as my business bible and after all, I started a subscription pay site that nobody said would work on the Internet.  Thousands of subscribers later, I can thank following this all-important Millennial checklist. 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 and breed loyalty.
7. The best ways to deal with short-attention spans – so short, that most music listeners under the age of 35 now do not listen all the way through any song. Since music radio formats are based on the assumption that if they play the right songs, audiences will listen – this changes everything. Advances in the way we present music. Desired ways to introduce more music discovery.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person for the 6^th year in a row.

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 18^th.

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

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

For nearby hotel information or questions, contact Cheryl @ cldel@earthlink.net or call (480) 998-9898.

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

The most trusted news anchor for 9 million NBC TV viewers has taken himself off the air in the wake of a lying scandal that seems to be getting more complicated.

The New York tabloids are having a field day with “Lyin’ Brian”.

Williams admitted that he misled the public over a scary helicopter landing in Iraq that never happened (a story he erroneously told publicly) and now is under suspicion for lying about his reportorial coverage of Katrina.

Williams is definitely dinged, but dinged will work for Comcast/NBC Universal which is turning out to be a God-awful steward of NBC.

Tom Brokaw, the other trusted anchor who was replaced by the baby-faced Williams, is neither defending Williams nor publicly pushing for his firing – and that says a lot.

Too classy to jump all over him.

Too professional to condone such conduct.

News Division President Deborah Turness, who is a candidate for the worst television executive for the ages, previously screwed up Meet the Press (we’re behind David Gregory until she replaced him).  

She hired and then fired David Horowitz only ten weeks after she brought him in to clean up the mess at The Today Show.

And NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman violated her Ebola quarantine after being exposed to the virus in Liberia. It was just too good a TV moment.

Outside of that, let’s do lunch, Deb.

Don’t worry about Brian Williams, though.

Turness ordered an internal investigation of the veracity of Williams’ reporting which is tantamount to guaranteeing, Williams is going nowhere – dinged or not. He just signed a multi-year renewal at about $10 million a year.

Turness could have sought an outside investigation and the investigators could possibly have come back and said Williams should be relieved from his duties putting Turness in a bind because – really – who is she going to put in his place?

Lester Holt?

Think Matt Lauer would port over to evenings from early mornings? Then who fills his considerably large shoes on Today?

I’d like to tell you the real story here was Williams’ braggadocio or the incompetence of another old school media company like Comcast/NBC.

I could complain about the death of journalism but journalism died when companies got tired of spending millions to defend accurate stories just because the accuser had the money.

This happened to me with Clear Channel when I reported in Inside Radio that they were operating illegally. Randy Michaels, the Radio President at the time threw the weight of his company behind a $100 million lawsuit and I lost my house, my office building, my reputation and for a while my self-esteem even though I was right.

In the end, I countersued Clear Channel for $125 million. They sought an out of court settlement and more than made me whole in the settlement. I had to rehabilitate myself and heal my wounds to discover that radio was declining and mobile content was the future.

Thanks, Randy.

And how are you doing these days?

The real issue behind Brian Williams is what media people need to focus on. That Williams is not the most trusted name in news.

Jon Stewart is.

And you’ll note in my second coming I write parody in this space to tell the truth about the greedy bastards that are running the radio industry.

On my website I publish an ethics statement in which I say, “I am not an objective reporter” (see it here).

That doesn’t mean I am not a trained journalist – which in addition to being a program director, TV talent, professor and other things – I am.

Corporate America is about compromising values in the interest of the bottom line.

Tom Brokaw didn’t do it but then again he served in an earlier and better age.

The pressure on people to compromise their values is immense. Sooner or later as our mother’s always told us, you’ll be caught in a lie.

Does it surprise you then, that authenticity is the number one thing 95 million Millennials want?

Lucky they don’t watch network news because we now know that Brian Williams would fail that test.

Did you know that respect, trust and fairness is also prominently on that list of 7 things?

And that you should know the entire list and retrofit your stations to embody the very things the next generation of listeners demand of us.

Look, there are lots of radio shows and conventions around to talk about the same mundane topics if that suits you. But every year I devote time to teaching the critical elements of broadcasting to a new generation, in a new era with new technology.

Things like the changing needs of the audience we are trying to attract.

If you can spare a day, I will reveal the other 5 key audience elements that we must know and super achieve.

I’ll show you how most radio stations are actually delivering the exact opposite so it should be no surprise that listeners are abandoning radio and traditional media.

My March 18^th Philly conference is focusing on 7 critical things that will help make you a better broadcaster and an innovative, shrewd digital entrepreneur.

1. Specific ways to balance the need for numerous commercials with good principles of radio programming and to disrupt the way we do radio before our digital competitors do it.
2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.       Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts and make money with storytelling 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 a few.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your station’s own social media network independent of Facebook, Twitter and the next flash in the pan. 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 for the digital age one coordinate at a 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 have 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 you video examples and reveal winning game plans. And it can all be recorded economically and professionally on an iPhone 6!
6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media: the critical Millennial checklist. The latest updated research about what the next generation must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age. This is what I use as my business bible and after all, I started a subscription pay site that nobody said would work on the Internet.  Thousands of subscribers later, I can thank following this all-important Millennial checklist.  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 and breed loyalty.
7. The best ways to deal with short-attention spans – so short, that most music listeners under the age of 35 now do not listen all the way through any song. Since music radio formats are based on the assumption that if they play the right songs, audiences will listen – this changes everything.  Advances in the way we present music. Desired ways to introduce more music discovery.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person for the 6^th year in a row.

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

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

For nearby hotel information or questions, contact Cheryl @ cldel@earthlink.net or call (480) 998-9898.

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

Not cheaper radio that sounds worse than digital alternatives.

Or digital that hurts on-air radio.

Jerry Lee doesn’t do any streaming of his number one music station MoreFM in Philadelphia.

And he’s not leaving any money on the table because the station is the revenue leader in the market based on spot sales.  

You may not know that Lee spends tons of money on research and constantly rethinks how to own his audience.  

Change before you have to change.

There could be an entire seminar on his winning approach.

How local is local enough?

How to do great radio in the reality of today’s declining revenues.

What surprising things can be cut and what cannot because obviously most stations are getting this one wrong.

How do you compete in markets where money losing large competitors are driving down ad rates? You may be doing a lot of things right, but debt-ridden consolidators are increasingly dumbing down the medium.

Some of the best operators – the smaller, independent groups – have reimagined their stations for the digital age. Some even threw out the old rules and disrupted their radio stations.

We need to study stations that grow audience and increase revenue – many do, but not enough. And these owners have a different mindset.

No station brings in significant digital revenue, which begs the question why are we continuing to do the same old things that don’t work?

Stronger digital means developing a separate stream of revenue from digital projects that can pay off not an extension of what is on the air.

Like short-form video.

Not cameras aimed at morning show personalities.

Not air talent forced to make content the way they do at Townsquare.

A separate digital track that compliments and never hurts what’s on the air.

Imagine the revenue that can be derived from stronger stations that throw out the old rules and attract new audiences and strong digital profits from the number one thing money demos crave – short-form video.

I can hardly wait to share this new intelligence with you.

My March 18^th Philly conference is focusing on 7 critical things that will help make you a better broadcaster and an innovative, shrewd digital entrepreneur.

1. Specific ways to balance the need for numerous commercials with good principles of radio programming and to disrupt the way we do radio before our digital competitors do it.
2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.       Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts and make money with storytelling 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 a few.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your station’s own social media network independent of Facebook, Twitter and the next flash in the pan. 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 for the digital age one coordinate at a 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 have 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 you video examples and reveal winning game plans. And it can all be recorded economically and professionally on an iPhone 6!
6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media: the critical Millennial checklist. The latest updated research about what the next generation must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age. This is what I use as my business bible and after all, I started a subscription pay site that nobody said would work on the Internet.  Thousands of subscribers later, I can thank following this all-important Millennial checklist. 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 and breed loyalty.
7. The best ways to deal with short-attention spans – so short, that most music listeners under the age of 35 now do not listen all the way through any song. Since music radio formats are based on the assumption that if they play the right songs, audiences will listen – this changes everything. Advances in the way we present music. Desired ways to introduce more music discovery.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person for the 6^th year in a row.

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 18^th.

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

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

For nearby hotel information or questions, contact Cheryl @ cldel@earthlink.net or call (480) 998-9898.

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

I want to thank all of you early birds who have already reserved a seat for my upcoming sixth annual Media Solutions Seminar March 18^th.

And thanks to those of you who are also sending groups of attendees.

Just one last shout out that the early incentives are about to end so if you’ve been thinking about attending, you’ll want to act now.

This conference is especially important because it focuses on the two most critical issues our industry faces:

• How to do great radio when competitors are cheapening the brand
• Unlocking better digital solutions that create an additional revenue stream

That’s why I have created 7 modules of curriculum for the one-day teaching event.

1. Specific ways to balance the need for numerous commercials with good principles of radio programming and to disrupt the way we do radio before our digital competitors do it.
2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.       Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts and make money with storytelling 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 a few.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your stations own social media network independent of Facebook, Twitter and the next flash in the pan. 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 for the digital age one at a coordinate 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 have 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 you video examples and reveal winning game plans. And it can all be recorded economically and professionally on an iPhone 6!
6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media: the critical Millennial checklist. The latest updated research about what the next generation must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age. This is what I use as my business bible and after all, I started a subscription pay site that nobody said would work on the Internet.  Thousands of subscribers later, I can thank following this all-important Millennial checklist. 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 and breed loyalty.
7. The best ways to deal with short-attention spans – so short, that most music listeners under the age of 35 now do not listen all the way through any song. Since music radio formats are based on the assumption that if they play the right songs, audiences will listen – this changes everything. Advances in the way we present music. Desired ways to introduce more music discovery.

I will be making lots of time questions, answers and plenty of audience interaction.

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

You’re the best!

Thank you!

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

For nearby hotel information or questions, contact Cheryl @ cldel@earthlink.net or call (480) 998-9898.

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