iHeart Ready To Liquidate Assets

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Changing the Way We Talk To Audiences

The easiest fix is often the toughest.

Is there any doubt why radio has fallen so far out of favor with audiences especially the young money demo of 18-34 – the first meaningful media Millennial audience.

There is no doubt that Millennials love their phones more than radio but the industry during the 20 years since consolidation has done its best to take for granted the largest generation ever born – 86 million.

But a first start – and a major step in the right direction – is for radio stations to change the way we talk to audiences.

I’ve isolated specific ideas and strategies that can be easily implemented by any radio station, any format, any market and I’m going to spend some time on this at my Philly conference 5 weeks from now.

The problem is that radio is talking to the past.

The personalities (even voice trackers) do not sound like anything the audience recognizes and it unfortunately screams “this radio station is not for you”.

As you will see, this can be fixed.

Many stations looking to save money and pander to PPM which rewards strident music or talking only allow live jocks to talk as few as four times an hour which means what they hear the rest of the time – sweepers, positioners and promos – defines today’s radio as out of touch with audiences.

This is going to be a fruitful dialogue because without spending a single dime, smart radio stations can fine-tune their strategy for changing the way they talk to audiences and for the first time have a chance to win the hearts of younger ones.

How to sound authentic, which is the Holy Grail of the age group, that radio is letting get away.

What to do beyond promos and sweepers to remake the station’s sound and reconnect with listeners.

Teaching jocks how to talk the way they tweet – I’ll show you how so you can return and show them.

How to make the way the station sounds embody the 5 values that Millennials treasure most.

Here are 8 other critical issues on deck for the April 6th meeting:

  1. Making money from digital. Enough, already. What most stations are doing is not generating very significant digital revenue. Here’s what they are missing that can work for you.
  2. Getting Millennials to listen. After we change the way we talk to 18-34 year old audiences, what is so compelling that they will have to listen. How about three things that have never been done that I think you will agree will make radio a destination again even in the digital age.
  3. Reinvigorating the morning show. See where I’m going with all this so far. We can’t blow up everything but there are changes we can make like the way we talk to audiences, the things we do to make radio relevant to them, improving digital and this one – redesigning outdated morning shows that 18-34’s are not relating to. Then generate 50-60% of your total station’s revenue from the more relevant morning show alone.
  4. Outpacing radio’s declining revenue trend. Every financial analyst is calling for a negative year -- off anywhere from 1% to over 5%. And yes, price gouging by major consolidators is helping radio’s race to the bottom. Let’s cut to the chase. What can be done to outperform this negative trend? Fighting rate cuts, over-bonusing, short-term flights, unwillingness to pay a premium plus adding revenue from subscriptions (don’t knock it), product placement and digital so foreign to radio you will likely be the first in your market doing it.
  5. A Millennial Station Makeover – leave with a long list of things you can do to make the rest of your station sound cool to critical 18-34 while also meeting with the approval of your older audiences.
  6. What to do about podcasting, which doesn’t monetize well but intrigues Gen X and baby boomer audiences.
  7. Standing up to a rigged ratings system. Harker Research and Sean Hannity will share research that shows the type of listening talk and music stations are losing with PPM ratings and how to fight back and reclaim the listening you’ve earned.
  8. Eliminating listener’s biggest objections. At least start with this and tear down some barriers to increased listening.

A day of information and inspiration where we work together. This is an interactive format so you can participate to the fullest extent.

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

I can’t wait to bring our collective enthusiasm together using this blueprint to make a real difference in doing great radio.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Charlie Tuna

Charlie Tuna cannot be dead.

The last conversation we had he was 25 – and holding.

Yet, Charlie (aka Art Ferguson) passed away at the age of 71.

This one really hits close to home because what I admired most about Charlie was how relevant he remained right up until the end.

I cannot make that statement about a lot of people no matter how much I admire them.

Let me tell you why.

In our conversations, which could go on for hours, Charlie was fascinated by our shared view that air personalities must remain relevant to succeed.

Up until last year Charlie was a fantastic weekend jock on CBS’ K-Earth 101 and he previously was the morning fill in. There was no let down in the ratings when Charlie subbed.

He worked the Internet like a Millennial looking for relevant material that would transcend the older audience that a classic hits station like K-Earth attracts.

Charlie was fascinated with my view that radio people must stay relevant and work in the present or as I used to say to him, “we can always go to a reunion if we want to live in the past”.

We traded Drake stories, Drew stories and anything that had to do with radio’s second golden age.

He tried material out over the phone with me.

And when Cumulus’ Westwood One screwed over their format subscribers, Charlie worked to provide quality replacement options – something he did primarily up until the day he died.

He was a family man.

And humble.

Charlie shared a story of how he grew up in a town where the soon to become legendary Dr. Don Rose was the morning personality – an earlier, positive role model.

Charlie was so much more savvy than Bob Pittman or Lew Dickey when it came to understanding today’s audiences. I dare say that most of his listeners never knew his real age.

The family news release concerning his death described a life well lived – and it was that.

He was recognized, honored, appreciated and he lived in real time in Los Angeles, the market that was closest to his heart.

To me Charlie Tuna wins the highest praise I could give a person in the industry we love.

I can always look to someone’s achievements and that’s more than enough.

But it’s rare when I can add that I will always remember Charlie Tuna because his mission was to remain relevant – and he succeeded.

What an inspiration for me, perhaps you and hopefully the radio companies who are resting on their pasts when the future is so enticing.

Will miss you, buddy.

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Townsquare Hiding Deep Trouble

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Some deadly honest solutions to radio’s growing problems at my new radio conference in 5 weeks. Preview here.

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Radio in the Age of Reality TV

If you want to understand the dumbing down of American politics (if that is even possible – the dumbing down part, I mean), then look no further than Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.

For years they poked fun at public figures playing and replaying embarrassing videos and taking the brunt of their unorthodox way of reporting news.

All the while they were considered the more reliable news sources compared to traditional TV, cable and newspapers according to polls.

Before Colbert and Stewart, cable news networks re-set the expectations of political candidates, for instance to feed their news cycle.

While their audiences were treated to commercials for Hoverounds and Cialis, everyone else was watching these two firebrands hijacking the news cycle.

So it should be no surprise that a Donald Trump could come along and do the impossible.

No, not be ahead in the Republican primary.

Challenge Roger Ailes and Fox News – and win.

Trump says bat shit crazy things and his popularity goes up every time he does so Ted Cruz and especially Marco Rubio have finally figured it out and they have now gone bat shit crazy (that’s a term South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham used over the weekend).

Then Trump brings in the bully from New Jersey and sics him on Rubio – this isn’t an election, it’s a smackdown on WWE.

Moderates are threatening to bring back Mitt Romney.

Huh?

And everyone is wondering not if there is a Democratic primary going on over on the other side but what Trump will do to expose Hillary Clinton in the many ways that she is vulnerable.

This is better than Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

Our forefathers are turning over in their graves.

Yet we are amazed yes, surprised no.

This was all in the making while media companies were living in their little bubble – the same bubble that has radio thinking it actually has 230 million listeners a week and that talk radio is alive and music radio will never die.

I can’t watch the radio industry go down without a fight. It’s time for some deadly honest intelligence to wake up an industry in dire search of a leader, an innovator – someone to turn things around.

News stations sound like they are from the 60’s – come on, let’s fix that and do something as compelling as Twitter where, by the way, most young people get their news.

You give THEM 20 seconds and they’ll give you the world on Twitter.

Talk is so dead – as dead as the conservative movement, which is being killed off by Donald Trump not the Tea Party (and do you even hear the words Tea Party anymore?).

But podcasting which flops on digital devices at least as a revenue producer is the model for the next talk radio. Wouldn’t you like to hear how to do this?

Streaming music services are consolidating and dying and yet good old terrestrial radio is playing the same short playlist with non-authentic sweepers, no djs and personalities, no music discovery and believe it or not radio stations can’t see that the outcome is going to be ugly.

But radio could offer a very different music service that streamers could not be able to do but they are too scared to even hear about it let alone try to save the industry.

After all, it only takes one innovator to turn around a radio group and save the industry.

So with that in mind, I’d like you to consider putting aside April 6th and come work with me in Philadelphia where we will address these issues and interact with you and your station’s problems.

I will be my usual shy self and suck up to all the big names.

We will also pave the way for the next generation of digital entrepreneurs if you think your future will take you there – I think so.

Take a look at the solutions that will be offered at this event and see if it makes sense for you and your people to stop doing radio as usual and let us fire up the creative juices that could bring a major turnaround.

5 weeks away.

Outperforming a Slowing Revenue Trend
Learn how to compete against consolidators who are driving ad prices down in desperation to avoid bankruptcy by making it difficult for competitors to get paid what they are actually worth.

Getting Millennials To Listen
Discover the things that 18-34 year old Millennial listeners say they want from radio that they are not currently getting. Former Cox and CBS programmer Dan Mason joins us to help you begin a Millennial Radio Makeover that incorporates these needs.

Making Money From Digital
Learn why there isn’t a radio station in the country deriving significant ad revenue from their digital strategies and where exactly to focus limited resources to achieve a much better outcome.

Programming To Shorter Attention Spans
Learn how to rethink formats that are currently appealing to older audiences by adapting them to younger listeners who are distracted by mobile devices and social media.

Your New Competitor: User-Generated Content
Discover why younger money demos are now insisting on being their own “program director” which explains the popularity of YouTube and social media that allows them to be in charge. Once you know how to translate this need into radio programming, you’ll be riding the next wave.

Reinvigorating the Morning Show
Morning shows should deliver 50-60% of a radio stations total revenue but their chief appeal – personalities, news, traffic, weather – are no longer audience magnets. Learn how to pick up the pace of change for your most valuable asset – the one thing station’s must get right to succeed.

Repurposing 7pm to 5am
Voice tracking and syndication will not be enough to generate the extra revenue needed to stay on the road to success. Learn how these time periods are being used successfully to gain audience and revenue – sometimes in ways that are unorthodox.

Getting Around a Rigged Ratings System
Listen to researcher Richard Harker and talk show host Sean Hannity explain the study they did that discovered a majority of actual listening to Sean’s show was not credited by PPM. Engage them directly. Get answers to how to get around a rigged ratings system.

What To Do About Podcasting
Learn why podcasting may have a future as a radio format but not as a standalone business. Go beyond basic podcasting to pod-radio and explore all the details for making podcasting a radio station with all the revenue that would attract.

Finding New Revenue Streams
In a world where audiences click to buy apps (75% of which they never use) and access entertainment and information on-demand, radio now sees a model where paid subscriptions, product placement and other strategies are increasingly an option.

Changing the Way We Engage Audiences
Learn how radio can become more relevant to 86 million money demo listeners by sounding more Millennial. You’ll leave with a plan that will enable you to start teaching on-air talent to change the way they talk to their audience.

Eliminating Listeners’ Biggest Objections
Learn what to do to deal with the negatives of long commercial stop sets, repetitious music and morning shows that don’t do it for them any longer.

One day, April 6th at The Hub Conference Center in Philadelphia.

Not available on tape or by streaming.

Flexible format – you join the discussion.

Continued involvement – the learning and feedback don’t stop here, you can follow up when you return home to maximize what you’ve learned.

Jerry Del Colliano is your program leader – former radio, television talent, program director, author & publisher, speaker and professor at the University of Southern California now in his seventh year of presenting this annual executive media conference.

Consider the impact the Advanced Radio Management Program can have as you advance your career and lead your stations, media outlets or entrepreneurial company towards further success. 

Register here.

Inquire about group rates.

iHeart Debt Skyrockets Again, Changes Coming

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Free samples of our work here.

Scroll through my previous stories list here.

$200 discount ends today for my April 6th media conference in Philadelphia - here.

Report Newstips confidentially in our Witness Protection Program here.

Inquire about consulting here.

Talk to Jerry privately here.

Outperforming a Slowing Revenue Trend

iHeart released its abysmal fourth quarter results Friday so the hits just keep on coming as their $20.6 billion in debt continues to grow out of hand.

Number two radio group Cumulus will announce its bad news March 10th and by all analyst reports it’s also going to be ugly.

Number three CBS Radio already missed its numbers for Q4.

Number four Entercom is the only one of the top four to report some gains and investors are not jumping for joy about that stock which has peaked after spiking two bucks on the news of modest earnings.

That’s radio’s top four and they own a lot of outstanding real estate. Other companies – some of them good operators – will also report losses before the fourth quarter results are made public.

What’s worse, they’re playing with the numbers.

They routinely pull out political to make the numbers look better and remember, they are working off some comps from the previous year that should be easy to beat now.

When your major owners are grabbing onto any revenue they can get at any price just to mitigate losses, the entire industry suffers.

We have to learn how to compete against consolidators who are driving ad prices down – not easy, but very doable.

We need to create premium inventory that advertisers will want but on which there is no room for negotiation.

We need a new strategy to stop the damn bonusing that drives down radio’s effective unit rate.

We need to be mindful of what iHeart and Cumulus are doing to switch to automated media buying which will have the effect of lowering ad rates even further (that’s what happened in the digital space where automated media buying predominates).

We need to create and sell binge programming that listeners would want – you know, like they binge on Netflix content. This is a source of great revenue and price integrity for radio. And I’ve got an example that will inspire you.

We need to stop trying to turn radio into a digital play and start making digital money from video not what we do on the air.   And then do better programming – live and local – over the air.

How to motivate salespeople to sell in an increasingly bleak traditional advertising environment – Pandora has done it by stealing the best radio sellers.

This is one of the reasons to attend my 7th annual April 6 media conference in Philadelphia – the refreshingly honest executive learning program that has earned a reputation for providing real solutions to radio problems.

No sponsors paying to waste your time and pitch their services.

Take a look at the other solutions that will be offered at this event and see if it makes sense for you and your people to stop doing radio as usual and let us fire up the creative juices that could bring a major turnaround.

Getting Millennials To Listen
Discover the things that 18-34 year old Millennial listeners say they want from radio that they are not currently getting. Former Cox and CBS programmer Dan Mason joins us to help you begin a Millennial Radio Makeover that incorporates these needs.

Making Money From Digital
Learn why there isn’t a radio station in the country deriving significant ad revenue from their digital strategies and where exactly to focus limited resources to achieve a much better outcome.

Programming To Shorter Attention Spans
Learn how to rethink formats that are currently appealing to older audiences by adapting them to younger listeners who are distracted by mobile devices and social media.

Your New Competitor: User-Generated Content
Discover why younger money demos are now insisting on being their own “program director” which explains the popularity of YouTube and social media that allows them to be in charge. Once you know how to translate this need into radio programming, you’ll be riding the next wave.

Reinvigorating the Morning Show
Morning shows should deliver 50-60% of a radio stations total revenue but their chief appeal – personalities, news, traffic, weather – are no longer audience magnets. Learn how to pick up the pace of change for your most valuable asset – the one thing station’s must get right to succeed.

Repurposing 7pm to 5am
Voice tracking and syndication will not be enough to generate the extra revenue needed to stay on the road to success. Learn how these time periods are being used successfully to gain audience and revenue – sometimes in ways that are unorthodox.

Getting Around a Rigged Ratings System
Listen to researcher Richard Harker and talk show host Sean Hannity explain the study they did that discovered a majority of actual listening to Sean’s show was not credited by PPM. Engage them directly. Get answers to how to get around a rigged ratings system.

What To Do About Podcasting
Learn why podcasting may have a future as a radio format but not as a standalone business. Go beyond basic podcasting to pod-radio and explore all the details for making podcasting a radio station with all the revenue that would attract.

Finding New Revenue Streams
In a world where audiences click to buy apps (75% of which they never use) and access entertainment and information on-demand, radio now sees a model where paid subscriptions, product placement and other strategies are increasingly an option.

Changing the Way We Engage Audiences
Learn how radio can become more relevant to 86 million money demo listeners by sounding more Millennial. You’ll leave with a plan that will enable you to start teaching on-air talent to change the way they talk to their audience.

Eliminating Listeners’ Biggest Objections
Learn what to do to deal with the negatives of long commercial stop sets, repetitious music and morning shows that don’t do it for them any longer.

One day, April 6th at The Hub Conference Center in Philadelphia.

Not available on tape or by streaming.

Flexible format – you join the discussion.

Continued involvement – the learning and feedback don’t stop here, you can follow up when you return home to maximize what you’ve learned.

Jerry Del Colliano is your program leader – former radio, television talent, program director, author & publisher, speaker and professor at the University of Southern California now in his seventh year of presenting this annual executive media conference.

Consider the impact the Advanced Radio Management Program can have as you advance your career and lead your stations, media outlets or entrepreneurial company towards further success. 

Register here. 

Inquire about group rates.

Premiere After Limbaugh

Read the full article now.

Free samples of our work here.

Scroll through my previous stories list here.

Last 24 hours to save $200 if you are registering for my April 6th media conference in Philadelphia -- Details here.

Report Newstips confidentially in our Witness Protection Program here.

Inquire about consulting here.

Talk to Jerry privately here.

iHeart Eyes Shifting Assets

Read the full article now.

Free samples of our work here.

Scroll through my previous stories list here.

Last call to save $200 if you are registering for my April 6th media conference in Philadelphia -- Details here.

Report Newstips confidentially in our Witness Protection Program here.

Inquire about consulting here.

Talk to Jerry privately here.

Trump & the Death of Conservative Talk

Two things we know.

People of both parties and all ages are more than fed up with politicians and government.

Young Bernie Sanders Millennials love socialism because capitalism and its student debt and partial employment opportunities was a poor introduction to it for their generation.

I heard someone say the other day that Donald Trump, as outrageous and offensive as he can be, is like chemotherapy.

He is blasting his toxic approach to the establishment and everything that the electorate would like to see blown up. They are obviously forgiving him for not being politically correct.

Trump is like radio used to be.

As soon as his ratings go down, he resets the programming.

Radio sadly has lost that ability.

The other day moments after he won a big victory in the South Carolina primary, he was testing that Marco Rubio was not a citizen to see if it would fly.

Yes, he throws shit on the wall to see if it sticks.

Donald Trump’s success is ironically because of conservative talk radio, which in its day put forward an epic political movement that was also good for our industry.

Not so much anymore.

But Rush Limbaugh created Donald Trump in a way along with the Tea Party, Fox News, Drudge and others.

All or nothing.

Conservative values or nothing.

Well, with 86 million Millennials 18-34 years old and embracing socialism, conservatism is on the decline as older people phase out and younger people take control.

Trump stuck it to Fox News – you don’t do that. But he did and won.

He’s attacking women and Muslims and Mexicans and on and on but in the process he is the dirty trick artist that some Power Pig radio programmers were.

No one likes radio even if they listen to it these days – it’s vanilla.

Radio has lost its purpose and there are no – like in zero – innovators willing to blow up bullshit and deliver the kind of service that new audiences would actually embrace.

That’s why I am doing my 7th annual media conference in Philadelphia, April 6th.

This is for people who want it straight and want to get it right.

Not willing to sit back and see radio take its final bow because the people who run the stations are afraid of innovating.

That would be easy and predictable.

Take a look at the solutions that will be offered at this event and see if it makes sense for you and your people to stop doing radio as usual and let us fire up the creative juices that could bring a major turnaround.

Outperforming a Slowing Revenue Trend
Learn how to compete against consolidators who are driving ad prices down in desperation to avoid bankruptcy by making it difficult for competitors to get paid what they are actually worth.

Getting Millennials To Listen
Discover the things that 18-34 year old Millennial listeners say they want from radio that they are not currently getting. Former Cox and CBS programmer Dan Mason joins us to help you begin a Millennial Radio Makeover that incorporates these needs.

Making Money From Digital
Learn why there isn’t a radio station in the country deriving significant ad revenue from their digital strategies and where exactly to focus limited resources to achieve a much better outcome.

Programming To Shorter Attention Spans
Learn how to rethink formats that are currently appealing to older audiences by adapting them to younger listeners who are distracted by mobile devices and social media.

Your New Competitor: User-Generated Content
Discover why younger money demos are now insisting on being their own “program director” which explains the popularity of YouTube and social media that allows them to be in charge. Once you know how to translate this need into radio programming, you’ll be riding the next wave.

Reinvigorating the Morning Show
Morning shows should deliver 50-60% of a radio stations total revenue but their chief appeal – personalities, news, traffic, weather – are no longer audience magnets. Learn how to pick up the pace of change for your most valuable asset – the one thing station’s must get right to succeed.

Repurposing 7pm to 5am
Voice tracking and syndication will not be enough to generate the extra revenue needed to stay on the road to success. Learn how these time periods are being used successfully to gain audience and revenue – sometimes in ways that are unorthodox.

Getting Around a Rigged Ratings System
Listen to researcher Richard Harker and talk show host Sean Hannity explain the study they did that discovered a majority of actual listening to Sean’s show was not credited by PPM. Engage them directly. Get answers to how to get around a rigged ratings system.

What To Do About Podcasting
Learn why podcasting may have a future as a radio format but not as a standalone business. Go beyond basic podcasting to pod-radio and explore all the details for making podcasting a radio station with all the revenue that would attract.

Finding New Revenue Streams
In a world where audiences click to buy apps (75% of which they never use) and access entertainment and information on-demand, radio now sees a model where paid subscriptions, product placement and other strategies are increasingly an option.

Changing the Way We Engage Audiences
Learn how radio can become more relevant to 86 million money demo listeners by sounding more Millennial. You’ll leave with a plan that will enable you to start teaching on-air talent to change the way they talk to their audience.

Eliminating Listeners’ Biggest Objections
Learn what to do to deal with the negatives of long commercial stop sets, repetitious music and morning shows that don’t do it for them any longer.

One day, April 6th at The Hub Conference Center in Philadelphia.

Not available on tape or by streaming.

Flexible format – you join the discussion.

Continued involvement – the learning and feedback don’t stop here, you can follow up when you return home to maximize what you’ve learned.

Jerry Del Colliano is your program leader – former radio, television talent, program director, author & publisher, speaker and professor at the University of Southern California now in his seventh year of presenting this annual executive media conference.

Consider the impact the Advanced Radio Management Program can have as you advance your career and lead your stations, media outlets or entrepreneurial company towards further success.

Register here. 

Inquire about group rates.

iHeart: Buy Our Debt, Get Stations in Return

Read the full article now.

Free samples of our work here.

Scroll through my previous stories list here.

Solutions for radio companies that do not plan to be in bankruptcy at my upcoming media conference in Philadelphia April 6th. Learn more here.

Report Newstips confidentially in our Witness Protection Program here.

Inquire about consulting here.

Talk to Jerry privately here.

Fixing Radio’s Biggest Problems

The 2016 Advanced Radio Management Program is a one-day learning experience that focuses on the challenges and opportunities ahead for the radio and media industries in a digital and social world.

This year we will be dealing with these issues central to radio’s future …

Outperforming a Slowing Revenue Trend
Learn how to compete against consolidators who are driving ad prices down in desperation to avoid bankruptcy by making it difficult for competitors to get paid what they are actually worth.

Getting Millennials To Listen
Discover the things that 18-34 year old Millennial listeners say they want from radio that they are not currently getting. Former Cox and CBS programmer Dan Mason joins us to help you begin a Millennial Radio Makeover that incorporates these needs.

Making Money From Digital
Learn why there isn’t a radio station in the country deriving significant ad revenue from their digital strategies and where exactly to focus limited resources to achieve a much better outcome.

Programming To Shorter Attention Spans
Learn how to rethink formats that are currently appealing to older audiences by adapting them to younger listeners who are distracted by mobile devices and social media.

Your New Competitor: User-Generated Content
Discover why younger money demos are now insisting on being their own “program director” which explains the popularity of YouTube and social media that allows them to be in charge. Once you know how to translate this need into radio programming, you’ll be riding the next wave.

Reinvigorating the Morning Show
Morning shows should deliver 50-60% of a radio stations total revenue but their chief appeal – personalities, news, traffic, weather – are no longer audience magnets. Learn how to pick up the pace of change for your most valuable asset – the one thing station’s must get right to succeed.

Repurposing 7pm to 5am
Voice tracking and syndication will not be enough to generate the extra revenue needed to stay on the road to success. Learn how these time periods are being used successfully to gain audience and revenue – sometimes in ways that are unorthodox.

Getting Around a Rigged Ratings System
Listen to researcher Richard Harker and talk show host Sean Hannity explain the study they did that discovered a majority of actual listening to Sean’s show was not credited by PPM. Engage them directly. Get answers to how to get around a rigged ratings system.

What To Do About Podcasting
Learn why podcasting may have a future as a radio format but not as a standalone business. Go beyond basic podcasting to pod-radio and explore all the details for making podcasting a radio station with all the revenue that would attract.

Finding New Revenue Streams
In a world where audiences click to buy apps (75% of which they never use) and access entertainment and information on-demand, radio now sees a model where paid subscriptions, product placement and other strategies are increasingly an option.

Changing the Way We Engage Audiences
Learn how radio can become more relevant to 86 million money demo listeners by sounding more Millennial. You’ll leave with a plan that will enable you to start teaching on-air talent to change the way they talk to their audience.

Eliminating Listeners’ Biggest Objections
Learn what to do to deal with the negatives of long commercial stop sets, repetitious music and morning shows that don’t do it for them any longer.

One day, April 6th at The Hub Conference Center in Philadelphia.

Flexible format – you join the discussion.

Continued involvement – the learning and feedback don’t stop here, you can follow up when you return home to maximize what you’ve learned.

Jerry Del Colliano is your program leader – former radio, television talent, program director, author & publisher, speaker and professor at the University of Southern California now in his seventh year of presenting this annual executive media conference.

Consider the impact the Advanced Radio Management Program can have as you advance your career and lead your stations, media outlets or entrepreneurial company towards further success. 

For more information or to register / Click Here

To inquire about group discounts / Click Here

Podcasting or a Pod Radio Station

Read the full article now.

Free samples of our work here.

Scroll through my previous stories list here.

6 weeks until my April media conference – See the agenda and reserve a seat here.

Report Newstips confidentially in our Witness Protection Program here.

I work with independent, progressive radio companies -- details here.

Talk to Jerry privately here.

Power Grab at Cumulus

Read the full article now.

Free samples of our work here.

Scroll through my previous stories list here.

Register for my April media conference -- Reserve a seat here.

Report Newstips confidentially in our Witness Protection Program here.

I work with independent, progressive radio companies -- details here.

Talk to Jerry privately here.

Randy Michaels For President

Okay, this shit storm is getting out of hand.

Now Trump and Rubio are fighting with the Pope.

Didn’t it used to be that presidential candidates worried about the Catholic vote and now Trump is saying if and when ISIS hits Vatican City the Pope will be glad Donald Trump is president.

Pinch me, but this reminds me of Randy Michaels for president.

The dirty trickster of radio was a man ahead of his time and for many of us who felt his bullying, Randy was this year’s presidential material before Trump, Rubio, Cruz or even Clinton had scorched earth on their minds.

Yes, radio did all this before the current crop of presidential candidates did but it worked in radio – then.

Now, forgive me for saying it again, 86 million Millennials are the difference.

They could care less about religion but they want everyone to get along so calling people liars or hitting the Savior of Socialism with a low blow does not work.

Trump is winning and the more batshit crazy he goes, the more he wins.

Like Marc Chase stealing Big Boy from Power 106 in LA and beating the station up as irrelevant works.

In radio, this is deep in our blood and we’re going to go down with it sooner than most politicians.

Let me be frank.

The audience has changed.

They don’t like things that are irrelevant to them.

They don’t like that radio doesn’t do music discovery but almost every PD thinks if they don’t play fewer than 30 currents over and over again they won’t get ratings.

Or stations that play songs all the way through because of their A.D.D.

And Millennials would love talk stations if they sounded like their generation and moved quickly instead of vitriol from conservative commentators who are out of touch with America’s future.

Demographers warn that whether Bernier Sanders wins or not, the electorate will be socialistic for many decades to come in the U.S.

In other words conservatism wanes as their older audience is replaced by younger Millennial socialists.

I’m generalizing but not without reason.

No one wants to live in the past more than the radio industry. If you don’t go back there with them, you’re a traitor.

Frankly, any radio operator who is not planning to go bankrupt needs to blow up the content they put on the air and start sounding like their audience.

The broadcasters who are signing up for my April 6th conference will get a full dose of what needs to be done to take a proactive approach to engaging the younger audiences that are rejecting radio.

Radio sounds exactly like it did 10, 20 even 30 years ago but audiences are begging for something very different.

We either change or get left behind.

Among the issues we will tackle:

SUCCEEDING IN A ZERO GROWTH INDUSTRY

IT’S TIME TO MAKE DIGITAL A SIGNIFICANT RADIO REVENUE STREAM

COMBATTING BIG GROUP ATTEMPTS TO CUT RADIO RATES

FIGHTING FOR ADVERTISERS PUTTING RADIO MONEY INTO DIGITAL

IMPROVING MORING SHOWS WHERE 50% OF RADIO’S INCOME COMES FROM

DEVELOPING NEW REVENUE – AFTER 7 PM, PRODUCT PLACEMENT, SUBSCRIPTION FEES, BINGE CONTENT

STRENGTHENING THE WAY WE TALK TO TODAY’S AUDIENCES

RADIO SUSTAINABILITY FOR THE NEXT 20 PLUS YEARS

BEGINNING A “MILLENNIAL RADIO MAKEOVER”

RATINGS & AUDIENCE EQUALITY (Researcher Richard Harker did a study of how much audience Sean Hannity’s talk show lost due to Nielsen PPM. They will be live with solutions).

IMPROVING AVG. ¼ HOUR LISTENING

ELIMINATING THE 3 BIGGEST OBJECTIONS TO RADIO LISTENING

CAREER ADVICE AND NEW SKILLS TO STAY RELEVANT

This event will not be available by audio or video recording or streaming.

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Here’s Why Wall Street Is Now Panicked Over iHeart

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What Millennials Want From Radio

Millennials 18-34 have turned to their own devices and away from radio.

If the model Kendall Jenner is any indication (and she has almost 100 million Instagram followers in social media), radio stations need to adapt.

She says she always has to be the DJ in her car.

Oops, radio thinks it has to be the DJ.

Kendall Jenner, like her generation, is obsessed with playlists.

Radio station playlists are short, predictable and repetitious.

She likes an eclectic mix of music not the same thing over and over. A few classics and the newer stuff nobody ever heard.

Radio plays virtually nothing new.

And the so-called “classics” are always within the same genre.

Kendall likes to crisscross musical genres.

KISS and the hits channels stick strictly to the same genre.

She like many other Millennials has no favorite musical genre. I can attest to this as a professor of music industry at USC. Professors are a lot more rigid about their music than their students who are open to everything and almost anything.

Kendall Jenner like her generation doesn’t listen to any song all the way through.

Radio does not want to hear this but it is true and widespread and we need to fully understand how to deal with this.

The reason Millennials 18-34 are so averse to radio is that radio in almost every way reflects what they don’t like, not what they like.

Stations can no longer ignore this and put together even more format changes that do not address the real issues.

That’s why at my upcoming Philly conference April 6th, former Cox and CBS programmer Dan Mason and I are going to literally take the words out of the mouths of Millennials regarding their expectations for radio and offer solutions.

You can hitchhike on any part of this but one thing is for sure – you will be closer to offering up broadcasting Millennials can embrace than ever before.

We’ll answer:

  • What to do about djs in a world where Millennials want to be the dj. Fire them all or change them?
  • How to give that personal playlist feel on a broadcast station for everyone.
  • What music to mix together – how far should you or can you stray for your station’s musical format genre?
  • Dealing with repetition the thing every programmer believes in their heart of heart is important to getting ratings? Obviously, radio needs to do some thinking about this in light of what 18-34s want.
  • Plus that ticklish issue where Millennials almost to a person do not listen to even their favorite songs all the way through and yet stations continue to play them – all the way through. What to do?

This conference is worth the investment of one day.

Among the other issues we will tackle:

SUCCEEDING IN A ZERO GROWTH INDUSTRY

IT’S TIME TO MAKE DIGITAL A SIGNIFICANT RADIO REVENUE STREAM

COMBATTING BIG GROUP ATTEMPTS TO CUT RADIO RATES

FIGHTING FOR ADVERTISERS PUTTING RADIO MONEY INTO DIGITAL

IMPROVING MORING SHOWS WHERE 50% OF RADIO’S INCOME COMES FROM

DEVELOPING NEW REVENUE – AFTER 7 PM, PRODUCT PLACEMENT, SUBSCRIPTION FEES, BINGE CONTENT

STRENGTHENING THE WAY WE TALK TO TODAY’S AUDIENCES

RADIO SUSTAINABILITY FOR THE NEXT 20 PLUS YEARS

BEGINNING A “MILLENNIAL RADIO MAKEOVER”

RATINGS & AUDIENCE EQUALITY (Researcher Richard Harker did a study of how much audience Sean Hannity’s talk show lost due to Nielsen PPM. They will be live with solutions).

IMPROVING AVG. ¼ HOUR LISTENING

ELIMINATING THE 3 BIGGEST OBJECTIONS TO RADIO LISTENING

CAREER ADVICE AND NEW SKILLS TO STAY RELEVANT

This event will not be available by audio or video recording or streaming.

Join us Wednesday, April 6 in Philadelphia

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iHeart To Accelerate Layoffs After Quarterlies

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Recession-Proof Your Station

Economists predict a recession in the next 12 months.

The stock market is acting funny.

And the U.S. is overdue based on the average lapse between recessions.

What a lousy time to have a recession.

Digital money that used to go to radio is going to that not ready for prime time player. And no radio station has an effective firewall against digital.

Millennials have come of age without an enduring relationship with radio.

Our four biggest radio groups are doing some of the worst broadcasting at the precise worst time.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Independent, locally focused radio groups can follow a plan to make their stations recession proof now in anticipation of what’s to come.

Here are a few thoughts I’m putting together for my New Radio Conference in Philly seven weeks from now.

  • The 3 things that will win over any Millennial to radio if your station does it soon and consistently.
  • Mastering digital revenue without having to rely on streaming which doesn’t make money for radio stations.
  • How to do a Millennial Radio Makeover. Former Cox and CBS programmer Dan Mason will join me in sharing the actual things Millennials want from your station.
  • Why you must blow up your present content model and replace it with the one that cooperates with shorter attention spans. Take a look at the radio station of the future that doesn’t look or sound anything like what is on the air now.
  • 3 prizes that will even make an 18-34 Millennial keep listening – I’m going to identify them and tell you how to own it.
  • Stop selling radio spots for undervalued prices. Go ahead, take the money if you must but create this new class of advertising that starts with a heavy premium advertisers will be willing if not anxious to pay.
  • Change the way your station talks to audiences – from something from the past to this approach which is hyper authentic.
  • Prevent user-generated content (i.e., things posted to apps and social media by audiences) from competing with your on-air content.
  • How to deal with short attention spans. Today’s audiences don’t even listen to favorite songs all the way through. How to deal with it.
  • Bring your morning show into the 21st century.  Fix this and you’ll have a banner year. The morning show of the future does not have traffic or weather (except in unusual circumstances) but if you add replacement features Millennials like, you’re back in the game.
  • Learn how to get your air people to talk on-air the way they tweet so Millennials can finally relate to them.
  • You’ll rip up your plan from 7pm to 5am when you see what happened when this station went rogue with just one show. It’s like having two moneymaking stations on the same frequency.
  • What’s better than podcasting at actually making money for your station.
  • Stop losing audience you actually have. Researcher Richard Harker did a study of how much audience Sean Hannity’s talk show lost due to Nielsen PPM. Harker and Hannity will be in Philly to tell you and suggest ways to recapture what you deserve.
  • Explore new forms of revenue such as subscriptions and product placement. Digital competitors do this and make a bundle. Here’s radio’s way forward.
  • How radio can create binge content that audiences are demanding from content providers like Netflix. You’ll marvel at how this approach is a natural for radio.
  • How to compete better against popular streaming music services so radio can take back the music listener and get them to log longer quarter hours listening.
  • Eliminate the biggest objections to radio. Identify and fix them.
  • How to get audiences to listen longer in a world where attention spans are growing shorter.
  • Some day radio will not exist as we know it – how to plan for the future.

Thanks to the groups who are bringing multiple people to this one-day learning opportunity.

It’s fun, totally interactive and full of benefits that can help you recession proof your station in any tough times ahead.

I hope to see you 7 weeks from today at my New Radio Conference.

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iHeart Shocker: Merging More Markets

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Radio’s 70 Million Baby Boomers, 86 Million Millennials

What to do?

Is it worth a radio station betting the future on 70 million people between the ages of 50 and 70 or just ignore them and concentrate on Millennials of which there are 86 million?

Radio isn’t big with Millennials so to be blunt, we need them more than they need us currently.

But there are more Baby Boomers than the even younger Gen Xers (about 45 million) and no one seems to want to bet the station on Xers.

It’s complicated.

When creating content in the digital age, it is preferable to target the change makers who in this case are Millennials.

But to do so means changing radio in a way that is so radical, not one radio operator that I am aware of has taken the leap.

Some think they have but they are really radio stations pretending to include Millennials and what it will take is total disruption of what the radio industry has always been.

But, I’ve isolated specific strategies that can be implemented by any radio station, any format in any market and I’m going to get into this at my Philly conference in a little more than six weeks from now.

As you will see, these concepts – the ones Millennials value the most – will never alienate Baby Boomers and will actually please them although ironically many of the things baby boomers still want from radio will drive Millennials away.

One of the 5 things that it takes to meet the needs of the next generation is to be more authentic but radio comes off as one of the least authentic things. Almost nothing about a radio station is authentic. It’s full of hype, commercials, promos and nonsensical sweepers.

That can be fixed.

The other 4 things that young demos require and that older listeners will also welcome are just as important and we will go through them one at a time.

Dan Mason of Cox and CBS is bringing a raw list of things that Millennials want from radio and you will be horrified with what’s on that list.   Wait until you hear them in the listeners’ own words.

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

Here are 7 other critical issues at our April 6th meeting:

  1. Competing with streaming music services that along with YouTube are the go to sources for music entertainment for young audiences that make music radio less relevant. Streaming services are in for big trouble that radio can take advantage of. Pandora is for sale. Need I saw more? Someone bigger may buy them. What is radio going to do about this number one source of music competition?
  2. Create your own social media. We’re blowing it. Social media is in great turmoil. Younger audiences like Snapchat not Facebook and radio needs to learn how to use the best available social media better – not as a hype machine. Snapchat’s message disappears in ten seconds or less.  A new set of skills will be needed.
  3. Video, video, video. Unless you have tons of money to spend on trying to figure out how to monetize digital, let me show you how to create a significant cash stream from short form video on the budget of a Millennial teenager.
  4. Your biggest competitor is not the competitor you think. It’s user-generated content. Did you see how Snapchat is competing with news services (old school as well as new) to cover the presidential election in 10 seconds or less. If this sounds alien to you, come join the conversation because if they could create new age content, radio can, too.
  5. There is a place in hell for any woman who doesn’t support another woman – did you see how that Madeleine Albright one-liner has set off a debate on gender. Yet, my day job is working in generational media and I’m here to tell you that gender neutrality threatens to alienate radio from even more listeners if we don’t get this thing right. Men and women really blurring the gender lines. Are you ready for this? Let’s learn.
  6. Listen to any radio station and tell me if it doesn’t sound like a robot is talking to you. But go to the Twitter page of any of your on-air people and be bowled over by how eloquent they are on Twitter but not on-the-air. I have something for you to take back with you that will change all of this.

A day of information and inspiration where we work together in a positive atmosphere.

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

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

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David Field: Entercom Sucks Less

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Solutions To Radio’s 15 Biggest Problems

  1. Not Enough Millennial Listeners
  2. Fixing Morning Drive
  3. What To Do With 7pm-5am
  4. Making Significantly More Money From Digital
  5. Competing Against Rate Droppers
  6. Understanding Gender Neutrality
  7. Changing The Way Radio Talks To Younger Listeners
  8. To Podcast Or Not?
  9. Competing Against Radio’s Surprising New Competitor
  10. How To Identify The Next New Radio Formats?
  11. What To Do With 70 Million Baby Boomers
  12. How Radio Can Create Binge Content Like Netflix
  13. Stopping the Damage From Nielsen & PPM (Sean Hannity and researcher Richard Harker).
  14. How To Do A Total Millennial Radio Station Makeover (Former Cox & CBS PD Dan Mason)
  15. Eliminating The 3 Biggest Listener Objections To Radio

Independent broadcasters and digital entrepreneurs are invited to my April 6th New Radio Conference in Philadelphia to have a conversation about these most critical radio issues.

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iHeart’s Next Employee Realignment

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Millennials Unleashed in New Hampshire

How fascinating is it to watch the decline of the establishment?

On both sides of the presidential primaries, outsiders are now in. Insiders are out and very few people even understand what forces are really at work.

It’s like radio.

Those damn Millennials are shaking everything up, radio people say.

Well, that, too.

Analysts say the reason the electorate believes Bernie over Hillary is that he is more authentic.

Hey, radio – haven’t we been talking about authenticity for ages and doing nothing about it?   Radio stations are the most non-authentic things around.

That one third of the Democratic voters in New Hampshire exit polling Tuesday said that integrity was the most important thing that helped them decide on who to vote for and 92% of that group voted for Sanders.

Gloria Steinem, a Hillary supporter, got caught telling Bill Maher that young women were supporting Sanders because that’s where they would find the guys.

Ouch, could even Gloria Steinem be out of touch?

Whether Sanders wins or not, these socialist Millennials will not be going away but conservative talk radio will.

And you can blame the kids if that makes you feel better but you would be wrong.

Some of my best friends are conservative talk show hosts but I have warned again and again that Bob Pittman and Lew Dickey did as much to kill the format as Rush Limbaugh and his misogynist mouth.

Dickey and Pittman ran the stations that were conservative talk and they didn’t give a shit what these shows did – just don’t put them on FM. And look what happened? They pandered to their conservative baby boomer audience over 65.

Take optics.

Hillary would stand with baby boomer women behind her during the events leading up to New Hampshire’s election day but Bernie’s kids were behind him. Now, you’ll note, the old folks are out of the picture when Hillary stands at a podium.

Voila, look at the Millennials for Hillary.

We are witnessing a world that rejects bullshit.

That doesn’t want anymore of the same old thing.

That wants you to speak to their interests because, after all, it’s all about them.

As Chuck Todd of NBC News and Meet the Press said on MSNBC after the election, he can easily name what Bernie stands for but he can’t name why Hillary wants to be president – just because she can get things done? Todd suggesting voters may feel the same way.

And my radio friends know that they can’t name what their stations stand for because they stand for cutbacks and cheap programming because they can just do it thanks to digital automation.

When a radio station thinks “Your Hit Music Station” is a compelling reason to listen, isn’t it time to find out what young in demo audiences want not what you think they should want?

And who needs all-news all the time?

A 70 year old, maybe but not anyone with a Twitter account.

When Scott Herman asks his news listeners to give his news stations 22 minutes and they will give them the world, he’s showing how out of touch he really is.

Millennials need just 22 seconds to get the world via Twitter.

In fact, I envision a radio news format that sounds more like Twitter than anything radio currently has to offer.

And the new age radio music stations sound more like Twitter than a traditional radio format.

Some of my readers wrote to me the other day to say they would love to reimagine radio in this way and I think we should continue this discussion at my Philly conference April 6th.

A Twitter news format.

A Twitter music format.

What’s all that about?

Or this question I get all the time.

I’m scared to make these major changes even though I know it must be done, how is a safe way to get started?

We’ll talk about that more, too. But to stay the same is a death sentence for radio.

Just as it is in politics.

Remain the establishment and some politician is going to lose the election.

Keep doing the unimaginative, non-authentic, older skewing radio that is on the air and the programming will be fit for funeral homes not people who are buying new homes.

This is perhaps a different way to describe the conversation we will have for 7 hours in April. But authenticity and Millennial values are no longer curiosity pieces.

It’s real.

It’s politics.

At work.

At home.

In the radio business.

Take the first step and listen to the future.

Thanks for the independent radio groups that are sending contingencies of their people to attend this timely event.

One station is sending all their employees but one to Philly so they can return on the same page.

This gives me hope that the radio industry will once again be saved from what Bernie Sanders would call the 1% by independent operators.

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CBS In Big Trouble

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Secret iHeart Force Reduction Move

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The Format That Can Save Radio

Face it.

Radio thinks that a format change, adjustment, new digital or social presence or something they add to what they are doing now will make the industry relevant again.

Nothing that radio can do that it has done before will work now.

Let’s do the math.

70 million baby boomers

45 million Gen Xers

Almost 90 million Millennials now roughly between 18-34.

And probably 70 or more million Plurals (17 and under and still being born).

Music radio has become a computer in the closet airing the same songs, sweepers and far fewer personalities than ever before.

And no music discovery to speak of – the one thing the music loving audience really wants from radio.

Talk radio is dying with the conservative movement as socialism rears its head whether Bernie Sanders prevails or not.

Millennials are just not conservatives nor will they be so. It’s been a nice run but conservative talk radio show hosts and stations should be preparing for the end.

Unless, they’re up for some big changes.

News is dead and died earlier on radio even before Twitter, which is a far better means of receiving news, was born.

Hey, Jerry – I thought you were going to tell me the one format that can save radio.

Okay, let’s start with what is not going to work.

Anything that is on the air now.

If you’re still with me, get a feel for what Millennials would want from the station that could command their attention:

  • A station that sounds like them not the baby boomers who run them.
  • No rules radio – Millennials hate rules. And they don’t like branding either so don’t call it “no rules radio” or you’ll sound like their parents.
  • Commercials that discover instead of preach, teach, lie, irritate or bore.
  • No clock.
  • No weather.
  • No time.
  • No traffic.
  • No news unless it is not already on Twitter.
  • They have all these things – move on.
  • A station that is neither all talk nor all music.
  • A format that would drive you crazy because it moves so fast that it would feed their short attention spans.
  • A station with a cause (bet your station doesn’t have a cause the majority of this new audience can embrace).
  • Aim young even if you also want an older audience because young people are the change makers as Hillary Clinton is finding out now.
  • No podcasting, it’s suicidal for Millennial audiences but there is something podcasters are doing that can port over to them.  One big thing and it’s not podcasting itself.
  • Everything most of us have been taught as the Holy Grail of radio no longer applies so if you want to pioneer you will need an adventurous spirit and a very open mind.
  • Odd lengths of shows, which really won’t be shows in the traditional sense.
  • What to call your new Millennial station – beware of branding, it will backfire as will mottos, cool phrases and hype.
  • And Nielsen is not going to keep up with you because Nielsen is owned by the people who own iHeart and they have no interest in changing radio so it’s up to you – change or follow them.

If you think you can’t do it, think again.

Millennials are in love with a 74-year old Democratic socialist.

They look up to Steve Jobs, a baby boomer.

To be blunt, most (not all) radio people are not up for blowing up what they’ve done all their lives so continue at your own risk. The ratings and revenue predict where this is headed.

Let’s have more of this conversation at my New Radio Conference in Philadelphia April 6th – less than two months from now.

We’re going to build this new radio station of the future with the help of former Cox and CBS programmer Dan Mason who will share comments from Millennials that may shock you, make you mad or inspire you.

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Lenders Snag iHeart

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Bernie Vs. Hillary

You can learn a lot about radio when you look elsewhere.

When Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders debated last Thursday night, they spoke volumes in their own way about what is wrong with traditional media and why Millennial audiences are not understood.

Hillary answers questions about Sanders 70% support by young people which they don’t have to be for me, I’m for them.

That sounds like a parent.

Wrong answer.

Bernie lets Hillary beat him up when he presses her on her vote for the Iraq War no matter how visibly irritated she appears because it’s not cool to get into a meaningless shouting match.

In fact, Millennials dislike confrontation which makes debating before them particularly challenging.

Don’t worry; they didn’t watch the debate on cable. They saw what they wanted to on YouTube.

Hype doesn’t work so Sanders is careful to be humble about his accomplishments while Clinton is more forceful.

Baby boomers between the ages of 50-70 want to see a woman president in their lifetime.

Millennials 18-34 absolutely know they are going to see many women presidents in their lifetime and maybe even an LGBT chief executive. So, while baby boomers only have so long to see their wish come true, Millennials want what socialism has to offer even over electing the first woman president.

Madeleine Albright said there would be a special place in hell for any woman who doesn’t vote for Hillary.

Huh?

Millenials don’t believe in hell.

How did socialism go from a bad word to something good?

Because capitalism has not been good to Millennials who graduated from college to a lousy economy, unemployment or underemployment, college debt, glass ceilings, and the ravages of Wall Street.

But how can – let’s be honest here – an old white man (74) become president with the support he is getting from young people?

Or on the alternative, how did baby boomer Steve Jobs get to be so iconic among this same generation?

Both looked to Millennials as the change makers and then the older generations adopted later.

So Millennial audiences 18-34 don’t hate radio, they hate the kind of radio stations are doing.

They dislike hype, which is epitomized by radio stations.

They crave authenticity in a world of bullshit. Notice how Hillary said she’d consider revealing the transcripts of her $200,000 Goldman Sachs speeches and how young people wonder, what’s there to consider. Just do it.

And she still hasn’t done it.

Radio hasn’t had a revolution since progressive rock in the 1960’s.

It has pioneered precious few new formats after all-news and conservative talk.

Radio needs a revolution if it is to have meaning in the lives of almost 90 million Millennials.

And a voice that actually sounds like the audience it wants to attract.

Or at least saying something that their youthful audience can relate to.

There are many formats that do not exist today that can be created for Millennials.

It doesn’t matter if Millennials are in love with their phones. That has nothing to do with the future of radio.

As I’m writing this I looked up to gaze out of my office window to a golf course where a young man just hit his drive, put his club away and pulled out his phone while he walked 200+ yards to his ball.

The phone didn’t stop him from playing golf (although it might irritate the hell out of older players). He likes golf and his cell phone – both.

In your heart you know that radio is not as good as it was at befriending audiences. If it were, voice tracking would be off the table. Sweepers would be outlawed and meaningless commercials that are the antithesis of no hype wouldn’t be stacked up one after the other for eight minutes every half hour.

I don’t know who will win the presidency.

I do know that an old white man who is admired by young people is worth studying because Millennials have disrupted everything and they are about to disrupt politics in 2016 as never before whatever party wins.

Lying is out (politicians lie).

Boasting used to be a right. Now it’s a bad move. Yeah, I’d like to crow about every prediction I ever made about media that came true but who cares?

Hillary said she believed in the death penalty and Bernie walked it back and said the government should not be killing people. He got the louder applause.

Stand for something or you stand for nothing.

What does radio stand for?

Not much.

Repetition in music, not discovery.

Savings over entertainment.

Abuse of social media for promotional purposes not entertainment or enlightenment.

No news at all.

No one-on-one communication.

Nothing to binge on even over the weekend.

We can do better than this.

Can we name the top five things Millennials value this year?

If you’d like to continue the discussion, reserve a seat at my upcoming April 6 New Radio Conference in Philadelphia.

Stand up to ratings that are inaccurate and killing the business.

Sean Hannity and researcher Richard Harker will be there live to discuss disturbing findings about how certain formats are losing the majority of their audience to PPM technology and ways to deal with this inequity. (Harker did a survey for Hannity’s show that will shock when you see how much audience was lost to PPM). And it’s not just talk stations taking a hit.

See exciting ways to do a Millennial Makeover of your radio station.

Former Cox and CBS programmer Dan Mason will join me in providing useful ideas that can transform your station from the past to the future.

See the Program / Reserve a Seat

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If you’d like to stay close to the Hub Conference Center, find nearby hotels here.

Cumulus Scandal Over Inappropriate Relationships

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Scroll through my previous stories list here.

Please reserve April 6, 2016 so you can attend my next New Radio Conference here. Two months from now.

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I consult radio and media companies on audience trends -- details here.

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Give Your Station a Millennial Makeover

All the financial experts agree – flat is the new growth curve for radio.

Putting the consolidators who are staring down bankruptcy aside, there are a lot of good operators being forced to sell in markets where rates have been driven down by desperate stations.

And even the good radio companies are uncharacteristically laying off – Emmis, for example handed out 32 pink slips.

All of this begs the question, how DO you succeed in a zero growth business?

  • Give your station a Millennial makeover. If radio keeps fine tuning formats that just aren’t resonating with young money demos, it just keeps stunting radio’s growth.
  • Focus on these 6 hours each day to return 50-60% of your profit. No one has resources they had years ago. Now, hyper focusing on the 6 hours that can bring in the most revenue makes sense. But which hours are they?
  • What to do with 7pm-5am. If I told you you could start a new radio station somewhere in that time period and nurture it until it is ready to fly on its own, would you believe it? How about learning from someone who did it.
  • Avoid podcasting. It’s not your friend. Will not make money to make it worthwhile. Even the latest Serial is laying an egg compared to the first one. Podcasting is for older listeners looking for an alternative to political talk radio. There’s no way to adequately monetize podcasting for radio owners. But there is one thing that podcasters – the good ones – do that can cross over to your station.
  • Ditto with digital. No matter how many times we say it, digital by radio stations comes out sounding like, well – radio. With salaries being cut, jobs being shared, people be laid off and not enough potential upside to make digital worthwhile, don’t do it. But podcasting is doing something right that radio ought to steal.
  • Cut spots, raise prices and then re-invent the commercial. It’s easier to just take the stuff agencies give us or run spots that our cheapest air talent can produce but that’s not going to get you higher rates. And radio cannot survive as your low cost leader. That’s a loser’s game plan. We asked Millennials if they hate commercials. No, they said … and they shared the kind they would listen to.

Sitting back is not the answer.

No business ever grew by getting smaller.

Millennials don’t care for radio but they are not that wild about streaming music services or podcasting for that matter.

That says opportunity.

So what I am proposing is about funneling resources to the things that are guaranteed to at least bring in more revenue if not tap into a need that even Millennials have for something new and better.

Here are a few other critical issues:

  1. What to do with 75 million baby boomers 50-70. That generation is still almost as big as 83 million Millennials. Is it possible to do hybrid formats that cherry pick demos from each?
  2. Mastering digital as a revenue source not as part of your radio station. I’ll tell you flat out, it’s video, video and more video, but the rules have changed even in the past year.
  3. Gender neutrality. Young girls want to look like boys, dress like boys, wear boy’s clothes and assume “traditional” boy roles. And boys are comfortable reassessing their gender preferences.  This is going to have a major impact on what we are and what we say to audiences.
  4. Radio’s most dangerous competitor is user-generated content. Your audience wants to be your new PD. Most stations don’t really get this so they are assuming the traditional role of content creator assuming that audiences are content consumers.  More than ever, this is just plain wrong.
  5. Dealing with shortened attention spans requires a major revamping of radio’s format clock, delivery and formatic elements.  This is an audience that doesn’t even listen to songs they like all the way through, how do you work with that?
  6. How radio can be like Netflix and create binge content – that’s right, programming to binge on – for audiences that demand it. There is a great example of radio bingeing that few people even in the industry recognize.
  7. New forms of revenue such as subscriptions and product placement (“mentions”). Audiences 45 and under gleefully buy apps like it is nothing and most don’t use 25% of them even when they pay. Money left on the table ripe for the picking.

Now, does THIS sound like a dying business to you?

If you’d like to continue the discussion, clear April 6 for my New Radio Conference in Philadelphia.

Sean Hannity and researcher Richard Harker will be there live to discuss disturbing findings about how certain formats are losing the majority of their audience to PPM technology and ways to deal with this inequity. (Harker did a survey for Hannity’s show that will shock when you see how much audience was lost to PPM). And it’s not just talk stations taking a hit.

And former Cox and CBS programmer Dan Mason will help with the Millennial Radio Makeover – useful ideas that can transform your station from the past to the future.

See the Program / Reserve a Seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay close to the Hub Conference Center, find nearby hotels here.

Ding-Ding-Ding! Round 2 – Mary Berner vs. Lew Dickey

Read the full article now.

Free samples of our work here.

Scroll through my previous stories list here.

Please reserve April 6, 2016 so you can attend my next New Radio Conference here. Two months from now.

Report Newstips confidentially in our Witness Protection Program here.

I consult radio and media companies on audience trends -- details here.

Talk to Jerry privately here.

Obama’s Visit to a Mosque

If the Republican candidates needed anything to tee off on in New Hampshire, President Obama came through for them today.

Obama visited a mosque outside of Baltimore and basically said this land is your land and this land is my land.

That Muslims are welcome here and that they didn’t have to choose between being a Muslim and an American.

This stuff is so instructional from the perspective of generational media.

Older voters (and radio listeners) may tend to get riled by this one.

Younger voters, the ones who helped elect Obama and from whom he hopes to preserve a legacy are championing his call.

The media business panders the way politicians pander.

How many times have you had to watch advertisers say “I”, “you”, “your way” on commercials aimed at Millennials almost as if the rules don’t apply to them.

Which they don’t, by the way.

And some voters believe that all Muslims are bad people and they shouldn’t be allowed in the country.

Let’s do the math again.

Almost 90 million Millennials some of whom have Muslim friends, love dreamers who should become citizens, want free college, free health care and Wall Street punished for screwing the middle class.

And there are 75 million baby boomers between 50-70 who tend to believe the opposite.

Then there is radio, an industry run by baby boomers who think the world never changed.

Hell, the radio industry ignored the Internet, Napster, social media and streaming music services while busily cutting costs to do a poorer job.

Radio has to be more inclusive if it wants to see a rebirth among the money demo.

  • Top 40 radio, progressive and rock radio was a radical idea back in the 50’s and 60’s. What has radio offered in the last 25 years that is equally as radical and compelling?
  • Republican candidate John Kasich got in the face of a questioner at a New Hampshire rally the other day and said he was not going to suck up to him with his answer. A reporter interviewing the questioner afterward said he was satisfied with Kasich’ answer. Radio, too, must stop sucking up and start standing for something new and different.
  • Radio has it all wrong. Radio must become a community not a computer in a closet playing the same songs over and over and airing meaningless self-serving sweepers.
  • Radio must fund itself. I’m not saying use the public radio model and beg for money.  But win over listeners by discovering companies (advertisers) who address their needs, share their values and offer value. Then speak to them authentically and even guarantee the sponsor’s authenticity.  This is a topic I’ll bet you’ll love. Right now radio is running anything it can get paid for as a commercial and no one is listening which guarantees radio will never earn a premium price for what they do.
  • Personalities never go out of style. Sorry, iHeart and Cumulus, two radio groups who can’t resist reducing expenses by reducing the number of well paid radio personalities. Look at Cumulus in New York. New “Frickin’ York and they have amateur hour on their Nash station mornings imported from Nashville. Here’s what I’m saying. They should have done an Underground Local country station for New York because most New Yorkers don’t like country but the ones who do could be had by making it a special community.

This stuff is so fascinating and so doable.

We’re going to continue this conversation at my April 6th Philly New Radio Conference but let me thank the folks who have registered so far and give special props to the groups – many independents – who are sending more people than CBS sent to the NAB Radio Show when Scott Herman was its chairman.

Independent operators are the future of radio – there is no other way back.

If you’d be interested in having this discussion, please reserve the date April 6th for my one day New Radio Conference in Philadelphia.

See the Program / Reserve a Seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay close to the Hub Conference Center, find nearby hotels here.

iRot Radio’s Assault on Competitors

Read the full article now.

Free samples of our work here.

Scroll through my previous stories list here.

Mark down April 6, 2016 so you can attend my next New Radio Conference here. Two months from now.

Report Newstips confidentially in our Witness Protection Program here.

Inquire about my training programs. Click here.

Talk to Jerry privately here.

The Iowa Caucuses

Peggy Noonan, the conservative Wall Street Journal columnist warned the other day that whether Bernie Sanders wins his bid for president or not, socialism may be America’s future.

This is an insightful conclusion about some 90 million Millennials who have not really enjoyed capitalism.

During their young lives (18-34 years old), they graduated from college to unemployment or underemployment.

They have seen the lion’s share of wealth go to the top 1% while they struggle with college loans and work in jobs where they can’t pay them back.

No wonder free college, healthcare for all and fight those dirty bastards on Wall Street resonates.

Sanders may have lost the Iowa caucuses by fewer than 4 electoral equivalents but he won 70% of the young voters.

This is instructive if you are a radio station or media exec trying to make sense of the future.

  1. When Ted Cruz quoted scripture in accepting victory among the Republicans, he turned off a great number of young people who are not religious and certainly not Evangelicals. He may have appeased Iowa GOP voters, but religion is a personal thing with Millennials. They may be spiritual but they are not going to church or thumb a bible publicly.
  2. Rubio is going to defend gun rights (a no, no for most Millennials) and repeal an entitlement called Obamacare (try it, Millennials will go nuts). He can talk about American exceptionalism all he wants but that’s not how Millennials see it. And getting tough on immigration is not in the future of 90 million Millennials any time soon.
  3. Donald Trump may well roar back but he didn’t connect with Millennials not because he wasn’t afraid to be a non-politician but because he seemed to pander to whatever interests would serve his deal-making skills.
  4. Somehow Hillary Clinton sounded like something they’ve heard before. Yes, she’ll help make college more affordable but they want freebies. Hillary’s approach is a loser among 18-34s.  Hillary has a coalition of baby boomer women and minorities who want to help her become the first woman president but it won’t happen without the Millennials who flock to Bernie Sanders. Trying to come off as a pragmatist doesn’t seem to fit with Millennials who reach for the sky.
  5. The establishment candidates are getting no traction because older people are sick of politicians and younger people are already sick of politicians.

Who knows how this will end, but I suspect Noonan is correct.

We live in a socialist world. Hell, Millennials invented the words “social media”. Any word with social sounds good. It’s not the dog whistle for communism that older people think.

Conservative talk radio attracts old baby boomer men and talk radio is over. Will not last until the next presidential election. But there will be no socialistic Democratic replacement because radio is yesterday’s news to Millennials.

If politicians can’t figure out how to win over 18-34’s, what can we learn from a 74 year old white man in a rumpled suit that would help radio turn it around?

  • Be authentic. Radio is lacking this component badly.
  • Be humble. Radio personalities must be all about the listeners not themselves.
  • Less hype. Can you think of anything that has more hype than a radio station? Okay, WWE. See what I mean?
  • Provide dreams. What radio station do you listen to that plays up the fantasy of the mind to cooperate with a generation of dreamers?
  • Be civic. Millennials love people who accept others as they are and work together for the common good. Don’t tell them that climate change is not a big issue.
  • Monetize with the help of the audience. Sanders keeps raking in record hauls of small donations (average $26 per person) and he has no political PACs. Radio just runs commercial after commercial of garbage that no listener can stand and makes absolutely no connection with the audience. Imagine if radio monetized with an assist from their listeners.  There’s a way, I promise you.
  • Be gender agnostic. At my April 6th conference I will present some startling information about young people and their view of sexual orientation. Any station not in alignment with this view will be caught whistling Dixie.

My belief is and has always been, the solution for radio is mastering the next generation the way Steve Jobs did at Apple when they reinvented their company and the world.

If you’d be interested in having this discussion, please reserve the date April 6th for my one day New Radio Conference in Philadelphia.

See the Program / Reserve a Seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay close to the Hub Conference Center, find nearby hotels here.