Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

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

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

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

Wow!

This is the opposite of what radio stations do.

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

In essence, radio does not enhance its core product.

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

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

No growth.

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

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

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

Here are the others:

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

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

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

8:00 am         Registration/Breakfast

9:00 am         Disrupt & Reinvent Radio

10:15 am       Break

10:30 am       Attracting Millennials

11:45 am       Lunch

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

1:45 pm         Break

2:00 pm         Digital, Video & Time Shifting Radio

2:45 pm         Break

3:00 pm         Social Media

4:00 pm         Conference Concludes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Less than 2 weeks until Philly!

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

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