Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

When T-Mobile agreed to merge with AT&T it was considered a forgone conclusion kind of like when a large radio company looks to buy even more radio stations.

Unfortunately for AT&T the deal was not approved by regulators because AT&T would then have controlled 73% of the mobile market -- and that is too much even for this age of consolidation to run wild.

AT&T was so confident that the deal would be approved that they agreed to pay T-Mobile a $3 billion “breakup” fee along with valuable spectrum licenses if it didn’t.

AT&T lost.

Consumers won.

And T-Mobile never had it so good because it has become an innovation monster in the staid and monopolistic mobile space.

T-Mobile has become the “Uncarrier” breaking all the rules.

It did away with contracts, allows consumers to buy a phone outright and pay for it over months in installments unlike the other carriers that force you to buy an iPhone by taking out a 2-year contract that doesn’t decrease in price when your phone is paid off.

T-Mobile most recently installed free roaming for those who visit 100 countries overseas so they no longer have to fear running up a cellular bill from hell while away.

Adversity forced T-Mobile to either shake things up and reinvent itself or die on the vine without a merger partner.

Now imagine for a moment what would happen in radio if everyone but radio’s two biggest monopolies, Clear Channel and Cumulus, the two largest that own almost everything, decided to innovate the hell out of radio.

Even good local broadcasters – and there are far too few of them these days – are following the “leaders” to their ultimate destruction as they will see.

It spells death for radio if it doesn’t change.

Imagine if good local operators or a group became the “Unradio” broadcaster.

That’s what I will teach at my upcoming Media Solutions Conference in Philadelphia.

Ask me to talk about how a radio station can disrupt its customary revenue stream and sell commercials AND attract listener contributions a la public stations.  It can be done and I’m going to show you how to do it.

But you have to offer something different, compelling – something audiences demand to get them to build a private revenue stream of contributions along with your commercial revenue stream.

Ask me to get into becoming the “Uncommercial Radio Station” – no, not a station without commercials but a station without the kind of commercials that are being done today.  Jerry Lee at B101 in Philadelphia is doing pioneer work in this area and he will be on my faculty for this topic.  If you’re serious, this man is doing it now.

Ask me how you can eliminate virtually every roadblock to making digital-era listeners love radio again by being the “Unradio” station.  Push me and I’ll go category by category until you won’t be able to get home soon enough to start embracing these innovations.

We can do this.

Innovate the Next Radio.

Here is the curriculum for the 2014 Media Solutions Conference along with a link to incentives that make it accretive to reserve a seat today:

1.  Disrupt Your Radio Station

Blow it up without losing your loyal fans.  Gain audience by attacking all the things digital age listeners hate about radio before a digital competitor does.  Study the plan to drastically alter and destroy the old structure the way Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat and Netflix did.   Innovate the next radio creating new revenue streams and solving virtually every objection digital-age listeners have about radio.

2.  Master Digital

Learn how people you probably don’t know make millions of dollars in digital without running commercials or even selling banner ads.  It is being done right now but traditional media isn’t doing it.  Consider this your game plan.

3.  Most Effective Social Media Strategies

Social media shakeup alert!  Instagram is ousting Facebook.  Twitter is in trouble despite its IPO.  Horror of all horrors – texting with pictures is where you should be but social media is no longer just about staying connected so if your radio station is relying on today’s social media, this is a heads up to get with it.

4.  Reverse The Decline of Radio Listening

Learn the most effective approach to reinvigorating a radio station that is under attack from digital competitors.  The secret is in one paragraph you will want to memorize as your credo.  We will brainstorm together on steps that will guarantee that you will find new radio listeners by outsmarting digital competitors.

5.  Succeed At Short Form Video

No matter what kind of content you create going forward, it must include short form video.  But short form video is no longer your children’s YouTube.  There are new risks, new rewards and endless ways to create video content that is compelling and financially rewarding.  We will cover it.

6.  Engaging 80 Million Millennials

They hate radio.  And use music like toothpaste.  But there is a way to engage Millennials.  I will share my work in generational media that indicates this young and massive audience is available to traditional media such as radio, TV and the record industry but not by continuing the status quo.  You’ll come away knowing their hot buttons and their turn offs.

7.  Time Shifting Radio

All content must be available on-demand – everything.  The audience is demanding it and every medium except radio is responding.  How to create time shifted radio content.  Whether to rely on over-the-air broadcasts for time shifting or create new content.  How to market time shifting as a new stream of revenue. Go to school on time shifting.

Now that’s a media conference worth attending.

A one-day seminar presented by Jerry Del Colliano March 26, 2014 at the Rittenhouse Hotel, Philadelphia with the assistance of clinical guest faculty.

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