Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

I have been having trouble with my iPad ever since iOS 7 was introduced. 

The screen freezes when I try to read Radio Ink. 

I kid the good folks at Radio Ink.

No, really.  The screen freezes when I use Safari on my iPad.  So after numerous calls to Apple Tech Support by my wife (who has the patience in the family), Apple concluded, “You need a new iPad”.

Say WHAT?

I didn’t ask for a new iPad, just that they fix the one that is a year old.  But that’s the kind of customer service Apple still has that makes me an Apple fan boy.

Android, Schmandroid!

I can’t see straight because Apple loves me and cares about me – at least that has been my experience with them.

Wouldn’t it be nice if radio could care the same way about its listeners and advertisers?

Well, I know a station owner that does.

It’s Jerry Lee at B101 in Philly along with his chief exec Blaise Howard.  They are so impressive I don’t know why we aren’t all sitting in a hotel room in Philly and stealing everything they do.

Actually, there is no need.  They will give it away because Lee has this cockamamie idea that if all radio does well, he does well. 

Jerry Lee has agreed to work with me on my upcoming 5^th annual Media Solutions Conference in Philadelphia.  There’s no spin with this guy.  He tells you how he feels.

Here’s what other stations are missing as radio continues its self-imposed decline.

We’re not going to make radio a growth industry again by getting young listeners.  Young people have found other devices to use for on-demand content.  Our audience is aging.

We’re not going turn a smartphone into a radio as much as we may want to because phones make lousy radios and radio is generally lousy compared to even ten years ago.

What we should be doing is what B101 does which is super serve the available audience and then work as concerned partners with advertisers.

B101 tests their commercials to see if they are effective as part of their deal.

Most radio stations don’t even follow up on flights.  They just try to sell something else which is why the rates reflect the commodity that radio has become.

This is worth focusing on.

Radio has a lot of good years left even without audience growth if it learns to super serve its available audience and help advertisers convey commercial messages more effectively.

In fact, there can be growth.  B101 is one of the top billers in Philadelphia year after year, in spite of Millennial erosion, the People Meter and without much of a digital presence – and no streaming!

This is what I want to get into:

1. Creating a new partnership with advertisers by helping them help you.  No more selling spots.  Let Clear Channel and Cumulus do the automated selling.  If radio ads reach consumers and ring the cash register of advertisers, you grow.  You’ll want to take notes on this.
2. Developing on-air content that is so consistent and desirable that audiences crave it. 
3. Creating stations where listeners want to identify themselves with your station.  If you talk to some of the radio pros who programmed radio stations in the 60’s and 70’s, they will tell you their audiences identified themselves by what the station stood for.  Now, do you ever hear anyone say “I love W-whatever because of iHeartRadio”?  But WMMS in Cleveland, WMMR in Philly and KMET in Los Angeles were a few stations where the station was the embodiment of the programming not the owner.
4. And how to do all of this without breaking the bank in a new cost-conscious age of radio.  Actually, there’s a new way to look at cost effectiveness.

Make radio grow again.

Here is the curriculum for the 2014 Media Solutions Conference along with a link to reserve a seat:

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.

Reserve a Seat

Group Registrations