Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

I love Jeff Smulyan.

And he loves radio a whole lot.

You just have to root for an owner who is trying to will today’s radio on the mobile-mined next generation.

But turning a smartphone into a radio, as Jeff advocates, has not made a difference to radio listeners and likely will not.  It’s a dangerous strategy to rely on.

The radio industry is obsessed with embracing the digital future on its own terms and that spells disaster.

Too many radio stations think their social media sites are mini-ratings opportunities the way they whore themselves out for a click or a “like”.  And, as we’ve seen, all the clicks and “likes” in the world are not a suitable digital strategy. 

But you can’t tell that to radio groups who love metrics.

Radio websites are a waste – frumpy, self-serving and without value to today’s audiences.

Quick:  name the main purpose of your station’s website. 

Good luck.

And streaming? 

Don’t get me started.

The radio mentality is to stream what’s declining in audience on the air – their programming because it is cheap.

Not very potent. 

And streaming rarely makes money for radio operators.  In fact, it costs money.

I could go on, but these are just a few of the examples of how the radio industry is squandering its digital future.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Help is on the way to forward-thinking radio people who are willing to spend some time studying change:

1. Blow up the station website – the entire thing – and build one that has just one focus.  One thing that is important to your target audience and then pour your time and effort into making it compelling.  And you’ll have to hire some full-timers.  What a joke.  Radio thinks digital deserves part-timers when their full-time future is digital. 
2. There are new strategies emerging to use Instagram instead of Facebook for social media.  Instagram is the next Facebook so if your social media strategy is based on Facebook, you lose.
3. See what I wrote about making radio grow again.  Four ideas you should be thinking about now.  Read it here. 
4. Discover what is ten times more important than seeking clicks and “likes” from digital fans.  This changes everything.
5. Streaming your station to an emerging audience that has attention deficit defies reality which is why streaming radio stations rarely get even 3% additional audience tacked on to its ratings.  I get that if a listener can’t hear your station at work that they can always listen to the stream.  Well, they are not doing it – not in any meaningful numbers.  There are better ways to use your creative programming content than streams.  Ask me when we’re together.
6. The most important digital strategy you probably don’t know about is the one that turns your radio station into Netflix for Radio.  You’re going to love this and you’ll wonder why no one has ever thought of it.

It’s getting late.

Master digital now.

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.  Reinventing the station website to churn out money.  Rethink social media.  Forget clicks and “likes”.  A better option than streaming and a way for your station to become the “Netflix of Radio”.

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.

This is not a convention or show.  It’s a learning session.

Consider attending my one-day seminar March 26, 2014 at the Rittenhouse Hotel, Philadelphia.

Reserve a Seat