Inside Music Media

I remember when the outstanding researcher Bill Moyes used to say attack your radio station before a competitor does.

And that was before the onslaught of digital competitors that have made life tough for radio stations.

But how?

Hold a very special brainstorming session focused on one thing: if you were your station’s competitor, what would you attack, improve, replace or reinvent. But the key is who to invite to the brainstorming session.
Name the one thing your station does best of all – put it into a phrase or sentence, no more. If this is not what you believe the station’s core strength should be, change it. If you do, channel whatever resources you have into what’s most important to listeners about your station.
Try this – innovate something new for each daypart. Putting Ryan Seacrest on doesn’t count. Be creative and even daring. New methods, ideas and/or products. Sometimes even one new thing can freshen up a station and often it leads to more innovation.
My research among young people indicates that they actually like commercials but not the kind radio does. I asked several groups of young people to design their own optimal commercial, the one which they would be compelled to listen to all the way through. Hands down, live reads won. Not phony live reads but ones that were startling for what they included in them. Conduct your own research even if it is informal or ask me about the treasure trove of input this group has to offer when we meet face to face.
Most listeners cannot correctly identify call letters or even station branded names. The reason? Stations come up with names they think are memorable but a generation that relates easily to names like Google, Twitter and SnapChat might be able to teach us something. Consider making what you call the station as creative as what you put on the air.

Want more ideas like these?

Invest one day at the 2014 Media Solutions Conference in Philadelphia.

The curriculum: