Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

The CEO of Vice Media, a very irreverent media powerhouse that attracts the money demos, is a disrespectful guy with a lot wisdom.

Disrespectful in that his advice to old media is – and I quote – “They can go to hell quite frankly”.

On the east coast we call that a compliment.

But it is Shane Smith’s advice to traditional media companies that is so genius that I want to share it with you from CNN Money:

“You can't retrofit it. If there's a bunch of old dudes in a boardroom that go, "OK. Let's start making video," what they try to do is hire pedigreed people. What you get is a shittier version of TV. You really have to rip out the pipes. You have to make things in a different way, hire people who have never worked in TV or commercials or film, get people straight out of schools, get people who don't know what they're doing, form your own school and train these kids. The reason I'm telling you all this, the reason I'm giving away my secrets, is that's it's nearly impossible to do”.

NONE of which radio or television does.

We cut jobs and expenses – that’s what we do.

Oh, and pass off garbage for content when we know how to make great content.  Most of this is because of the investment bank owners who only know how to wreck things, not build them.

Let’s take Shane Smith’s advice and apply it to radio – that’s what I going to do at my upcoming teaching seminar:

1. Take the part about old dudes hiring pedigreed people to make videos they don’t understand.  Isn’t this what Miley Cyrus is so intuitively talking about when she says she will not let a 70-year old record executive tell her what’s popular in clubs.  She’s right.  I don’t care if she licks everything in sight.  She’s right!  What is radio afraid of?  Young people?  It was never that way before consolidation because radio was automatically reborn with each new generation.  Let’s talk about how to bring young people and fresh ideas from all ages into a radio station.  I have a plan.
2. Smith says you have to “rip out the pipes” and “make things in a different way”.  Tell me, what’s different about a hit music station these days?  Okay then, how about a classic hits or classic rock station or a country station or an all-news station?  Nothing.  They are dying on the vine from lack of innovation.  There are specific ways to change these formats up and rip out the clock to reinvent radio.
3. Smith says hire people who have never worked in media.  Hey, Cumulus is doing that.  They’re hiring people right off the Cintas uniform truck.  Somehow I don’t think that’s what Smith meant.  He says get young people who don’t know what they are doing and – and this is the key point Cumulus is missing – train them!  You may or may not be interested in the techniques I use when I work as a facilitator for media companies.  All the ideas you need are already on your staff.  Try these techniques to breath life into them.  My focus is generational media – training must be different than it ever was for previous generations.
4. I love Shane Smith’s last line in which he says he is sharing his secrets because they are nearly impossible to do.  I feel like this when I write sometimes – lots of good ideas that will work if radio people will not snivele about “You can’t do this, Jerry”.  Yes you can or someone else will.

To reverse the decline of radio, we need disruptors.

If you want to know how to do this, consider attending my media conference and invest one day to get enough useable ideas to last you the year.  Among my industry credentials is my work in generational media as a professor at the University of Southern California.

No industry conference has a curriculum like this:

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