Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

Radio stations think I am crazy for repeatedly saying they should be in the video business.

Not the streaming of their on-air signal that makes them chump change at best.

Not the promotion based manipulation of social media – anyway, they’re focusing on the wrong social media.  Not that it matters since social media is a utility like a mobile carrier or electric company and can’t really be monetized.

I know we’re in the radio business but an entire generation of Millennials is choosing on-demand content not broadcasting.

Radio needs a Plan B.

I have discovered a young entrepreneur who is doing one 4-minute video a week.

She uses social media to get followers to subscribe and she has a huge following.

She doesn’t serve banner ads.

Doesn’t accept product placement.

She doesn’t even do commercials.

Yet her reported annual income from this video business is an estimated $3 million.

Wait until you hear how she makes all that money.

Oh, did I mention that she doesn’t sell subscriptions to her video, either?

This is what radio folks who are serious about digital revenue should be going to school on.

And it’s one of the things you’ll learn at my upcoming 2014 Media Solutions Conference in Philadelphia.

Click here to register now.

Here’s the curriculum for this seminar based on the seven most important areas radio stations must excel in today’s radio business:

1. How to disrupt your radio station before digital competitors do.  It used to be we feared our competitors, now it is technology, an infinite number of alternative content choices and the whirlwind impact of social media we fear.  We need to understand how to really disrupt our stations without damaging them – and I will show you.  You’re going to like it and get good at disruption.  After all, Google and Apple made a fortune doing it.
2. Master digital.  Streaming, websites and fumbling around with social media will not be sufficient.  I will tell you about an entrepreneur who uses video with social media and earns her $3 million a year.  That’s without selling any advertising, no product placement and – are you ready?  No commercials.  This will be my gift to you and since the Media Solutions Conference is never streamed or recorded for sale to non-attendees, you’ll want to be in Philly for this learning module.
3. Shake up social media strategies.  To be honest, the Millennials who drive social media are fickle and they are in the midst of bailing on Facebook and Twitter right now.  Yet most stations are dependent on these social networks as part of their media strategy. Earlier I said we must use our resources more judiciously so wasting time on social media that 80 million people are abandoning is not a good use of resources.  You’ll learn the social media sites to embrace including a few new surprises and the ones to back off of.  Attend this conference and I promise -- your station will not be the one caught trying to be cool when the audience has moved on.
4. Reinvent radio for the digital age.  The big conundrum is where should on-air radio and digital content meet?  What is the new purpose for an FM radio station?  Is there a use for AM for a large youthful audience that is not inclined to like any kind of radio including satellite radio?  How to know what Pandora really is which is not your on-air competitor at all – it’s your advertising competitor and there are strategies to shut them down or out of your local markets.  There is a more effective way to reinvigorate your radio station that is increasingly under attack from digital competitors and you’ll leave Philly with that.
5. Growth opportunities in short-form video.  Let me be blunt.  It doesn’t matter if you’re number one in your radio market; it’s now mandatory that you be number one in video as well.  YouTube is the new hit radio station to teens.  Netflix is the new TV.  Cable is dead with them and bundling will end after a long fight by the cable companies to keep it on life support.  Radio stations are natural content creators for video and I will explain the opportunities, risks and rewards on March 26^th.
6. Engage 80 million Millennials.  Radio talks to itself these days.  Unless we know the things that Millennials really care about then it will be difficult to remain viable in the radio business.  They hate hype.  Respectfully, we are the masters of hype.  Millennials are a very civic generation.  We do a lot less of getting involved in civic pursuits than we used to and nothing near what will get them to give a second listen to radio.  Millennials don’t see color or gender and yet our stations are largely run by men, with too few women on-air and very little diversity.  But there is a comeback plan and you’ll get it.
7. Time-shift radio.  Think about it.  Now we all want to access content when we want to, where we want to and how.  But radio is a broadcast medium, how does it time-shift?  The out of touch think that they just need to podcast some programs or personalities and that would be incorrect.  In fact, learning the exact length of content for the younger end of the money demo will be worth the day in Philly if the other modules are not enough.  Plainly put, we all must learn to time-shift radio.  First in wins.

March 26, 2014 at the Rittenhouse Hotel, Philadelphia.

A few on-site hotel rooms available at conference pricing.

Click here to register now.

Inquire about group rates.