Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

The Mayo Clinic has built its 126-year reputation on one slogan:

“The best interest of the patient is the only interest to be considered”.

This is how Mayo doctors for years have been able to stay focused on the patient.

In radio, before consolidation and in a time when the FCC had some sway, owners and operators were forced to keep their eyes and ears on the needs of listeners because they could lose their licenses if they didn’t operate in the public interest, convenience and necessity.

Today, consolidators operate in their own self-interest, convenience and “best practices” a term they love to throw around for strategies that are the most cost-effective not necessarily the best.

Where has it gotten us?

A cellphone has replaced radio.

We ceded live and local to syndicated and national because it was a “best practice”.

There is no news on radio – a format that lends itself to 24/7 live broadcasting. And I’m talking about all-news stations, too. They are choked with short, meaningless features that their salespeople can sell and listeners don’t want or need.

We give time and temperature in morning drive but listeners already have that on their phone and soon on their iWatches. But we lumber on without changing.

Who doesn’t track traffic on their smartphones – no one in the money demo, for sure.

Talk has turned in to an imitation of its former political self attracting old audiences when storytelling is the rage among 95 million Millennials and I know even radio people can’t tell the difference between talk radio, podcasting and storytelling (they had better learn it).

We can’t sell commercials at our stated rates so we sell for whatever the market will pay and junk up the airwaves with unlistenable spot sets of 16 minutes of this stuff an hour which sounds like at least twice as much.

We play the same few songs over and over as if it were 1985 when the only place you could hear music on the go was a Walkman or car radio (both are dead now).

How does this put the best interest of our listeners first?

You get the point.

This kills me and deeply hurts the independent operators who still care about their audiences. Unfortunately, they are operating in a blighted space now with big groups that dumb down radio in almost every market.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

I’m going to share lots of ideas you’re going to like about these issues and others that will allow radio to get ahead of changing audience trends.

I’ve got the content divided into 7 critical things we need to be working on:

1. Specific ways to balance the need for numerous commercials with good principles of radio programming and to disrupt the way we do radio before our digital competitors do it.
2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.       Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts and make money with storytelling and a cost-effective easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station – just to mention a few.
3. The nuts and bolts of starting your station’s own social media network independent of Facebook, Twitter and the next flash in the pan. From there, how to grow your fan base.
4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station for the digital age one coordinate at a time. You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you have ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year. I’ll show you video examples and reveal winning game plans. And it can all be recorded economically and professionally on an iPhone 6!
6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media: the critical Millennial checklist. The latest updated research about what the next generation must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age. This is what I use as my business bible and after all, I started a subscription pay site that nobody said would work on the Internet.  Thousands of subscribers later, I can thank following this all-important Millennial checklist. What they want from you. On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them and breed loyalty.
7. The best ways to deal with short-attention spans – so short, that most music listeners under the age of 35 now do not listen all the way through any song. Since music radio formats are based on the assumption that if they play the right songs, audiences will listen – this changes everything. Advances in the way we present music. Desired ways to introduce more music discovery.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person for the 6^th year in a row.

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 18^th.

Join the radio executives and entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

For nearby hotel information or questions, contact Cheryl @ cldel@earthlink.net or call (480) 998-9898.

Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included. Starting time: 8am. Ends 4pm.