Discover Five Profit-Centered Secrets of the Most Successful Tech-Content Build out: FM Radio - Walter Sabo

1 FM Radio was available for twenty years before it was a marketplace factorIn 1948 FM Radios hit the stores few people bought them For the first 20 years FM stations predominantly broadcast simulcasts of coowned AM station programming FM technical quality and superior hardware was not a closer for the general public Prior to 1965 FM content was rarely unique and therefore there was no compelling reason to buy the hardware2 1965 compelling content beginsThe FCC establishes rules for the elimination of simulcasts Station owners were forced to develop separate content for the FM Stations and they responded by NOT CARING The AM Station management never left the golf course or shrimp buffetOwners did the bare minimum to broadcast separate programming on their FM39s They usually did not assign separate project managers or sales teams not at firstInstead they allowed onair celebrities and content creators who are properly called STARS to do whatever they wanted to doThe result was radio programming unlike anything ever heard FM listeners were treated to new shows generating new DEMAND for FM hardware If the content had simply been a vague copy of AM formats FM would have certainly continued to failYou can listen to a sample of WOR FM in 1966 What you39ll hear was unimaginable at the time A whole hour of popular rock music without jingles loud DJ39s sound effects httpwwwmusicradio77comWORFMsoundsWORFM20Debut207306620Part201mp33 Isolation breeds successWhen Steve Jobs started the Macintosh project he put the team in a separate facility and discouraged them for interacting with the APPLE II crew The Mac creators had to think differentAt FM radio stations the staff was usually isolated from the AM station staff The FM people were hippies uncontrollable and had rejected careers at AM stations They were the untouchables of established media For example at the ABC owned stations in Detroit WXYZ AM was in a beautiful building Coowned WRIF FM was housed behind WXYZ in temporary trailersfor decadesAt NBC Radio stations across the country the signage said quotWMAQ Radio WKQX FMquot The corporate sofas at NBC believed that AM was quotRadioquot but FM was not As a result the oldline staffers at NBC ABC CBS and most media companies were actually vicious and hostile toward FM staffs They were jerks Thank goodnessThe result was that the FM staffs developed a unique spirit and set of resentments that served them well in creating cutting edge shows4 Create a labFirst do the lab work FM radio programming was developed in the labs of church basements KPPCFM Pasadena trailers and crowded hallways with bad equipment WYNY New YorkAllow the team that wants to grow your digital business to work far from the mainstream and antiquated rules imposed on your established business That includes letting the digital team decide when and where they want to work Don39t assume they want to work in a groovy open space with pinball machines That design is now so commonplace it39s the equivalent of IBM cubiclesFM radio stars were allowed to develop a unique style that sounded NOTHING like AM The result was 1224 year olds D E M A N D E D FM radio sets Listenership grew from 10 in 1967 to 50 in 1979 By 1981 all cars came with FM radios standard Hey tech guy have you ever tried to get a product on the quotstandard equipmentquot list in new cars5 Let the public vote directlySometimes FM station owners had the old line AM programmers quotapprovequot the work and ideas of the FM staff DISASTER The AM people applied what worked on AM radio to their assessment of FM initiatives That would be as insane as allowing a quotcreativequot who has spent a lifetime making network TV 3039s to judge the worthiness of a HITVIEWS39 WebStar videoYour new apps websites digital deployment initiatives should be presented to the public directly without the filter of research focus groups or other creative death rows Today39s customers create as much media as they consume trust them to embrace or reject new online products direct they are the expertsFM radio stations typically generate 50 positive cash flow on net billings In radio profit is expected Nothing is started to quotbuild out the spacequot or to quotcapture market share for the futurequot The only reason radio executives do anything is to earn a 50 margin Hire radio executives and they39ll show you how to do that ie Stop the 100 emails for each project and eliminate rooftop partiesToday 88 of all radio listening is to FM and most 1834 year olds have never listened to an AM Station 92 of all homes in America own at least one FM Radio Creative isolation breeds new profit centers Superior hardware means nothing without superior content Of course content is king no one buys an aluminum box to increase his or her private stockpiles of aluminumWalter Sabo is the Founder and Creator of the business concept He is an experienced leader of new organizations and is currently CEO of Hitviews Walter can be reached at walterhitviewscomMediaBizBloggers is an openthought leadership blog platform for media marketing and advertising professionals companies and organizations To contribute contact Jackmediadvisorygroupcom The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggerscom are not those of Media Advisory Group its employees or other MediaBizBloggerscom contributors Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors

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Discover Five Profit-Centered Secrets of the Most Successful Tech-Content Build out: FM Radio - Walter Sabo

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Discover Five Profit-Centered Secrets of the Most Successful Tech-Content Build out: FM Radio - Walter Sabo

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